March Birthdays

We headed out to the ranch Saturday March 20th to surprise Cody's brother (PT) for his 40th birthday. Cody bought PT a huge bag full of fishing lures, bait, etc from when he struck gold on a shopping trip to Walmart one weekend. PT was thrilled. Even though is was rainy and freezing cold outside all Luke wanted to do the whole weekend was fish. Come to find out Sunday morning it had snowed 8 inches in some of the Dallas area Saturday night...70 to snow, only in Texas.

Then we celebrated Mom's birthday with some Thai food and our favorite Chocolate Raspberry Torte from Market St. It was delicious! We brought back some wine for Mom from the Hess winery in Napa Valley for her birthday. I have no doubts that she will enjoy it!

Couples Mud Bath

For those of you that have ever considered doing a Mud Bath, let me educate you a little. I was given fare warning before we did this that the mud was not smooth and did not smell all that fabulous and that is nothing but the truth. The Mud is made from a combination of clay and peat moss. It's very course...it even has sticks in it. It's also very HOT, so get in slow. Once you make your way in, you have this sensation that you are floating. It is by far the weirdest thing i've ever done, but if I had a chance to do it again, I would. My skin was silky smooth afterwards. A little advice...make the first appointment of the day, so you are the first one in the mud and do it with someone because it makes it that much more comical!

Napa/Sonoma Wine Tour

First entry into the blog world.......and we are kicking it off with our first trip to Napa/Sonoma.......staying in Calistoga, lots of great wineries and memories; even a first time experience in a mud bath.

Our first stop was off the beaten path at Hess, followed by Trefethen, V. Sattui (picture above), Louis Martini and Merryvale. We capped off our night with some Mexican food, then hit the sauna and jacuzzi.

We started our 2nd day off with an amazing drive to Sonoma. We hit Geyser Peak, Ferrari Carano (amazing views and wine), Bella (cave), Mazzocco, Wilson (large deck with great views) and Hanna.

We had an amazing lunch at Willie's Seafood in Healdsburg. They serve small plates or tapas. We highly reccomend this place. A little pricey, but worth it!

Amanda woke up with a stomach bug on day 3 of our wine tour. But, as she always does, she proved to be a trooper and went strong through 4 more tastings. We started the morning at Hall, then Frog's Leap (organic, run on solar...great patio and view for tastings) and then ended our trip with some sparkling wines at Mumm and Domaine Chandon. Great trip, great weather......look for the photos in our next Kodak album.