Santa Ynez Valley...again!

We went to Solvang/Santa Ynez area this weekend. We had to move the reservations from when we had to fly to OK so we choose this weekend. It was amazing weather up there! 78 during the day..around 40's at night. We are members of most places up there now so we never have to pay for tastings! Which is so nice! Our first stop was Buttonwood.

Then we went to Zaca Mesa. We had no intentions of staying here as long as we did. Our favorite pourer, Darren, was there and we started talking to him a bunch since we had met him his first day of working there. He also got married right after we did so we have a lot im common. Then I look over and Steve is filling out the form to became members. Essh...not another one!? But that means you get to go to the reserve tasting room there. They had so many wines to taste it felt like we were there forever! But it was fun! We even met some more friends! You usually meet some weird, nice, interesting people wine tasting. But I think these were the most interesting we've ever met so far!

Our new friends, Larry and Claudia! They said they were "just friends" who knew each other back in High School (in the 60's) and just now got re-introduced! They were super cute and really nice people!

This is April, the reserve room pourer! She knows her stuff!

All in all we had a great, relaxing weekend once again, in wine country! So fun! Now back to reality...!

Steve has his first soccor game today with the 7th grade girls! Go Lexington!!!! ;-)

New Year's in Oklahoma

I know it's the 8th but I had to show our New Year's picture's still....

Nicolas and Jeff getting the fire going...

Not showing any signs of being tired yet...

Superman punch just to show how much energy he had all night...

What up? Let's bang some pots and pans already! Thomas the train was on..so it's hard to break the attention away from that! ;-)

HAPPY NEWWWWW YEARRRRRRRS!!!!! We were seriously the only ones making noise for miles around! I've never heard it so quiet at 12 on New Years!
A New Years kiss to end the night!

Cazadores!

So after the funeral, Steve's dad took us all out to Mexican food. This is interesting to see in Ok. I found out that Cazadores means something about hunting..which would explain the deer in the middle of the sign I guess! It was definitely very different from any California Mexican Resturant!

They had a TV set up in the corner that I just had to take a picture of!

This was the front of it...it actually looks closed huh? But it was hoping with at least 3 other people eating there!

They served salsa and nacho cheese to dip the chips in...yummy!

More Ok...

At Steve's grandpa's funeral, they had lunch first where everyone had time to visit. I got a picture of Steve's sister, Robin, Nicolas and Steve's grandma, Freeda. Robin explained to Nicolas that his Great-Grandpa was sleeping now and that he was in Heaven. This made for some very intersting questions later on in the trip. Gotta love the questions kids ask sometimes! It's hard to explain to a 3 year old that you can't kiss grandpa while he is "sleeping"! After the funeral we followed the firetruck to the gravesite. Steve's grandfather was a volunteer firefighter for many years and his whole team was there. They lead the line of cars.
Steve gave the euology and did an amazing job! He made everyone laugh, cry and remember some great times everyone had with his grandfather, Buster T. Davis! He will be missed!

Sun Down Cabins at Lake Tenkiller, Oklahoma

When Steve's sister was looking for places for us to stay she kept running into issues with places behind closed for the winter. It took 4 hours to just find a decent place that was open. She found these super nice, new cabins that were built in 2006. She reserved 2 cabins and the below picture is ours. Steve and I were in this one while his mom, dad, sister, bro-in-law and Nicolas were in the other. Ours was big enough for one other couple to stay! Check it out if you ever get to TenKiller Lake in Oklahoma www.sundowncabin.com

As soon as we got their Steve busted out the Sooner's shirt! This is inside our cabin. This was the bedroom we stayed in. Both had a full bath with a shower though!

2nd bedroom!

View of the kitchen..

Living room..

This was taken from the back door looking out to the balcony.

We were basically up against the "woods"..

Our trusty Kia that we rented!

This is looking out from our cabin. Steve's family stayed in the one in the back. It was so dark and cold at night we had to drive to their cabin! Heehee!

Picture looking down the street to the main road.

Looking the other way!

This was a road to the Lake...

Another view of our back balcony...

Las Vegas!

After rushing to take down all the Christmas stuff and doing a crazy amount of laundry and packing, we headed off to Las Vegas on Sunday morning. We couldn't get out of our trip so we just decided to still go but leave from Vegas. Which turned out to be $300 cheaper! One our way in we stopped at the Cajon Pass and there was still snow from a week before! All the SoCal people were playing in it of course!

We stayed at the MGM in the new West Wing Rooms. It was only $10 more so why not!? They were SUPER modern and brand new! Not sure I liked the modern bathrooms yet but the bed was so comfy it felt like one of the W Hotel beds!

That black square below in the mirror was a TV! So cool!

We purchased New Years gear at the MGM in case we couldn't find anything in OK! Good thing we did because I never saw any there!

Sunday night we went to Fiamma at the MGM! That place is SOO good! Highly recommend it. I forgot my camera that night so no picture's to show. Monday we layed around and then went to the Rio. Steve read about them having a Wine Cellar tasting room so we went to check it out! It's super nice and really quiet. They have great choices for tasting and yummy breads and cheeses to eat while you are sipping on wine.

These are my white wines to taste!

And Steve's reds..

There was no one in there so the two workers were talking to us most of the time. They offered to take our picture! It's always nice to have one together!

Right before we left we went to look at all the wines they had! These display was in the WAY back. So random! No, we didn't take advantage of the amazing deal! HA!

On Sunday night we had stopped by Nobhill to get a last minute drink before we went up to bed. They had a great menu so we came back on Monday night and sat in their lounge. We had made friends with the bartender and he gave us great recommendations for dinner. We also picked my wine and made a random rum drink for Steve. He was really nice. He even gave us a free mini dessert at the end. This is my tomato soup with a grilled cheese and lobster sandwhich. The sandwhich was so delicate and melted in your mouth. I'm so on the tomato soup kick still! I can't get enough!

Steve's yummy beef! It was so good too!

We also had to try the brown truffled mac& cheese! OMG, it was SOO rich! You could not have too much of it!

Steve's excited about the free dessert! :-)

Tuesday morning we left our car at the MGM valet and took a taxi to the airport. The valet told us the locals leave their cars there all the time when going to the airport. It's free to leave it their versus leaving it at the airport that charges you by the day!