I LOVE surprises!!!

I love surprises. 

Especially when they involve a getaway.

Since Brian knows me oh-so-well, he did just that for Valentine's weekend and I was over the moon ecstatic!

He whisked me away to Walla Walla, Washington for wine tasting! You will be shocked to know that I have never been wine tasting, even though I am a huge fan of the fermented grape juice. I seriously could not have planned this better myself.

Brian's friend Craig and his girlfriend, Jessica (whom we have hiked Timberline with, twice), were housesitting for Jessica's brother who just happens to live on their families wine vineyard. So we got to stay there and it was such a nice place. 

Brian's Mom came up and stayed the weekend with the girls and Heather and Tracy helped. They took them swimming, out to pizza places, and spoiled them good! It takes a village and I'm grateful for my village. 

We headed up Friday afternoon and stopped at one of our favorite breweries, pFriem, in Hood River.

We arrived in Walla Walla that evening and got to have a private tour of the tasting room at Jessica's families winery.

 Believe it or not, I did not drink much wine that evening. I wanted to be fresh and ready for our Saturday wine tastings!

 But that doesn't mean I don't like to be a weirdo and be crazy :)

So, Saturday morning we started bright and early at 10:30 am. You may think that's too early to begin tasting wine...but you'd be crazy.

We had a local guy drive us around. It's actually such a cool service, instead of renting a limo or big SUV (that's cool, but it's also muchos dineros), he drove our car for us! His name was Tom, and Tom was the bomb.
My two favorite things about Tom:
1. His recommendation (Adamant Winery) ended up being our FAVORITE
2. Our last stop was closing up but when they saw we were with Tom (every winery knew and loved Tom) they welcomed us in :)

The wine tasting experience was slightly different than I had expected. Tasting rooms are very plain and simple and it's all about tasting the wine. I guess I had envisioned sitting at a table, looking over a gorgeous view, sipping wine and chatting. While the gorgeous view was sometimes true, you don't sit at a table, in fact most the time there was no seating at all and the rooms had very little.
This was not a bad thing, just different than I had expected. It did allow for us to visit more places which was great.

This is my favorite picture of us. Upon seeing this picture, my sister Jenny hit it spot on, she said, "This is the type of picture your girls will look at when they are older and think, THIS is mom and dad."

He makes me laugh like no one else can, damn I love him

 Another interesting wine tasting thing, there is a bucket for you to dump your wine if you don't want to drink all of it. I was hesitant to use it because I didn't want to be rude, but it was very much encouraged so I used it on almost every taste! They pour small amounts but still, with 9 wineries to visit, I didn't want to be passed out at noon.
And I wasn't, I enjoyed my wine tasting booty off until the very end. And our last place was actually the one place that was large, had seating and a gorgeous view off the balcony.

Lovers

Just a little serenade...pretty standard

Look at that face, he knows he did good!

Cheers

Our wine tasting buddies, Jess and Craig

Snacking in the car between wineries!

After we got back home we walked around the vineyard and met a sweet donkey named Sage. Random? Yes. Fun? Totally.

That evening we went to a special Valentine's dinner and the food was delicious. 

We woke up Sunday, went to brunch, and then headed home.

I seriously can't tell you how amazing the weekend was. Brian and I had the best time together and I LOVED having so much quality time with him. He really is my best friend and when life gets busy with traveling and kids...these getaways are essential in filling my love tank. 

Thank you amazing husband, you are the best!