366: 15-21

Another challenging week for me…I blame it on the month of January.

Jan 15: I got a new mini-muffin pan…so of course we had to break it in with lemon poppy seed ones.

  Recipe via Annie’s Eats

Jan 16:  Snow-less mountain view from the kitchen

Jan 17:  My first quilt…finished just in time for baby Owen’s arrival! (born 01/21/12!)

(It was a bit of a challenge getting a pic of the entire quilt…notice the hangers)

Jan 18:

Um…busy day at work leads to me totally forgetting to take a pic.  I have a feeling this won’t be the last.

Jan 19:  Wine & Greys & a good friend…the only way to end another hectic work day.

Jan 20:  Nori only drinks out of running faucets and pint glasses…

Jan 21: Jazz vs Twolves…with 8 good friends…including Abbie post Alt Summit fun.

 

366: 8-14

Ok so I’m only in the 2nd week of this “little” project and I’m already struggling…It just wasn’t my week…for a few reasons.  More than once this week i found myself hastily grabbing my camera and snapping a quick photo just to get it over with…and that’s really not the point of this is it?  Hopefully next week is a little more exciting.

Onward.

Jan 8: This pretty much defined my Fri-Tues…too bad the Tylenol only lasted 2 of those days…that’s the last time I give in to clever commercials for cold medicine.

Jan 9: Late night pinning. (and by ‘late night’ I mean 9pm…I’m old like that)

Jan 10: Thanks to aerie…my feet are always warm.

Jan 11:  This week’s sewing adventure…burp cloths for a baby boy due any day now

Jan 12: New prints via Etsy

Jan 13: Napping buddies

Jan 14: Spur of the moment chevron-ing

366: 1-7

Apparently I only wrote 15 posts in 2011…it’s called life my friends…and I was enjoying it.

So to start anew in 2012 I’ve decided to tackle a little photo project.  One photo each day for 366 days (leap year bonus!).  I’ve been wanting to take this on since I started following Terese’s 365 posts …here’s hoping I stick to it.  I don’t have a fancy smart phone (I know…shocking) so the basic goal of this project is to force myself to use my big girl camera…and hopefully learn more about it in the process.

So here we go…Days 1-7

Jan 1 - Bedside reads...The Midwife’s Confession* and Your Camera Loves You

Jan 2 – Sewing – ruffle apron #2

Jan 3 – Putting away Christmas

Jan 4 – I realize everyone and their dog has been playing Words With Friends for a while now…thanks to my new Kindle I can now join the fun

 

Jan 5 – My 5am BFFs

Jan 6 – It was late…Mini was tired

Jan 7 – After a very dry December…finally some snow.

*Finished this book and really liked it…in case anyone was wondering.

Recently

Well I’ve been kinda busy the last couple weekends…

putting the moves on my boy Percy at Vikes training camp

Watching “Hard Knocks” Live…and professing my love for Christian.  If only HK was actually on this year…my Wednesdays would be a lot more awesomesauce.

Watching friends say “I Do”…with the most heartwarming vows.

Spending time with good friends we don’t get to see nearly often enough…that just happen to be expecting! (bring on the knitting!)

Crazy fun times with all these crazy kids

Then this past weekend my little sis came out to SLC to hang…and turn 20.  We did a lot of stuff…like watch MTV, tie-dyed shirts, shopped, ate, got pedicures, made friendship bracelets…and when you live in the mountains…you gotta go for a hike….so we did…an easy one.

Still got some snow up there!

We drug Lance along…he enjoyed it.

Ang gave Utah a thumbs up!

So that basically sums up my life the last couple of weeks…now it’s just 2 more weeks until FOOTBALL!!!!!!!  Which means our yearly trip back to Neb to cheer on the BIG RED!  Woop…I’m excited.

intermission

Just wanted to give you all a warning that I won’t be finishing my Napa recaps this weekend…b/c we’re hitting the road!  We’re off to a wedding in MN of one of Lance’s closest friends…should be fun times!!  A visit to Vikings training camp is in the mix…and a brewery tour…and maybe BWWs.  Woot!

Anyways…I just wanted to show off these cute bibs I’ve been slaving away on the last couple of days.

Cute huh?!  I followed Jessi’s directions …and I must say I’m quite pleased with how they turned out!  Before this I had only managed to sew 2 camera straps…so yep I’m stoked I didn’t make any huge mistakes.  I’m in LOVE with this fabric from Jessica Jones.  It’s a nice heavy/canvas type fabric…which I framed some of for our gallery wall. (yes I realize I still need to post pics of that! ack!).  I’m hoping to give these to some friends of ours that had a baby back in March (born 9mo to the day after our wedding…think about that one.)  Hopefully he isn’t too big by now!  If so I suppose they can save them for the next one

Oh and I should probably mention that I’m currently obsessed with this series…

and I can’t wait to get on that plane so i can read my little heart out!!!

Also…I’m a little sad to be leaving these guys…

Seriously…Lance & I discuss our corn on a daily basis…we are super lame.

Luckily we have Nori the “Corn King” to watch over it for us…

 

 

The Silverado Trail

The good thing about taking it easy on Sunday when we got to Napa…we woke up bright and early ready to get our taste on Monday morning.  After stuffing our faces with plenty of carbs and waffles via the BW Elm House Inn…we were on our way to our fist tasting.

I guess I should mention that we only booked 2 tours prior to getting to Napa.  Our first one was on Monday at 1pm.  So basically what we did every morning was look at the map…and my list of “possible visits” …then came up with a game plan and headed out.  Monday we decided to start our wine adventure out on the Silverado Trail.

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (not to be confused with Stags’ Leap Winery):

The reason we chose the (‘s) version is because back in 1976 when they did the blind tasting in Pairs (that basically put Napa on the map…or so they tell me) Stag’s Leap’s Cabernet took 1st place.  I’m a sucker for a good “Cab Sauv”…so duh obv we had to go there.

They had 2 tasting options…the Estate ($30) and the Napa Valley Collection($15).  We did one of each so basically we got to taste everything.  Def recommend going this route.

The reds…all were pretty amazing…then again wine at 10:30 am is always amazing.

We walked out with our first wine purchase…the Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon.  Well actually we ended up with 2 bottles.  It was either spend $100 on one bottle and the tastings…OR spend $100 and get 2 bottles and get the tasting comped…yeah like we even had to think twice about that…SOLD!  Our server guy was really nice and threw in a bottle opener too.  I think he felt bad for us b/c we’re from Utah.  Needless to say we were pretty pleased with our first stop!

I gave it a thumbs up!

With 8 different wines in us we decided we should pry get some food…so off to Yountville we went.  It was a tough choice…but we ultimately picked Pacific Blues Cafe over The French Laundry.  (haha…yeah right like FL was ever even a choice for us).  It was great and we had a fun view from the patio.

Well fueled and thirsty for more wine…we made our way to

Del Dotto Caves:

This was the very first tour I booked…like back in February I was so excited about it.  Caves and drinking wine straight from barrels…yep sounds like my kinda thing.  And holy crap did it live up to our expectations and beyond!  Our young/cute tour guide Ryan was really laidback and fun…I think we lucked out with him…I’m sure it would have been great with another guide but Ryan was awesome.

At the entrance of the cave!

While we guzzled down wine…we actually managed to learn quite a bit about the whole barrel process.  We got to taste the same wine out of an American barrel and a French Barrel side by side…and then we mixed them together and tasted it.  The entire experience was really neat…and well worth the $80 (tour price for 2 of us).  I would do this one again in fact.  We didn’t end up buying any wine (they are not cheap!)…but we def walked out “feeling good” if you know what I mean.

By the time we left Del Dotto it was going on 3pm..and so we decided to stop at one more place before heading back into Napa.

Mumm Napa:

Mumm specializes in sparking wines.  We aren’t big sparking wine drinkers but thanks to Wally we had a 2-for-1 coupon and it was on our way back to Napa..so we went.

They have a patio set up where you can sit and enjoy the view while tasting on your own….instead of having to buck up at a bar like a lot of the wineries.

They also had a free photography gallery which we walked through before heading on our way.

Once in Napa we hit up  Bounty Hunter for their excellent happy hour special.  The food was amazing!  Seriously…I’m craving it just typing this.  If you love BBQ and wine then you must go!!

That pretty much did it for our first day!  I don’t know how people manage going to like 5-6 wineries in a day!  We did 3 and we were spent…we went to bed around 9:30 again.  What we’re old.

Gott’s & TJ’s

The drive to Napa was pretty awesome…the small Bay towns and “hills”…the sun…and once you turn off onto the highway to Napa it’s vineyards galore!  Just row after row of grapes!  So so cool.

We stopped off at a little place just south of Sonoma…mostly b/c we saw a giant “INFORMATION” sign pointing in that direction…and also because we just wanted to get out into the sun and walk around a bit!  I forget what the place is called…but they had a bunch of “sculpture” garden type things…where different artists used a block an did their thing.  One was a giant garden…and being new to gardening Lance & I took a look around.

This particular tomato vine/bush (what is it?) stuck out for obvious reasons.  We were celebrating our “Nebraska Wedding” anniversary after all!  The also had corn…and boy do we love corn.

and this cool cloud/rain thing made of tulle and crystals.  I thought it was pretty neat…being a meteorologist and all.

Amazingly we did not taste any wine even though they had a tasting room. (FYI…tastings rooms are ALL OVER up there…you can’t escape them)  Instead we headed into Napa and ate/drank some wine at Gott’s.  It was really good..and they had 1/2 bottles of wine which get me really excited.  We gave it 2 thumbs up.

Then we just wondered around downtown Napa…which honestly is not great.  I think Gott’s was the busiest place…the town was deserted.  Apparently everyone was still off tasting wine.  Regardless…unless you’re going down to eat there’s really nothing else there.  So what did we do?!…we went to the local brewery Downtown Joe’s!  We weren’t hungry so we just got a couple beers.  Shortly after we got there another young couple bucked up to the bar and ordered a beer sampler….which ended up being like 15 beers in nice size sample cups.  We totally failed.  We forget sometimes living in UT that not every state blows when it comes to beer and samplers.

Then being the crazy kids we are…we stopped in Trader Joe’s and picked up some cheese/snacks for the trip and a bottle of wine.  You would think Utah of all places would have a Trader Joe’s…but no…they don’t…obviously b/c half the store is wine.  (lord i need to MOVE!)  Back in VA TJs was a weekly stop for us…so this was quite an exciting trip down memory lane…oh how we miss their hummus and cheap whole wheat pizza crust!!!  We also had our hearts set on picking up a bottle of Bear’s Lair Viognier.  This lovely $4 bottle of wine was a staple in our apt in VA.  Sadly they didn’t have it…so we picked up a bottle of red from Cline…which we proceeded to drink in our room and go to bed at like 9pm.  Yep TJs and Gott’s were the highlight of our day…we’re awesome like that.

*sorry for the lack of pics…read my previous post about how I suck at life.

Big Time Timmy Jim & The Bridge

Since this was not our first trip to San Francisco (my 3rd actually)…Lance & I really didn’t plan on doing too much during our one day there.  We’ve done the majority of “touristy” things so basically our to-do list included going to a Giants game and seeing the bridge.

The first thing on the list was of course to make the 20min trek to pick up a lens I had rented via BorrowLenses.com.  Now I plan to revisit this whole experience later…but basically I concluded 2 things after renting an insanely expensive lens that I will never in my life be able to afford.

1)  I am a super shy person when it comes to using my camera in public…so much so I was embarrassed to get it out at a lot of the places we went to….thus equaling me barely taking any photos.  Not sure why/how I developed this…but I’m determined to get over it.

2)  I’m really not a fan of taking landscape pics…nope not at all.  Actually all it does is piss me off.  I’d much rather take pictures of people/things/cats/corn.

OK so after that bit of honesty…let’s get on with the goods.

Before heading to the game we stopped for a couple beers at 21st Amendment brewery.  We had been here on a previous trip and loved it…so we went again.  What can I say…we know what we like…and more often than not that includes beer.  This was actually the first of 3 breweries we would visit on this trip…and yes I failed to take pics at all 3.  The Hell or High Watermelon Wheat was quite good.

So then we made our way to AT&T park…

where we got to watch Big Time Timmy Jim pitch…and wish that we had brought winter coats and gloves along.

Seriously…San Fran is NOT warm.  Sure the 63 deg temp is a bit cool for mid-July…but the -20 wind chill off the water is what gets you.  Holy cold.

So after about 5 innings we decided we were frozen enough and headed back to the 21st Amendment for some food…and of course another beer.

The following morning we picked up our rental car and headed North.  Of course we had to stop at the bridge first.

It was still pretty foggy out so not the greatest views….duh it IS San Fran after all.

That’s me…in case you couldn’t tell.

After walking out a ways on the bridge and almost being hit by several bikers…we decided we better just get back in the car and drive across the darn thing.

Napa and the sun were waiting for us after all.

The End

I like cheese.

Well we made it back from Napa…like a week ago.  And in case you’re wondering…yes I did drink way too much wine…and yes I did stuff my face with 20lbs of cheese and salami.

It happens.

Uploading the pics from my camera I realize that I once again suck at life.  I come home thinking I’ll have thousands of wonderful pics to relive such an amazing trip…oh nope…just 4.  Awesome.

Add that to the fact that our internet is from circa 1967…poking my eyes out with spoons sounds more appealing than attempting to upload them here.   Besides I have more important things to do like read tween books and go see tween movies.

Maybe at some point during this 4-day weekend (thank you mormons) I’ll get around to recapping our little trip.

This is the only pic I have available b/c I spent 16hrs uploading it to facebook…you’re welcome.

 

 

WTF Napa?!

What’s up with this Vegas-strip-esq-map of yours?!   While I would love to visit all you litle dots and drink several “tastings” of your delicious wines…it’s pretty much impossible…even for a Bota Box slamming wine addict like myself.

So Bloglandia…if you’ve ever been to Napa/Sanoma…PLEEAAAASSEEE tell us where to go!!!!  I can’t make a decision if my life depended on it.  Asking me to pick 6-10 wineries out of a bajillion gets me all nervous and sweaty…I can’t handle the pressure!!!

Also…I’m borderline WT when it comes to wine-tasting…I’m more of a brewery-tour kind of girl.  I mean seriously…is it really necessary to do that whole spinning/sniffing charade?!

Snotty stuffy wineries scare me…so if you know of some not-as-snobby ones that would be great.  Oh and if you have any advice on where to eat that would be awesome too.

Thanks Bloglandia!!!

PS.  This trip is taking place in approx 2 weeks…so get to commenting!!!