Campbell makes the paper

Robbie took Campbell to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday and there was a photographer from our local paper there.  Doesn't she look so cute?!

5 on Friday

Here are 5 reasons I'm loving my girls this week:

1.  (and this is a BIG one!)  Maggie gave up her paci this week.  Yep.  Pretty much all by herself.  On Monday we had a miscommunication with the day care and she didn't have a paci for naptime.  Her teacher said she went to sleep with no problems and took a great nap.  So that night we tried bedtime with no paci.  Not a peep out of her.  We haven't used one since and it's been awesome.  I even threw them all away so we wouldn't be tempted to go back to using them.  I'm so happy that the transition was so easy!

2.  Last weekend we went to the zoo with our friend and old neighbor, Heather, and her two girls. We had a great time and the weather was amazing!

Our little pumpkins

Checking out the monkey exhibit

3. Recently one of Robbie's co-workers moved and gave us their old trampoline.  It was smaller than one of the giant ones we've seen and kind of run down, but the girls loved it.  They loved to walk around on it (jumping isn't a strong suit for either of them) and their favorite was when Robbie would pick up one side and bounce them up and down on it.  It was a big hit.  I saw "was" because it died this week.  Or actually, Robbie killed it when he tried to join Maggie on it...

 

4.  The girls know a few signs in sign language.  Robbie texted me this picture the other night when I was in a class and missing the girls.  She knows the most important sign..."I love you"

5.  Maggie has really developed a love for books.  She'll back up her  little bottom and plop it into our laps with one of her favorite books in her hand.  Her favorite this week is Elmer's Day and she loves to pretend to eat the grass with him and kiss him good night.  So cute.

5 on Friday

Here are 5 reasons I'm loving my girls this week:

1.  Maggie has been flashing her belly at people.  I don't know why...except maybe she always gets a reaction as people check out her chub ;)

2.  Campbell has really gotten interested in knock knock jokes.  She doesn't really understand about the punchline which makes them even funnier.  I mean, what's more clever than:
"Knock, Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Banana"
"Banana who?"
"Banana on a plate with lettuce."

3.  We have noticed that every morning Maggie takes some random item with her to the car when we're going to school.  It's been everything from a toy frying pan to a letter from the refrigerator Leapfrog toy to a crayon and piece of paper.  Every morning, we're like "Wonder what she'll take today?" and we're always surprised...

Maggie walking out to the car with her items of the day: a colored pencil and paper

4.  Campbell had her first close encounter with a lizard.  She was so excited...until it touched her for the very first time and this was her reaction:  "EEK, it touched me!"

 Then she got a little more excited:

 She even kissed him

 She wanted "take him back to his mommy and daddy"....well, technically she wanted to keep him forever and Mommy finally convinced her, but then she thought it was her idea.  I'll never forget her running to the tree while holding him by the tail and squealing as the lizard was touching her hand. 

5.  Maggie is a spooner...just like her Daddy :)

 

15 on Friday

I know you're saying "What? FIFTEEN on Friday?  How did I get so lucky?!"  Well, I haven't done this post in 3 weeks and the cute and memorable moments and milestones have been piling up!

1.  Maggie has been a talking fool recently.  Seriously, she has been babbling, jabbering, and saying more new words than ever before.  Some of our favorites are ouch, up, eye, duck, and rabbit.  She also has been combining a couple of words like "Hi, Mama" and "Got a ball."

2.  Of course, she still calls Robbie "Mama" and I think it drives him a little bit crazy.  But it makes me laugh.

3.  Campbell likes to postpone bed time as much as she can...often with lots of requests for water, the bathroom, etc.  The other night she asked for water for about the 3rd time and I told her no more.  Her response:  "But I'm so DRINKY!"  I guess she forgot the word "thirsty"?

4.  Maggie is now walking into her classroom at school without crying.  It makes drop off so much easier for all of us!

5.  On the way to school one morning recently, Campbell proceeded to tell me this long story about how her Daddy was sleeping at school.  She said we had to hurry and that her friends were waiting for her to wake him up.  Random.

6.  When we went on our trip to California, we took our iPad and were excited to use FaceTime (like a video phone call).  Campbell seemed to enjoy it, Maggie not so much...  She really didn't seem to understand that  I was not in the phone :(

7.  We recently went to a Charlotte Knights baseball game with my friend, Adrienne, her daughter, Emily, and Campbell's friend, Eleanor.  It was Maggie's first  baseball game.  The girls enjoyed their stadium junk food: cotton candy and hot dogs!  The game...not so entertaining for the under 3 set.  But it was still fun to spend time with friends!

8.  Campbell's teacher came for a home visit.  Campbell was so excited to have her come to our house and she and Robbie made cookies for her.  When Mrs. Chamberlain was here, they went to go see Campbell's room.  Since Maggie was already sleeping, Campbell told her "Shhh, we have to tiptoe."  And tiptoe they did all the way to her room.  :)

9.  Robbie and Maggie were playing with the camera feature on his new iPad.  Silly kids.

10.  Campbell had Spirit Day at her school.  Robbie bought her a really cute pink (of course) USC shirt.  Her teacher sent us a picture of the class and I loved that right up front, Campbell and Eleanor were laughing with each other and most of the rest of the class was watching them.

11.  We went to Teagan's birthday party and got some great pictures of the girls at the park!  We were happy to see Campbell's friend, Emily, and the girls really enjoyed their cupcakes!

12.  We have really enjoyed the cooler weather recently.  It's been so nice to play outside in our backyard.  One evening, Campbell and Robbie started pretending that they were 2 of the 3 little pigs (Maggie was the token 3rd pig) and started "building" the straw house by putting the recently cut grass all over her play house.  They had so much fun...I had less fun since I was dubbed "the big bad wolf".  ;)

13.  Both of my girls' teachers have told me "she is such a GOOD eater".  Yeah, tell me about it.  Maggie's teacher even asked that I send more food at lunch... 

14.  On a similar note, I recently attempted to have Maggie work on using her fork and an open cup at dinner...thank God we were sitting outside on her porch and I had stripped her shirt off!

15.  And last, but not least, every really long blog post, really should have at least 1 cute video:

Robbie and Martha's Trip to the "Adult Disney World."

That's right, Martha and I needed a little getaway . . . no kids, just us, so we took a trip to Sonoma Vally, CA. . . . The Disney World for Adults.  Plus, it was Martha's birthday weekend . . . so call it Martha's Birthday Extended Weekend Getaway.
Before I get to the trip, I would like to say a BIG thank you to Martha's parents (Nana and Pop) for keeping the girls for us and Martha's sister, Sara, and her husband, John, who came up from Columbia to help.  We wouldn't have been able to take this trip if it wasn't for them . . . THANK YOU!!!

So we landed in San Francisco around 2pm on Thursday and our first stop was the nearest Target . . . yes Target.  We flew 2,751 miles to go shopping at Target.  I will say it was a pretty cool Target . . .it had 2 floors and an escalator for carts.

How cool is this?!

We actually stayed in Santa Rosa, CA which was about 60 miles north of San Francisco which meant our second stop of the trip was the Golden Gate Bridge.

After another 90 minutes driving, we made it to our bed and breakfast, The Gables Wine Country Inn.  

This place was perfect . . .  the main inn has six rooms, but I decided "why sleep in the main inn . . . when we can sleep in their cottage."  So we had our own "mini-house" away from the main house.

 The first night we went out to a local restaurant called Flavor.  We loved this place . . . the wine and food were great!  I thought to myself, "Tonight is wonderful and it's only the first night."  Not to ruin the ending to this blog post . . . but each day just got better and better!

We couldn't stay up too late . . . the next day we had to be at Wine Country Bikes by 9:45am for our 25 mile winery bike tour.  WHAT DID I JUST SAY . . . yes, Martha and I took a 25 mile winery bike tour along the Dry Creek Valley which runs along the Russian River.  The tour calls for four winery stops and lunch..

Don't let the smile fool you . . .  her thoughts, "What in the hell am I about to get myself into? 

No motor on these bike . . . 100% foot power!

Gotta look cute . . . no matter the occasion.

Our first stop was a few miles in and I think it's only purpose was to assess the group (6 of us total) and make sure no one had to turn back.  We didn't . . . but we sure did enjoy the view.

This is a good sign . . . . almost ready to start our wine tasting.

We made it to our first winery about 5 miles into our trip.  We arrived to Passalacqua and their wine was fantastic.    Here is Martha enjoying her first "tasting" of the trip.  Don't you love the pigtails?  Her excuse was that a regular pony tail wouldn't work under her helmet...but I think she just did it to look cute.  It backfired on her, though, because she got carded at the 1st winery!  I think it made her happy that someone thought she could be under 21.  

I'll leave out the part of the story where Martha got a flat tire pulling out of the first winery  . . .  but after a 15 minute delay, we were back on our bikes.  Our next stop (at about the 12 mile mark) was at Zichichi.  It was here that we were able to taste 3 wines from the bottle and 3 straight from the barrel.  

A view from their back deck . . . what a view!

Our third winery (18 miles in), and lunch stop was at Quivira.  The bike shop provided lunch which was brought in from a local bakery . . . it was great!  As for the wine . . .  again, great!!!  

We had to get a picture of us drinking wine with our helmets! 

Back on our bikes we went . . . our final stop (21 miles in) was at DaVero.  This place was a winery and olive oil maker.  Not only did we do a wine tasting . . . we also did shots of olive oil.  Let's just say our insides are nice and lubed.  I don't think "shooting olive oil" is going to be our new thing.  Something happened here that completely shocked me . . . I never expected these words to come out of Martha's mouth . . . . "I'm done . . . no more wine for today."  While shocked, I can understand . . .4 wineries and 18 different wine samples plus a shot of olive oil . . . . so now I know her limit . . . 18 - 24 ounces of wine.  

 And here is our "after" shot with our guide, Taylor . . . we survived a 25 mile bike ride!!!

Saturday was our free day . . . did you know that we're only 15 miles away from the Pacific Coast and about 20 miles away from a redwood forest?  Neither did we . . . so off we went in our rental car to explore.

First stop was a little town called Freestone which was on the way to the coast.  Several people told us about this "bakery in Freestone" that we had to try out . . . and that we did.  The food was great!  The only problem is that they only take cash and we only had a debit card.  The closest ATM was 16 minutes away.  Their solution, "just mail us a check when you get back home."  How awesome is that?  "Don't waste any gas driving to the ATM" is what they told me.  So let me give a big shout-out to the folks at Wild Flour Bread.  (oh, and not to worry, we did mail them a check as soon as we got home.)

Next to the bakery is a winery that we had to stop and taste . . .Freestone Vineyard.

We're back on the road heading west to the coast and we passed "the church" from the movie The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock.

Yes, that's a wedding rehersal taking place . . .

Just 5 miles away . . . we made it . . . to Bodega Bay . . . the Pacific Coast.   This coast looks nothing like our coast (East Coast).

 This is a fault-line.

 My first time in the Pacific Ocean.

 You never know what this guy's going to do.

 What a nut!

 Martha thinking, "I cannot believe he's making me step in this COLD water. 

 The very safe steps down the cliff to the water.

 Looking left.

Looking right.

We had to make a little pit stop at Spud Point Crab Company.  Everyone we talked with said "they have the best clam chowder on the west coast."  I can officially say, "they do have the best clam chowder of all the places I've tried along the west coast (which is one).  

We drove north along the shore and right before we turned off on the highway that headed east towards the Redwood Forest, I saw a sign for "Goat Rock Beach."  I knew nothing of this place . . .my thoughts were I'd see goats on a big rock.  Well, we didn't . . . .but it had to be one of the coolest stops along our trip.  

 One of the rocks we saw on our drive up the Pacific Highway.

 A live starfish we found . . . and returned to the water.

 Check these rocks out . . . . Martha loved them so much, she brought back a bottle filled with them.  She promises that she's going to make a picture frame out of them.

We finally reached our destination of the "redwood forest."  

This picture doesn't do any justice to the size of these trees!

What was amazing about our trip was that in 15 miles we went from the wineries of Santa Rosa to the cliffs along the coast and then in another 15 miles we went from the beach to the mountains of the redwood forest.  That has to be the coolest 30 miles we've ever driven.

The trip didn't stop there . . .  we just happened to be close to some more wineries . . . .so more wineries we visited.  The first of our final wineries that we visited was the famous Korbel . . . the only winery in the area that has a permit to "taste champagne."

After Korbel, we made a quick stop to Gary Farrell Vineyards.  While their vineyards were at another location, the view of their showroom was spectacular.

We looked and there was a winery that was 4 miles away that closed at 5pm . . .  we just had to make to one more winery  . . . 4 miles . . .5 minutes, we can do it!  We did make it to Hartford Family Winery.  We had so much fun here . . . . it's fun being at a winery when they are closing for the day.  They forget about the 1oz pours . . . they just pour to empty the bottle.  Again, twice in two days, Martha said, "I've had enough wine."

One thing I've learned this trip . . . Martha is so photogenic!

Since today (Saturday) was Martha's birthday, we had to do something special . . . . we went out to dinner at the John Ash & Co.  We had a fantastic dinner . . .  great wine (they are also a vineyard) and a fabulous dessert.  What a way to end our trip!

Martha looking gorgeous as usual on our date.

A little birthday surprise . . . I guess our inn keeper told them it was her birthday. 

We returned on Sunday and really didn't think about all the wine we bought.  TSA will not let bottle of wine through the screening, so we had to pack the wine into our checked-baggage.  When we got to the airport, we had 2 checked bags . . . one (with all the wine and rocks) weighted 64lbs (50 is the max before paying a $100.00 overage fee) and the other was 34lbs.  With some creative reshuffling . . . we got both bags to 49 lbs (98lbs total).  On a side note . . . all bottles of wine made it our house safely. 

We flew out on 9/11 and the folks at Dallas-Fortworth (our layover location) had the American flags displayed throughout the airport . . . I thought this was a great showing of patriotism.

This trip was spectacular . . . . it exceeded my expectations tenfold.  Spending four fabulous days in the wine country with my beautiful and wonderful wife is something I'll never forget.  Thank you Martha for making this trip so wonderful!!!