Working in the Vineyard

The LDS Church has a vineyard close by.  Every year, members of our church here locally work in the vineyard to help harvest all the grapes.  Last year was our family's first year in Fresno for the harvest and I was pregnant and tired, so I volunteered to stay home with the kids while Aaron worked in the vineyard.  This year though was my turn (Aaron actually still went too and put in way more hours then me in the end but I was there opening night and felt pretty cool about it :)).  My church assignment recently changed to working with the 12-13 year old girls in our ward and my first mutual activity with them was the vineyard.  Exciting stuff.  I brought my grape knife and working gloves and joined everyone who turned out to work.   We cut down grapes as quickly as we could before the sun went down.  I really enjoyed my time out there and was happy to be able to serve.

There's just something so picturesque about rows and rows of grapes, not to mention the good people in the midst of those rows and rows who give up their weeknights to "labor in the vineyard."

And here's a video of a church vineyard that a friend shared on Facebook.  I don't know if it's of our Madera vineyard or not but it sure is pretty and mesmerizing to watch.

Last Dinner in Park City and Back to Real Life

On our last night we headed into Park City to eat a yummy Mexican dinner.  Half of the gang had already left to get back to California but we weren't letting the party die early!

Following dinner we walked the Park City neighborhoods. Those hills definitely did a number on our full tummies.

^^A cute house we passed by.

We spent one more night at the cabin and then packed up the next morning to head home on a plane. 

Ford is officially a pro at traveling by now.

Thank you Hewlett family for letting us stay in your amazing cabin!!  And thank you McKells for being so great!  Can't wait til next summer's trip :)))

Cabin Times

Some of the best times of the trip were spent just hanging out all together at the cabin.  The boys had an ongoing ping pong competition going on.  We loved to swing in the swings out front.  We stayed up late playing games and chatting.  We even did s'mores in the firepit outback.  

We also took full advantage of the games out back in the beach volleyball court...

And at one moment the cows were going crazy so we all rushed up the drive way to see what was happening.  Turns out one cow in particular was brave and came right up the cabin to play around with Hope, Austin and Chandra's dog.

We took a short break from the cabin one afternoon to go swimming in the local rec center.  I took advantage of the lap pool and lasted all of 5 minutes.  My lung capacity is not what it once was!  But man it felt good to do a little freestyle.

Ford was wiped out halfway through swimming and fell asleep in a heartbeat on my chest.  I soaked it up because this never happens anymore.  Eleanor continued to swim her little heart out and even went down the big slide with Aaron.   She sure loves her water.

One of the nights we celebrated Aaron's upcoming 22nd birthday with a mini party. Annie made a cake and we gave him some gifts.

 ^^I call this one "The Birthday Wish" :)

And when we weren't celebrating birthdays in the evening, we were relaxing around the living while the children slept soundly downstairs (my favorite part of the day ;)).

Behind the Scenes of Family Photos

We took family photos with the wonderful Emily Stewart (my sister-in-law :)) at the big, white barn in Park City.  I snapped this photo as we were leaving.  The whole area was so picturesque!

I'll save the official pictures from Emily for another time (they turned out so well!) but here are some fun behind the scene shots.  I just wish I had gotten a picture of the barn in!

ATV Rides

One afternoon, the whole gang went for an ATV ride while I hung back with Ford.

I made Aaron swear that he would drive carefully with Eleanor and that he would take loads of pictures for me to see afterwards.

When I was thumbing through these photos after their ride I just kept cracking up at Eleanor's focus on "driving."  She was SO into it!

^^Cute hand holding moment :)

 ^^Those cheeks!! Two and a half years old and she's still got 'em.

 ^^This picture cracks me up!