Monday, June 02, 2008

Good Monday Morning Everyone!!!

Well, it's actually mid-Monday morning and almost Monday afternoon. I actually slept in a little bit this morning. The weekend kinda took it out of me, plus my tooth is still hurting so I used those as excuses to sleep in until 9 a.m. (I have a dentist appointment Wednesday morning, so until then I'm doing my best not to be miserable and looking at the bright side of things--that I might lose 5 to 7 pounds, since I can't really eat anything!). Anyway...I digress...

Gary and I had a little anniversary get-away and, let me just say, that getting away by yourself can do wonders!!! (If you are married with children, it is a must! One of my "Rules for a Good Marriage"! lol)

We stayed at a really nice hotel and, once we saw how nice it was, considered not even leaving the room for dinner. We were thrilled with the huge couch...

where you had a great view of the HUGE, flat-screen plasma tv...

And there was just as good a view of the television from the bed...

We also thought the little door hangers were cute (yes, I take pictures of door hangers!!)...

So, we seriously thought about not leaving the luxury of the room or the hotel, but our churning stomachs got the best of us. We went to a yummy Italian restaurant where there was some GREAT food that I really was unable to eat because of my mouth (although I did salivate at the amazing foccacia garlic rolls that I ate two bites of. Gary then proceeded to eat the rest of the two large rolls on our table, moaning all the while about how good they were. When I am in perfect dental health, I am going back to that place!!

I DID, however, manage to eat this entire piece of tiramisu. It was SO creamy and delicious (and, well, I did give Gary a few bites of it!). Yumm-o....

After sleeping in for a bit the next morning, we ventured out to this really cool winery (the one "must see" on our list for the weekend). We went to our first winery last year and had such a good time, and Gary and I both like wine so much, that we've decided to make it a goal to go to every winery in our state (and, of course, to visit some out-of-state as well!). We were very impressed with this place. It was so pretty, the people were so nice, and the wine was delicious!


Inside the winery, we got a tour of their operation and then did a taste-testing. I think there were about 10 wines we tried (they had two or three dries, but the rest were either semi-sweet or sweet. They even had some blueberry wines. As the lady running our taste test said, "In the South, people love their sweet wines. It's because we're in the land of sweet tea and Coca Cola." I loved that!


I was also so excited to find out that the winery has blueberry picking times in the summer. "Pick Blueberries" is one of the things on my list of things to do this Summer, so I found a place to do it! yay!!

And a few more pretty pics of the winery...


We had a great time getting-away and some other highlights of the weekend included...
~ wandering aimlessly trying to find a covered bridge that we saw signs for. We thought it would be a great place to take pictures, but we never found the place!
~ not fighting kids for a place in bed!
~ watching what we wanted on tv!
~ having adult conversation!
~ realizing we need to do this even more often!

We ended the weekend by picking up the girls (minus McKenna, who was at her youth leadership conference. She had a great time, by the way!) from my parents' house. It was timed perfectly, because it was time to celebrate my brother's birthday...


And while I'm at Mom's house, I have to take pictures of her garden. (It changes every time I see it!) Look at the butterfly I caught in this one...

And this hydrangea...

And then Sydney had to put on a Dancing Show for us! It was priceless, to say the least...


We discovered that Dancing Contests were just one of the ways my parents entertained the kids (Sydney and Delaney, but also my two nephews) while they spent the night. They had limbo contests and scavenger hunts; swam at the pool and ate lots of ice cream...and, although Mom said Sydney said she "missed Mommy" on Friday night, she had too much fun otherwise!!

So, there you have it! Our weekend in a nutshell!

I hope your weekend was FANTASTIC and that you have a wonderful week ahead!

24 comments:

Adrienne said...

So glad you guys had a good time!!!!! That sofa looks like mine! LOL I love it lol

Phats said...

Wow sounds like a great annivesary, and a fun getaway minus the toothache of course. I love you have the nba playoffs on the tv too! haha.

That dessert looked awesome, I am sure tasted even better than it looked if that's possible.

hippo chick said...

sounds like everyone had a great weekend. please excuse the lower case. i'm typing one handed.

jim and i love winery tours also. you shpuld come visit us here in th "finger lakes". we have hundreds of delightful wineries.

your mom's garden is lovely. i'm off tp try my luck at some one handed pics of my yellow iris.

Cheryl said...

Sorry to hear about your tooth! ouch! I hate to have a toothache or earache!! That is painful but it looks like your really had a great weekend. Sounds like the kids had fun also. Tommy and me need a great get a way weekend also. Have a wonderful week Cheryl! I just love using your name! hahahaha :)

hippo chick said...

p.s. i'm so sorry about your tooth. sounds like you might be in for a root canal. in the words of my dad' "it will feel so good after it quits hurting".

Anonymous said...

OK, where's the hotel and which Italian restaurant? Have to take notes for mine and Evan's next in-town getaway! (We've been meaning to do a whole winery tour weekend!)

Monogram Queen said...

Well you certainly fulfilled my expectations of a WONDERFUL TIME!
I love love love that door hanger too!
Mmmm tiramasu it's been so long since i've had any.
Glad you had such a good time! Like I had any doubt *snort*
Hope you get the tooth taken care of I went to the dentist today - well it was'nt pretty!

Linda said...

oh sounds like tons of fun except for your tooth hurting. Hope it gets fixed soon...too bad about the food, lol, know how much you love food. Anyway, Sydney is just a hoot...she's always putting on a show...such a character. Great pics. thanks for all you love and inspiration on my blog..it means so much to me. Hugs.

Mz.Elle said...

Ooooh I bet the wine helped your tooth pain some!

At least I hope so. Tooth pain is one of the worst and so I wish for you,the days pass quickly:)

Your weekend looks and sounds divine!

Cheryl Wray said...

Adrienne--No kidding, that couch was SO comfortable!!

Phats--Ha ha!! yep, I put on the playoffs even though Gary HATES the NBA. I have my priorities, though!! LOL

Pam--I cannot believe you broke your hand (wrist?). Ugh!!! okay, that is a plan--if we ever make it up your way, we will go on a winery tour with you guys. Wouldn't that be fun? :-)

Cheryl--Yep, I like saying your name too, Cheryl. LOL

Cheryl Wray said...

Deb--I am emailing you with all the important information! :-)

Patti (Queen)--You must go have some tiramusi again soon. Yumm, yumm!!! Yuck on the dentist appointment. Sorry yours was so crummy. I am NOT looking forward to mine!

Linda--I know!!! When my tooth is all better, I am going to PIG OUT something crazy!!!

Ms. L--You know, the wine tasting had my tooth feeling the best it had all weekend. lol

Dawn Bibbs said...

Awww, so nice to hear you guys had a nice ADULT style, relaxing weekend. Mister M. and I are talking about taking one of those weekends real soon. Lord KNOWS we need it.

I'd love to go to a winery...I think. But being that I don't drink...at ALL...except for Dr. Pepper, it may not be as interesting to me. But they are beautiful places. I'll just go and watch Mister M. sample :-).

Glad you guys had fun and got back safely. Enjoy your week.

Michelle said...

Wow, sounds like a wonderful weekend! I am also a strong believer in spending time without kids. Even if it's only a hot bubble bath after the kids go to bed.....with a little candles, a little Ella.......


SEE YA!

Leah said...

Glad you guys had such a good time!!

Auburn Kat said...

Going to wineries is always fun! I also love picking blueberries, yum!

Hope you are feeling better!

Cheryl Wray said...

Dawn--You and M. should definitely find a weekend to get away together. I know how crazy busy you are with all of Jayla's activities (a lot like us!), so I know you need a break!! LOL about the winery! I'm sure that M. could drink enough for the two of you! (You actually just need to plan a trip to some Dr. Pepper bottling company where you can taste test some of that!)

Michelle--I take hot bubble baths EVERY night!!! :-)

Leah--It was fun!

Kat--I can't wait to pick the blueberries. I am doing fine.

LZ Blogger said...

Cheryl ~ That sounds like an interesting diet plan... NO EATING? ~ jb///

Lynilu said...

Except for the toothache, that sounds like the absolutely perfect weekend! That room looked awesome! Glad you got away! Happy Anniversary!

Edleen said...

ohh...that place must be so Fabulous! love all the shots Cheryl and i'm sure you two lovebirds had a Fun time! :)

Unknown said...

Awwwwwww Cheryl!

You are SO right when you say those times spent together are necessary! It makes me want to plan a trip!

We started going wine tasting several years ago. I LOVE seeing all the different wineries. They are all unique! Some are HUGE and some are very small. But most of them have a certain charm to them. We like to go to the local winery when they have live music. We sit there and listen, drink, eat cheese, and play scrabble! LOL

I hope that you get to do things like that more often!

~Kammie~ said...

that hotel is AWESOME! so that's what a nice hotel room looks like LOLOLOLOL, wew usually go with the chepaer the better, well not really, as dh you get what you pay for......but typically we aren't in the room. LOL

Sheila said...

Happy Anniversary and hope you're feeling better.

She-Ra said...

Looks like i need to head south to do my wine shopping... the sweeter the better in my opinion! :)

Glad you had a good weekend away.

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

You have no idea how lucky you are that your parents love watching your children. Or maybe you do. lol Not complaining really, but my mother was never that "grandmotherly". She didn't have sleepovers when the kids were little and I don't recall her ever doing a dance contest either. lol It always made me sad, knowing what my kids missed out on, and sadder still knowing what my mother missed.

But moving on - the winery looked amazingly fun and the hotel looks downright snazzy! You chose well. lol We're fixing to take a 2 weeks vacation to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and Minneapolis. We've booked all our hotel rooms and I have to tell you...I'm hoping they are even half as nice as they seem on line. You just never know until you get there, I guess. Worse case scenerio, though - if the rooms are horrible, I'll have PLENTY to blog about along the way. lol

Glad you two had such a great time. We should all do stuff like that more often!

Kari