Essence of Livermore Titmouse

I do all I can to be a supportive, submissive wife, so when it came time to accompany Colby in entertaining one of his colleagues for a day of Livermore wine-tasting again, I dutifully complied.  

Colby & I love having Livermore Wine Country right in our own backyard.  Many of the wineries are clustered together and often times we'll get to meet the owners and wine-makers of some of the smaller ones, who will talk to us personally about their different wines, let us taste directly from the bung hole of the barrels (yeah, I thought Beavis and Butthead coined the term, too) and if our timing is right, like today, we may even have the opportunity to bottle our own wine.

Before a wine-tasting excursion, Colby and I sometimes try to brush up on our terminology so we can deliberately include adjectives like woody, hearty, buttery, smoky, oaky and weighty or terms like nose, ascescence, ponderous, malolactic fermentation and oxidization.  However, as the day goes on, it is inevitable that Colby will eventually swish, gulp, then blurt out something like, "Mmm...  That one tastes like dirt."  Then I have to explain that what he means is "earthy."

Colby bottling his own 2003 Sangiovese at El Sol Winery:

And He's Off!

Reid finally grew into his retro Radio Flyer trike and now, not even this heat can stop him.  Corinne caught these shots of him in action.

Revving his engine:

His obsession with tractors is still alive with the construction that's going on around our house.

While Reid was chasing tractors, Ronin had it made in the shade.  He just chilled in his bouncy chair on the porch while we chased Reid up and down the sidewalk.

They Say to Enjoy It...

...Because they grow up so fast.  I first started hearing that during Reid's first few weeks of life and I remember thinking that may be true for all those who were not waking up every few hours of every night, not cleaning diaper blow-out after blow-out, and certainly not tending to scabby, cracking nipples between the round-the-clock feedings all while trying to recover from recently passing a human being from their holy of holies.  (Ok, so I had an adjustment period, alright??)  Anyway, maybe it's because I see who Reid is becoming, or maybe it was losing Olive, but whatever it is, I look at Ronin and just want to soak up every second of it.  It really is going by too fast.  I keep telling him to slow it down and take his time because I'm not ready to have another one yet!!  But he doesn't listen.  In fact, he went and turned 6 months old on me just the other day.  Unbelievable.

Ronin at 1 Week Old:

At 1 Month Old:

And now 6 Months Old:

My New Hobby

My new Mountain House mom-friend, Maggie was generous and trusting enough to let me play with her Nikon D90 recently, since I'm on the market for my first SLR (!).  While she and my old friend, Mandy and I were at our local park, I practiced shooting our kids, who don't really seem to care that I'm a beginner!  I'm thinking next time I'll stuff my pockets with goldfish crackers in hopes that they'll cooperate better, like we were taught in our doggie obedience class.  I'll toss one to them if they hold their pose just a long enough for me to catch the shot.  

Here are some of my meager attempts.  I've got to work on my focus, but I'm happy with the composition of some of them and I absolutely LOVED her camera.

Dad's Day

In honor of Father's Day, I started the morning off right with a homemade vanilla latte at Colby's request.  We then met up with family for a Mexican-style brunch.

Reid showed his love by sporting his matching Beastie Boys shirt. 

His & Hers

As long as I can remember, I've wanted a motorcycle.  I remember my parents paying $5 at the fair for me to get my polaroid picture taken on a huge Harley on display during my hair-crimping days (9-ish?).  Finally, a couple years ago, Colby and I got our M1 permits, but shortly after, I found out I was pregnant (with Olive), so that got put on the back burner.  A couple more babies later, Colby pursued his license again and bought his first bike from his good friend, Mike: A 2001 Kawasaki W650 w/cafe racer-style mods.

I humbled myself and told Colby that if he changed out the seat, I could settle with just riding on the back of his.  However, after catching a glimpse of the thrill of riding while just following behind him in my car a couple days later, I retracted that statement!  We found a modest, little bike for me to learn on: A 1975 Honda CB125S.  Colby's already been taking his bike out whenever he can, but I'm doing all I can to hold out until after our riding class in a couple weeks.

The Green Team & The Infamous Buggy Bus

My bible study group got together for an end-of-season potluck.  Our wardrobe color coordination was completely unplanned.  As one of the ladies puts it, we're just spiritually in synch.  We were so impressed with ourselves for it, we had to get a picture.

Meanwhile, Ronin was cruising with the his baby posse in the church's infamous baby buggy bus thing just outside our window.