5 years!!

Last weekend, BW and I celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary.  It’s still hard to believe I found someone like Brian to spend my life with, and even harder to understand that he seems to like me, too :)  It seems like just yesterday we were freezing our butts off in Whistler.  I am still so grateful to the ever-talented Brian Noppe who captured our day so beautifully and to all our friends & family who traveled out of the country to celebrate with us.

    my glorious, magical, never-empty martini glass and my handsome, sweet and fantastic husband.  a killer combo.

As Brian mentioned in the previous post, we spent the weekend in OR, splitting time between the Farm (AKA “The Lazy House”) and an overnight trip to Yamhill County Wine Country.

It was a great combination of family & relaxation – and the fantabulous weather didn’t hurt, either!

We stayed at a new resort-esque hotel/spa/restaurant called The Allison that lived up to it’s gorgeous website.  If you are from the Seattle area, think Willows Lodge but a little bit more modern.  We checked in late morning on Saturday, grabbed a map and a few suggestions from the concierge & headed out to our first winery, Penner-Ash.  The wine was nice, but the view (which you can see from the front page of their website) was positively SPECTACULAR.  We spent most of our time there trying to figure out an excuse to throw a party on their glorious grounds.

Next up was Willakenzie Estates which came highly recommended by several magazines & friends.  We found a couple of wines here we liked, including a Pinot Blanc, which we didn’t have a lot of experience with but I very much enjoyed.

We found ourselves running low on time – Brian had a 3pm date with the TV in our room to watch the Husky game and Cindy had a 3pm massage, so we were only able to visit one more winery:  We chose Adelsheim.

Adelsheim was our favorite suite of wines by far.  Each one we had was really delicious, except for their cold-weather Syrah which was a little rough. We arrived back at The Allison for our afternoon fun weighed down with wine and a little sleepy – a fabulous setting for a massage, by the way.

We both had dreamy afternoons, BW enjoying a Husky win and me discovering that a $100 massage really is twice as good as a $50 one.  After naps we headed down for dinner in the hotel restaurant, Jory.  There is always a risk when trying out an a) new and b) wine-focused restaurant in a new fancy hotel.  Many times, they are more impressed with themselves than you are, and typically way overpriced.  I’m happy to report that neither of these things were true about Jory.  We shared the steak tartare (YUM) as well as a 1st course gnocchi dish with a lamb/beef ragout that almost made me cry it was so delicious.  Then we both got the NY Steak, cooked to perfection and served with a surprisingly refreshing salad & home-fried potatoes.  I was a bit wined-out so I enjoyed my meal with a cold grey goose martini (a smidge dirty).

Anyway, we slept in the next day then ordered room service brunch (a tradition we used to enjoy often BF – Before Finn) and packed up to head back to the farm.  We had planned on seeing a movie that afternoon but frankly there was nothing playing I was dying to see (or pay $10 for) and I missed our kiddo.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t really care when we showed back up.  He was all about Gigi & Papa (names for my parents) and “outside” – easily one of his top five favorite words, and probably very favorite concept.  My parents had blocked off the back deck so he and Ollie could head out there whenever they wanted without the risk of ending up in the combine. 

Naturally, he was happy with that plan for about 10 minutes then wanted to go explore.

All up, it was a wonderful long weekend.  Top it off with the fact that Finn has decided he likes videos (specifically, he loves Elmo videos that involve music), so our investment in the Sesame Street 40 Years of Sunny Days DVD was well worth it. 

Happy Anniversary my love!  Here’s to fifty more, if you can handle it :)