Wine Country

First, the insurance update:
We think (and are praying, hoping, wishing, and crossing our fingers) that even though the HMO portion of our insurance denied our request to Stanford, we can still choose to go there with our PPO portion. The hang-up has been the 20% copay, which would be way too much for us to afford. But, we found that our individual maximum for one year is $3500. We have to double and triple check that Stanford is a contracted hospital and that all the doctors we might see are contracted also, but if they are we can keep surgery for May 23 with the amazing Dr. Hanley and only pay $3500. I say that is a bargain!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

We had a busy weekend! Saturday morning we bought a new car! Well, not brand new, but new to us. It is a 2005 Nissan Maxima and it is very pretty. It is white with leather interior and it is a stick shift. It is our car for going places without the children. :) We have lived with only one car for about two years now and it really wasn't too difficult. Since Dan works at home it is a rare occasion that we both need to use the car at the same time. But it was becoming a hassle more and more often so we decided it was time to purchase a second vehicle. Dan found a great deal on craigslist and now we have a pretty new car!

Our new car

Saturday afternoon I visited the Amador wine country with some friends. We did a little wine tasting and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I didn't take any pictures, but I wish that I had! A note to anyone who is planning to visit, all the wineries are closed by 5. We didn't know that ahead of time so we only got to visit two wineries, but we still had fun!

My parents also flew in yesterday for the weekend, mainly to attend my cousin's going away party on Sunday. But they were here hanging out with the kids and Dan while I was gone on Saturday. Then this morning they stayed with the kids while Dan and I drove the new car to church. My parents took them to the party early and we met everyone up there later. I love having the grandparents here! It was so fun driving by ourselves! I could pump my loud hip-hop music and not worry what little ears might hear. And I sang loud and danced around in the passenger seat and Ava wasn't there to admonish me with her "no dancing!" AND we drove by cows, horses, sheep and goats and didn't have to point them out to anyone! And the most fun part? We stopped at another winery (Bella Piazza) on the way to my aunt's house (she lives in Sutter Creek, right by the wineries I was at yesterday) and tasted their delicious wines. We even ended up joining the wine club and buying a case of zinfandel!

Then we headed to the going away party where there was enough food to feed an army! Adam and Becky are moving to Yellowstone in a week and we are really going to miss them! My cousin Adam used to take care of Drew for us when I was working part time. He was so good with him and would work with him on his OT. Both kids just love them! We are definitely going to have to make a trip out to Wyoming!

Adam and Becky with the kids at Easter

Adam with Drew when he was a baby