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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Friends, Sonoma and Ben F.

My childhood friend, Grace and her husband and 2 adorable kids came to visit last weekend. Grace and I figured out that we have been friends for 25 years!!! Wow--that makes me feel old...and blessed! I can actually say I have several GREAT friends I have known for 25 years ++!!

In a nutshell, the weekend consisted of amazing food and wine. All of the food cooked at home, which was most of the fun! On Saturday, we went to Sonoma to visit Benziger Winery, which is known for being a very "family friendly" place.

Now I am a huge Bachelor/Bachelorette fan, so I knew a certain runner up from last season's Bachelorette was connected to Benziger, however I did not in any way, go there expecting to see him! Well, Scott, with his celeb-spotting-eye (it's truly amazing) spotted Ben F. walk into the tasting room (and he IS the next Bachelor, for anyone who wants to be in the know) :). I am shameless when it comes to food or reality TV celebs (meeting Morimoto was a thrill for me), so I grabbed my camera and forced Grace to join me in a picture, along with 5 month old Ava!! She is now forever connected to Ben, too!! It was quite the highlight of the weekend!!!

The rest of the weekend was a blast, too....so much wonderful food was consumed. Definitely lacing up the running shoes....tomorrow :)

Ava enjoyed wine tasting :)


Bella looks like she's up to no good....

Kids in a vineyard

Pretty girls

Two boys in the vineyard

The kids had their own wine country picnic

The kiddie table

Matt, Scott and the rascals at Benziger

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

1st Grade!

Brookey started 1st grade today and I just keep asking myself, "Where did the time go??!" This year was different than the first day of school last year. Last year, I was fighting back tears as my big girl pranced off with her Kindergarten class. This year, I was not emotional whatsoever...but I enjoyed seeing my friends with Kindergartners get all teary eyed!! It's a very sweet, milestone-moment....somehow 1st grade just isn't as nostalgic.

It just amazes me all the things that Brookey can suddenly do that she couldn't last year...ride her 2 wheeler, swim like a champion, tie shoes...read!!! It's amazing what just a few months can do.

She has the same teacher as she did last year, due to her teacher wanting to move up a grade. We love her teacher and I know she's going to have a great year!!



The 1st Graders with Fr. Michael :)


The Posse is back together

Brooke & BFF Maddie who started Kindergarten

Will didn't start anything new, but I couldn't leave him out!!!!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

More Fun!

We had a great couple of days visiting some friends in Tahoe! The kids and I road-tripped while Daddy stayed home and worked :( We're trying to take advantage of the last few weeks of summer.

All the BFF's :)


Check out his big stick!

Swimming in the snow-melt lake--brrrr!!

Brookey took this pic :)

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Indiana 2011

The Rooneys have had quite a busy few weeks. Our first **big** stop was our annual Indiana trip! It went by in a heartbeat and given the sweltering weather, thunderstorms, some bad planning and a trip to the urgent care, I can't say it was one of the best trips we've had.

I was talking to one of my friends who has 3 kids and we were laughing about the fact that every time we come home from a "vacation" with our kids we are utterly exhausted, buried in laundry and feel like we need another vacation to recover! But then we start looking through the pictures and hearing our kids talk about things that happened on the trip and all of the hassles seem to dissipate and we're left with beautiful images of kids having a great time....it makes all of hassle and stress of traveling with kids worth it.

Let's list out the hassles and stress....

1. Waking the kids up at 3:30 am for a 6:00am flight....actually that was kinda fun...they loved it :)

2. Barely walking onto our 6:00am flight after I silently swore we were going to miss it.

3. Arrived right after a tornado in Indiana which left everyone with no power...did I mention it was about 110 degrees and 100% humidity. Yuck.

4. A mean woman on the plane who yelled at my perfectly behaving kids for coloring too hard on their tray tables. Traveling with a 2 year old, she was lucky he wasn't yelling in her ear and peeing on her seat.

5. Too hot to hang out by the lake over the weekend which is usually the highlight of our trip. I was cooped up inside pretty much all weekend. Ugh.

6. Will broke out in an awful rash one day that got so bad we took him to urgent care. It could have been strep, reaction to sunscreen or heat rash. Who knows but it cleared up completely within hours of landing in SF.

7. Driving 6 hours one day to visit my relatives in Illinois, 5 hours the next day, then immediately hopping on a 6pm flight back to SFO...like I said POOR PLANNING!

And now...here are some of the "beautiful images"....yes, it's always worth it!

Quality time with Pops

Brookey, Kate & Will (who is being nice at the moment)
Bathtime for Brookey & Kate

Chasing fireflies
Fun with cousins!


Craft time with Grandma Taylor

Roasting marshmallows with Pops

Backyard races

What's more fun than rolling down a hill?! (or running around without a shirt?!)

Will playing nicely with Kate...for once :)

Brother and sister love at urgent care

Brookey & Livy

Turning some wheels at the shop with Pops

Quick and Easy Meal Prep for Breakfast + Lunch + Snacks!

Ready for a SUPER quick and easy meal prep?! No joke, it took me longer to find all the lids to these containers than it did it prep my b...