The last five days

Maybe you think because I haven't been writing blog posts that we haven't had much going on the last few days, but, in fact, we've had a lot going on; I just haven't been getting it recorded.

On Wednesday, I went up to Jeff's school for a little cooking class they were having. We made pizzas and learned lots of vocabulary and had a great time.

Making pizza dough

Homemade pizza, ready to eat

On Thursday, we spent some time at our favorite park, soaking up the gorgeous weather and enjoying various activities, from working out to playing in the forest to writing.

These boys love "their" forest!

Knocking out some pull-ups

A pretty amazing place to get some writing done

Jeff's school hosted an asado (BBQ) on Friday, and we had a great time hanging out with the staff and students, eating perfectly cooked meat and drinking a variety of wines and beers while visiting with friends from England, Australia, Argentina, and the U.S. in Spanish and English. Afterwards, we stopped at a tiny but very interesting playground made entirely of metal, which the younger boys loved. And later that evening, the boys voted to stay home and watch a movie while the rest of us went out to dinner at Cara & Ceca and coffee at Zeze.

Goodies on the grill

Enjoying the asado at Jeff's school

Loving the all-metal playground

Cara & Ceca

A fancy dinner for about $10

After-dinner macchiato 

We spent a large part of the day yesterday at our favorite plaza, Plaza Independencia. And then we decided to have an asado of our own, except our guests ended up not being able to come, so we just carried on and had our own little party.

The boys love this ground-level merry-go-round

On Saturdays, the "Art Lady" sets up a long
line of kid-sized easels and chairs for budding artists.
Clay just can't resist!

Asado time

The bougainvillea in our courtyard is so gorgeous! 

Today we joined a tour group and headed out to Potrerillos Lake, making a couple of stops along the way. The drive was really lovely, and the lake is absolutely beautiful. It reminded us a bit of Lake Louise in Banff with the mountains all around and the vibrant blue water.

The Mendoza River

Crossing the Mendoza River on
a shaky suspension bridge

Wild and free!

We stopped at the Potrerillos Hotel for coffee and great views.

Clay was thrilled that he stepped on a rainbow.

Master of the monkey bars

Beautiful view from the hotel of
Lake Potrerillos and the Staphyle Vineyard 

The other view from the hotel (of the Andes) isn't bad either!

And in addition to all this, we have all spent time this week working on things that are important to us and that make us happy. Some of those included: reading, writing, Scouts, Hidden Pictures, cooking, Spanish, making plans for the upcoming school year, sleeping in, and hanging out with each other. It's a good life!

Arches

Let me start by saying, sometimes it's totally worth it to get up for the early run:

Sunrise

Good morning, sunshine!

They don't call this neighborhood
Rim Vista for nothing!

Sights and smells of the morning

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Later in the morning, we paid a visit to Arches National Park. Wow! What an amazing place! It is so incredibly beautiful and unlike any place we've ever been. We took a couple of short, easy hikes and saw Park Avenue, Double Arch, Turret Arch, and The Windows up close. We also drove down the main road of the park and viewed from there lots of other interesting formations, like Balanced Rock and The Petrified Sand Dunes. We can't wait to go back tomorrow and do a longer hike.

Park Avenue

Petrified Sand Dunes

Balanced Rock

Making arches under Double Arch

Double Arch

The Windows

Turret Arch

I don't know if this formation
had a particular name, but I called
it The Three Wise Men.

This one I called The Lion

Until tomorrow...

Hiking in Yellowstone

We enjoyed our hike on Friday so much, we decided to fill up Saturday with several shorter hikes. We started with a lovely 2.4 mile hike to Natural Bridge. Then we did the very easy one mile hike at Pelican Creek. After that, we decided to take a break at Yellowstone Lake Lodge, where we had a delicious lunch, watched a sweet mama mule deer and her fawn, and played a board game. In the afternoon, we explored the 2.3 mile Storm Point Loop, where we enjoyed watching the cute little marmots, skipping rocks on a beach of Yellowstone Lake, and climbing out on Storm Point, overlooking the lake. We also loved how the trail took us through open meadows, thick forests, and along the cliffs above the lake. We have discovered that hiking is an activity that all our people enjoy and that is something we can all easily do together. Family bonding plus exercise plus fresh air for the win!

Natural Bridge

Hiking buddies

Mule deer mama and fawn

Lobster sliders and fancy fries

A view of Yellowstone Lake from the Pelican Creek Trail

Marmot 

Reward for the first half of the Storm Point Trail

The rare beach rhino, which we haven't
seen since we were in Scotland

Boys and rocks go well together

Storm Point

A gigantic wish

Sonoma and Napa

We left San Francisco yesterday morning and made the short drive to Sonoma County. Our first stop was the Boon Fly Cafe for a late breakfast, which lived up to the many glowing reviews we had read online. Weston was pretty pleased with himself for managing to order off both the breakfast and lunch menus, because he was still hungry when he finished his breakfast, but by then, the restaurant had stopped serving breakfast items and had switched to lunch. From there, we drove to the Benziger Winery for our first sample of the famous wine country. This winery wasn't as flashy as some, but the wines turned out to be our favorites of all the wineries in the area that we visited. After that, we made our way to the petrified forest for a shirt hike and a brief education in geology. We really loved the park and were fascinated with the process of petrification.  After that stop, we got back on the wine trail and visited two more family-friendly wineries. The first was Castello di Amorosa, which is built to look like a real medieval castle. The next was Sterling Vineyards, where the kids were given their own goodie  bags and we got to ride a gondola up to the winery. When the tastings were complete, we stopped to check in to our yurt at the Bothe-Napa State Park, before heading into Calistoga for dinner at Pacifico Mexican Restaurant. After dinner, we had a nice little stroll around the main street area of the town, stopping for ice cream along the way.

Boon Fly Cafe

Boon Fly's famous bucket of donuts

Benziger Estate

Mt. St. Helena

Ash flow from Mt. St. Helena's
eruption 3.4 million years agi.

New tree, old tree

Petrified giants

Castello di Amorosa

Waiting for the gondola
with goodie bags

Gondola ride at Sterling

We lost Clay, but this nice young
 man did the tour with us.

Barrel room at Sterling

Our first time to stay in a yurt

Before we set up the cots

Meditation path in Calistoga

Some of us started our day with a challenging run through our hilly campground. Then, we collected the rest of the group to go hiking in the beautiful state park. Around lunch time we headed in to St. Helena to grab sone burgers and soak up some of the gorgeous weather at Gott's Roadside. After lunch, we visited V. Sattui Winery and spent much of the afternoon lounging in their lovely picnic area. Eventually, the troops got hungry again, so we walked down the road to Pizzeria Tra Vigne.

Hiking in Bothe-Napa State Park

The road less traveled

Trailblazers

Lunch at Gott's Roadside

V. Sattui Winery

Pizzeria Tra Vigne