this past weekend the good ole calendar makers gave us a long weekend to celebrate
bc day. we were fortunate to have been invited to a dear friend's wedding up in the okanagan so not only was it exciting for that reason, but that we were able to have one little vacation before i start my new job. as part of their wedding gift, i offered my cake making skills to make their wedding cake and the hubs offered his awesome-ness to be their mc for the reception. (not to toot our own horns or anything! hehe)
this trip would mark the first time we'd take the girls out on the road for long periods of time and i think i can say now that our wild idea of road-tripping it to california (for our most recent vacay) would have been disastrous! i mean we had motion sickness issues, whiny baby syndrome..you name it, but for the most part it was alright -thankfully it was only a 4 hour drive with stops!
here is a looooong glance at our family vacation to the okanagan:
yes, that's olivia eating a doritos nacho chip.
i take no pride in saying that, but when you're only an hour into your road trip and you've got a child that's whining for chips..you kinda give in. no?
this is emma pre-motion sickness. the poor thing was so into an activity table
i purchased for the purposes of killing time on a road trip only for it to turn into
an EPIC FAIL.
*barf*
our first stop was in merritt, bc. a&w becomes your best friend as it's basically the only fast food joint in small towns. i am not a huge fan of the dub so i just nibbled on what was left of the girl's grilled cheese..which they enjoyed!
plus, lets not forget that i basically had to deal with a nauseous child while kneeling
on the front passenger seat, leaning over with a recyclable bag to "contain"
the disaster. i'm not sure anyone would have an appetite after that!
though who can resist a root beer in a frosted mug..i sure can't!
the view of the landscape on our drive to pentiction
okanagan wine country! who says you can't visit wineries with kids right!?
the "
sonora sage" our rental bungalow for the weekend: perfect for a family of 4
in penticton! it was so close to the beach and grocery stores, we had an amazing time!
with it being 27 degrees on the first day there, we were thankful that we brought
an inflatable pool that the girls could wade in. they didn't waste any time
getting cool!
on day 2, we thought we'd take advantage of the fact we were in wine country
and visited some wineries in the
naramata bench. what a view. there were just fields and fields
and rows upon rows of grapes and orchards with rows upon rows of fruit bearing trees.
it was magnificent!
our first stop was ruby tuesday, which had some pretty fantastic wine.
we picked up 2 bottles from here - a red and white!
the view from ruby tuesday's tasting room
can you see this being trouble 20ish years from now? lol
next stop was the elephant island winery. this winery is popular
for it's orchard based wines, meaning they use no grapes in their wines.
this particular winery was child friendly, complete with a tasting patio
and a toy area: what should be (in my opinion) two peas in a pod!
we sampled cherry wine, blackberry wine, crab apple wine (one that we took home),
blueberry dessert wine and raspberry dessert wine (that we also took home!)
a very interesting experience but also waaay more enjoyable especially since the kids had something to do
while we were irresponsibly lightly sipping 16% dessert wines.
it's day 3 and here's a shot of me and olivia all dolled up for the wedding.
here is said cake that i prepared the day before while the hubs took the girls out to the local farmer's market.
the cake was a lemon cake with a coconut buttercream filling. i also made the flowers out of gum paste!
here's emma waving a handmade flag at the ceremony
gardens.
the lovely couple and their entourage.
of course olivia can't sit still, why haven't i figured that one out yet? thankfully we were situated near the back
of the gardens so she was able to roam around without any ceremonial interruptions!
we even snuck in a family photo!
mama and her girls.
our table center piece and the ceiling decor..
making cakes is one of my fave hobbies and it can get a little nerve-wracking sometimes. its even worse when you're actually a guest at the wedding and you're there to witness the first tasting. thankfully it was not only enjoyed by the newly-weds but their guests as well. phew!
even my olivia dug right in!
me and the lovely bride.
the wedding was such a success. the girls danced the night away and it was such a joy to see
all of our friends embrace our kids too. it's not everyday that you can say your old college
friends crack jokes and tag-team taking care of your kids as if they were their own.
i feel truly blessed!
our final day consisted of a post-wedding brunch and a couple more wineries on our way out of the
okanagan.
our first stop was road 13, a winery suggested to us by the newly-weds as it is one of their fave wineries.
emma rolling down the hill..
see? even kids can find their own fun in adult places! lol
our final stop was the
silver sage winery. this place was AWESOME. it had very unique wine blends
and an amazing one called "the flame": a late harvest Gewürztraminer, peach/apricot blend and a chili pepper!
O.M.G. we couldn't leave this place without taking this bottle home..like our taster said: it's like getting punched in the face and kissed at the same time!
silver sage was very family friendly and the tasters were humorous!
none of that pretentious-ness you expect from big named wineries.
our biggest goal was to visit those that are less known but have great taste...and
we are fortunate to know friends who frequently come up to the okanagan and experience
new places!
as soon as we were all wined out, we started making our way back home taking the hwy 3 route which is supposed to be more scenic. well, when i remembered taking it years ago, it WAS scenic. now, its like a death trap waiting to happen! steep climbs and descends and a big waste of time. the upside was we were able to stop by some fruit stands for peaches and cherries..and make a quick visit to manning park:
that is crawling with gophers! they were absolutely everywhere! the girls got a big kick out of them and thankfully, they were nice.
we took this opportunity to let the girls expend some energy by letting them loose
in the park.
then we picked up some ice cream..shoulda got an extra one
cuz olivia basically devoured mine!
this loooong weekend was a fantastic family trip and i'm so happy that i was able to enjoy this with the hubs and my girls and recharge my batteries before embarking on a new venture this coming week. i think i've said it a million times over: nothing will ever beat spending time with my family - they are everything to me!
thanks for sharing my long weekend with me, look forward to hearing about how you spent yours! :)
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