Jellystone Camping

For our annual Labor Day camping trip, we decided to try somewhere new - so we hit up Jellystone Park up in Lake County (Cobb Mountain).  Our requirements for this year's adventure - it had to be kid friendly (check) and near wineries (check). 

Here's the gang hanging out across the street from our first winery stop enjoying some ice cream and other treats.
L-R: Rana, Matt, Dave, Adrina, Drew, Grammy and GrampC

 This is Rosa d'Oro our second wine stop in Kelseyville.  I have to say there were a lot of new wines/wineries we tried.  We never tasted in Lake County before!

GrampC needed to make a call...

 ... who knew there were still working phone booths out there?  I guess not very many people in this area use cell phones.

That day we hit up maybe four wineries.  This view is from our last stop which is up the road from our campsite. 

GrampC and Uncle Matt showing off for the camera.

And they had a really cool fire truck outside of the Moore Family winery... which again was our last stop of the day.

 
 After the wine tasting the kids wanted to hit up the nightly hayride where the rangers warned about bears....

Oh right it's just Yogi, BooBoo and Cindy.

Self portrait of Dave, Drew and Adrina on the hayride.  And then Dave turned around to snap a picture of those weirdos at our campsite.

L-R: Grammy, Me, Uncle Matt

We also camped right next to the campground's ampitheatre which had coverbands all Saturday night.  GrampC and Dave went over a few times to enjoy the music more close-up.

Sunday morning Adrina waited about an hour to get the special "bike" that would hold both her and Drew.

Here's Drew "driving" that special bike.... and Uncle Matt got a workout in while running the kids in circles around the campground.

And we seem to find places to camp that have mini golf for the kids and the adults.  The guys were troopers and took the kids golfing while the ladies played games at the site.

Dave took a moment to enjoy the view...

And Drew too.  I think he's watching the duck races in that picture.

That afternoon there were some "friends" who wanted to say hi.

And like all good trips, they come to an end.... one of the "fun" parts of packing up is trying to cram all of our stuff back into the car.

Thanks to our roofpack we even have room for Drew inside.  But that thing is a BEAST to get zipped every time. 

So another trip in the books.  We got a voucher to come back since some friends of my parents couldn't make it...we have a credit on the books.  While it wasn't our favorite campground it was good enough and different enough we wouldn't mind going back.

Clean Bill of Health

This morning was a busy one for Mr. Drew.  He got to come with me to the office for about 90 minutes before his 5 year well check at the doctor's office.  The worst part of the visit (the shots) were done a few weeks ago before school started because of the school district requirements. 

So today's visit consisted of a visual test - results: 20/30 which they said was normal for his age.
And a hearing test - results: R 30, L 20 which is also normal.  So yes when he says "what" 20 times in a row when you're talking to him, it's just him being a pill vs an issue with his ears.

Height: 42 1/2" which is the 40th percentile and a 1/2" since last year
Weight: 39 lbs which is 35th percentile and a 6 lb increase since last well check.

When the doctor came in Drew was in rare form, showing off with all sorts of tricks.  I mean literal tricks.  The doctor thought we did a lot of yoga at home with the stunts he was doing on the table.  Then he proceeded to talk about going to Disneyland and Disney World next year (my goal is to do a Disney race there next Fall).

We did chat about some recent bathroom accidents Drew has had at school (two in the past 3 weeks) and he didn't think they were anything to worry about other than a distracted child not knowing when it is okay to go even if it's not "time".

And the big conversation was whether we should see an Occupational Therapist (OT) for Drew's issues with food.  He still has a major aversion to anything with eggs - as in he vomits at the sight of anyone eating one, cracking one, cooking with one.   Basically Drew still can't handle noodles,  ground meat, "white" chicken (aka any non-breaded chicken), so things with soft textures, F&V other than apples that are skinned and beef.  Although he did try a cheeseburger the other day and claims he liked it.

The doctor says he may never outgrow the egg thing, but he's fairly sure Drew's normal, just ridiculously picky.  While he has issues with food textures, it's solely tied to food and he doesn't think an OT will do anything that we aren't or can't do at home.  So because he's within range in every other sense, the Dr. says just keep trying new things. 

He then showed me Drew's chart for growth saying he's growing consistently and so there's no cause for concern.  He's not starving.  So if he eats more chicken nuggets for now, then so be it.  So that made me feel better. 

So all in all a great visit.  After the flu vaccine we were out of there.  And my little super hero never cried or flinched when he go that one.  So off to school he went.

That picture was at Barnes & Noble yesterday for his free birthday dessert courtesy the B&N kids club!

Having a Goal

Earlier this month we started on a new adventure.. we began league sports and giving up our Saturday mornings.  Drew is now in a community soccer league - one of 192 teams (I overheard the quantity at pictures last weekend).

I cannot put into words how excited Drew was to begin playing "real" soccer.

We couldn't go to the first team meeting, so on the field was the first time Drew met his coach and his teammates.

 Drew is on the far left.

At this age, Drew has a 30 minute practice before the game and then they play for about 45 minutes.  So at least we don't have to give up our weeknights also... at least yet.

 So while some kids pick daisies, Drew does stunts.  Yep that's my kid doing air kicks while he should be ready to kick off the game.

For his first game Drew did pretty well.  He scored two goals - the first goal was for the other team - but he did score the final goal of the game, for his own team.  All that mattered for Drew, is that he did get that last goal, he was so very proud of himself - as we were of him. 

He's since played a second game and improved his game, he's becoming a bit more aggressive.  Drew is one of the few kids on his team that can focus the majority of the game, so he's getting a lot of playing time.  He's not complaining - he loves soccer!

Water to Wine

Wine?  Yes please! 
Running?  Ok
Put the two together?  Where do I sign up!?!?!

Last month I did a half marathon (13.1 mile race) in Healdsburg which is about 20 minutes north of where Dave and I met in Santa Rosa.  I have to admit  I heard about the Water to Wine race from one of Drew's preschool teachers who wanted to do her first half.  I wasn't sure at first I wanted to do it since I'd planned to do a half in September and October... I thought adding one in August would be a bit much.  Well I decided to make the September Race (which is this Sunday) a 10K instead and then signed up for the Water to Wine half.  The thing that sealed the deal... it was all downhill! At least that's what they advertised.

So Dave and I got a free room across the street from where we met (Red Lobster in Rohnert Park) and I did the race that Sunday morning.

While it was chilly at the starting line, it was the perfect racing weather!  The sun came out at the end of the run and it was warm at that point.

Ms Kirsten (Drew's preschool teacher) and I before the race.

And then we were off!  The view couldn't be beat...

Shortly after the seven mile marker (remember this is just over 1/2 way done) there was some jazz in the vineyard!

Sorry for the blurry picture but I was running and snapping the pictures.  I didn't get to appreciate it a whole lot since I run to music on my iPhone.

Yep, I snagged a few of the race photos....

This race is just before harvest so the vines are perfect looking!

Only a 5K left at this point!  And just beyond this picture was the first of 3 decent sized hills.  Remember how I said they advertised it was all downhill?  Well I thought it was mighty cruel to put the unexpected hills at the last 3 miles of the race.  I ended up walking off and on at this point.

At about mile 12 I came upon the road signs for wineries...

...should I finish the run or take a detour?

OK I'll finish the race.  I couldn't have been happier to see this winery though!

 Alder Brook is where the finish line is.  I was about a quarter mile from the end at the sign.

And the race photographer captured me coming across the finish!

 My final time... 2:36:42... that's about 4 minutes shaved off my previous best time!! This race makes my third half marathon.  I was thrilled!

With this race we got a great finisher's medal - a wine topper. 

In addition to the medal we got 3 tastes at the winery.  Let me tell you after running 13.1 miles in more than 2 1/2 hours I couldn't fathom drinking anything but water, so I gave Dave my tastes.  He loved them. We did taste here the day before when I picked up my race packet -and we walked out with a bottle or two.

It was a great race and I'll look at doing it again next year. Dave even hinted he may thing about it as well.

Happy Bird-Day Drew

I think this last birthday party will be one for the record books thanks mostly to GrampC for building the best launcher ever!

On Sunday we celebrated Drew's 5th birthday at a local park.  Any guesses on the theme this year... your first guess doesn't count...

That was the invitation I had made.  I have to say this year's birthday was brought to you by Pinterest.  I love that site for things like this. 

Drew is all about Angry Birds.  All.the.time.  So we did the theme up.  I did the party from 2-4 so we didn't offer lunch or anything, but I did have snacks.  Like Angry Bird eggs (grapes), Angry Bird Cheese Nips and...

 Again, thank you Pinterest.  These are the "red bird" angry bird bagels with salami, cheese and olives.  I used cream cheese to act as the "glue".  Sorry about the saran wrap over them... the bees were out of control as was the wind.

Games?  We had games.  Well one in fact.  If you saw the sneak peak on Facebook you know why.  It was a show stopper.

GrampC arrived early with the Angry Bird launcher he made, and Drew got about 30-40 minutes of practice in.

The goal is to knock down the boxes where we had some green balloon pigs mixed in (with faces we taped using a Pinterest template I found).  We also placed Drew's "King Pig" Plush on the top for the kids  to knock down to get a new level - a.k.a. rearrange the boxes.

Naomi taking practice

The line of partygoers patiently waiting.  Adrina is taking her turn.

The best part (next to the launcher) is that we had a "golden egg" which if you know the Angry Birds game you know this is a great find.  In our version of the game if you "found" it and knocked it down you got what was inside - which was candy.  Therefore we didn't need a pinata.

Drew with some of his old preschool buddies - who are all now at kindergarten.
L-R: Naomi, Drew, Jayce

If you're curious about the balls that were used for this game...

Dave found the 3 larger balls (2 red birds and black bird) at Toys R Us.  Initially the plan was to find some balls and have Dave paint the faces.  Instead he only did that with the 3 blue birds - which are racquetballs.  Yes, Dave painted the faces.

And much to Dave's chagrin, when I mentioned the balls to my co-worker she thought the blue ball idea would be a great favor.  Dave thought so too and so last minute he bought and painted the balls to add to the favors (which were a different toy which we took out and returned, tattoos and angry bird fruit snacks all put in an angry bird cup).

What's a birthday party without the cake?  Yes I took it upon myself to make the cake again...and I admit I didn't curse nearly as bad as I have in previous years.

Can you tell Drew loved the cake?  

I'm just happy with all that wind we managed to get the candles lit and we could sing happy birthday.

Kids devouring the cake...


The kids also played on the playground but only because Dave said he needed a break - he was busy building the towers all afternoon.



And the game was so fun Drew and our neighbor boy wanted to play some more, so we set it up out front.

And since Daddy felt bad he wasn't in many of the pictures he wanted a good night picture with Drew and the green pig balloon we'd made.

It will be hard to top this birthday party, that's for sure!  We cannot say thank you enough to GrampC for all his hard work and imagination that went into that launcher.  Not only was it a hit with our group, but all the kids at the park and our other neighbors who wanted their kids to get a turn as well after the party.