San Francisco & Wine Country Getaway

The past 6months have been quite a roller coaster for our family. Jason broke his ankle in January during the Spartan Sprint in Temecula and has had 2 surgeries since then. He is now going to start physical therapy to help get his range of motion back and basically get back to normal. He’s been so strong and resilient this entire time. Sure, he’s not happy about his situation and it totally sucks but he is dealing with it amazingly well and taking it one day at a time. Of course, this injury put our family travels and trips pretty much on hold this first half of the year, so being able to getaway earlier this month for 5 days was truly much needed.

As wedding photographers, we sometimes get to travel to photograph a wedding and when this happens it always turns into a little mini vacation for us afterwards 🙂 This year, we photographed a wedding in San Francisco and planned a trip to Napa and Sonoma Counties afterwards. We flew into San Francisco Friday evening. The next day, after a quick workout in the tiny hotel gym, we spent our morning and afternoon walking around Fisherman’s Wharf before meeting up with our couple for their rehearsal. Sunday was the wedding and it was beautiful. You can check it out HERE.

Check out the Golden Gate Bridge in the background! Plus, Jason totally rocks that boot, huh?

Monday morning we rented a car and made our way to Napa Valley. We started our getaway with a picnic lunch at Alpha Omega winery and it totally set the tone for our relaxing trip. We then got to visit one of our favorite wine’s winery, Sequoia Grove. That was just awesome. Of course, the wine tastings did not disappoint. Just wish we could have stayed there longer! lol

The next day, we spent touring Sonoma Valley, which we had never been too. We hit up a few wineries and ended the day at Sonoma’s Tuesday Night Farmers Market. One of my favorite wineries that day was Deerfield Ranch Winery. The tasting room is right inside their wine cave. They had comfy chairs to sit and really gave you a nice experience. Our flight was booked for Wednesday night out of San Francisco, so we were able to squeeze in 2 more wineries before it was time to head back. We visited my favorite winery of the trip on this last day and we became wine members! Benzinger Family Winery was just lovely and the wines were delish! I wish we would have had time to take their tour of the biodynamic vineyard and farm. I guess we’ll just have to plan a trip back there soon 😉

All in all, it was a great trip! Like I said, it was a much needed time away from the routine and a nice escape from reality for a bit. Jason and I were able to reconnect and it totally revived my love of traveling and I cannot wait to go on more adventures with my family again soon!

Tell me, do you love wine as much as I do? What’s your favorite wine? I always love to try new ones! xo

Wanderlust | Let’s Travel the World

Wanderlust: a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world!

Yup, this is so me! I love to travel. I love to get away and explore new places. I love to break free from the daily routine and say yes to adventure. When I was little, my family always traveled. We’d travel for weeks on end. I blame my parents for my traveling spirit. Going on family outings, weekend getaways, road trips, vacations…these are all my favorite! I’ve been pretty lucky and we get to travel often. We make it a priority. We budget, save our pennies, and look for good deals! Being in Las Vegas, we’ve got lots of awesome destinations within driving distance, which is great because airfare for a family of 4 adds up pretty quickly!

Our last family trip was to Texas in early November. It was a really fun trip where we got to see family, reconnect with old friends, and make new ones! In December Jason and I got to travel to Orange County, CA with my sister and brother-in-law for a friend’s wedding and we made a nice weekend getaway out of it! Oh and let’s not forget our trip to Temecula, CA in January for our Spartan Beast & Sprint Races! Sadly, that trip didn’t end to well, which kinda leads me to the point of this blog post. Wanderlust.

I’m really itching to get away and I know that is not happening any time soon. First of all, Jason has a broken ankle. He’ll be using crutches for another 4 weeks and another 8 weeks wearing his boot and going to physical therapy to recover. I think just knowing this is making me want to travel even more. Why does that happen? It’s like when you’re on a diet and all you want to eat is doritos and brownies! Ugh, the struggle is real, folks! Plus, we’re planning a big trip to Florida in November and did I mention airfare for 4 is expensive? So, we’ve got some saving up to do to make that trip happen.

So, what to do in the meantime? I’m not sure, exactly. But, I think I will day dream. I will dream of the places I long to visit and the adventures I know we’ll have someday. I will remember. I will look back at all the adventures we’ve already had and the wonderful places we’ve been to. I’ll look at all the photos and relive those memories. I’ll reminisce and feel all warm and fuzzy thinking of all the fun we’ve had. I’ll be grateful for the life I have, my healthy, beautiful kids, and an amazing hubby. But most importantly, I will live in the moment. I must be present in the here and now. I don’t want these days and months to pass me by. I don’t want to only live for the next big thing or next big trip. I want to live every day of my life like it matters. Because every day I spend with my loved ones, is worth something. I need to remember to live with intention, to make every day matter. Not every day will be amazing. But every day we have the opportunity to be present and I don’t want to miss out on the present because I’m daydreaming of what’s to come.

Do you have a wanderlust spirit? Do you have a pinterest board of all the places you want to visit (I do!)? What do you do when you’re wandering spirit wants to run away but you can’t?

Family Travels | Visiting Texas

As I mentioned yesterday on my little recap post, we just got back from our trip to Texas this past Thursday and it was definitely a much needed break. Life has been so crammed with activities, appointments, work, and such that we’ve just been feeling very rushed and unable to catch up. Thanks to a great friend, we got an awesome deal on airline tickets so we decided a getaway to visit family in Texas was just what we needed. We didn’t plan anything, as we were just going to relax and unwind. It worked out perfectly. Way better than I imagined it would! I’m a planner, winging it is out of my comfort zone.

We spent our first 3 days at my cousin’s friend’s lake house. They’d been planning this getaway with a bunch of their friends too so we totally just crashed the party!! We didn’t really know most the folks before this trip so I was kinda nervous about just spending 3 days with a bunch of peeps we didn’t know. But, I gotta say we totally just made some lifelong friends. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. It truly felt like we’d all known each other forever by Sunday night! And it was a total blast to see my kiddos playing in the lake where I spent so much of my own childhood playing and swimming in.

After the lake house weekend, we spent a day at my cousin’s house playing farm! Jason and Diego got to do some target practice (Yes, I was freaking out!) They took a walk in the woods, fed the chickens and collected their eggs, and ended the day riding a horse. By this point, we’d had enough of the country life and us adults went out for a nice date night in town about an hr away but it was worth the drive! Don’t worry, the kiddos were well taken care of and had plenty of fun catching up computer games and ipads! It’d been days since they played with their electronic devices! We went to this awesome sushi spot that was so yummy and had a great time!

The next morning, we left my cousin’s place and headed to do some sight seeing. We spent the day at Natural Bridge Caverns exploring the underground caverns, playing around the canopy challenge, and panning for gems. It was a really great day (minus some whining & bickering from the kiddos) I highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever in the San Antonio area. It ended up getting really cold that day and night, but we braved the chill and walked around San Antonio’s River Walk on our way to dinner.

The next day was even colder, so our trip to The Alamo was pretty short and we went ahead and made our drive to Austin early. Once in Austin, we found the coolest movie theaters we’ve ever been to, Moviehouse & Eatery! It’s a big multiplex cinema with conventional theaters, IMAX, and dine-in theaters with awesome reclining seats! We opted for the dine-in experience and munched on bottomless popcorn, fish and chips, gourmet pizza, and for Jason and I, a nice bottle of riesling. Yea, watching Big Hero 6 and drinking wine was a fabulous way to end our trip!

So, although this is most definitely not our typical vacation, jam packed with activities and sight seeing, it was most definitely an unforgettable time spent with family and friends. It taught me that sometimes it’s good to let go, relax, and go with the flow rather than having it all planned out. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my itinerary vacations, but I think we can add some of these trips into the mix too 😉

How do you like to travel? Do you like to wing it, plan it all out, or somewhere in between?