Napa Recap II

On Monday we went to a couple of wineries, including Beaulieu Vineyard. D was able to pick out a couple of bottles for people at work. For lunch we ate at Auberge du Soleil in nearby Rutherford. It was quite fancy, which we figured out in the very beginning, when they "forced" us to valet park. k was thankfully pretty well-behaved and had fun making the waiters laugh. She also managed to keep all of her food down.



The menu was pretty complicated. The descriptions of the desserts were difficult to decipher so D had the waiter translate. One of the desserts that piqued my interest was something with Douglas Fir streusel. They actually boil the pine needles and use the essence, or something like that. That didn't appeal to me, and no one could decide, so I opted for one of the simplest desserts on the menu: apple tart with caramel sauce. Isn't it pretty?



The restaurant has a nice view of the valley.


I thought this statute in the garden was amusing.

Afterward we strolled through Yountville. We checked out the outside of The French Laundry, which is considered the #1 restaurant in the U.S. Considering it costs $240 per person, this is the closest we will ever get to experiencing it:



Too bad Bouchon Bakery, which is down the street and also owned by Thomas Keller, was closed for Christmas Eve by the time we got there.

Napa Recap I

On Saturday we drove up to Napa to visit D's family. As previously mentioned, k caught a stomach bug, probably from me, and was throwing up in the car. She went through at least three outfits, and her new carseat was put to the test. It took about eight hours, but we finally made it. Of course, the highlights seem to revolve around food.

For dinner we ate at Compadres Rio Grille. D waffled about ordering the guacamole appetizer, but everyone was glad that he did. k seemed to be doing OK, but threw up at the end of our meal. Luckily, D was quick with the napkin, and it wasn't too bad.


The next day we drove to Elk Grove to meet up with Janelle. We attended service at RRNC and ate lunch at Mikuni, along with one of Janelle's friends from Dallas. Thank you to Janelle's dad, who treated! We had heard rave reviews about Mikuni from D's family and it lived up to the hype.


The stylish interior.


k met Auntie J for the first time.

It took us over two hours to return to Napa because of the traffic. We ate dinner with D's parents at Fume. I liked this place a lot. It is cozy and the food is well-executed and "fresh". Case in point: the tangerine dressing on our house salad...tasty! Too bad I wasn't that hungry considering I was still full from lunch.

Looks Like We Made It*

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We just returned from a trip to Northern and Central California to visit relatives. It was full of adventure, including k turning our Mazda 5 into a barf-mobile. She is better now, though, and we are safe at home, so we are thankful. Details to come...



*Reference to Barry Manilow's song, which we sang along to in the car.

Happy Birthday k!

What a difference a year makes:

From this...


...to this


I can't believe that one year ago I was in the hospital about to give birth. I won't go into anything too deep here, but D and I are so thankful to have k in our lives. We look forward to witnessing her develop in the coming year.

More Party Pics

Here's k's snowman cake that I decorated:


After singing Happy Birthday, D helped k blow out the candle, which was placed in the snowman's nasal cavity.


Snowman Massacre


k had more fun squishing the cake than eating it.

Party Time!

Since k's birthday is right around Christmas, it will always be difficult to try to plan her birthday parties/activities. However, we knew we had to do something for her first birthday! We decided to go with a snowman theme. My parents were gracious enough to host the party since our place would not have comfortably accomodated the thirty or so guests.

I had D take k for a walk right before the party so she would fall alseep and be well-rested. Sure enough, it worked:


There was cookie decorating and a cookie swap. Note to self: force people to take more cookies home so we don't end up with so many left-overs! I tried to make a "miniature foods" theme, so we had mini cakes, ice cream cones, sandwiches, veggies, chicken, etc. We even had a "mini bar" with toddler-friendly foods: cheerios, puffs, rice crackers, apple juice etc. Unfortunately, we do not have pictures to share :(

I will post more later...too much to do, and flickr is being difficult tonight.

Uncle K

For those of you who don't know, k has an Uncle K. A couple of weekends ago we (along with a lot of other peeps) helped him and my sister move to their new house in Irvine. As a "thank you" they had us all over last weekend. Uncle K made some delicious chili and there was "pick your carb": rice, rolls, cornbread and spaghetti. (I had a little of all of them, thank you very much!)


It's that banana box again!


Pushing k is good exercise


Crawling through tunnels is one of k's favorite activities.

Catching Up

Recently, I haven't had a chance to post as much as I would like.


I forgot to say that for Black Friday we went to Ikea for their free breakfast. We ended up getting two free breakfasts (on the right) and buying one 99 cent breakfast (on the left). It wasn't too crowded, and I was able to buy my new desk for 11.23% off! I would definitely go there again next year.

Here's a video from Thanksgiving. I'm still working on the videos of k walking, so hopefully they'll be up soon.

This video really isn't too exciting...it's mainly k eating turkey. Watch for her "squinty smiles" in the very beginning, though. Very cute.

In other news, k's bangs are definitely growing out:

Busy!

Well, the holiday season is upon us, and already it feels really busy. On Saturday morning I went to a Women's Christmas brunch at WPC and we were reminded that the focus should be on the birth of Jesus.

From Wednesday until today we were all staying at my parents' house because our condo was being fumigated. It kind of felt like a mini vacation since our meals/dishes were taken care of and we were sleeping in a different bed. However, now our place is a mess (food in bags, laundry to be done, etc.) I guess the vacation is over!

We still have some shopping to do, but I'm hoping to get most of it done on the internet this week. I need to get the remainder of my Christmas cards out this week, too. Also, I am trying to plan k's 1st birthday party in a couple of weeks. On top of all of this, my work hours have temporarily increased to 40 a week, so things are a bit overwhelming.

On another note, Armed Services Bowl...here we come! Haha. D has been so disgusted with how Cal has been playing, he said he would never watch another game. We'll see about that.