Flashback Livermore

How is it September all ready?  I've been meaning to compile and post the pics from our Livermore trip for awhile, and all the sudden realized that it was a month ago already.  A lot can happen in a month for a guy who hasn't even lived through 12 of them yet, so I think this qualifies as flashback post... don't you?

 If you will remember from my teaser post a few weeks ago, Steve's parents, and Steve's brother Jason's family all joined us at my parents house for a weekend get together.  Here's a whirlwind recap of the time we spent with them...

Friday evening we all went to play bocce ball at a nearby restaurant/bocce court.  Elliott enjoyed the snuggle time and walking practice with Uncle Jason and Aunt Lori.

Cousin Miranda entertained Elliott while he ate.  And by entertained, I mean, let him steal the pizza she was eating directly out of her hands and shove it in his mouth.

Jason, Lori, and Miranda also brought some special gifts for Elliott, including his first concert shirt (the Avett Brothers, of course!), and a new snuggly Elephant that he has become attached to and sleeps with every night.

I got the crazy bug and on the afternoon we had my mom all to ourselves, and decided that we should take a walk to a local winery, through a nearby nature preserve that we visited regularly growing up.  Well, mom suggested it, I just ran with it and enthusiastically encouraged (although some might say forced) Steve and Elliott to come along.

We were totally unprepared for the 3 mile walk in Livermore heat, but the cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc at the other side made it worthwhile (for me anyway.  Steve's still complaining about blisters).

Here we are at the halfway point.

In honor of our 4 year anniversary, we packed a picnic and visited Murietta's Well, the beautiful winery where we I were married.  Steve and I were excited to show Elliott the place where our family began.  My dad seized the opportunity to give us another special memory here, but you'll have to wait for my next post on the details to that.

 

While we enjoyed the wine and the view, Elliott enjoyed some good playtime with Grandma Lully and Grandpa Wayne

We ended the weekend with a Shakespeare play at another vineyard, thanks to a Christmas present from my parents.  It was on the front porch of an amazing old victorian house at the edge of the vineyard.  We had dinner at the winery's restaurant before the show.  While Elliott enjoyed the time hanging out with Grandma and Papa,

he was a bit too antsy to kick back and enjoy the peaceful vineyard setting.  He worked his way around the low table several times, eating off of everyone's plates (I even caught Grandma Lully sneaking him potato chips!), playing with his toys, and finally decided that underneath the table was the most exciting spot in the house.

Steve finally took him to get some of that energy out on the grass.  Uncle Jason seized the opportunity to snap a few pics of our little man.  He is so talented, and takes amazing pictures which capture the feel of the moment, like this one, and the one on our new blog header.

It was a wonderful weekend!  It may seem like all we did was hit the wineries, but I promise, we did other things too.  We're not complete wineos.

We have the best families, and were so thankful to spend some quality time with all of them.