The Great Pumpkin Is Coming!

Here's our very own Linus waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to appear.


Lucky for Ben, McKenzie is a nicer friend than Sally and seems to believe him that the great pumpkin is coming.


We had a fantastic day at Bob's Corn  pumpkin patch this year, they really stepped it up a notch from our last visit. Way more going on than just pumpkins and a corn maze. The parking lot was packed when we arrived and continued to fill up out into extra fields while we were there. We met up with Gina and Atticus to share a sunny fun filled Sunday morning hunting for pumpkins, riding the cow train, a hay ride and pony rides. There was even more to do but nap time was fast approaching so we had to end the fun before no one was having fun.

McKenzie and Atticus were happy campers to be on the move at the farm and they were exploring all over. Due to the fact that we had three small kids and only two adults, Ben was relegated to the baby backpack for most of the visit. Next year we'll plan better and bring more adults than kids.


Though who really needs an extra adult when you have three kids to drive the wheel barrow around.  It's pretty scary what can get accomplished once these three put their minds together.


Kenzie in the cow train, which may have been the highlight of the day for her. She loved riding wildly all over the farm and through the barn. She has her golden token ready to pay for her ride. This is one of her series of 'funny faces' she does when getting her picture taken these days.


Gina and Atti in their cow train car, looking almost as excited as Kenzie to ride.


Our pumpkin cutie, getting so big. I can't believe it's her forth year of pumpkin hunting already... time really does fly by.

#winefueledquotes

For those readers who don't 'tweet', I'll help out with the title by giving you a little definition of hashtags and by saying even with our fair share of "wine fueled quotes" this years Crush Festival was better than ever. We had an active banter going on via Facebook while we were out tour the wineries around Lake Chelan with many of the crowd posting quotes as we went. While the story Facebook will tell might be more risque and exciting, I'll stick to the facts for my yearly update.


A little math to start you out:

  11 ladies + 7 wineries = 72 bottles of wine purchased
+ 2 small kids = 2 exhausted grandparents
who are happy Crush is only 3 days per year
and 1 great time had by all.

We had an amazing turn out this year and I'd like to think we boosted the mood of Crush and the general economy of Chelan a little with all our adventures. This year we decided to try to leverage our Friday a little more than we have in previous years.  Most of the crew was in town by dinner time Friday evening. We had some great appetizers and then played a few rounds of Bunco. It was my first time for Bunco and despite being at the losers table for almost the entire time, I loved it. Can't wait to get really old to have lots of time to play.


We were up early on Saturday getting ready for our big day. Kim made us all a new set of headwear for this year's tour. Last year we had the doodle-le-bops and this year we had the twinkle-le-bops. Tiaras complete with some fuzz and of course wine corks. It was so funny how many people asked us what the occasion was. "Crush" we would answer only to have mostly blank stares.  Apparently we might be the only ones who got the memo about the festival. You'll see the twinkle-le-bops modeled in the pictures.

Here's our route through the wineries along with my personal reviews.

Mellisoni, in my opinion this was the crown jewel of our 2010 tour. This winery just opened two months ago.  They are only open for private tasting which is one of the key components that made this visit so amazing. Their view of Lake Chelan is amazing as is the genuine love of the area and wine making business that you get from the owners. We were treated to a tasting paired with appetizers while seated around a bon fire. I think many of us have a new favorite bottle of wine as well as a new favorite cheese after this experience. One of the things I love the most about the Chelan wineries is the people who make the dream happen and being able to get to know them over the years as we visit. This one is already on the list for next year.


WineGirl Wines, a very cute new blending room in Manson on the north shore of Lake Chelan. They had a great space for a large group to do tasting and were very organized with the tastings. We got to pick between two different menus of tasting based on what you preferred. They had great labels which is always a plus with our group, we love a good story to go with our wine. Looking forward to another visit to WineGirl in the summer as they have a lovely side yard all setup for bocce ball.


Benson Vineyards, always a favorite of mine. Their setting with its hills covered in grapevines rolling down to views of Lake Chelan takes you to another world. We hit Benson near the end of our tour last year and decided we had better move them up on the list this year so we could truly enjoy the visit. As usual Benson did not disappoint. The vintners brothers Scott and Jeff, and their dad Paul were all pouring during our visit. They are a real class family who really mean it when they say they are an estate winery. Our new favorite wines there were the Estate Curiosity and the Estate Curious - imagine that!



Chelan Ridge Winery, another newbie this year, only open about a month. They had a fantastic new tasting room with a great viewing area that let you see into their production facilities. We enjoyed our visit, getting to meet the owners and hearing about how they came into this love of wine. My favorite was Henry's story, he told us he used to be a commercial pilot and now he drives a tractor. Looking forward to seeing them expand and grow with the wine community in Chelan.




Hard Row to Hoe, is another of our longtime favorites. We even loved them before they changed their name from Balsam Root. They have a very open and welcoming location that lets you get a real sense of the wine making process and their passion for the wines. When we arrived they had a sign out that said parties of more than six couldn't be accommodated due to the crowds.  I headed up on foot and then called back to the bus when we got the okay to come up. Rudy, our favorite wine guy, vouched for us and then shared with us all the interesting folk lore of the area that gives them their new and colorful name.  Check out their website for that folk lore.


Firehouse Tasting Room, this was a first time visit for us as well.  It was not on our original tour plan but after chatting with some people we met at Hard Row they suggested we should check it out. So throwing caution to the wind we diverted our tour and ended up having a great time and experiencing a different view into Chelan wine tasting. They had an amazing selection of wines, lots of local stuff that we already had stashed in the bus along with a lot of interesting specialty wines from outside the region. We also got to taste more great cheese and tour the party room that was setup for their wine club event later that night.


Vin du Lac, again a tried and true favorite as our last stop on the tour, I think we save them for last since no one is really into tasting by the time we get there so we can just grab up a few bottles of our favorites, hang out in the snuggies and then head the bus back to my folks' house. This year we did get a peak into the new restaurant they are opening and it looks great. I'll have to find time to get back there on one of my other visits. This years pyramid wasn't as strong as last years, perhaps we should attempt it earlier in the day.


We ended the evening back at the house with our crockpots of savory creations to bring us down from our day of glory. Another great year in the books for Crush Festival.


My favorite wine fueled quote was "Crush weekend is like Christmas for grown-ups!" #winefueledquotes Counting the days until next year already.

Wet and Wild Weekend

Two weeks ago we took the kids on an overnight trip to The Great Wolf Lodge, in Grand Mound. It is an indoor water park and hotel combo that is very family friendly. We had a great mini vacation and the kids loved being in the water. It was pretty amazing how much water The Great Wolf Lodge had splashing around everywhere.  We were constantly wet from head to toe. If you weren't getting a 1,000 gallon bucket of water dumped on your head, there was a floor geyser spraying you, or a kid operated stream of hitting you in the eye. We came to play in the water so it was all good. McKenzie was able to go on some of the big waterslides all by herself.  This kept her smiling and on the move.  Ben had plenty of water areas designed for kids his age to paddle around in.

Here's the giant bucket dumping out from the top of the slides. There is a sign that says not to hold children when the bucket was dumping because the force is so great.


McKenzie all smiles as she gets ready to launch down the slide. We can't wait until she can go on the tube slides in a year or two.


Ben investigating where all the water was coming from. I cannot believe how many times he let the water shoot him in the face.  He must have liked it.


Ben shooting water on a jet ski.  There was no way to get close to him on this thing without getting soaked.


We upgraded to a 'Kids Club' room which included a section of the room with a bunk bed for the kids. We envisioned watching a movie on our side of the room after the kids fell asleep.  Instead we had a pack 'n play for Ben that we put next McKenzie's bunk and they kept each other up for a long time until we finally had to separate them.  Then McKenzie chose to sleep on the couch in our side of the room. So that meant lights out for everyone at 9 pm. Ben stayed in the bunk area until 3 am when he wanted nothing but to lay on top of me and sleep. Needless to say it was a long night but we were up early and ready to hit the waterpark for day two.

View of the kids section of our room.


On Sunday we were at the slides right when they opened at 9 and we thought we would stay until 11:30 but Ben literally fell asleep in my arms around 10:15.  So we packed it in shortly after that headed home. Overall, it was a great weekend.  I definitely think we'll be back for another visit in a year or so when the kids are just a little bigger.

Here's McKenzie getting soaked by the bucket - so much water!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Matt and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary last week.  We are looking forward to all the years ahead of us. The eighth anniversary gift is suppose to be brass which is a hard one to shop for. Online I found suggestions for jewelry with the infinity symbol which is essentially an 8 sideways. Lucky for Matt I didn't feel the need for any infinity jewelry but I did like the symbol of infinity. Some days it does feel like we've been married forever, Then other days I can hardly believe it wasn't yesterday that we got married. For me time really does fly by.

We are so lucky to be able to witness many great marriages among our friends and families but I think two of the strongest examples are from both of our parents. We are truly blessed to have both sets of parents still happily married after all these years.

My parents just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and are loving being 'retired' (read having multiple part time jobs each) together over in Chelan. Here they are September 19th, 1970.


Grandpa and Grandma C on their recent anniversary trip up to Victoria, BC.


Matt's Mom and Dad celebrated their 39th Anniversary this August, they are finding lots of time to travel together and love having all their kids and grandkids close to home. August 14th, 1971


Grandma and Grandpa Z on their recent trip to London and Ireland.


Here's to many more happy years together for everyone!

Tiny Dancer!

McKenzie started ballet lessons in September and she is having so much fun! When we originally were looking at lessons it was mainly because Aunt Kacey had signed cousin Kayla up at the YMCA and it sounded fun. So we tried to sign up too but the YMCA class was full.  We went to one of the local dance studios thinking we were just going to do a month or two but we were actually signing up for a September through June dance program with a recital at the end. The class is for ages 3 and 4 so it's about 10 girls right around McKenzie's age for 45 minutes on Saturday mornings.

I am actually most looking forward to the recital already because all I remember about ballet from when I took lessons was the beautiful outfit from the recital. Grandma Z also has a recital picture from when Aunt Jennifer did ballet lessons - and it is the cutest thing. They are all in yellow and have these huge floppy hats on.  Can't wait to see what McKenzie's teacher picks out for their recital outfit.

Here's my tiny dancer flitting along. Note: I am trying to get a better picture of her but there are some parents who think their child will be staring in the nutcracker this Christmas who won't move from the good viewing spot in front of the door so I have to take whatever shots I can get that don't involve their heads.


Here are Aunt Kacey and me when we were probably 4 and  5 dressed for our big recital.

It's A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

We have a new neighbor and we could couldn't be happier. He has been over almost every day since he moved in helping us clear the back half of our property. He just loves to help, doesn't stop for breaks, and the kids think he's amazing. What more could we ask for in a neighbor?

I admit I was a bit skeptical when Matt told me the neighbors had brought home a goat but he's been an amazing addition to the neighborhood so far. I had a bad run in with a couple of goats that my parents got when I was about three.  Goats have not been high up on my list of animals to love since then.  But anything that can eat ten square feet of blackberries and other assorted wilderness in a single day is more than welcome at our neighborhood.


We have been working hard on our yard ever since we moved in six years ago, fighting for the yard we have. Once we conquered the land on the stream side of the property we pretty much gave up and just let the other side be 'the great beyond'.  Now our dream of using a little of our land on the other side of the stream is a reality thanks to our new neighbor, Jebediah, the goat. At the rate he's eating, we'll be able to walk the whole property over there by Christmas. I'm taking some pictures from the same angles so I can track the progression.

So Long Summer

With rain and gray skies following us over the pass the kids and I headed over to warmer parts for Labor Day weekend. We headed out mid day for Chelan and I had anticipated a long slow drive over but we somehow beat the traffic which was fantastic. We made it into Chelan in time for the monthly 'First Friday' celebration downtown. Lucky for us it was dog night and the kids got to see lots of dogs. Ben in particular enjoyed hugging the dogs while Grandpa C strolled him around.

There was lots going on downtown including a little train which we of course had to ride. A bounce house setup in the park was a happy place. What more could the kids ask for? Oh yeah, ice cream - we stopped for after the train ride.



On Saturday the kids got one last swim in for the summer. Our swimming lessons have really paid off and everyone is loving the water! Here's Nathan, age 7, McKenzie age 3, and Kayla, age 5, jumping into the pool together.


Nathan doing his cannon ball in the deep end!


And last but not least Ben doing his best to jump in like the big kids with Grandpa C's help.


At Grandma and Grandpa C's house Ben can be found in one of three places - in the pantry trying to get Grandpa's cookies, up in the office trying to use Grandpa's computer or in the den sitting in Grandpa's chair using his remotes.


We had a fire in Grandma and Grandpa's fire pit. It was McKenzie's first bonfire. Yes, we do have a fire pit in our backyard and we do often have fires but McKenzie has bedtime so she hasn't seen an outside fire yet. Along with never having seen a bonfire she had never had a s'more. Uncle Eric couldn't believe she'd been missing out for so long.

Here she is one bite into her s'more and she yelled "I need a napkin!!!"  This girl for all her love of nature does not like to have her hands sticky when she's eating.


Here's another shot of Grandma and Grandpa C with all the grandkids and then last years similar shot so you can see how they all have grown.  Nathan will have to get some sun glasses for next years picture so he doesn't have to squint so much : )