Beach Weekend

I don't know why I have been putting off writing this post.  Maybe because there is so much to say?  Maybe because I know my words can never do it justice?  Maybe because if I don't write it then it's not really over?  I really don't know.  But I do know that I need to write this post before it gets to far removed.

So a little over a month ago I had the chance to head out to California.  When I bought my tickets I had planned on going alone... so my flight out was super early and my flight home was red eye.  Unfortunately when the time came to go out I needed to bring Henry with me.  Once I came to the realization that I was flying across the country with my 13 month-old I was dreading the trip.  In fact, I even started the "what-if" game in my mind. I hadn't seen these friends in over 6 years--what if it was awkward?  What if I go crazy on the flight out there with my little baby not wanting to sit still?  What if, what if, what if....

Well, the day finally arrived and I was packed my little Henry up with me and we caught our 6 am flight.  Everything went fairly well and we landed in San Francisco without much problem.  Michelle was nice enough to pick me up and we headed to her (super cute) place where I got to meet her little family.

Michelle and I then headed to Pajaro Dunes to the beach house.  Henry and Elizabeth got acquainted with each other in the back seat and were great little travelers.  We met up with the Fitz's and soon after we arrived and were settled Lori and her crew showed up.  The four big kids had fun taking a ride on the little cart.

Ryan decided that we should take a little tour of the Martinelli's factory in town.  So he and I loaded up the four big kids and headed out.  We ended up at the wrong factory at first but didn't leave empty handed!  The nice gentleman pointed us in the right direction and gave each of us a little jar of Martinelli's apple juice.  Yum!

Soon we made it to the right place.  While Ryan learned more about the different flavors and chatted with the people there, I entertained the kiddos and we checked out all the guns and bayonets on display.  (Sorry for the horrible quality cell phone picture!)

After deciding not to buy any Martinelli's at the factory we headed to the grocery store.  (Although Ryan did  happen to get a few bottles for free!)  Ryan was determined we couldn't go back empty handed.  And we sure didn't!  We came home with 10 (?)  different flavors of Martinelli's.  That evening, after Mark, Heather, and Royce showed up, we had a Martinelli's tasting.

Some of us wanted to give up after a few flavors but Royce insisted that we push through and try every flavor.

Henry even stayed up for the party.

After all that sparkling cider and chatting for a while I decided to head to bed... because at this point I had been up for around 24 hours and I was exhausted.  Stay tuned for the continued adventures of the beach house...

Daily Sunshine

Last weekend the boys were playing "Harry Potter."  You know, casting spells and the like.  Here is a little glimpse of their play.

My favorite is when Alex tells me that he is Hermione... and then quickly changes his mind to tell me he's Ron.  Of course, in this picture he was Harry.

Small moments of heaven

This past week was crazy busy.  I was gone nearly every night this week for one reason or another.  I'm so grateful for the few little moments of calm that happened.

A few weeks ago I read about some vineyards in the area where you can pick your own grapes.  How fun is that?!  The boys weren't as thrilled at the idea but I knew  it would be fun once we got there.  So we carved some time out on Saturday to head down to Statesville where the Hazy Red vineyard is located.

It's just a family run operation and they were all so nice!  They grow two different kinds of grapes: Muscadine

 and Scuppernong.

We had a little sampling of each grape and decided to fill our bucket with the muscadines.  We used some scissors to snip them off the vine.  And the boys loved filling their buckets with their sweet fruit.

Rich chatted a while with one of the owners who told him a little bit about the grapes and the history of the vineyard as well as "must see" places nearby.

It was so nice to wander through the vines and fill our bucket.  If it weren't for the bees trying to eat the grapes it would have been perfect!

We got pretty hot out there so when we paid for our grapes we also grabbed some of their grape juice slushies--made from their very own grapes!  They were delicious!

It's been a while since we've had a free Sunday evening.  The boys have been wanting to go back down to Davidson campus again and we got a chance to do that again last night.  It's such a nice place for a Sunday evening stroll.  I used to love going on Sunday drives with my family growing up... but these boys of mine need to be doing something active and a Sunday walk seems to be the perfect solution.

Recently, Henry has started holding our hands when we walk.  It's just too sweet.

 Henry thought this walk was pretty awesome.  He loved exploring everything!  He especially loved seeing all the squirrels running around.

Alexander found an acorn that he just loved to carry around especially after seeing a squirrel burying an acorn in the ground.

Of course, we had to swing for a bit on the big tree swing.

We then headed down the the field to play "beach volleyball" for a bit.  Ever since the Olympics, James thinks that playing with the big beach ball is called "beach volleyball"--it's his favorite game these days.

And the most anticipated part of our walk was "going to Narnia".  The boys thought it was extra cool this time because the lamps were actually lit.

"Run into Narnia!"

 Each of the boys found a "magic" stick along the path.    James was pretty scary with his stick!

All of the boys wanted to pose for me... pretty awesome.

We took a different way back to the car and found this awesome statue of the mascot.

And Alex found a little pinecone.

And while they were all taking a rest I captured the perfect Christmas card picture!

 I really am so grateful for these small moments with my family that are just a little piece of heaven.

For my birthday Rich's family went in with him on this little beauty.

I've been having fun playing around with it a little bit.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures so far.

This is my new favorite face of Henry's.  It's just too cute!

Oh he's such a happy little baby.

Alex was picking little purple flowers for me from the tree on the side yard.

Henry is a busy little guy and it's not often that he sits down to play with toys (without a brother--namely Alex--shoving him away.)  This was a rare moment.

All the boys in my big bathtub.  William made me promise to not put this on Facebook... so I'll just put it on the blog.  Shhhh!  Don't tell him!

I'm still trying to figure everything out and I'm excited to practice some more. Do you have any tips for me?

Daily Sunshine

Last week we had a late afternoon rain storm.  William wanted to play in the rain so we all headed outside.  It was great fun!  Rich even got home just as we were headed out so he joined us as well!

I love the rainstorms here and I'm so glad that William helped us enjoy them even more!