We Went to Napa

 I've never been to Napa before, actually I've never been to California, and since Jason had a meeting in Sonoma last week, we decided to take him up on his offer and meet him out that way for the weekend.

I met Scott and Debbie at the airport in San Fransico, and we headed out.  I saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from the car (it was too foggy for pictures).  So the only things I missed in San Fran were the 2 things my childhood showed me on TV:  The Full House house and people eating Rice-A-Roni on cable cars. (Is it still considered the San Fransico treat?)

In Napa we saw lots of vineyards and grapes

lots of wineries 

and restaurants. (We drove past The French Laundry and had to explain to Jason it was pretty much the most famous restaurant in the United States, which of course, he'd never heard of.)

What most surprised me was the number of wild turkeys we saw.

And this bumper sticker

The weather was nice and cool, but I almost died when I saw the price of gas.

We had lots of fun, and Debbie and I took pictures with different backgrounds:

A vineyard

A cave

Pretty Wallpaper 

(I literally said "let's take a picture with this pretty wallpaper".) 

And the best background of all...

Last First XC Meet

 Reed had his last first cross country meet on Friday.  

I love this picture of him at the start, he stands out in his red uniform and looks so tall

 It was a big loop course so we could only see him once if we wanted to make it back to the finish line.  The sun was terrible but he's in the group behind the first 3 runners.  And yes, we barely made it in time to see him at this spot. 

From here we went over to the finish line knowing we wouldn't be fast enough to make it back if we went to another spot.  

We knew from the time they would be getting close and Jason said "there's 2 out front".  I assumed 1 of the top 3 runners I'd seen before had fallen back, and Reed would be battling it out for one of the top 5 spots, but then Jason and I both noticed the red uniform and Reed's running gate.  

Here they come toward the finish. 

And I used Reed's version from Instagram since it covers up my screaming.  

You'll see him look back at the beginning of the video.  There wasn't anybody that was going to catch him, so he knew then he was only racing the clock. 

It was so fun to watch him get 2nd (out of 97) with a time of 13:12 (4K)

I asked him if he ever thought he'd be finishing like this when he was a little freshman runner, because I sure didn't! 

Last Day of Work

 JR finished up his summer gig last Thursday and made it back to Oxford on Friday.  They gave him a very nice send off on social media, and I'm so glad he's had such a fantastic opportunity all these summers. 

And to think this all started because we happened to go there during Spring Break of 2022.  I went back and looked to see if there were pictures from then, and yep, here's what I found. 

Last First Day of School

 We had the last first day of school today. 

Reed left at 5:45, which is exciting because he has a parking spot this year so he doesn't have to wake up until 5:30.

Kyle has late arrival, which will be nice until he gets his pig, but he left earlier this morning than he had to to have breakfast with his friends.

And Chloe had her picture taken after her last first day of school walk.

Summer Wrap Up

 With today being the last day of summer here's all the things I didn't post about. 

I celebrated my birthday on our cruise, but I had other celebrations too.  Here's one of them.

We saw Morgan Wallen in concert in June and he was amazing!

We celebrated the 4th in Galveston.

Chloe had her annual Troll picture made in Breckenridge.

Reed had to start cross country practice on Aug 1st.  

He spent exactly 12 days at home this entire summer. 

And Kyle wrapped up summer with a concert.

Jan Goes to Charleston

 I had lots of "celebrity" sightings while I was in Charleston.

I found Craig from Southern Charm's store.  (I bought a hat.)

I saw landmarks from the movie, The Notebook (Jason is acting like he has no idea what I'm talking about even though he watches it every time it's on TV.)

In the movie Allie goes to Sarah Lawernce for college, but those scenes were actually filmed at College of Charleston.  

They also told us that Outer Banks films there a lot, but I haven't seen that show to get excited over that. 

Now, not exactly a "celebrity sighting", but I did see the KD house.

And most exciting of all.  I ran into the College of Charleson ADPis.  I'd been seeing their TikToks and when I saw them in town I squealed and asked for a picture with them.  They were as excited to have a "fan" as I was to see them!

And here's the TikTok they were filming when I ran into them.

Kyle Goes to Charleston

Last week Kyle and I went up to visit the College of Charleston. 

Kyle went fishing while we were there.

And we got dressed up to eat lots of good food.

The college is in the middle of town, but you definitely don't feel like you are in a city! I thought it was super cute.

Jan Goes to Boston

 I had a fantastic time in Boston, though what I got most excited about might not be on the typical Freedom Trail tour (though I saw that too).

I went to the Cheers bar!

We chose to sit at the bar that looks like the set (obviously) and I was able to sit right next to the Norm seat. (And there he is over my shoulder).

We ate at America's oldest restaurant, Union Oyster House, and I had clam chowder at almost every meal.  I'm aware this is a giant lobster, but I didn't see a giant clam to take a picture with.

I was in love with our hotel.  Look how cute the wallpaper is.  It's American Revolutionaries and marathoners! 

Speaking of the Revolutionaries, I saw lots of them. 

We went to Boston Common and saw the spot Scott and Debbie got engaged.

Where I almost stepped on this squirrel, so I'm not sure if it was super hot, super tame, or both.

And the Babson campus made me feel right at home.  

I don't think it's a coincidence that the Reynolds Campus Center is where the snacks and restaurants are located!