Owen Rhys Gwinn

Today I became an Auntie!

My little nephew, Owen Rhys Gwinn was born at 8:23am, weighing in at 7 lbs on the dot. Just a little peanut. Hopefully I will get some good pics when I go home to Walla Walla next weekend. SO happy.

(photo from my dad)

Vacation!

Yippee! Brad and I just booked a vacation for right after the new year and I couldn't be more excited! We decided to try somewhere that neither of us has ever been, and somehow stumbled upon Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Mostly because of the little gem of a hotel I found, Casa Cuitlateca. If it lives up to it's near perfect reviews on Trip Advisor, we are in serious luck! I can't wait, T-minus a little over two months! Here are some pictures I *borrowed* from Google images...hoping to take some good ones myself in January!

The infinity pool...yes please! I am a sucker for infinity pools :)

A likely spot you could find me reading my book. A bed in a palapa? Serioulsy a dream...

The view from our room's deck! I finally get a hammock on vacation, yessss!

This hotel/B&B only has 5 rooms so it's sure to be a quiet/peaceful escape for us this winter. The countdown is on!

Inn at Langley

Almost two weeks ago, Brad and I headed over to Whidbey Island for a relaxing weekend at the beautiful Inn at Langley to celebrate his 30th birthday. Unfortunately, I may have picked the rainiest weekend of 2010. Didn't get a lot of great pics, as it was seriously a DOWNPOUR all weekend long.

Adorable downtown Langley.

We grabbed lunch, ducked into a glassblowing studio & a bookstore before heading back to the room to start a fire and drink wine :)

My rainboots got a LOT of use this weekend!

The "view"...quite lovely, eh?
We turned the weekend into a cozy, "indoor" weekend at this point...

It did stop raining for about an hour and we sat outside and drank a bottle of wine we had been saving for about 3 years from a wine tasting weekend in Walla Walla.

A sliver of blue sky even came out!

Our usual self timer pic (please excuse what I looked like, I had been caught in a downpour!) :)

We had dinner at Prima Bistro just down the street from our hotel, and it was SO good! I serioulsy think it was the best chicken I have ever had! Also I believe we ate TWO pounds of mussels, or something crazy like that.

The Inn at night

Babies

The word "babies" pretty much sums up my week! It is my Netflix movie for the weekend & who I spent multiple days with this week.

The ever-so fashionably late Kocher girls, finally made their appearance into the world shortly after 5am last Saturday morning. I had the pleasure of meeting them when they were barely a day old last Sunday.

Avery (left) Emma (right)

They are the teeniest little things, you honestly feel like you are holding only a blanket!

Last night their bff Charlotte came by to play for a bit. Weighing in at barely 11 lbs (still so tiny at 4 months old!) she appeared to be a giant next to these two!

Avery (awake, left) & Emma (asleep, right) was pretty much how these two stayed throughout my visit last night! That Emma sure loves to sleep! She might take after her Auntie Michelle ;)

The adorable Kocher fam!

Congrats on your new little twinnies, they are absolutely perfect! :)

I baked Brad his (hopefully?) favorite cake: yellow cake w/chocolate frosting. Lucky for me, it's my favorite as well. Funny story, up until a couple years ago Brad's family would always make him a strawberry cake, as when he was a kid that's what he picked as his "favorite" for his birthday. Much to everyone's surprise, Brad actually doesn't even like strawberry cake & recently admitted this. His sister had already picked "chocolate" as the favorite for her birthday when they were younger, so he wanted to be different...picking strawberry. So now every year I joke that I am going to make him a strawberry cake, which is already not even funny but I will probably continue to say it every year.

Thank you to my girl JOAT for her chocolate frosting recipe she uses. Pretty much amazing! It was quite a hit with the Zito fam!

Happy 30th!

No idea why I decided to use a picture of the two of us from 2 years ago.

Possibly because I am craving Italy lately and this is from wine tasting in Tuscany...want.to.go.back.NOW.

Last night Brad and I celebrated his 30th birthday with a lovely dinner at the fabulous Cafe Juanita. We have always wanted to go there, and it's kind of a "special occasion" type of place, so what better day than a milestone birthday? The food was excellent, the ambiance was quiet & elegant. Perfect evening, and all we had to do was drive down the street! Amazing that it's in our own neighborhood and we had never been there!

Happy Birthday to my cute bf...can't wait for your SURPRISE bday getaway next weekend! xoxo