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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

California....I wanna go back!!!!

We just got back from California last night and even though we were exhausted and TOTALLY off our normal schedules, we had a blast! We left last Thursday and we left during nap time so that Cole would nap during the flight. Our flight leaving DFW was about 2 hours delayed, so here is me and my girl waiting patiently at the airport :) We are SO excited to be getting out of the nasty heat!

Luckily, Cole did fall asleep the second we got in the air and slept for a little over an hour. Finley did great on the flight too, slept for most of it.
When we landed in San Francisco, we were greeted by 65 degree weather....ah-mazing!!! We even had to put on light sweaters, loved it! We couldn't have asked for better service. Nick's parents are the greatest, we walk out of the airport and have a car there waiting for us. No driving to the car rental and waiting in line. So nice of them!
Before we headed up to Santa Rosa for the wedding festivities, we met up with a good friend from back home and my cousin and his wife for an early dinner. It was so good to see all of them. Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long because we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us and when you have a nursing baby that has to eat every 3 hours, you are kinda limited on things like that.
We made it up to Santa Rosa (with a good hour of crying and screaming) and immediately put the kiddos to bed. I'm not gonna lie, being 2 hours behind was pretty tricky to work with. :)

The next couple days were spent touring around a few winery's, swimming, hanging out with family and chasing around kiddos. Here is sweet Finley ready to hang out outside for a bit.
Poor thing though, she really wasn't outside that long and was always in the shade, but somehow got a little sunburn on her cheeks and nose. I feel like a horrible mother! :(
We visited the Simi Winery and while the guys and my parents enjoyed some wine tasting, Rachel and I hung out with the kiddos. How funny are these two!!!
This is how Finley toured the winery's :)
We then went to the Coppola Winery. That place was so cool! We had a great lunch there and really enjoyed our time at this gorgeous place.
These two have so much fun together. They are so sweet to each other and really make each other laugh
After visiting a couple winery's, we came back and had to get ready for Emily and Blake's Welcome Dinner. Finley was such a good girl and slept so that we could get ready.
The Welcome Dinner was fabulous. We enjoyed the nice weather outside and some cocktails and then they moved us inside for the dinner. Here is Rachel, me, Finley and my mom at the Welcome dinner....where's Cameron!?!
Cameron is definitely very interested in the baby, I think she is going to be a wonderful big sister!
Nick and Finley at the Welcome Dinner
She was such a good girl and sat quietly during the dinner and then eventually fell asleep. However, at one point, she had a big blowout....like so bad that I was holding her, it came out the top of her diaper and got all over my skirt and dripped down my leg. Lovely huh? I sent Nick into the bathroom to clean her up and I think it took 5 grown men to get her all cleaned up. If you could see the team of men coming out of the bathroom after getting her cleaned up, that was definitely a funny sight!
Cole had a great time at the dinner, he at one point stole the microphone and was walking around with it, trying to get people to talk into it.
The Welcome Dinner was absolutely beautiful. The food was great and it was just so fun and everyone did a great job putting it together.
The next day was the wedding. I got to hang out a bit with Emily and the girls while they got ready and that was fun. Nick and I had to catch the trolley up to the winery a bit early for family pictures so my dad and brother Ross were in charge of getting Cole and Finley ready for the wedding. I really did feel bad because when they walked in our hotel room, I handed Finley to my dad and told him she just pooped and they needed to put her clothes on, ha! At one point, my dad and brother had to call my mom to see if her little cardigan sweater went on top of the dress or underneath the dress....oh goodness! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall!
The venue were Blake and Emily had their wedding was gorgeous! It was up in the hills a bit and had awesome views. Everything about the wedding was perfect, I mean, look at those flowers, isn't that gorgeous!
That is Nick in the middle of Emily and Blake, he did a beautiful reading and pretty much made everyone cry!
Father and daughter...nice face Finley :)
(You like the napkin Nick has on his shoulder?? No way was he going to risk getting spit up on his nice white shirt!)
Me and the hubs...this is the view from the wedding site
During the toasts, Anna and Emma were champs at keeping the kiddos quiet. Those girls were SO good with our kiddos and were so much help! When having a 2.5 year old and new baby, it's hard to keep track of everyone and still have time to enjoy yourself. Also, my parents were so helpful during the actual ceremony because Nick and I got to sit up front with his family and my parents were in charge of Cole and Finley....and I know they had their hands full!!!
Me and my girl...it was a little chilly there so we had to keep her bundled up :)
Mimi and Finley....thanks for the help mom!!!
So pretty much Cole was a big hit on the dance floor. Him and Cameron were dancing fools! They also had a fun photo booth for everyone to take pictures. Cole loved getting into everyone's pictures. So many people would tell us how Cole's little head would pop up in their photo booth pictures....kinda like Where's Waldo, ha!
Again, I can't tell you how beautiful Blake and Emily's wedding was. They definitely had their touch put into it and was so unique and special. I think everyone had such a great time.

After the wedding, we had one more full day to have some fun. We went to a couple more winery's.
Finley was really enjoying the walking around :)
Cole with a giant wine bottle
At Kendall Jackson winery, they had the prettiest outside area. Gorgeous flowers and landscaping everywhere. Nick was chasing the kiddos around and they were so funny.
Uncle Ross, Cameron, Nick and Cole outside Kendall Jackson
We left the following day and had a pretty smooth trip back. However, in San Francisco, they wouldn't let us take our stroller through security because they said it was too heavy. Um, ok...pretty sure we have traveled with the same stroller all summer and nobody said anything to us. So chasing around Cole and carrying around Finley in her car seat wasn't the most fun thing. When we got to DFW airport, Nick just stuck Cole on his suitcase and strolled him around this way, ha!
Of course coming back to 110 degree weather is not my idea of a fun time, especially when you have 1000 loads of laundry to do, but it is always nice to get home and get back into our regular routine. Cole went to the sitter so I could get stuff done around the house and this is poor Finley in the only clean clothes I had...poor thing clashes just a bit!
We had such a great time in California and are sad it's all over. A year and a half of wedding planning, a gorgeous wedding and fabulous vacation...of course it's sad that it's all over!

1 comment:

Diane said...

Love all the photos! What a fantastic weekend we all had -- I'm officially in love with northern California! Alex and I have a case coming from DeLoach sometime soon so you and Nick will have to come over for some "adult" time. Hope you're getting used to the heat again...ugh...