We had lots of liquid fun for Mark's birthday! The theme of the weekend was wine, wine, and more wine...with a few bloody mary's in the mix as well. :)
The final destination was my aunt and uncles in E WA and the Tri-Cities Wine Festival. It worked out perfectly that the Beckham's could go with us, and that my aunt and uncle have enough room for all of us! So much fun, and Sky LOVED having Grace and Kiera around to play with the entire weekend!
Usually when we are driving over we really just want to get there. We typically have a reason (holiday/family stuff) for the trip and just want to get there and start the visit. But, since Mark took Friday off we decided to leave early and take our time getting there.
Sky is ready for the road trip!
There is so much to see and do (and drink) along the way that we wanted to experience that a bit. Plus, we were given an awesome book last year for Christmas and thought it would be fun to make a few of the suggested stops along the way.
Since we didn't have a dd, we opted for two wineries along the way, and spaced our food intake strategically, and made sure we had enough time at each stop to safely taste and drive. I had gone through the Yakima Valley section and picked out all the tasting rooms that sounded like they would have wines we liked, and after a few texts from my aunt we narrowed it down to two that were right off the freeway to make it easy.
The first stop was Kana Winery Tasting Room downtown Yakima. Seriously good wines, and so friendly. They had coloring books for Sky and made sure she had water (in a wine glass) to "taste" with us. One of the many things I love about her is she is friendly enough and curious enough that wine tasting is an adventure to her. Can we do it all day with her...no, but she's good to go for a few hours!
Starting the weekend right!
We started with an oaked chardonnay, my favorite kind, and made it through 4 tastings (Mark dumped most of his since he was driving) before we heard from the Beckham's, and discovered we could catch up with them on the road at the next winery.
Our next stop was only a few minutes away, and while I had marked it in the book as a place to stop, we probably would have skipped it had aunt Candy not suggested it. I love champagne but wouldn't have thought to taste through a whole selection of it.
I'm so glad we did though because Treveri Cellars ended up being so much fun! And, I learned so much about champagne and the differences between each type. I feel so much more confident now in my ability to purchase champagne for parties/personal use!
Champagne Cocktails for the win!
We had so much fun tasting the different styles, and fell in love with the tasting room/grounds that we decided to stay for a bit and get cocktails! Plus, it gave the girls time to run around outside in the sun (cold sun, but still a sunny beautiful day) and play lawn games while we kicked off the birthday fun! This place was so fun in fact that the Beckham's joined the bubble club...how fun does that sound?! It's nice it's on the way to my family because club pickups make the perfect excuse to visit should Mark and I join the bubble club.
Grace, Kiera (in the back) Michelle and Sky at Treveri. (photo credit - Michelle Beckham, with her mad selfie skills!)!
From there it was on to Paul and Candy's and as Sky said "Let's start the party"!
The festival itself was so much fun! It was big enough to be interesting, but not so crowded that it was frustrating, or the food lines took too long. I loved how the wineries were set up and it was made clear who had won awards, because it made it easy to target your tasting. There was way too much to taste everything, so we had to be a little selective. The food was amazing, not just cruddy festival food, but really nice and really yummy (and free! The ticket price included all the wine and food, and for the price of the ticket it was a steel of a deal)! Paul ad Candy are in the industry so they couldn't take two steps without running into people they knew. The 4 of us would wonder off taste a bit, circle back to them and then wonder off again.
The only picture I took was the end of the night after all the tasting was done.
Empties!
So much fun! It was kind of funny actually because Ali went with us to watch the girls for us while we were at the festival, and Paul and Candy had given her the next door neighbors # in case she needed immediate help (she has all our numbers as well), but who did we run into first thing at the wine fest...you guessed it the neighbors! Thankfully Ali is an excellent babysitter, and the girls are pretty easy, so we were not worried at all.
Super low maintenance babysitting!
Mark took Monday off too so we could recover/rest on Sunday before driving home. The rest of the weekend was spent watching football,and playing with the girls. Thankfully Grace and Kiera were able to stay and go home with us Monday so Sky had peeps to play with and keep her happy.
Bloody Mary's and football for the win!
Let's just say road tripping with 3 is very entertaining! Mark and I laughed the whole way home listening to those three talk, sing, and laugh. Those girls sung their hearts out to the Frozen soundtrack 3 times through, and Sky loved every second of it! She got a good taste of what having sisters can be like, and was so sad when it was finally time for them to go home.
We did find time to make sure the girls had fun as well. Michelle and I took them to an indoor trampoline place while Mark and Bob went to Ranch and Home for a bit.
I really wanted to jump, but for once I way under packed and only had PJ's or my festival outfit, so nothing that would have worked well for this, and I didn't want to take a chance of messing up my back. 4 days is the longest I've gone without an adjustment or massage in months and I didn't want any problems until I was back home and could do something about it!
I'm thankful we got to spend a fun weekend with good friends and family! What a way to start your 40's!
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