Anniversary Date to Napa

 Brian and I got married Nov 8. Kristen and Scott got married Nov 16. Brian was in their wedding, so we had to honeymoon after their wedding. So we all decided to honeymoon together! one of the places we went (all in california), was Napa!

Last fall, Kristen found a great deal for a day in Napa with a chauffeured limo and we decided to give it to the guys as their anniversary present. We finally got to use our day out last Saturday!

Kristen, Scott and the kids came up early Saturday morning and the plan was for Kimberely and Madeliene to babysit all 4 kids while we were out from 10:30-4:30.

Well, at 10:15 Kristen's phone rang and the limo got a flat tire. They had to sent another car, from San Fran and they wouldn't be able to get to us until noon. UGH!

Oh well, we made the best of it and sat outside while the kids all played and we drank mimosas! (mine was mostly just OJ because of the night before...)

well, the limo then got stuck in traffic and didn't get us until 1pm! and it wasn't a limo- it was only a darn town car! UGH!

so off we go... brian immediately opens a bottle of wine, i beg for food and scott picks chick-fil-a! funny to pull up to chick-fil-a with a chauffeur!

 even if it was JUST a town car, we had a blast NOT driving!

 brian thought he was a rockstar-

 here is the rock star and his groupie-

 first stop- silverado winery. scott and kristen had never been. kristen loves all things disney, so i thought she'd appreciate the fact that walt's daughter- diane miller- owns the winery!

the girls-

 the boys-

 nothin' better looking' than my husband carrying a case of wine home for me-

 a couple quick photo ops-

after silverado we chose our favorite- rombauer! we discovered it on our honeymoon and kristen and scott went there the following year. we went back last year, with the kids. we didn't stay because it is one of the few we have gone to that is not kid friendly. so we were ALL very excited to go again, together!

we pulled up and found a sign that said they were closed for a private party. brian asked the college age security guard "how private IS private?" we all laughed- including our driver and the security kid!

bummer.

next up- a new one, duckhorn. kristen's said her parents like duckhorn and our driver assured us it would be great. we pulled up and it was a beautiful property! we walked up and... no luck! they were booked for the remainder of the day and had no tastings available for us. UGH!

so, next stop- charles krug. i was the only one who had been here before and everyone loved it!

 a little history- there are two mondavi brothers- robert and peter. you all know robert. well, peter (and his sons) own charles krug. in the napa valley when it comes to mondavi's, it's a bit like twilight and  you have to choose "team robert" or "team peter" and we choose peter...


next up- v. sattui, of course! this was the first winery we all went to together on our honeymoon! we are members now and love going there-

 they were setting up for a members dinner as we left. oops, i forgot to get us tickets! it was breathtaking, like out of a magazine-

 one last stop... peju.

this was a winery that kristen and scott found first on our honeymoons. they loved it so much they were members for years and had wine shipped to NC and Mississippi while they were in the Air Force!

Scott was so excited-

so were we-

this is also where the silliness began-

 i found a tuffet-

little miss muffet, i am not!

kristen doesn't usually drink very much at all. (how are we friends?) well, saturday she did and we all loved seeing her so darn silly! at one point while we were at peju, our wine pourer had to leave for a minute and kristen just went back and helped herself and poured scott and i both wine-

scott took this next picture. brian was trying to listen to the wine pourer explain what we were tasting. so was i. kristen, not so much-

this is the barrel room. we both have pictures of us in this same spot from our honeymoon, 9 years ago!

as you can imagine- the car ride home was a blast! we pulled in right about 8pm. kimberely and madeline were like mary poppins and had the kids fed, bathed and ready for bed! 

kristen and scott crashed with us, instead of heading to the hotel where they had reservations in town. waking up and seeing the kids all together cuddled up, watching morning cartoons was SOOOO sweet-

i realized that morning that our kids are like each others cousins. my sister has kids, but they are teenagers. brian's sister- no kids. kristen's brother- no kids. scott's sister- no kids. so it is so neat that they all have each other, are about the same age and look forward to seeing each other again and again and again!