Happy Birthday to Us!

What a crazy month April has been! I am realizing that I am not as good as keeping up with this blog as I want to be, but I promise I'll get better...So April always starts out with a bang. I celebrated my 28th birhday and Jake celebrated the big 30th! We had such wonderful birthdays and are so lucky that we were able to celebrate them with our families!

To start things off, the evening of my birthday, April 8th, we went to George's Majestic Lounge for happy hour to listen to Red Ambition Band. I think Jake and I were the youngest couple there. Ha! Red Ambition is playing at our reception and let me tell you, they were great! Everyone, bring your dancing shoes because we're going to dance all night long! After George's we met up with a few friends at Ferrell's, then walked down to the Wine Cellar to listen to one of our good friends play an accoustic set. What a great way to celebrate! The next morning, my parents picked us up around 8:00 and we headed to Hot Springs to enjoy the horse races. It was a beautiful day and couldn't have been more perfect! We had a wonderful time! That Sunday, we went to my Grandmommy's house to do even more celebrating with my family.

Monday, the 11th was Jake's big, special birthday ~ his 30th! We had a low key night, celebrating his special day, just the two of us. His family was able to come into town the following weekend. They got in late Friday night, so we really didn't do much, just drank some wine and visited. I can't believe it, but us "kids" lost track of time and stayed up till around 3:00 catching up. Saturday, we went down to campus and Dickson St. We walked around, looked in some shops and grabbed some lunch at Jose's Streetside. We went to the Razorback baseball game Saturday night. We played Mississippi State and pulled off a win. After the game, we went back to our house and I surprised Jake with a cake ~ I mean, what kind of a fiancee would I be if I didn't get Jake a special 30th birthday cake? It was red velvet, delicious, and definitely a surprise for Jake! It was a great way to end an already great day!

Thank you to everyone who helped make our special days truly special and memorable!! We are so very blessed and I know this is one birthday we will never forget!

Napa Valley

I went to Napa at the end of March to celebrate my friend Leslie at her bachelorette party! Her maid of honor, Kristin, planned such a wonderful trip! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of it. It was such a fun time and a great experience!

We all flew in to Sacramento on Friday, March 25, 2001 and arrived around 12:00 - 12:30. Once we got our rental cars, we drove to our first stop and winery of the trip, Dommaine Chandon. It was such a great way to start! The area was absolutely beautiful! We tasted a few wines and enjoyed a nice lunch. Then we checked into the hotel, Westin Napa. Once everyone got settled and freshened up, we surprised Leslie with a Brooch Party. She said she was going to have her wedding cake decorated with brooches, so we all thought it was a great idea to get her one. We finished our first night by going to a restaurant and bar called Bounty Hunter. It was some great bbq and the best bear can chicken we've ever had.

Saturday morning, March 26, we started our tour of three wineries. Our first stop was Alpha Omega. We had our tasting in their private room. It was so neat and special and they really knew how to make us feel like VIPs. The next winery we visited was Sodaro Estate Winery. This one was my favorite! The grounds were absolutely gorgeous! We got a tour of the wine cave, where we enjoyed a tasting in our own private room and lunch. We were the only people at the winery and that made it feel so personal and intimate. Our last stop was Rutherford Hill Winery. We arrived a tad late, and had to rush through our tour since they were getting ready to close. We still had a good time and learned a lot about wine and Napa Valley. We even stumbled across some wild turkeys on the property.

Alpha Omega Winery

Sodaro Estate Winery

Rutherford Hill Winery

Saturday evening was Leslie typical bachelorette party. We had her lingerie shower, then hit the town. We had dinner at Iron Chef Morimoto's Restaurant. It was delicious!! Then we went to the lounge area to party. We ended our night (or should I say morning?) back at the hotel bar for a few more laughs. What a fun way to end the day!

 Dinner at Morimoto's

Sunday, March 26, we spent our morning relaxing at Estate Cave Spa Terra. It was so relaxing and a great way to start another fun day!! We were greated with champagne and told to enjoy ourselves, since we were welcome at the spa all day. We definitely didn't want to leave, but we still had the rest of the day ahead of us. We went to Gotts for lunch. Let me just say, it was the best hamburger, fries, shake combo I have ever had! We walked next door to the downtown market and got everything we could think of to have our own wine tasting: wine, cheese, dried berries, salami, and bread. We set everything up in our hotel room and enjoyed the afternoon, drinking, eating, reminiscing, and dancing. I think this ended up being almost everyone's favorite part of the trip. It's hard to beat fun times with your girlfriends! We decided our snacks were cutting it and it was time to have some dinner at our hotel's restaurant. It was our last dinner all together. We celebrated the fabulous trip we were all happy and blessed to be a part of and toasted Leslie!! This is one trip to remember!!!

Our wine tasting in our hotel room 

 Celebrating Leslie and our last night in Napa