Saturday afternoon...

Heidi writes:

On Saturday afternoon we drove into the foothills of Placerville and went to Apple Hill. Well, we went to part of Apple Hill. There are around 50 apple orchards, a ton of wineries, a brewery, and a few other things to see along the way. This is all within a 15 mile stretch or so. We went with 4 of my co-workers - Sylvia, Shiraz, Kari, and Jason. Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. The first stop was at a winery, then to an a few apple orchards, another winery, a fudge factory, and a brewery. Here are a few pictures from the trip:







Shiraz, Sylvia, Heidi, Kari, and Jason posing pretty outside the first winery stop.

Jeff and I decided to try the sampler flight at the brewery. We had 12 different beers to try!! I wasn't too impressed with any of them, but Jeff enjoyed the IPA (of course!).

Here are some pictures of grapes of the vine. I think these pictures are awesome. It is our hope that we can blow some of the pictures up and hang them up - especially since we have a grape kitchen theme!!

Saturday morning...

Heidi writes:

Jeff ran in the "San Joaquin A+ Spoonful of Stories Run" on Saturday morning. General Mills was the major sponsor of the event. There were a few other Gen Mills employees who ran the race, but Jeff kicked butt!! He finished the race in 21:01.2!!! That is a 6 min and 47 sec mile pace! He beat his last 5k race time by over a full minute! It was pretty sweet. He finished 12th overall and was first in his age-class.



After Jeff finished the race, we hung around for little while. Well, about 10 minutes after Jeff finished the race, Mike Merriweather, a former MN Viking (and he played for the Packers for 2 games) crossed the line. It turns out that he is from Stockton and lives here now selling insurance. Jeff talked to him for a while, got his autograph, business card, and a picture.


Here is a picture of Jeff, Steve, Catherine, and Jacob (Steve's son).

It was a great way to start a Saturday morning - even if I wasn't thrilled at waking up at 6:45am!! I was glad that I went and am very happy that Jeff did so well!

Grape Fest or Bust...

Heidi writes:

So, Jeff and I were told all of these wonderful things about the annual Grape Fest that takes place in Lodi. We were pretty excited to go and experience our "first"!! Although there were some very neat murals made out of grapes and other food products, the fest was a total bust! It was more of a fair/carnival than a festival. We did eat at the Lockeford Sausage stand which was awesome, but then we took off. Here are a few pictures of the murals - they were really cool and huge!!

The photos above and below are a couple of the big murals. It was also the 100th birthday of Lodi, so many of the murals portrayed something related to that.




I loved the Wizard of Oz and Pooh and Friends murals. Keep in mind that they are made completely from grapes!



I took the picture below as a close-up on part of a mural. I love the wine and wine glass.

Jeff and I missed the Steele County Fair this year, which means that I was unable to eat my fill of frozen, dipped bananas. Well, after we had enough of the Grape Fest, we headed to the Lodi Brew Pub and had some dinner. We stopped at the chocolate store next door while walking back to the car and they had frozen bananas!! I was so excited!! I know it is not the greatest picture of me, but the banana was delicious!!

We spent all day Saturday watching college football. Now, when I say "all day", I really mean ALL DAY!! We went up to Elk Grove to Josh and Christina's and were there from about 10:30am-10:30pm!! We did leave for a couple of hours and went to TGIFridays for some food. It was a good time, however I did homework and took a nap while we were at the house!! Maybe I just had too much football!

Jeff and I went to the Valley Brewing Company this morning to watch football. Games start at 10am out here! Both the Vikings and Packers played at 10am and the bar had both of them on. We got there around 10:05 and there were two other guys in the bar - both Packer fans!! It was awesome - we got the big screen and the sound!! Jeff got a little screen and words, but his team also won, so that's fair!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Hope all is well in Ohio

Heidi writes:

Last Friday night we had a going-away party for an intern at General Mills, Kyle. We have had fun with Kyle this summer and he has been a good sport about taking a lot of bs from everyone - right FIB?? I thought that I would post a couple pictures for him from his get together.

Happy Hour at Lodi Brewing Company!

Darts! We had a couple competitions that night - how fun!!

Watch your hand, Drew! I don't think Toni knows how to open her beer with the staple gun!!

Me - watching the 2nd contest - it was an early night for me because I volunteered Saturday morning for school!

How cute is Alex!?!?!?!

Not sure what the plans are for this weekend. I am sure we will go to the Lodi Grape Festival and maybe up to Apple Hill. However, we may just chill out and watch football all weekend!

Adult Swim Party

Heidi writes:

Last night Comcast sposored an Adult Swim Costume Contest and show viewing. We had a pretty good time. I decided to dress up and I went as Leela from Futurama. I won 3rd place in the costume contest :-) Here is a picture that Jeff took of me. It isn't the best, but a few people took pictures of me at the program and if I get a better one, I will post that.

Plans for this weekend include a going-away party tonight, volunteering tomorrow, maybe some homework, and FOOTBALL!! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Camping Pictures

Heidi writes:

I forgot to add pictures from camping. Here are a couple:

Above: Toni, Josh, Christina, and Amber snacking some before we cook dinner on the fire!

Above: Jeff and Josh attempting to wash the ash off of the cheddarwursts. They rolled off the grate into the fire while we were cooking them. Thankfully, Jeff and Josh did a great job cleaning them and they were delicious!

Above: Jeff and I posing for a picture before we teach everyone how to play Farkel!

Above: The Truckee River ran next to our campsite. It was shallow, but the current was pretty strong so we never went in there.

Labor Day Weekend

Heidi writes:

Hello all. I hope that you had a great Labor Day (besides mourning for the untimely loss of the Crocodile Hunter). Jeff and I had fun. On Friday, we took three of my co-workers/classmates to Lodi to a couple of the wineries. I didn't have the camera, but will post pictures once I get some emailed to me. On Saturday, we drove up to North Lake Tahoe and went camping with some of Jeff's co-workers. We got there around 1pm, set up, and then went kayaking on Lake Tahoe - good times, good times. We packed up camp on Sunday and drove down to South Lake Tahoe. We had lunch at the Heavenly Ski Resort area. We decided not to take the gondola ride and instead drove back home. We stopped at a couple turn-outs along the way to take in the views. It reminded us a lot of Yosemite and the sights were absolutely gorgeous! On Monday, we had two cookouts! Lunch with my co-workers and dinner with Brent and Kari. All in all it was a great weekend. Here are some pictures:

Alex (above) and Lolly (below) got to go swimming and get cleaned!

They were pretty dirty from playing at the campgound!

The picture below is part of Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe. There is a castle on the island. I am hoping to hike this area sometime while were are here.

Jeff was driving and I kept snapping pictures. I took the one below out of the front window (sorry about the glare) of the view we had while drive along Lake Tahoe from the North to South.

I took this picture at a turn-out that we stopped at. I like it for two reasons: one, I like the tree in the front. I just thought it looked neat. The second reason I like it is because there are clouds in the sky. There are never clouds in Stockton, so seeing a cloud was good :-)

These two pictures are of Jason, Jeff, Sylvia, Alyssa, and AJ playing bocci ball. Jason grilled out for us at his apartment and it was fun hanging out with co-workers and classmates outside of the those settings! Jeff was absolutely amazing and kicked our butts in 2 out of the 3 games we played. We started making him play left-handed, but he still did a great job!