We do enjoy our wine

We very belatedly celebrated Carolyn's birthday (ummmm...can you say February?!?  Life's been a little crazy...) a couple of weekends ago by taking a short trip over to Grapevine and enjoying our own little slice of Napa right here in the DFW area.  Maybe it's not quite Napa, but the wine was pretty tasty and it's a MUCH shorter trip that rather pleasantly occupies a Sunday afternoon. 

I'd been in/through Grapevine before, but had never really spent time on its cutesy Main Street or checked out any of the wineries - and it was really fun!  It was on the exceptionally-hot-oh-my-gosh-where's-air-conditioning side of things on this particular day, so we didn't do much wandering - pretty much just straight from tasting room to tasting room.  Which is really not a bad way to go.  At all.  Especially when there are crisp white wines awaiting you at every location.

First stop - La Buena Vida.  Beautiful courtyard, fun live music, tasty wine.  Perfect.

Tasting room at La Buena Vida - it was way too hot to sit outside

Veltliner - that's a new one for me!  Also, wine from Bryan. =)

Second stop - Homestead Winery, in a super-cute old house.  We also witnessed some flying cork action here - it was pretty hilarious.

Third and final stop (see, we're not tooooo crazy) was Cross Timbers, where it was delightfully air conditioned and the wine was delicious.  Also, the kind gal pouring our wine gave us free cheese and crackers.  Two thumbs way, WAY up.



Tasting room at Cross Timbers - we're happy.



Two sweet little peas in a pod

A couple of weekends ago I journeyed (yes, a journey - we had to stop for provisions and everything!  Ok, maybe just carbonated beverages, but that definitely counts as provisions in my book...) to Ft. Worth with car buddies Kami and Sarah to celebrate our dear friend Amy, who's due with TWINS in September.  Double baby blessings!!  Also, double poopy diapers, but let's not get too caught up in that right now.  Stay tuned for total baby shower cuteness.

Adorable peas in a pod cookies!!

And there they are in all of their sonogram glory!  Can't wait to meet you, babies!

Jenny brought sweet baby Taylor!  She stole the show for a bit...

...much like this.  Floor gymnastics and model poses.  She's too much.

Sarah always makes the CUTEST baby things, and this was no exception!  I think Amy kinda loves it. =)

Teensy and adorable bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes, which were AMAZING.  Plus you get to try more than one flavor if you split with a friend...

The cutest idea!!  We all wrote messages and notes on teensy diapers, and now when Amy and Brandon change them in a few months, they'll (hopefully) get to smile a little bit when dealing with the poo.

It was such a cute shower, and we had a great time celebrating the growing Davis family!  Photo spread here, which disproportionately consists of many pictures of the adorable Taylor - she can't help her photogenic cuteness.

Capturing moments

We had engagement pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by our FANTASTIC all-things-wedding-related photographers, Sara & Rocky, and I'm so excited to share some of the shots with you guys.  I 1000x love our photographers, and I can't wait to see what they capture on our wedding day (142 days to go!).  If you want to see many, many, MANY more pictures, just let me know and I'll send you the password to our share site.

Deep Ellum first, White Rock Lake second.  We had a fantastic time, even if it was a touch on the hot side.  I love that we'll have these moments captured forever.  And yes, photo overload to follow shortly after these words.

Hill Country hi-jinks

Over Memorial Day weekend, I introduced Craig to the joys of Texas Hill Country by journeying to Fredericksburg with many good friends (all of whom have already managed to blog about this trip, whereas I'm the slacker who can't get around to it until two weeks after the fact) - and we had such a fantastic time.  Some of the details...

Vaughns picked us up for the trip down on Friday morning, and it's just impossible to head south on I-35 without making a stop at the Czech Stop.  Where else are you going to get your second breakfast of kolaches and awesome things like jalapeño peanut brittle?  Which is delicious, by the way - basically normal peanut brittle with a little kick at the end, and it just happens to be an unnaturally bright green. 

Our relatively painless trip continued with a stop for lunch at Hyde Park Bar & Grill in Austin (one of my favorites!)...

...and another very important stop in Blanco for a tour at Real Ale.  It was remarkably information and really fun, even if it was a little bit hot and windy, which made the trip into the massive beer cooler and our frosty samples all that much better.  Go forth and drink Fireman's #4, y'all!

We successfully made our way to Fredericksburg, picked up the keys to our extremely adorable rental house for the weekend, and quickly met up with the Reynolds to go grab dinner at Ausländer, which was extremely German and extremely delicious and fondly reminded the Vaughns and I of our extremely awesome time in Germany...and provided extremely large beers, which made Craig extremely happy.

We spent the rest of the night chilling at home, welcomed the Keffers, and turned in early to accomplish a very important vacation goal - rest rest rest.  The next morning Uncle T manned the kitchen to turn out a very tasty breakfast, then we hit the streets to take on another very important vacation goal - shopping!!  So many cute, cute things in this town.  I'm 100% in love with red and basically want to buy everything in that entire store, but I resisted.

More German awesomeness at Rathskeller for lunch, then more shopping...

I'm obsessed with all things kitchen-related, and especially whisks...

A stop at the toy store resulted in a very entertaining puppet show for Gracie

We then spend a very large chunk of the afternoon and evening on the spacious patio at Silver Creek, enjoying some beverages and tasty food and delightful live music, even if it was a touch on the warm side...I mean, Gracie needed a dose of water on the head, which very obviously lead to a stylish mohawk.

A relaxing evening at home consisted of a rousing round of horseshoes (Craig and I were the undefeated weekend champs!!  Ok, yes, only two games were played, and if Mrs. Keffer had played us again with any partner at all, I'm guessing we might have gone down...the girl has a knack for horseshoes), an excessive amount of pie...

Can you say margarita key lime, buttermilk, cherry, and peach praline?  Maybe a little bit overboard, but I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as too much pie

...and quality front porch time.  Thank goodness for the sun going down and some cooling breezes.

The next morning we had a museum contingent (Admiral Nimitz Museum and National Museum of the Pacific War) and a home contingent, and let me just say that the museum contingent had their heads filled with more than they ever knew about what went on in the Pacific during World War II.  I could have spent days in that musuem.  I actually had no idea that Admiral Nimitz was raised in Fredericksburg.  And did you know that Craig's dad served on the USS Nimitz?  I was actually really impressed with everything the museum covered.

After a heavy morning of war and submarines and Operation Toenails, we certainly needed some relief in the form of Mexican food for lunch.  Nothing like margaritas to get your mind right.

Get your mind right for visiting wineries, that is.  We made our way to Rancho Ponte, Grape Creek, and Becker for a wonderful (though very windy) afternoon of tastings...

...and glasses enjoyed and live music and this close to crawling moments for Baby Grace (don't judge us for enticing her with wine)...

...and generally wonderful times with friends and even a few moments of flying through the air.

We picked up pizza for dinner and relaxed at home.  It was wonderful.  The porch swing and I became very good friends.

Check out the full photo spread from the weekend.  Perfect.  Other than The Lampasas Blow-Out.  Which involved a diaper rather than a tire.

Lawyered!

A few weeks ago we made a journey to the forest to celebrate an EXTREMELY important event...Amanda's graduation from Duke Law!!  I can't believe she's knocked this out - I mean, where did the time go?!?  At any rate, super proud of my sissy and super excited to go see her and my family (yay for mommers and dadders!) for a weekend of celebrating.

First order of buisness was a law school family BBQ in the gardens at Duke, and since it didn't actually rain on us (phew!), it was a lovely event.  Plenty of delicious food, the chance to meet Amanda's law school peeps, minor forest/garden adventures, and wonderful family time.
 

Thanks for taking our picture in the forest, Craig!

This was all pleasantly follwed by chillaxin at Amanda's with a board game or two (I love games!!  and these people indulge me) and admiring the pretty awesome Duke quilt my mom made for Amanda.  It's enormous!!  And amazing!

The next morning we also had some dress adventures checking out bridesmaid dress options (don't worry, we totally didn't make the boys come in with us for that one), and to reward ourselves for tackling a wedding-related task, we of course had burgers for lunch.  Bull City.  Soooo tasty.  And especially tasty were the duck fat fries.  Cue music of the angels.

Also cue music of the angels for our rockin' mini-van.  It held everyone and all of our stuff comfortably and was actually a quite enjoyable ride for the weekend.  Even if it was a mini-van.

Now it's time for...the hooding ceremony!  Held indoors at Cameron, thank goodness, because it actually did rain during this one.  What's the hooding ceremony?  I'm calling it the occasion where mere robes become adorned with an epic hood that will choke you if you don't pin it carefully.  Specially reserved for those who have completed extra years of intense schooling.



I think I'm in the right place!  We'll see!

Offically hooded and making her way across the stage!  Goooo Amanda!!  Also gooooo zoom lens!

She's hooded, and so are all of her awesome friends!

Proud and happy family with the hooded lawyerette!  Also, the purse is totally Amanda's and not Dad's, although he can really rock a pink clutch.

Double lawyer power!

A celebratory dinner at Dos Perros (yay Mexican food!) followed, and then fast-forward to the next day for epic, all-school, all-inclusive graduation ceremonies, AGAIN with the threat of rain...come on, forest, let up on the rain!

There's not a building on the Duke campus that can hold all of these people, so we were hanging out at the football field, which they totally enhanced with fake buildings - Carrie observed "lend an air of Harry Potter" to the event.

They actually did have ponchos handy in case of rain, which was very thoughtful.

She's all graduated!!

Aren't we cute at the football field?

Always Red Raiders...even when we're at Duke, oopsie.

And back to the law school to claim this VERY important piece of paper - yay for Amanda!

The picture extravaganza has exploded on Facebook, of course, and then there's the ENTIRE album on Picasa for your viewing pleasure.

Major congratulations to my sissy!!