Wow, it has been a long time since I updated my blog so I thought I better try and get back up to speed. Let's see...
In early October, I took an amazing trip to Napa with three of my girlfriends from college. It was my first time away from Ashlyn other than a few nights here and there she has spent at her grandparents. Although I missed her like crazy, it was good she got to spend some one-on-one time with her daddy and I had a much-needed fun, relaxing girl trip. My friend Jenn and I flew in from Portland (she lives down there), Shannon flew in from Chicago, and Jessica drove up from L.A. We got to our hotel in Napa around 3 on the Friday and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool drinking wine and mojitos. Then we headed downtown Napa for some dinner and more wine of course! Saturday was the big day! We hired a limo for 6 hours and spent the day touring vineyards and wine tasting. It was so much fun and really interesting. I've always liked wine, but I really started to appreciate everything that goes into making it while I was there. We had a great dinner Saturday night at Bottega, Micheal Chiarello's restaurant (Napa Style-Food Network). He was even there doing a cooking show that night. Sunday morning we slept in for a bit (which for the two of us moms there was amazing!) and then we all headed to the spa for massages. I've had a lot of massages, but this was by far the best I have ever had! After the Spa, we had some breakfast, packed up, and headed back to San Fransico which is where we flew in and out of. We weren't leaving until Monday so we spent the afternoon and evening in San Fransico doing some shopping and sight-seeing. The whole trip we had been planning for a year and it was a 30th birthday trip for us all, but Sunday was Jenn's real 30th so we whooped it up in San Fran and didn't get back to our room 3:00 AM! Luckily, our plane didn't leave until noon so we were able to get some sleep and make it ot the airport on time! What a great trip! For any of you that love, or even like, wine, Napa/Sonoma is a must!
October seemed to just fly by! Halloween was the last of Ashlyn's "my first" holidays. She was a ladybug for her first halloween. Partly because her room is decked out in ladybugs and partly because it was a warm and cozy costume I found at Fred Meyer's for half-off! We spent the holiday at our good friends' Rob and Casey's. We did a potluck type dinner with them and Evan and Kimmy, Michor and Sarah, Heidi, and Nicole (John and Rob were hunting...). Between all of us there were five babies under 1 (Ash being the oldest), and it was so fun to watch them all and see them in their costumes. Hopefully we make this a tradition and eventually we can start adding in the whole trick-or-treat thing :) For now, they just settled for some fun orange halloween jello jigglers Casey made.
November seems to be flying by as fast as October. Ashlyn turns one tomorrow on Thanksgiving! We had her party last weekend since Thanksgiving weekend is just too crazy already. We had all our family and good friends over and had a great time. We were expecting a lot of kids so I rented one of those bounce houses/Slides which kept all the kids more than occupied! It was the best investment. Thank goodness we have a big shop to put it in and all those people! I told Aaron I want a spring or summer baby next time so we can have a bbq and let the kids loose outside. Where has the last year gone!? My little girl is One! I'm thinking it's time to start thinking about number two :)
