Flying Flags 2022

So we had huge debates about this and it's been settled that the traditional Flying Flags glamping for Pam's birthday/Halloween started in 2016, so this is the sixth year we've been doing this! We haven't attended every year (I think we had to miss 2018 because of all the wedding preparations, and didn't go 2020 since it was too close to Sophie's due date) but it's always on the calendar until proven otherwise!

It's a very different experience with a toddler (oh how I miss being able to sit around the campfire with a glass of wine and talk uninterrupted for hours!) but it's been a fun change too, also a huge difference between last year and this year just with Sophie's age and abilities. 

We left Thursday night to avoid traffic and so Sophie could just sleep on the drive up. We got up late Thursday night and basically just went to bed. We had a row of the wine cottages to ourselves and we had Zinfandel, split with Rob and Raf. The rest of the weekend we got to hang out and jump back and forth from our backyards to hang with everyone else, Sophie enjoyed the opportunities to ride her bike and play at the playground. Our usual Friday night activity is the dinner Debbie and her sister put together for us all dedicated to Pam's birthday, which was, as always, delicious!

I just loved this trailer and thought
it was a nice picture

Kacey was a viiiiiibe

She was not at all a fan of this outfit
(if you couldn't tell)

On Saturday we spent the morning in Solvang just down the road cause I can't resist visiting there when I can cause it's just too adorable! Our usual planned activities are the Friday night dinner dedicated to Pam's birthday, and then Saturday is our costumed progressive wine tasting where everyone brings a varietal that we taste test, and end with pizza and donuts as is part of Doug's family tradition (that I don't at all mind adopting for ourselves either!)

Acted like a Viking outside the Viking Room

Mexican train! (I was napping lol)

Star Wars crew! (Actually a coincidence they all matched)

Cat's out of the bag! We're Aladdin, Jasmine & Abu.
I did consider making Sophie Rajah so she would be MY
sidekick, but come on, Abu is a better character than
Rajah and I love that she's AJ's little sidekick :)

We were really worried about her wearing the full
costume because every time we tried, she was NOT
happy about the monkey hat, but we got it going! She
was actually excited about it and kept it on pretty
much all night!

The rosé room varietal tasting

Sunday was clean up and go-home day (our 3 hour drive is one of the shortest ones of everyone there! So everyone needs to get a pretty big head start on Sunday to get home) and you know me, I can't pass Santa Barbara without stopping somewhere! We visited Alameda Park in downtown, a super awesome park for kids for Sophie to play and get some energy out, then hit up an old favorite Argentine restaurant of ours on the east side for an empanada lunch before getting on the road.

Love the little mission art! We were here
at the top of the hour and got to hear the
mission bells chiming down the hill too,
it was so lovely

I drove and was getting so close to falling asleep that I had to break into the huge bag of hot Cheetos that Doug so kindly bought for me and that got me awake and through the rest of the ride. We were thanking our lucky stars that Debbie is in town cause she was happy to take over watching Sophie while we got a nap (yay!) and now today is actually Halloween and we're looking forward to tonight. I have a busy day at work though, so just trying to get through this first...