Wine tasting mishaps: one black eye, one baby falls off the bar

This past weekend we took the new Traverse for a little road trip up to Santa Ynez for some wine tasting.  We took the kids and my mother-in-law and thank God for my mother-in-law.  Liam can not be in a wine tasting room.  So Mary would play outside with Liam and we'd take Marlo into the tasting rooms with us.

The weekend was wonderful!  Joe and I dream of owning a little home one day in the Santa Ynez valley.  It's truly God's land - beautiful mountains, views of the ocean, horses grazing, and fruitful vineyards everywhere - what's not to love about this place.

Of course, our trip had a couple of mishaps as stated in my post title.  Liam got a shiner under his right eye.  He was jumping around in the hotel room and knocked his eye on the corner edge of a counter.  I'm actually surprised that this is his first black eye.  He's pretty rough and tumble so I'm sure there will be many more of these accidents down the road.

But the most humiliating mishap was when Marlo fell off the bar.  Yep, you read that right.  The baby fell off the bar.  (Mysti - if you're reading this post, for the love of your little brother, DO NOT tell your mother about this!!!)  It all happened so fast, Joe and I still argue about the details.  But, here's my side of the story: Marlo was sitting on the tasting room bar and I was supporting her. I asked Joe to hold on to her as I reached down to get something out of the diaper bag, which was on the floor.  As I was standing up, Joe let's go of Marlo and she falls.  Now, she didn't fall on her head; she fell on her patted tush.  And it was more of a sliding off the bar since both Joe and I were reaching for her and trying to break her fall.  I honestly don't know what was more painful - watching her fall or seeing Joe look to everyone else in the tasting room and say, "She's fine everyone; she's fine."  Everyone in that room was horrified. 

Of course I looked up at Joe when he announced Marlo was fine and said," Joseph Friedman she is not fine! She just fell off the bar!!"  And then proceed to scoop Marlo up and run out the tasting room in tears.  Apparently, Joe thought that when I stood up I was reaching out to take Marlo.  I don't see how he thought this since my hands were not reaching toward her, but whatever.  What's done is done.  Marlo is fine.  And after we realized there was no permanent damage done, we had a pretty good laugh about the incident.  I mean, can you imagine what those folks in the tasting room were saying about us after we left??!! Hilarious.  At least we gave them all a good wine tasting story to tell.  Classic, humiliating stuff.  Of course we didn't tell Mary.  She'd be so mad . 

That one goes down in the bad parenting log for sure!  Anwho - here are some pics from the trip - I didn't take too many.

Ostriches at Ostrich land - we didn't feed these guys because they were crazy scary and looked like they'd eat your hand off in a second.

 

The Emus were smaller and much more chill so Liam fed the Emus.

Our favorite winery this trip was Bridlewood!  Great wine and GORGEOUS landscape - we became members, too!

We visited my dear friend Casey and Marlo warmed up right away to her adorable poodles - this is a picture of Marlo and Lily (sorry out of focus).  We also saw my friend and former colleague, Simon and his wife.  It's wonderful to have friends in the area - Joe and I are jealous that they get to live this life! 

This is the first time we did an olive oil tasting and we loved it.  We came home with some delicious organic olive oils.  I also will now feel bad every time I buy cheap olive oil since I've been schooled about why good olive oil is more expensive.  

And an adorable picture of my husband - I love this man more and more each day!