Vacation Time: San Francisco

Since neither J or I had ever been to northern CA we wanted to get out of Napa for a few days of our trip and I'm so glad we did. We spent two full days in San Francisco and one day in Sausalito.

On day one we were the typical tourists and hit lots of must-see places... The stroller got some serious miles under it's wheels wandering Pier 39 & Fishermans wharf with a lot of sprinkling rain and a quick trip into Baby Gap to buy the babe some pants on the coldest day of our whole trip. We met a good friend from college for lunch at Grott's and enjoyed the down time catching up while Mark took yet another nap in the Boba. We all shared a hot fudge sundae from Ghirardelli Square and got some wiggles out overlooking the bay. We ate tacos for dinner before stopping to view the Golden Gate Bridge and heading home.

The second day in San Fran we visited AT&T Park, wandered the streets of downtown and enjoyed lunch on a patio. We finished the day with some swimming at the pool at our hotel and it was so much fun to see Mark so happy in the water.

On the last full day we weren't really sure what we wanted to do. Frankly, were out of ideas. Then I remember some talk about Sausilito being a fun place to go and I'm so glad we did. It was the cutest little town basically built into the hillside overlooking the bay. The views of the city and bridges were fantastic and while it was quite crowded with tourists we had a great time. We had clam chowder in bread bowls at a waterfront restaurant, bought super yummy homemade taffy so we could get quarters for parking and found our Christmas ornament to continue our tradition of getting one on each vacation. We headed back to the condo after a great day, packed our bags to get ready for the morning and ended the trip rested, relaxed and with lots of new memories.

I am so thankful we were able to take this trip when we did. I needed some recharging and some quality time together. The memories we created together, the adventures we went on, the smiles and laughs with my favorite boys were absolutely perfect. 

Missed part one? Go here!

Vacation Time: Napa & Sonoma

After the stress of boards we knew we wanted to get out of town on our first family trip and we had such a good time I can't believe it. Thanks to my mom's time share we put in a few requests for a trade and ended up with a fabulous resort in Napa, CA.

We spent half our time in Napa and Sonoma (another post coming soon about the other half). Mark did so well on the plane so we obviously treated him to In N Out as soon as we got out of the city. Our resort had it's own vineyard which we made sure to include on our list of wine tasting locations. And made perfect use of the stroller cupholder for the red blend we bought to enjoy by the pool after.

We dined on a few home cooked meals thanks to a full kitchen in our condo but made sure to fill our bellies in town too. Burgers & beers by the water (or lack there of thanks to the drought), pancakes, eggs benny & breakfast burritos from local and chain places, double scoops of ice cream, and a massive pizza to share all made the list.

We did two full days of wine tastings (and only paid for one thanks to the owners meeting we sat in on the first day) and to be honest, I don't think we would have wanted to do any more than that without the babe anyways. After 8 total wineries we have a much better idea of what we like and what we don't. Two dessert wines (a white and a red) made the journey home with us and I can't wait to enjoy them some day in the future remembering our trip. We visited a winery in an Italian-inspired castle (and weren't too impressed after Ireland), a few more popular places, and one that specialized in pinot noir. We had a picnic lunch under shaded trees the first day, Mark napped in the Boba while I sipped cool white wine, drank lots of bottles (Mark and us!) and we wandered along rows and rows of grapes. 

Stay tuned for part two of our trip coming soon!

Wineries

Castello di Amorosa // Beringer // Sutter Home // V. Sattui

Jacuzzi Family // Artesa // Etude // Trinitas Cellar

Restaurants of note

Downtown Joes // Filippi's Pizza Grotto // Alexis Baking Company

Accommodations 

Vino Bello Resort

Baby H: Ten Months of Mark

He...

[+] weighs 20#9oz according to our scale at home.

[+] is wearing 12 month sized clothes with a few 6-9mo thrown in (mostly t-shirts and shorts) and is in size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 overnight.

[+] has stood on just his feet without holding on a few times for only a few seconds at a time but seems so proud of himself when he does. He is all over the place all the time and it's actually quite hard to keep him contained if need be. He's always turning around in his highchair, he tries to stand in his stroller and usually won't let you hold him unless you're actively moving around and even then sometimes he tries to throw himself from your arms. He tasted freedom and won't go back.

[+] went on his first airplane ride and family vacation to Napa and did so, so well. I actually feel bad that we doubted him as much as we did. The flights weren't perfect and he had a few moments of terror while we were there but overall he was great.

[+] is no longer in his infant carrier carseat and I can't believe it! We knew we wanted to take the baby seat (and the stroller system) with us on our vacation so we didn't transition him until we got back but he seems so much happier in the bigger seat. We got a killer deal on a Graco My Ride 65 from Amazon on a random sale and then got a Graco Contender 65 as the second seat also from Amazon.

[+] said his first word on June 15th and momma lost! He's in dada, dada, dada mode! He really enunciates the word and moves his tongue in the silliest way. But now that the first words out of the way, I might just flip if his next word is Ollie! Ha!

[+] had his second lateral incisor pop through the gum on July 16th and then the left front tooth broke through the gum on July 25. We can tell they've really been bothering him lately so hopefully the end is in sight.

[+] got his first real cold this month and boy can I say how happy I am he's been so healthy till now. His nose has been a little fountain of snot and he screams bloody murder when it's super runny, we try to wipe it or use the nose frida to help him. I can't be sure if it's related but he also projectile vomited twice (once while out to lunch and once all over me) and I feel so horrible for him when that happens. He's also been refusing bottles and we're not sure what the cause of that is. Whether its from just feeling crummy and not being as hungry, because he's so congested and it's hard to breath or even because his gums are sore and sucking makes it worse we're still not quite back to normal with his feeds yet.

[+] went to the Denver Zoo for the first time and while he slept for about an hour right in the middle of the trip, still got to see lots of different things. He smiled at the zebras, giraffes and elephants and liked touching the glass on all the fish and reptile tanks.

[+] nicknames: Marky-Mark, Monk, Monkey,

[+] likes: turkey hot dogs, Ollie, swimming, pushing his cart

[+] dislikes: colds/booger removal, sun on his face in the car, diaper changes

I...

[+] have just started thinking about his first birthday party (holy crap where has my baby gone!?!). There isn't a "theme" because he doesn't "really like" any certain thing/character yet so we're going with a color-scheme of cherry red, bright blue and gray to celebrate our boy. Like all our invites recently (save the dates, wedding, gender reveal, baby shower) I have created his party invitation and as soon as I know a bit more about my schedule for around that time I'll be picking a date and time. I made a birthday banner to hopefully use for years to come while I had some free time last week. I'm hoping to make his smash cake and possibly coordinating cupcakes for the party. I'm envisioning snack foods/apps for guests with some sort of yummy cocktail. Now to just decide how big of a shin-dig we want this to be.

[+] have throughly been enjoying my time off from school with my boys. It's been so nice to read something for pleasure, put Mark down for his naps, binge watch Netflix, go on adventures in the middle of the day and just relax. There's nothing I have to do and no where I have to be and it's been fantastic. Granted I only have another week until the madness of rotations start but I'll be soaking up the last few days as much as possible. Oh and did I mention my first rotation is surgery? Nothing like jumping in head first.

[+] am getting myself a new gym membership today in hopes of making myself start going again. We previously had a 24 Hour membership and while J is going to continue to go there I'm switching to the rec center instead. It's cheaper but smaller but for me that's just fine.

Thankful v17

Lately I've been thankful... 

[+] for baby rolls and fat feet

[+] for trashy TV and reading that's for pleasure 

[+] for warm weather and spontaneity

[+] for adult beverages, and lots of them, after the Whole30 no-no

[+] for celebrations and the end of an era

[+] for shopping small and loving your new items

[+] for first holidays and time in the sun

[+] for being able to completely, 100% relax for the first time in a year

[+] for happy travelers and silly out-of-order teeth

[+] for dimples, sneaky grins and smarty pants who's already lots of trouble

[+] for a dirty, messy, stinky boy and washing him clean

[+] for always trying new things at least once and surprising outcomes

[+] for putting miles and miles on the wheels of this bad boy recently 

Life is grand!

July Goals

We're back from our vacation which was exactly what we needed after the last few months of intense scheduling and board studying. I realize it's half-way through the month and I'm just now getting these posted but I've had this post in draft since the beginning of the month so at least that's something. Stick around for Napa recaps soon!

June's Recap
[+] move my winter clothes out and my summer clothes into my closet. Done and done! Had to buy a new big storage bin since my two smaller ones now contain Mark's tiny clothes and my maternity clothes but either way, done!

[+] do at least 88 Qbank questions for boards every day. Yes and no. I would always get this many, and often times double this number, on the days that I studied. But there were more days this month that I didn't study than I originally planned. 

[+] be more intentional about my time. I'd like to say that I did this but I know this is something I always have to be conscious about. 

[+] see the sun every day. Big fat fail. There were definitely days I didn't get outside. Study days and 7+ hour test days will do that do you. 

[+] stick to Whole30 for the month. I didn't "stick to it" 100% but I'm extremely happy with what I was able to do, had a few cheats and finished out the month. Plus I'm back to my pre-baby weight and feeling great and that's all that matters. 

July's Goals
[+] take Mark on lots of adventures. I'm picturing at least one zoo trip (have to decide which one to go to), pool days, play dates, some shopping and who knows what else will pop up. Freedom feels good!

[+] make sure I'm drinking enough water every day. I was so good about it for so long being pregnant and breastfeeding but I've definitely fallen off the wagon with my water intake. 

[+] book and go on our day date to the spa for a couples massage and dinner/lunch after with my hubs. Its been a crazy last few months and we both deserve some pampering. Not to mention some adult time while the grandmas love on our boy for the day. 

[+] get fitted for and buy a new, good quality bra. Post pregnancy and nursing combined with my cheap attitude about buying things like this have me in desperate need. 

[+] finish a few projects around the house. On the list is the new towel hooks for the upstairs bathrooms, new artwork for the master bedroom and rearranging some furniture once our roommate moves out.