Wine & Chocolate

Yesterday we headed out to Lodi to go to Wine & Chocolate with our friends Reid & Kelly. They live in Lodi now & keep us informed about all of the Wine Tasting Events throughout the year (there are a ton in Lodi!) Every Valentines weekend there is an event called Wine & Chocolate where all 40 wineries in Lodi have wine, food, chocolate & music. This is the first year we have been able to go!
This Kate on our way out there. When we got on the freeway, I said "Happy Valentines Day Kate" She said, "What is dat?" (she obviously forgot about all the Valentine's Goodies we made the other day)
I said, "Valentines Day is a Hallmark holiday that makes single people feel bad about themselves. Just remember Kate, Jesus is your one true love."

We met at Reid & Kelly's house (Kelly had gotten a babysitter for Kate & their son Owen). This was the first time Kate has been left with a babysitter other than her Granparents or my sisters! She did great. We headed out at 11 am with Reid & Kelly, Christine & Rod, Rod's parents and Jimmy & Denise and of course Claire.
Here we are the the first Winery, Jessie's Grove. My goal was to get a picture of us at all the wineries! I acheived my goal. Reid's goal was to go to as many wineries as we could. We went to 7 out of 40. His goal is to go to more than 10 next year!
Jessie's Grove had the best food...they had these Chicken Mole Tacos. SO good! It was pretty crowded there.
Then we headed to Abundance Vineyards. This is where we encountered CRAZY PERSON #1. Crazy Person #1 was a lady who was really enjoying her wine & asked me 3 times if she could buy my baby for $50. Ummmm...sorry lady, she isn't for sale, And if she was, she is worth WAY more than $50. Anyways..
I decided to put Claire in the Baby Bjorn. She wasn't too excited about it & kept trying to grab my wine glass.

Reid & Kevin in front of this door that Reid really liked....

The Murphy Ladies!

Our 3rd stop was Lange Twins Wine Estates they had really good wine & these really fun panini sandwhiches...Brie cheese & Chocolate on Sourdough baguettes. I didnt think I would like that combo, but it was yummy. This was Kevin's favorite place, he really liked how the whole tasting room was lined with wine barrels.
Then we headed to Macchia. Reid & Kelly call this the "Slutty Girl Winery" because all their ads have girls with very little clothes on. It was a cute winery with a lot of charm & they had some interesting names for some of their food & wine.

These meatballs called "Great Balls of Fire" were AMAZINGly good!

There was barrel tasting from these 2 wines "Flirtacious" and"Boobylicious". Yes, they had a wine called "Boobylicious". Hysterical.
They donate some of the proceeds from that wine to Breast Cancer Awareness.
Macchia is where we encountered Crazy Person #2. It was an older lady who came up to me & Claire and said "Hi Baby Claire". She said she noticed us at another winery and said our baby was so cute. She was very nice, but HOW did she know my baby's name. Weird.

We left "Slutty girl Winery" and headed over to Heritage Oak Winery.
Isn't it pretty?
Their wine was okay, but they had these chocolates with ice cream in the middle. Delicious. Kelly's favorite stop, hands down.
We encountered Crazy Person #1 AGAIN. We remembered her, but she apparantly didn't remember us because she offered us $50 for Claire again. When I laughed & said no, she said, "Man, no one is selling their babies today. What if I offered $70?" When I kindly/awkaredly said "she's not for sale" she walked/stumbled away. We got a laugh at her & decided to start taking pictures of the crazy people we encountered. So, here is the back of Crazy Person #1
One of the wines at Heritage Oak is called "Zinfendelity" and they gave us these REALLY cheesy buttons that said "I commited Zinfendelity at Heritage Oak Winery". I HATE plays on words like this. SO cheesy. Here are Chris and I with our buttons.

Our 6th stop was Vino Con Brio. It had the best atmosphere, hands down! It is connected to a Bed & Breakfast & it had a lot of character & a cute cobblestone courtyard.
Reid & Kevin discussing the wine.
We encountered Crazy Person #3 here. Claire was asleep at this winery, and this lady in the red hat kept walking by us and bending down to the stroller and shouting into Claire's face "Wake up, wake up!!" Thanks a lot Crazy Lady #3, you eventually did wake her up.
Our 7th & final stop was at Borra Vineyards. They had beautiful vineyards also.

We ran into our 4th and final Crazy Person here. I was standing off to the side with Claire & this guy comes up to me and says "So, how is Claire sleeping at night?" (ummmmmmm What? Who are you? Where are all these crazy people coming from. I thought to myself.) Reid, Kevin and I glanced at eachother & I said that she was sleeping okay and excused myself (with Claire) to go get some more wine. I left Kevin with the crazy guy. Reid giving a thumbs up at crazy guy while Kevin is stuck talking to him.

I saw this shirt at Borra. It reminded me of my younger sister Becks! haha.
After we were done wine tasting we headed back to Reid & Kelly's for dinner. Reid brews his own beer & the guys did some beer tasting when we got back.

The kiddos hanging out!




When we got home from Lodi, we discovered that St. Valentine (aka Grandma Jill) had hit our house with some Valentine's presents.
For the girls, an outdoor picnic table:

Wine & cookies for Kevin & I and a toy bone for Boulder!

We had a fun & tiring Valentine's Day. Usuaully, we don't do anything on the actual Valentine's Day. Kevin and I always celebrate Valentine's Day on February 15th since that is when he proposed! (He is a Valentine's Day hater) We exchange Valentines Day cards on the 15th & then go to dinner. No crowds & we dont have to make reservations, it is great!