Happy Halloween

We spent Halloween playing outside, enjoying the pretty weather. We took Riley up to the Collierville Square to get some pictures, and let her run around, and see some new scenery.

Here she is inspecting her pumpkin bucket, wondering where her "treats" are.

I realize her eyes are closed, but this just makes me laugh!
Look mom, flowers!
Our friends, Valery and Kyle came over for dinner, and to see Riley in her costume. "Yo dad, get my pumpkin bucket, I've got candy to find!"
Our little duck, trick-or-treating for the first time. She's just too cute some days!

Oh, the places you'll go...

I've neglected this blog for 2 months, which seems crazy, but life has been sorta crazy lately. Somehow we returned from our relaxing vacation, and football season hit, work got crazy, and now it's been 2 months since I've posted. My apologies, I'll try and improve.

Here is my sweet little girl before church (probably 2 months ago!).

Her signature point. I don't know where she picked this up from, but she can use that finger and we all just laugh at her.
Our favorite game is to "s-h-i-t d-o-w" aka, sit down. Riley has no fears, and routinely stands on anything she's supposed to "sit" on. Also, our "s" sound is always accompanied with the "sh", hence our pronunciation. We've spent hours laughing at this phrase!
Ready for another Sunday at church.
About 3 weeks ago, we went to the zoo, with Valery and Kyle. Our main goal was to see the new Teton Trek exhibit, and the grizzly bears, but after 4 attempts to see the bears, they were never out. Non the less, we had a fun day, and it was nice to get out and enjoy the weather.

I couldn't resist this photo shoot at the zoo.

I wonder if he/she would play well with Millie?

San Francisco Vacation - Part 4

This was our final day in the Bay area. This was the Saturday of our trip, and we were headed out of the city, headed north to tour Miur Woods an tour wine country. Before we left the city, we drove down this one block on Lombard Street, which is a popular tourist spot. The block has 8 switchback turns, which was built to keep the horses and buggies back in the day from falling and injuring themselves.

So we made it to Muir Woods, which is home to native Redwoods, and they were beautiful. The trip up the mountain getting to the park was a little rough on the stomach, but we made it in one piece.

This is a slice of one of the trees, and it is labeled with historic moments in time. I believe the tree this was from was roughly 300 years old, if not more.
Check out this cute couple!
If only I was wearing a blue shirt, and white shorts, I would look like a smurf!
This was the view right when we left the park, headed back down the mountain. Absolutely breathtaking, yet frightening since there are no guard rails along the road!

These next 2 have a small story. One of my stipulations of our anniversary trip was that it was not allowed to incorporate a NASCAR event. Chris had just gotten back from the Bristol race the weekend before, and while I don't mind his interest in NASCAR, I have no desire to partake. Anyway, as we were on our way to the Sonoma Valley, our GPS route he had mapped out just so happened to take us right by the entrance of Infineon Raceway. Me being the lovely wife I am agreed to enter and see the track for a few minutes.

This track is one of the few that requires both right and left turns! It is a road course, but Chris enjoyed seeing another track.

Beautiful entrance to the Sterling Vineyard. This Vineyard had a gondola ride to the winery at the top of the mountain, which overlooked their fields.

Sterling vineyards.

Here we are after our tour and final tasting at Sterling.

This is one of the Berringer buildings on their property. We skipped the tour and tasting here, but their facilities were beautiful.

Our final tour we did was at Robert Mondavi Winery, and we learned a lot, and had a small tasting. I think we both enjoyed going out into the fields and seeing the grapes, which were 2 weeks away from harvest.

Overall we had a wonderful trip. Riley enjoyed her week with both sets of grandparents. I promise my next post will have pictures of her!

San Francisco Vacation - Part 3

Yes, we took lots of pictures on our trip, hence the multiple postings. I promise, there is only one more post after this one, and it should be shorter than the rest.

Anyway, after spending 3 days in the city, we picked up a rental car that morning, a sporty PT Cruiser I might add, and headed south. Our travel plans included us driving Highway 1, to Monterey, stopping at the Aquarium, and completing our travels on the 17 mile drive which is around the Pebble Beach area.

We loved the drive along Highway 1. I must admit, the "beaches" aren't all that pretty, meaning they don't have the white sand we have on the gulf coast, but if you look past the sand, the water, rocks, and cliffs are beautiful.

We found this lighthouse stop along out way. It was right along the highway, and also served as a hostel to other travellers, mostly people on mountain bikes travelling the area. You have to be a pretty serious and dedicated bike rider to endure some of the steep hills/mountains! We stuck to our automobile!

About 2 - 3 hours south, and we made multiple stops along the way, was the city of Monterey. It was a relatively small town, but had a very cute downtown area. We made a visit to the Aquarium, and followed up with another great meal on the water. One thing I've failed to mention is that we ate some delicious food on our trip. We really enjoyed the fresh seafood and delicious restaurants we visited throughout our entire trip.

These were some massive jelly fish species, and Chris took some great pictures.
This is the downtown shopping area of Monterey. Such a cute area.
Here is Chris at one of the many stops along the 17 mile drive. It is a loop through the area which surrounds many golf courses, particularly Pebble Beach. I was informed along the way, that Chris was very familiar with these courses, as he played them as a kid on his PlayStation, or some other gaming station. I must admit, driving along this section of the trip was a big highlight, but the best is yet to come...

One of the greens at the course.


This picture is for my dad. We managed to find wildlife on our trip.

This is the Lone Cypress, which is a trademark to the Pebble Beach Golf Course. This cypress tree is growing out on this cliff, but I'm assuming the golf course, or some other group built the stone wall you see. The tree is also wrapped in a cable or two, to help keep it's shape. Please don't quote me on the reasons. These are my best guesses, but feel free to do a little research if you choose!

This is The Lodge at Pebble Beach. It is open to the public, so we helped ourselves to a view!

The beautiful 18th green at Pebble Beach. Yes, that is the Pacific ocean that it boarders.
Here is the back of The Lodge. We did enjoy a little time up on the balcony, watching the tournament that was going on.

So this picture captures my favorite story of the trip. We finished our touring for the day, and were headed back on the main highway, rather than the coast line. We missed one of our exits, which wasn't the first time that day I had navigated us in the wrong place, but non the less, we were still headed north, back to SF. Here is my version of the conversation that followed:

Me: We are coming upon Cupertino, and we can get back on our route there.

Chris: You know what's in Cupertino, right?

Me: Yep, it's the headquarters of Apple.

Chris: Try plugging in "1 Infinite Loop", and see if the GPS finds it.

Me: (after typing it in my trusty iPhone, and it dropping a pin) You've got to be kidding me, you know the address of Apple Headquarters off the top of your head?

Yes, my husband knew off hand the address of his favorite manufacturer. He is a faithful shopper of Apple products, and we proudly support them with multiple products in our home. So, I couldn't take his dream away from him, so we made our way through Silicon Valley, which was surprisingly small, but since we are both in IT, it was pretty cool to see many of the companies we are familiar with. We drove through the Apple campus, and Chris has marked this landmark off his list of places to see!

We loved our drive south, but the next post will be our trek north. Stay tuned...