Woodinville Wino Weekend

This weekend we joined friends Evan & Petra to celebrate Pet's 28th birthday in Woodinville wine country.  Woodinville being my old stomping grounds (no pun intended) my Dad & Allison were close by and took Hadley for the day.  Thus we were able to enjoy quite the wine tasting extravaganza without busy toddler in tow.  It is fabulous how much more effectively one can wine taste when not actually consuming (hardly) any of it...I was picking out flavors & aromas left and right rather than our usual "Hmmm, I'm getting red.  Is it a red wine?" (Joke...joke...) We had a great time, capped the night off with dinner at Purple Cafe (divine) and were home and in bed by 10pm.

Oh -- and that is my new Wine Cellar sign in photo #2.  I told Andy, that's what happens when you take the pregnant girl wine tasting...she inevitably starts to "browse" the gift shop while all the winos imbibe.

Thank you Miss Paulina!

Thanks to Hadley's super smart friend Miss Paulina Salinas Cervantes...Hadley now says "MAMA"!  Such a sweet sound :)  Nevermind that she mostly says it when she's upset/whining/crying and saves "DADA" for when she's happy.  I'll take it!  She also picked up "NO" somewhere along the line, which she pairs with a very effective little head shake.  Still in the cute stage for us though!  I'm sure a coupla years (months maybe...ok weeks) down the road it won't be quite so cute. Come to think of it, there might have been a moment today when it wasn't so cute.  We were in the grocery store and I was letting her play with my wallet...after picking out my linguine I notice that Hadley not only has my wallet open, but has whipped out the black Alaska Airlines visa and is politely handing it to a complete stranger.  When I took my wallet from her and said "no more playing" she actually yelled at me "no no no no" and threw a FIT with a capital T right there in the store.  I must've missed where she turned two....Ahhhh, adventures in parenting.  Gotta love it!

Easter Bunny

I loved these pictures of Hadley so much (taken on Easter) that I had to post them. 

What a difference a year makes, I can't believe the peanut has already celebrated two Easters...

La Familia Salinas-Rivas-Cervantes-Hernandez

This past week we were very happy to have Andy's good friend Fernando, his wife Cyndi and their 18 month old daughter Paulina as our guests in Seattle!  Ten years ago, Fernando came to the US without speaking a work of English.  He wound up staying and enrolling in the community college in Walla Walla, then WSU to get his degree in Engineering.  In the mean time, he became fluent in English and scored Andy as his doubles partner on the WWCC tennis team.  They have been friends ever since!   In 2005 Andy & I travelled to Mexico City (their home) to see Fernando & Cyndi get married and in 2007 they came to WW to see us get married...This time, it was so fun to get our daughters together.  They could not have been more opposite, but they loved each other!  Paulina was so much fun to have around, she talks up a storm and listens to everything her mommy & daddy tell her to do - we're hoping some of this will rub off on our busy little lady.  They had a blast playing together and we loved having their family with us.  Over Easter weekend we mini-vanned (in a borrowed rig) up to La Conner to see the annual tulip festival, which despite being cold and windy turned out to be very beautiful and lots of fun.  Thank you to the Salinas-Rivas-Cervantes-Hernandez family for being such gracious guests and bringing Hadley a little playmate for the week - we miss you already!

 

 

The town so nice they named it twice

{That's fabulous Walla Walla, Washington}

We have talked long and hard about moving to Andy's hometown of Walla Walla.  I guess you could say we are taking it in stages.  It's a big leap from Zurich's cobbled streets to Seattle's busy-ness to WW's expansive wheat fields and quaint little mainstreet...but we are excited to take this next step towards a more "family style" life.  As I like to stay, we'll be raising the kids free range style on the farm.  Well, we won't be living on a farm, but in farm country.  (Or wine country..yes that is better!).  Walla Walla is a beautiful place - calm and beautiful and best of all - hot and sunny in the summer!  We've been here all week house hunting, and though we don't have any big news to report (I'm not going to jinx it), we are that much closer to the big move.  Cross your fingers (and toes) for us.  More later :)