February Happenings

For whatever reason I haven't been taking as many photos of recent events lately. However, I did take a MILLION photos of our niece, lil' nugget Briley. You can tell by the photos that I never wanted to put her down, which is why I'm holing her in so many. This post features a ton of pictures of Briley from my recent trip home to visit her and the fam for a few days, and it also features a recent day trip to Napa and the famous Chinatown Chinese New Year's Parade. Enjoy!

Trip to Visit Family and Briley


Briley likes to smile, now. Especially when she's laying in her crib where she can move her arms and kick her legs.

The animal preserve near my parents' home houses zebras...random!

Great-granddaddy with his future lil' Gator cheerleader!

Will Briely become another die-hard loving Gator fan in the family? If her Papa has anything to do with it she sure will!

The way Briley prefers to be dressed....naked or with only a diaper on. She's always so happy when she's clothes-free. Check out those rolls developing on her thighs!

Briley's favorite lady in the world...her mom! (Kinda looks like she's giving the bird to the camera, but Briley swears it's not her middle finger).

Her favorite aunt, of course.

So stylish already...I love how's she's got such a big smile on her face!

Briley's not sure how she feels in this poofy dress.

Chipmunk cheeks!

Four generations are in this photo...amazing.

Can you read the shirt? Says, "My auntie loves me."

Beautiful grandmother with her great-granddaughter. I love this photo.

Last picture before heading to the airport. Briley's a girl after my own heart wearing my favorite colors to style....the nautical look!

Day Trip to Napa
We are fortunate to have beautiful wine country close to us, so we take advantage of Napa/Sonoma when we get the opportunity. There are so many wineries to visit it's unbelievable...we'll never visit them all! Mike's co-worker provided us with a list of his favorite wineries, so we visited two of them: Miner Family Vineyards and Paradigm Winery. And, of course, we stopped at our favorite winery, Castello di Amerosa.

This was our first visit to Napa during the winter months and I must say the vines were sticks. However, given that this winter has been unusually warm and severly lacking rain, the wildflowers were in full bloom! I love how they've taken over this vineyard at Paradigm...at least until they'll be mowed down once the vines start blooming.

One of the sheep at Castello di Amerosa. I named her Dolly.

View of the Valley from Miner Family Vineyards.

Chinese New Year's Parade in Chinatown
The Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year's Parade is an annual parade in San Francisco. There's such a large Asian community in SF...particularly in Chinatown. Myself, Mike and Davy decided to catch the parade this year followed by eating a Chinese feast in Chinatown. Other than it being insanely windy and cold that evening, we had a great time!

Davy and me

The crowd is starting to gather...

It was difficult for me to take good photos because it was dark outside. Here's one of the large dragons passing us by.

The Halls trying to stay warm!