Saturday, October 30, 2010

Girl's Weekend! (Part 1)


So, last weekend, I went with my Mom (Patsy), my sister-in-law (Lori), and her step-mom (Gina) to a weekend away at Wintergreen--it was amazing!!!  We had so much fun eating delicious food, drinking delicious wine, getting spa treatments, laughing, and talking!  We are super excited to make this a tradition... and plan to make it at least one more day longer!

**Be prepared...this is a long post**
 
 Below are pictures of the "girls" on the "kick-off" lunch at Barboursville--the picture on the left is of me and my Mom the one the right is of Lori and Gina.


 









                                                     
We started off our trip at Barboursville Winery with the 4-course wine pairing lunch at their amazing restaurant Il Palladio Restaurant, where we had the most amazing meal...


A toast to celebrate the kick off to our Girl's Weekend!

The service was amazing--our gracious servers--they were awesome!


And the food...

 Risotto with Escargot
 Braised Veal over Polenta
 Pan Roasted Monkfish

 Apple Fennel Tartine with Sweet Cream
 Tiramisu
 Dark Chocolate Cake with Mascarpone Cream and Candied Hazelnuts
All Done...

After we were deliciously gorged on our lunch, we headed over to the Wine Tasting Room...because, you know, we didn't have enough wine with lunch...
  


 The four of us with one one of our wonderful waiter from lunch, Dave!

 This is a picture of Lori laughing--we all did a lot of this...all weekend!  I love laughing.  It does the heart and soul good.  I really love when I can make other people laugh, luckily these 3 ladies think I am as funny as I think I am--they are pretty funny, too.  Hence all the laughing.


Lexie, Lori, Patsy and Gina say "Cheers!"



 Such a beautiful place--I've had some friend get married here and their pictures are gorgeous--how could they not be?!


 After leaving Barboursville, we were off to Wintergreen! We were doing well, having fun, talking up a storm about anything and everything, when the car started to do some "dancing."  (Please note that dancing is a nice term for all of the jerking that was occurring.)  Yes, we ran out of gas!!!  "How did you run out of gas?" you might ask...well there are several theories on this.  1--my mom was driving my car (I was in the backseat) and she did not notice the light on indicating that gas was low due to not being  used to the car; 2--Lori was talking so much that we were all distracted and the gas light was not noticed; 3--the Garmin was sending us on some backwoods way from Barboursville to Wintergreen and the light was fading, so the gas light was not noticed.  Regardless of how, by the time we were aware, my "Sophie Saab" was telling us to Refill Fuel Now--a rather ominous message to read, don't you think, especially when one has no idea how long the message has been up,and being halfway up the mountain with no gas station easily accessible.  Hence, the running out of gas part.

But don't worry, friends!  We were rescued by the Miller's!!  The Miller's were a nice couple from Richmond (small world) who picked Lori and I up (Patsy and Gina stayed with Sophie Saab) to get some gasoline.  We stopped at the gas station first at the top of the mountain--unfortunately they did not have gas cans!  So, we went to the Fire Station--

where we were able to borrow a gas can (with gas already inside) and the Miller's graciously took us back to our car!  They are looking at a nice fruit basket or flowers or something from us girls.
After we had gas and gas can, my name was changed to Gas Can Annie (Lori's idea), as I was the one to give poor parched Sophie something to quench her thirst.
 Not sure what is going on here--I'm filling up the car and saying something...something pretty important, I am sure, like "Can we play Taboo when we get to the room?".
 Lori was thrilled to get her picture taken with Gas Can Annie. 
(You can see sweet Mr. Miller in the back in the blue jacket talking with Officer Claytor, who also came to our rescue.)

 Lori is giving Sophie her fill at the gas station at the top of the mountain. 
Officer Claytor was sure glad he was able to go home after witnessing our shenanigans--at least he had an interesting story to tell at dinner.

After that, we got checked into our room without anymore issues--phew!


Stay Tuned for Girl's Weekend (Part 2)...


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Long Time No Blog

I have been a neglectful blogger, folks!  I guess you could say that life has gotten in the way and I need to take some advice from myself and...interrupt it! (ha ha ha).  Anyway, I have several awesome posts coming to you soon, but wanted to write something quick to let you know I am still around :)

I went on a Girl's Wine and Spa Weekend to Wintergreen this past weekend with my mom, my sister-in-law, and her step-mom.  Needless to say there are some GREAT stories and BEAUTIFUL pictures!  I plan on doing some posts this weekend about our adventures and misadventures.

So...until then, I will leave you with this --


Thursday, October 21, 2010

Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend, we set out for the Pumpkin Patch--"we" meaning me, Virginia (niece), Carter (nephew), Lori (sister-in-law), Gary (brother-in-law) and several other friends and family members.  Our destination was the Ashland Berry Farm.


Pretty much one of "the" places to go to get your pumpkin.  We started out with lunch in Ashland (The Center of the Universe, in case you didn't know) at Homemades by Suzanne--yumm-o!  Awesome sandwiches, salads, deviled eggs...Delish!  Carter enjoyed the peanut butter and jelly on a homemade whole wheat roll.

After lunch we headed on over to the Pumpkin Patch...well, let me tell you on a gorgeous day, 2 weekends before Halloween, after lunch (and naptime for many youngsters), the Ashland Berry Farm is packed!!!  The line for the hayride into the patch was gi-normous!! 

I immediately went to check out the line for the doughnuts and luckily that wasn't too terrbily long.  So, decided to get some doughnuts while we waited...and while we waiting for the doughnuts--which line wasn't anywhere near as long as the hayride line and still seemed to take forever, we decided to "pick" pumpkins from the already picked "patch," eat doughnuts, and call it a day.

So, that is what we did!  The doughnuts were yumm-o!  Didn't take any pics--hands were full with doughnuts, gourds, etc.  But they were really good--I did share my doughnuts...I promise. 

You might remember my gourds from here, so now you know where they came from!

Even though we didn't make it into the actual pumpkin patch, per se, I did manage to snap some pics of Carter and Virginia, perched on some very large pumpkins! 




Even though it didn't go how we had planned, we still had fun  getting some pumpkins (or gourds, in my case), eating (always a fun actvity), and being together!

I'm off tomorrow on a Girl's Wine Weekend in Wintergreen with my mom, sister-in-law (Lori) and Gina (Lori's step-mom)!!  Can't wait and will have lots of pics and stories to tell, I am sure!!! 

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Apple Picking

I had the honor of being the chaperon for Virginia (my niece)'s Field Trip to Carter's Mountain Apple Orchard last week.  I had never been apple picking before and it was great! 


My sweet niece is the one looking straight at you with the excited and expectant look on her face that reads: "Woo hoo!  Apple picking time!"
Virginia goes to St. Catherine's--an all girl's school in Richmond, VA.  So, I was in charge of three girls from Virginia's class--Virginia, Harper and Paige.  I called them my Apple Blossoms--whenever I called "Apple Blossoms!  I need you near me!"  They would go from this:

to this:
They were quite sweet!  Here are some pics from the trip:




I love this picture--all the girls are following their teacher in a line back out of the apple orchard--like sweet little ducklings!






What sweet girls they all were!  I had so much fun! 

This is the face of a good day (Miss Erin)--tousled hair, bright eyes, and a big peanut butter and jelly smile!

A few pics from the ride home--tired girls:







Girls this age are so sweet--they all love each other, give lot of hugs to each other and to you, they love to pose for pictures, like to sing and talk and be goofy!  Girls are sweet and spice and lots of things nice!

Thanks for letting me join you all on your Apple Picking Adventure!