Date day beer tasting in Temecula

This past week Grandma Karen sweetly offered to take the boys so Eric and I could have some alone time.  Eric knows I love wine tasting so he suggested wine tasting in Temecula, I know that's not his favorite so we decided on something we both really enjoy, beer tasting!  Who knew there were so many craft breweries in Temecula??

We started out at Ironside.

Then on to Black Market which is my new fave.  I had to sit next to a very nice packer fan.....  

Then off to Wiens, they have  beautiful winery and now a very cool brewery on the other side of town. 

4th was Refuge and although we didn't care for the Belgium style beers so much, we really enjoyed the heaters!

Our last stop was Aftershock to watch the rest of the NFL games of the day. Thanks Grandma for the time!!!  

Last few days of break

Those last few days the family was here we got to enjoy more of the outdoors.  This picture in no way relates to that but I love that my boys love to be in the kitchen and help me make whatever I'm making.

Friday Eric and Jake took the boys to do some riding.

A random insert, my nephew Ethan lost his first tooth!

Ready for the Vikings game!

Serious Ty out to dinner.  He looks so old!

Big Bear & Legoland

On January 2nd Eric, Jake and Jon took Will and Ty up to Big Bear for a day of snowboarding.  It was a beautiful day and they all had a blast.

On the 3rd, we loaded up everyone and headed to Carlsbad for the day.  The girls and littles went to Legoland and the big guys got to golf with Kerri.  Niko and Roman joined us at Legoland and afterwards we all headed to their place for some dinner.

Mace & Nate

Building stuff.

The big race.  

Watching 4D. Pretty cool.

Tobin and Jon at sunset in Carlsbad. Sweet.

Ladder Canyon

New Years Day we we got all healthy and decided to go on a five mile 'strenuous' hike in Mecca called Ladder Canyons.  We had 15 people and lots of adrenaline, all ready to start 2013 out right.  The first part started out ok, then is should have been called 'rope canyons'.  We had to go through four tricky parts, 3 including ropes that most of us had to be helped over, one of them with me getting my hips wedged in sideways....not pretty.

The last rope obstacle was about 22 feet high.  Eric had brought a harness for the littles, everyone else treked up on with the rope, as sketchy as it looked.

Ty going up.

Luke harnessed up.  

Mason getting hauled up the last few feet.

We ended up in a beautiful canyon then ridge then canyon again.  

Mine.

The family that hikes together.

Now we get to the 'ladder' part.  Three of them and super cool to do.  They had been washed out for a while after summer of 2011 floods but all is good now.

Ty in the wash.

Thru the narrow parts.  So pretty.

The End.  We ended up coming out of this super cool cave.  You could chose the ladder or under the rocks.  My brother in laws kept saying it was 127 hours, didn't make me very confident crawling under huge boulders.  For sure got me out of my comfort zone.....and I liked it. 

Me on ladder #3.

Coming out of rope #3, thanks Z!

The wash at the end.  Some amazing views, a wonderful hike and the accomplishment of finishing a kind-of-hard hike on 1/1/13 made for a beautiful day with the best people.  

Lucky Me

Saturday night a very brave and very awesome Grandma Karen watched all 6 boys and the 6 of us got to go out to dinner.  We went to Lulu's and had a good dinner and a great time.  I have the best in-laws ever!!!

On Thursday Jake 'proposed' that he, Jill and Kari clean everything out of my kitchen, his OCD was super annoyed with my clutter.  I agreed, if that's what they wanted to do on their vacation....This is the finished product.  I came home on Friday to an empty kitchen, cabinets off and being sanded and someone shopping online for me for new appliances.  After a quick trip to Lowe's, we were the proud owners of new appliances, stain and new hardware for my cabinets.  What a difference it made, and in only 3 days!!!  I'm in love and actually a little embarrassed to show my before picture below.  

Did I say it already??? BEST in-laws ever!!!! Thank you Jake, Jon, Kari, Jill and Eric for all of your hard work!