North Georgia Winery Trip

For my birthday/anniversary present David planned a night away to Dahlonega. I am always mentioning checking out the vineyards up there so I was excited. After David told me that he had a hard time even finding someplace to stay I set off into research mode to figure out why. We were just planning on visiting one of the wineries and maybe eating dinner there, but why not add in 4 more wineries? Thanks to my mom for watching Max for us!! FYI- Lots of photos with this post, I am too lazy to make collages. 

This particular weekend was the Wine Trail Weekend. For $25 you can visit 5 of the local vineyards for a tasting. This seemed a bit high to me, but after looking at each individual place and the cost of $10-15 per tasting, I was sold. Plus, you also received a free wine glass.

Our first stop was the visitors center in downtown Dahlonega for our passport book (with our tickets) and our wine glasses. We then stopped at Wolf Mountain. This winery is by far the most elaborate and upscale.

The beautiful vineyard as we drove in.

This is a view from the parking area looking up.  This is the tasting area, restaurant and decks.  They are only open for lunches and special wine dinners (occasionally).

This is the view looking out towards the mountains. The area to the right is the outdoor covered wedding ceremony location.

This is a type of lodge/house that you can stay at if you are a member of their wine club. You have to pay for this also, but you can only get access if you are wine club members I think.

Such luscious plants and grounds.

We set up the camera for a quick photo at Wolf Mountain wedding spot.

Next stop was Cavender Creek Vineyards.  This one reminded me of the casual atmosphere of the upstate NY vineyards. Let me remind you of how many we have on the fingerlakes. It really is nuts how many there are up there.

  Anyways, Cavender creek is known for their donkeys they have on premises.

 They have a cute little cottage/cabin where the tastings happen. I really liked some of the wines they had there, but at $19 a bottle, I wasn't about to be bringing a bunch home (that's pretty much the going rate for a good tasting bottle).

 

Next stop was Frogtown Cellars. 

 

The view from the road. They also have a restaurant/lunch panini cafe. Their deck wraps around and has a lot of seating.

As you can see by the cars, it started to get crowded now. The first two places really wasn't bad at all.  I was afraid it would take forever, but we made such good time that's why we kept going. Luckily David isn't a huge wine drinker so that made for a good driver.

 

 We were staying at the Dahlonega spa and resort, which was only 1 mile from Frogtown so we decided to check-in since it was around 3ish after we finished at Frogtown. This was our view driving up.

The bed and breakfast is known for their yoga retreats and serene atmosphere. They have no TV's. They do have wifi in the main house.

You can also stay at cottages.

This is the main house where you can stay in one of their farmhouse rooms and they also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner (breakfast included in our rate).

We opted to pay a little extra to get one of their 8 cabins.

No wonder David wanted to make sure we got there at 3 like we said we would! He surprised me with some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries!

Our cabin came with a kitchen area and a mini fridge.

It was really nice and I would highly recommend the place.  They also had a big hot tub for everyone to use. It was raining so we were the only ones that were in it, but still a nice feature. If we're friends on instagram (Jens871) you saw it.

We headed back out after checking-in to see if we had time to check off the other 2 vineyards. Montaluce was the farthest away, and one I was going to skip because I had been there before for my bachelorette party outing.

They have gorgeous views and a nice LONG bar inside.

Our last stop was back close to our cabin, 3 Sisters. We literally had 15 minutes before 5pm when they were to close so we hustled inside and I didn't take many pictures. This was our least favorite, but maybe it's because it was closing time. But we made it so that's all that mattered! Here is our ratings from most favorite to least on this visit: Wolf Mountain, Frogtown, Cavender Creek, Montaluce and 3 Sisters.

Leah & Emery Visit & Kiddo Fun

David and I went to Dahlonega on Saturday/night and had a great time visiting the local vineyards. I'll post on that this week.

 

Last week we got to see Leah and Emery while they were in town.  They came over for a dinner and a quick visit. She's never seen our new house so I'm glad they were able to come. Kyle worked late so we missed seeing him. Emery is just a doll and plays so nicely. Max had issues sharing as usual, but hopefully one day he can be as good as her!

 

I showed you a few videos of Max hanging and swinging on everything. I captured a few photos of him doing it so you can see. 

 

 

Luckily Kinsley isn't that influenced by Max's crazy behavior. She is by far the calmer one. 

 

He is such a little show off. 

 

Picture from SNL "Look what I can do."

 

While I had my camera out I thought I'd show you a normal evening when I get home with Kinsley and Max. I told Max to give her a kiss (I told her to kiss Max), but it's definitely one sided. 

 

Here Kinsley looks like a zombie! 

 

I think Max got mad Kinsley stole a toy. You can see the fun they've already had in the living room. 

 

Finally playing like good little children :) 

My Little Swinging Monkey

Here are a few quick videos of Max being a little monkey at 18 months old.  I have a picture of me and my sister when we were around the same age as Max hanging from our kitchen counters. I need to try to find it, it's so cute. I think Max is ready for the gym!

Visiting baby Levi & Halloween Goodies

 

Saturday Max, Mom and I went over to visit my friend, Brooke and see her adorable new baby boy.  He was so alert and content. Madeline is such a good big sister and kept talking about Levi.  

 

Of course Levi needed a few goodies just for entering the world.  I monogrammed a terry cloth bib. 

I also thought he needed a shirt for fall/halloween so I embroidered a Frankenstein pumpkin for him.

Speaking of Halloween/Fall I made Max a trick or treat bag that he can use this Halloween!  Mom got the great idea of adding orange ricrac to the top so I'll show you once that is completed.

 

We are offering these bags for sale with any of the designs you see around the bag.  Just let me know by September 1st so I can put an order in for the bags. 

Cookie Cake!

Sorry things haven't been too post worthy around here lately.  David's studying for his engineering exam and we've just been playing with Max and I've been embroidering in my spare time.

 

We did of course celebrate my birthday with a yummy double layer cookie cake (from Sams Club).  Max doesn't usually like sweets (by choice), but he loves balloons so he gave the frosting a try.  He loved it and wouldn't stop dipping his little fingers in it. 

David brought home pretty roses as well.  He surprised me by booking a night in Dahlonega for us for a combo anniversary/birthday gift. Looking forward to that!

I think I was trying to demonstrate how I wanted to eat the cake, but it looks like I'm about to eat my burning candles. Please also note the pokes in all the balloons.

I had a hard time with one of the candles, and no they weren't trick candles. Mom is showing me how to do it from afar. I guess 30 hinders your youth ability to blow out candles.

Happy 30th Birthday Twinnie!!

Today 30 years ago I was born first via c-section. I was born a little shorter, a little smaller, but a little older and wiser :)

 

 Happy 30th birthday to my twin sister, Michelle!

I'm glad she was able to celebrate with us this past weekend. We took a few photos with us and the kids to document.

Love our precious babies who I guess were looking at Uncle James in the background.

Thanks to our mom for having us! Happy Birthday! I don't feel a day over 22 so I guess 30 isn't so bad. My brother is always going to be older :)

Weekend Wrapup

We did a little early birthday celebrating this weekend since my sister was in town a few more days.We got pedicures, did a little shopping (didn't buy anything) and went to Ippolitos for dinner. We also had a family pool party yesterday.  Max is liking the water more and more. He is so good in the big pool with us as long as there is a ball he can play with.

 

 Max was showing his best cheese face.

This is a teacher bag I appliqued and embroidered.  She is going to be a bear cat so we put some paw prints on their, too.

 

Max zooming his car.

 

Max had to say good bye to Bella as she left with Michelle and crew this weekend.  He still asks to go see the kitty cat (by meowing in his own way) and we have to remind him that he saw her go bye bye in the car. So then he says car and goes to the window to wave. 

 

Max got introduced to fishies at Petsmart and was pretty amazed by it. 

 

My silly boy always climbing on everything.  He can now climb in to his helper stand (has been able to for a while), his high chair and onto my bed (it has a ledge).  He doesn't realized he can get out of his crib yet, so that's good news (knock on wood).

 

These two cousins are up to no good as usual. Monkey see, monkey do. 

 

Hadley and Max playing together.  So adorable.

Had to take a few photos of our almost 9 month old! I can't believe it. She is getting so big. She crawls like a champ and is now pulling up on things!

I hope she doesn't get too big too fast! I just want to squeeze her all the time.

Max tried to ride Molly like a horsey yesterday and Molly responded by licking his face.  They are quite the pair.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. Is it Friday yet?