A sunny day in Mendoza

Jeff's school had a mate class this afternoon, which I walked over for, enjoying seeing and feeling the sun for the first time in a week. We learned some very interesting things about this tea and how to drink it, which you can read more about on my Year of Firsts blog.

When Jeff and I got back to the house, the kids were ready to go out and enjoy the sunshine as well, so we headed to the park. Ruth and Weston went for a run and worked on some other strength exercises while the little boys played in their special grove of trees and Jeff and I sat on a low tree branch visiting. It was a gorgeous day, and I'm so glad we got to get out and enjoy it!

Later, we all agreed that we had a craving for sushi, so we headed over to Sushi Club, which is just a short walk from our house and which had good reviews online. It was wonderful and really hit the spot. We just love Mendoza and are so thankful for the time we have to spend here!

Mate

We saw the trash truck on our way home from the school.

Happy boys in their happy place!

Getting our sushi fix at Sushi Club

I'm not saying this happened tonight, but it might have. 😉

Super Saturday

This is the first Saturday since late August that we haven't had a kid's sporting event to attend. We enjoyed sleeping in, and since we aren't all going to be together on Weston's birthday in a couple of weeks (or on his birthday party day a couple of weeks after that), we decided to go ahead and celebrate his birthday today. His main request was Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which we don't have in Flower Mound. So, the men headed over to Roanoke to pick up the doughnuts, while Ruth and I went to workout. (For me, this is working out in the very loosest sense of the word, but I'm thrilled to be cleared to do anything that even resembles exercising!)

All the doughnuts!

Later, we gave Weston his birthday gifts, which included tickets to the OU/TCU football game in Norman, OK this evening. He did not see this coming and was thrilled about every part of it: football, TCU, two top-ten teams, going to another state for the game, and the fact that it was happening this very day. It was awesome to watch his face light up! I just love to give gifts that truly make the recipient happy! And, experience gifts are the best!

A new "Saturday shirt"

I can't tell you how happy this face makes me!

After that excitement, we headed over to Denton for the Pistons and Paint Car Show. It was so fun to see so many cool cars! But our favorite part was seeing Junior Brown, who is one of our all-time favorite musicians, perform live. Jeff and I have been trying to catch him live for more than a decade, but it just never worked out until today.

Max's favorite!

Clay asked several times how someone could get up in this

Weston's dream vehicle

I loved the pink Cadillac!

Junior Brown doing his thing

When we left the car show, Jeff and Weston took off for Oklahoma, and the rest of us came home for Clay's first Star Wars movie viewing. For all the other kids, we had decided they could see the movies when they turned seven, but since the new movie is coming out in December, the older kids voted unanimously to let Clay into the Star Wars Club at 6 1/2. And, they want him to get all caught up with the previous movies before the new one hits theaters next month. Clay was ecstatic!

The last thing on our Super Saturday agenda is tacos from Taco Ocho, and you can't ever go wrong with that! I'm so thankful for this happy day and the time spent with my people doing things that make us smile. 

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...

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

Mesa Verde

Today's adventure took us out to Mesa Verde National Park and to two of the amazing cliff dwellings it houses. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and the dwellings were impressive and thought-provoking. No one really knows the whole story of the people who inhabited these structures or why they eventually moved on, but there is plenty of speculation. It's an interesting mystery to ponder. I do know that the inhabitants must have been physically fit and limber to climb up and down those cliff faces and to crawl and squeeze through the tight spaces we visited today. I also know that mothers of toddlers (and boys of all ages) must have never taken an easy breath!

Mesa Verde

Ready to explore the dwellings

32 feet, almost straight up

They made it, with smiles in place!

Time to squeeze

Balcony House

The edge of Balcony House

Time to crawl

Cliff Palace

An inward view of Cliff Palace

A tight stairway to the top
(The native people would have used only
toe and finger holes to assist with the trip
in and out of the of the pueblos!)