Palm Springs

Vince had a work trip scheduled in L.A. and asked if I wanted to tag along-of course the answer was yes! I was excited to see one of my best friends Jaclyn who lives outside L.A. and to spend some kid free time with Vince! Vince's mom & his cousin Kelly graciously offered to watch the kiddos for us! We are beyond grateful for everyone who helped out and this possible for us! We left early Thursday morning and landed in rain (boo-but yay for California getting some rain). And somehow they rental car place screwed up and we ended up with a bright yellow Camaro convertible-lol! As soon as we hit the road to Palm Springs the skies turned blue! We made it to Palm Springs and checked into our Boutique Marriott-by far the nicest place we've stayed (minus our amazing temporary housing in Center City when we moved to Philly)! We had our own beautiful little apartment with a gorgeous balcony! Minus a little work for Vince we had had a nice relaxing few days in Palm Springs! Pool time, site seeing, all farm to table dining and a little outlet shopping! On Saturday we headed west to Riverside to see Jaclyn! I haven't been out to see her since Ben about 2 1/2 so a visit was long over due! Jaclyn took us on a quick tour of her apartment and then office and then to my favorite... In N Out burger for lunch! Then we headed to Temecula for some wine tasting! Our first stop was Mount Palomar Winery-it was literally the most beautiful place I have ever been! I kept asking Vince if we could get "remarried" there! We enjoyed a great wine tasting where I fell in love with their champagne! We spent some time on the grounds just catching up and enjoying the wine! After that we headed to Old Town Temecula and hit another winery that Jaclyn is a member of. Besides a wine tasting they also offer a olive oil & vinegar tasting-I was in heaven! WE of course stopped off to watch the KU game before we left Temecula! But we left Temecula with a bottle of champs & a few bottles of olive oil! Then we headed off to the  Mission Inn for dinner with Jaclyn to end our trip! It was an amazing long weekend made even better by getting to spend time with Jaclyn! I was torn when the trip ended- I missed the kids but also was enjoying the break and the alone time with Vince. The kids were so excited to see us when we got home! Nothing is better than those welcome home hugs we got! Again a giant thank you to Carol & Jimmy, my parents, Kelly & Matt, Maria and Elysa for watching our brood so we could escape and recharge our selves! Especially since Will ended up with pink eye on Friday-thank you Angela for calling in his eye drops!