Top 10 of 2014

I highly doubt there will ever be another year that can top all of the exciting events that took place in 2013, but 2014 had its fair share of greatness! Here's a little look-back at my Top 10 of 2014...

10: Hosting Ryan's family for Christmas

Our first holiday hosting experience was a success...except for the fact that I have ZERO photos to document the fun!

9: My 33rd Birthday

Birthdays are a big deal to me...no matter the age!

8: Max's 2nd Birthday/Baby Gonzalez #2 Announcement

On the same day we celebrated lil' midget Max's 2nd birthday, I also learned he's going to be a big brother!

Celebrating my adorable godson's birthday in style...with blue frosting!

7: Mother/Daughter Trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

6:  Trip to Breckenridge, Colorado

5:  Nais' First Birthday

Celebrating my perfect nephew's first year of life!

4: Trip to Napa Valley

3:  Anniversary Weekend in Granbury, Texas

2:  Trip to Nashville, Tennessee

1:  George Strait's Final Show

Bittersweet. Good times with great friends...memories that will last a lifetime!

Thanks for the fun, 2014!

Can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for us!

Napa Valley: Day 3

Ahhhh! Day 3 of our Napa trip: the day that someone else planned...and the day that I enjoyed the most. One of my close friends from college and her husband {Joselyn and Grant} live in San Jose, so they met us for our third day in wine country. They offered to plan this day, and I more-than-willingly handed over the reigns!

This recap may be a bit different than Day 1 and Day 2. It's funny how I have the most photos from this day...but the fewest relevant photos. I guess I should just be grateful that we didn't lose the {borrowed} camera. Given the quantity of wine we consumed, that is a miracle!

We started our morning with breakfast at Gott's Roadside Diner in downtown Napa. Our first winery stop was Grgich Hills Estate. 

KU Girls in California

Our second stop of the day was Provenance Vineyards. 

We went to V. Sattui picnic grounds for lunch. This place was a bit of a circus, but it had lots of food options and the weather was perfect...so the good outweighed the bad. After lunch we stopped at Trefethen Family Vineyards. 

Trefethen had significant damage from the earthquake...

While they're waiting on engineers to determine if this beautiful historic building can be saved, they've created a temporary tasting room in the fanciest tent I've ever seen {complete with chandeliers}. I think it was at this stop when the wine really started to take over, as you can see from the pictures that follow...

Apparently Linds and I thought we needed to be carried to the car on this dolly.
Obviously we didn't make it very far before I fell off.

Love this pic...Love these girls!

The final winery of the day was Domaine Carneros. Yay for more bubbly!

Joselyn & Grant Annen

Chris & Lindsay Shepard

Our tasting guide brought this BIG bottle of bubbly for a photo prop when he found out it was our anniversary.

Cheers to our final glass of bubbly. And it appears I'm really starting to lean at this point...

I'm not sure who took these, but we did get a few a pics of the beautiful scenery surrounding us at Domaine Chandon.

The final pic of the day actually turned out pretty good...

...but apparently it was quite a process to capture a good one!

We had dinner at Bistro Don Giovanni. Once again, I have no photos to show for it, but that's probably a good thing since I decided to have french fries and Fiji water for my entrée. Not kidding. I wish I was. Everyone else ordered like normal adults and seemed to really enjoy their food. And I highly recommend the french fries!

And that's a wrap...our anniversary trip to Napa fully recapped! If you're planning your first trip to Napa Valley and have questions, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to send you our schedule...and a google map of a bunch of wineries...and maybe even a spreadsheet! 

Thanks for the memories, Napa Valley!

Napa Valley: Day 2

I willingly got up at 5:00 am on our second day in Napa because we were scheduled to be picked up at 6:00 am for a hot air balloon ride...and then we got a call at 5:30 am cancelling the balloon ride because rain was coming in to the valley. I was sad. But I got over it after I slept a couple more hours.  

After having breakfast at Oxbow Public Market, our first tour/tasting was at Domaine Chandon.  

Domaine Chandon is beautiful...absolutely gorgeous scenery. The rain kinda prevented us from enjoying the beautiful views, but I did get a couple pics:

Domaine Chandon's tank room, which contains more than 100 of these HUGE containers.
Each tank holds enough bubbly that you could drink one bottle EVERY.SINGLE.DAY for 103 years!

The barrel room at Domaine Chandon.

The next stop was Cakebread Cellars. 

We stopped at Rutherford Grill for lunch. It's part of the Hillstone Restaurant Group {Houston's}, so the menu was familiar. 

Hungry guys...{im}patiently waiting for lunch!

I was a little "wined out" by this point, so I was excited to have a Diet Coke.
Ryan and I shared the French Dip...it was delicious!

We felt like drowned rats by this point, so we went back to the hotel to freshen up and just hang out for a bit. It was Halloween, and there was a contest among the various departments of the hotel for the best pumpkin carving. Pretty impressive pumpkin art...

Although I have no pictures to document it {oops!}, we went to Mustards Grill for dinner. Ryan and I split the famous pork chop {per the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate"}, and it did not disappoint. 

Looking for the recap of Day 1 in Napa Valley? It's right here.

Still to come: Day 3 in Napa Valley