And headed to wine country! This momma has been pumping like a mad woman for such an opportunity as this. This is also the time she strongly questioned her oh I’ll just use a hand pump decision. Go ahead, admire my now bulky forearms and hand squeezing power. Feel free to be amazed. Anyways, my worst nightmares did not come true (hallelujah) – we did not have to leave our baby with her first case of the cold/flu/whatever awfulness invaded last week; I could actually taste food and only had a handful of times where I coughed up a lung or six. Success! Anyways, the weekend started with a hug that came with the icy chill of an entire mojito down my side. Yes, even when we leave the child, it is guaranteed I will still be covered in some sort of substance. This should just be expected. But there was delicious food and wine to be had with these guys and what a marvelous time it was! 
It was mighty strange to not have my little nugget near me and to have to beeeeeg her Grammy for just one picture.. video.. sound bite… ANYTHING ;) But I don’t think I realized how much we needed this trip. It was like someone hit the recharge button and we came back completely refreshed. I mean, how could you not with the spoiling that guy does. We had lunch pretty late – I think we ate around 4 and had dinner reservations at 8:45 (…hey look at us being real adults again! No 9pm bedtimes here!) So we moseyed about, had a lovely lunch, went to a tasting, charmed the couple next to us with our story of leaving our sweet three month old (oh and the Klein’s had just sold their house that day… but the real success was the infant leaving…), he bought us each a lovely bottle of wine in celebration, and we were off to a good start with our nice encounters and free stuff! When we got to the dinner place, they said they had about a 20 min wait which was fine – we’d grab a cocktail and hang out, no problem. It was getting later and later when the manager came over and said his apologies and offered to buy us another round of drinks for having to wait so long. Boom! More free booze. This was a good trip. I didn’t feel like it was long at all – especially since we had eaten so late, but in a few short minutes we were seated and served the most amazing foods I’ve tasted in a while! 
Claudia mentioned something about wanting some more wine and this magical manager appeared out of thin air with the rest of the bottle and sat it before her with a smile. Go to Ad Hoc. And hope you have to wait because man they treat you well! ;)
And then course after delicious course, the food and fabulous wines kept coming and these guys were happy.
And after all that mouth party, you guessed it! The wine was free :) Best. Restaurant. The next morning, the Klein’s took off to meet some friends that were also in the area, and Greg and I got to have the most dreamy morning alone. By far my favorite part of the trip :) No rushing, just drinking french press after french press, going slow. Seriously, it was awesome. Here is my picture to remember such magicalness. It is lame but that man in the garden makes me giggle so it stays. 
My husband is pretty cute. I’m sure if you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I have an obsession with white. Well, whenever Greg looks for a place to stay, that’s all he looks for :) White. And probably green around cause I’m a garden lover. Welp, lookie lookie what we have here. A giant white kitchen with beautiful appliances and a perfectly organized farmhouse sink!? I mean it had pretty kitchen soaps and a little shelf for the sponge. Umm HELLO! Yes please. Plus it had the sweetest garden around with about a bajillion bird houses in each tree. One day, I will have a house. And I will have bird houses. 
We used to go to places and be like omgosh! a sink we can stand next to each other at! how nice! Now our expectations have become even easier to please when we see a sink with space around it to put things AND an outlet that allows you to plug more than one thing in at a time! We are giddy little creatures around such circumstances ;) But look! A DOUBLE sink with space around it with TWO SETS of double outlets and you can’t see it but it had a really cool toilet too. These are the things that excite me.
After we finished our lazy morning of testing out each seat in the house and garden, we headed off to our next meal in the charming little town of Sonoma where I started plotting how on earth we can live there cause it’s adorable. And we have family there. I mean, come on. It’s perfect! And there is at least one place that has good food. And wine. So. Ya.
Did I mention there is greeeeen in the middle of Sonoma Plaza? Like a proper park with fountains just right there! We stopped to take several horrendous pictures that really revealed my inner witch. We have not mastered the cute squish face. We will keep trying. 
And then our age caught up to us and we all headed home to take naps. The guys brought back some pizza and we had a sad sort of game night where everyone tried to stay awake and remain enthused. Greg and I had a stunning visual of how truly bad we are at spelling and I learned I’m very good at blackjack. I keep telling people I’m lucky. Of course, this luck becomes non existent in an actual casino. Bedtime was very welcomed. And thennnn the next day we headed to one more winery and were greeted by this sort of intimidating-ness. 
^^there were notes and everything.
As mentioned before, NOT a morning person. My brain looked more like that lovely glass. BUT! This fun tasting came with food :D And that was delicious.
So we strolled around and soaked up the beauty that is wine country, took our token pictures, got our most handsome couple title stripped from us by these two (never mess with the Columbian) and tried not to rush home to the little girl that has stollen our hearts. 
And one more of this guy cause I love him so. And he spoils me rotten. I’m utterly rotten. 
Thank you, beloved, for such a lovely trip! I shall treasure it forever and ever.
thenettlesnest.com 
