 At Pedroncelli |
 Pedroncelli Vineyards |
 Pedroncelli Vineyards |
 At Raymond Burr  At Amphora |
Well, I’ve been pretty busy since my vacation started and having a great time too so I apologize for the lateness of this update. My aunt Nell and cousin Deirdre are visiting this week from North Carolina and we’ve scheduled some fun day trips to show them around the Bay Area. So far, we’ve taken them for a day’s adventure in San Francisco, and yesterday we spent the entire day in the Sonoma/Alexander/Dry Creek wine region doing a whole lot of wine tasting. I didn’t have any wine, so I guess that made me the natural choice as the driver for the adventure. We visited the following wineries: Pedroncelli, Raymond Burr, a late lunch at Amphora and finally Everett Ridge.
Yesterday was such a nice warm and calm day in the Sonoma wine country and we wrapped up the day in the city of Sonoma and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I was feeling brave throughout the past two days with my mouth and decided I might try some tortellini with cream sauce. I found that with the proper amount of water sips, I was able to enjoy the pasta fairly well. My tongue is still very tender with some healing wounds along the sides, but I’m getting better at trying some new things here and there.
Today we’re all relaxing and will be attending my nephew Owen’s graduation from Bethany Preschool tonight. Tomorrow is my oldest son Grant’s graduation from high school. It’s amazing to think he’s already done with HS and planning college life and beyond. I’m so proud of my boy.
Denise and I got up early and made it down to the Fiesta Day’s parade in downtown Vacaville where we were joined by Sarah and Owen. It’s certainly important to get there early because alot of people leave their chairs in the choiciest places for viewing the night before. Fortunately we found a good spot by the Veteran’s Hall in the sun, which is good because the weather wasn’t that great to start with. The winds have been picking up yesterday and into today, so by the time the parade started, the winds were fiercely cold.
Regardless of the winds, the parade was great as usual with lots of people, cars, groups, marching bands, fire trucks, horses and garbage men. Seems like the parade gets bigger every year, although it was nice to see some of the regulars like the local marching bands, including my alma mater Vacaville high school. I would think the sharpest band I saw was Vanden HS. They’ve clearly got great funding from parents and boosters because they always look good and sound fantastic.
Denise and I had a “date” night last night, meaning we had no kids and didn’t want to stay home all night. Going out for dinner wasn’t really an option, since I’m not thrilled about sitting and watching someone else eat a yummy dinner, so we decided to go get some yogurt and see a movie. Denise picked having yogurt, and I, having already drained my dinnertime Ensure, decided to enjoy watching her enjoy some yummy yogurt. It was nice.
Star Trek
So we went to go see Star Trek and it was fantastic! From the start of the movie, it was pretty much action packed, and these days, movies can sometimes be so packed with action that watching the movie is like being batted about the head. But I believe this movie had the right amount of action and plot moving moments, and I can say there were a few action sequences where you forgot it was a movie and really felt as if there was real danger imminent. Amazing. I really feel like this is a great “reboot” of the franchise and will lead to some great follow-up stories as well. It was great to see younger versions of characters you know so well and to see Leonard Nimoy as the older version of Spock was so cool!
I tell you, when the end of the movie came and you heard Nimoy’s voiceover starting with “Space, the final frontier…”, I couldn’t help but become a little choked up. Great movie. I’ll see it again or even own it on Blu-Ray later this year.
What a nice weekend we just had. The weather was simply perfect for doing things outdoors. And we did!
Wyatt in the parade
Saturday morning, the family drove up to Winters, CA to see my son Wyatt in the annual Youth Day Parade. It was perfect weather for the parade and we got a street-side view of Wyatt walking by with the marching band and pounding on the bass drum. He did great and looked even better!
After the parade on Saturday, Grant and I tasked ourselves with performing a front end brake job on his car and doing some final repairs on the backyard pool filtration system. I’m thrilled to say we got both items done. Grant is eager to learn how to work on his car, so the first wheel I pretty much did myself as a demonstration of how all the pieces and parts come apart and back together again. And on the second wheel, Grant did nearly it all by himself. It’s a good feeling doing something like this yourself, especially when you consider how much it would cost if you took the car to have the brakes professionally replaced.
After we finished the brakes, I had run out of energy and had to sit down and recharge my batteries. The amount of calories I’m taking in each day is clearly not enough to cover me when I’m doing alot of moving around or working on cars. So I rested and drank another Ensure. When my energy came back, Grant and took apart the pool filtration tank and replaced a filter module and put it all back together. We’re trying to get the pool in ship shape for Summertime swimming and Grant’s High School Graduation party/bbq.
Sunday was another beautiful day to be outdoors. So I decided to pull two dead juvenile redwood trees from the front yard and replace them with two more Aptos Blue redwoods from Costco. We planted a total of three redwood trees in the front yard last year and two of them simply didn’t make it. Not sure why, but they finally kicked the bucket over the last couple of weeks and had to be replaced. Well I got the boys together and planned on pulling the trees with their help, but again, I simply ran out of gas before we even started. In fact I had to lay down and take a nap as I wasn’t feeling well at all. While I was napping, my boys pulled the dead trees out themselves to my amazement, which only left Denise and I to run over to Costco and buy the two new Aptos Blue trees. I haven’t planted them in the ground yet, but they look beautiful.
The Movie Poster
Sunday night came to a close with our weekly dinner at Sarah’s house. She BBQ’d some burgers for everyone and I had some soup and jello. Yum. 
After the perfect dinner we all retired to the family room and watched The Creature from the Black Lagoon. I had never seen it before, nor had Denise, so it was nice to finally seen this classic. Made in 1954, the underwater shots were amazing, but the acting was pretty campy and we all got a kick out of the high waisted pants for the men and outfits they had for the women. Overall it was a fun and entertaining movie for the family though.
Today is Easter Sunday, so Happy Easter everyone! Such a beautiful day outside. Sunny and warm with clear skies. The kids found their Easter baskets this morning and now we’re getting ready to have our annual Easter egg hunt for the kids, and me too! Our lovely front piazza make for a great place to hide eggs and if the weather holds, we’ll try and have a fire in the fire pit out there tonight. That would be of course after the Easter dinner Denise is preparing. I’ll try and get some pictures from today up here soon.
So here’s wishing you and your family have a wonderful Easter Sunday!
 Easter Egg Hunting |
 Wyatt enjoying his eggs |
 Lauren looking for eggs |
 My sister Sarah |
 Grant supervising the hunt |
 The always lovely Denise |
 Owen hunting for eggs |
 Elizabeth scouting an egg |
 Grant and Denise |
Grant with his CDL
Grant took his driver’s test today and was issued his first driver’s license! Yippee! He’s had a permit for a while now and has been driving us around when possible, but this completes the cycle. I’m so proud of my boy. He did very well on the test and passed it the first time. I think I see a lot less of me driving to Winters in my future. 
Denise and her cake
Today is Denise’s birthday. Yeah! Although the circumstances around here don’t really lend themselves to going out on the town for a wonderful birthday dinner, we will still try hard to give her a great birthday here at the house. Wyatt and I baked her a yummy double chocolate birthday cake and we’ll decorate it a bit later when everyone else arrives here. She also woke up to a piping hot cup of coffee and a homemade breakfast courtesy of yours truly. I have to admit though, while I was making her breakfast, she was making mine, the old tried and true cream of wheat. What a gal!
The boys and I worked hard over Sat and Sun getting the house cleaned up for the gathering tonight, and we’re ordering out from a local Thai food restaurant (one of her favorites), so there will be nearly nothing left to clean up when we dive into the aforementioned cake.
The story of how Denise and I met is well known to nearly all of our friends and family, but it still bears mentioning how much of a fairy tale the joining of our two families has been. We’ve been together now into our 5th year and I still fall head over heels in love with this woman all over again every day. She is an absolute joy to share my life with and having her with me on this new adventure (and caring for me in the way she does) has been nothing short of a miracle. Happy Birthday my love!
Elizabeth and Rex
For weeks now, Elizabeth has been preparing for a presentation on her Blue Dutch bunny rabbit for her 4-H presentation day. Well, on Saturday it all came due when she made her presentation, along with a very nicely put together poster board and the accompaniment of her rabbit, Rex. The name Rex is actually another breed of rabbit, one that Elizabeth will be purchasing soon when she’s able to sell Rex at the upcoming annual Dixon Mayfair. However, Elizabeth’s presentation was about her current Blue Dutch breed rabbit.
Elizabeth did extremely well! She won a Blue Seal and her first Gold Pin for her 4-H hat.
Elizabeth’s 6th grade excursion to Science Camp in Aptos, Ca started today. Denise and Elizabeth headed over to Foxboro Elementary at 6:30am, along with nearly all of the other 6th graders. Science Camp takes place this week from Tuesday through Friday when Elizabeth returns home. She’s been so excited about this trip for days now, and will be having a blast with her friends from school. Along with many other parents, Denise watched as Elizabeth loaded into the bus and drove away into the rainy morning. Although we can’t wait to have her back, we’re sure she’ll have a wonderful time again this year.
 The Science Camp Crew |
 Elizabeth & Kristina |
 Off into the rain |
Slumdog Millionaire
Denise and I had a kid-less night last evening. These come along every week or so, because the girls are with their father and my boys are with their mother. These nights, it seems wrong to stay home and do nothing, so Denise and I decided to go have a nice dinner and see a movie. Call it a Date Night.
We went to see Slumdog Millionaire at the Brendan Theaters here in Vacaville. I knew it was going to be a bit rough through most of the movie, since I had done a little reading about it earlier. Yes, it was hard to watch at times, especially for Denise, since it depicts quite vividly, the horrible reality of the slum conditions in Mumbai, India. It was a good story to see on the screen and we both enjoyed it overall. Glimpses of life lived in conditions such as those really gives you a sense of how lucky we are to have grown up here in the U.S. with a lifetime of happy and safe possibilities.
From Denise and I: 2 Thumbs Up
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