July was a pretty busy, but fun, month for us.  I’ve been taking pictures along the way, but haven’t had time to go through them and post them.  Partly because Jake is now down to one nap a day so my “free time” during the day is even less, and partly because we have been so busy I am exhausted at night and working on the computer is the last thing I want to do, and to be honest… a big reason is because Justin and I are now on Season 3 of Game of Thrones and it is safe to say we are addicted and can’t wait to watch an episode (or usually two) every night after Jake goes to bed. So, little by little I will get them all done.

For now, I am going to start with our recent trip to Sonoma County.  The main purpose of the trip was to go to a wedding for a good family friend, but of course we made a vacation out of it!  So Justin, Jake and I packed up and flew to Santa Rosa to meet up with both my parents and Justin’s parents for a little vacation in the wine country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent our first day at DeLoach vineyards.  One of the guys Justin works with has a friend who works there so we got a wonderful private tour and tasting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grounds and gardens were beautiful!  But I think my favorite part was when we got to the barn where they keep the sheep and the chickens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jake was absolutely captivated by these animals and did not want to leave

We had already moved onto another part of the grounds and Jake was still watching those animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My parents got Jake a Radio Flyer wagon, it was the perfect way to tote him (and all of our stuff) around when he was getting tired and even when he wasn’t tired he loved riding in it, eating his lunch in it, playing with his toys in it and getting out and pulling it around himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fun day!

That evening we drove to Bodega Bay in search of some good seafood for dinner.  First we wandered around and looked out over the bay.

Then after a few stops and some driving around we finally found a place to eat.  Jake doesn’t sit still for long at all these days, so Justin and I traded off and once I finished my dinner I took him outside where he kept busy organizing the oars outside the surf shop next to the restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Jake went to bed that night, my parents went to visit with my mom’s friend (the parents of the bride) who were staying in a house just a couple of miles away from us.  So the rest of us took advantage of the game room!  Now before I share these pictures…I feel that I need to do a bit of explaining about the place we stayed at.  It was called “The Castle”.  I intended to take a picture of the house, but never did…the outside was all stone and there were little towers which made it look like a castle.  The story goes that the original owner was a big Harley Davidson biker guy who was also a big party animal.  Picture the 1970’s with 200+ Harley Davidson’s parked outside, a disco ball with a dance floor, the back yard was carpeted, the inside was all black lacquered walls and red carpet, etc…Well the current owners remodeled the place and turned it into a nice little retreat in the redwoods.  They did leave a few of the original touches, like the secret tunnel that goes from the house to another building, which was the game room.  And the game room still had some of the black and red theme as well as the original bar and jail and a burned Harley Davidson mounted on the wall.

It was wild, fun and kind of creepy at the same time! We played pool and the winners of each game had their pictures taken by the Harley with some crowns that we found in the bar.

It was definitely a place to remember!

The next day we had a wonderful day with Karen & Charlie (Joyce’s niece and her husband) and family on their vineyard.  Charlie’s family has been on their land for over 100 years!  He gave us the VIP tour of the grounds in his 1946 Jeep.

After the tour, Karen had made a delicious lunch.  We really enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at their house and Jake loved running around with their kids and checking out all the different toys they had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That evening Justin and I went with my parents to Starks in Santa Rosa for the “after party” after the rehearsal dinner to see our friends before the big day.  Sorry, didn’t take any pictures that night.  We got there a little early so we sat at the bar and ordered some appetizers and wine. The food was amazing and I highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area!

I think this post is getting long enough and my eyes are getting blurry, so I’ll stop here and post the rest of our trip soon. Good night!