Being Social at Picchetti Winery/Open Space Preserve

We have had this Sunday planned for over a month. Our family, plus the P family and the J family were to all meet at the winery for a little hike and picnic lunch. Sadly the J family was plagued with sickness this week, and when the youngest woke this morning with a fever they had to cancel. :( However, another family, even newer than we are, were able to join us. Jen and Tim...no idea their last name.

We got there at 10:30ish, applied sunscreen to every bit of skin showing and took off for a little hike. My only goal was to NOT repeat the hike we did with Oma and Opa! Too too much, especially since all 3 families had a stroller in tow - one with a 1/2 way flat tire. We walked a bit to the nearly dried up pond and explored there for a good while. We found BABY FROGS which I don't think I have seen in the wild before. So so so cute. I picked one up to show to all the kids. Wyatt wanted to hold it, and of course it jumped out of his hand, but he was thrilled for a bit.

You can barely see one in the V created by the two grassy stalks, and another to the left of the yellowish grassy stalk of the V.  At first I thought they were crickets, as they are about that size, but closer inspection reveals hundreds of these cuties.

I turned many logs over to show the kids what would be under it, and several interesting things. The most interesting thing was I believe the momma frog.  So very well camouflaged that it was quite difficult to see her until she moved just slightly. Then it was alarming because she was so big. Bigger than my hand. We spent a good while at the pond exploring. Zachary had little interest in the pond bed, but spent most of his time climbing the fallen log that we climbed before with Opa and Oma.

A special thanks to Meeah P who took all the pictures. I had a definite mom fail because I did not take a single picture, knowing that the likelihood of an experience with no pictures making it to the blog are slim to none. Whew!

After the big kids were done inspecting the dead lizard, it was time for a bit more hiking. We stayed to the Zinfandel trail this time, knowing we would just do part of it and then turn around. No more loops until it is just us, in case we come across horribly steep hills again. We probably hiked for a good 20 minutes there and back. Nice and easy trail. Went over a small stream with a tiny waterfall. Z constantly on the lookout for bobcats. :) Yannick and his buddy Noah were banned to the strollers as it was a bit of a steep drop from the trail. They made the best of it though.

It was quite comfy out, and the trail was mostly shaded. If we had not had people with us, we would have done the entire trail and back, which was not long, maybe 2m round trip. HOWEVER, I did have another mom FAIL by not making sure we had enough water. I always keep a sports bottle in my oversize purse, but neglected to see that it was only 1/2 full. Yannick and Wyatt drank all the water, and for those of you that know me, having no water available makes me panicky. The P family had plenty, and we got some from them, but just a gentle reminder to me that it is important to check. I had loads of ice water back in the car for lunch, but not enough on the trail.

[Short slightly related story to remember: Long long ago before we had Zachary, Art and I flew to Tucson to visit the Szlemko families. We had taken what we thought would be a short hike with Matt and Autumn, that turned out to be hours in the blazing sun. Art and I had not brought nearly enough water for even half the hike. Matt and Autumn had brought several bottles but most were frozen. It was a horrible game of trying to get a few sips out at a time waiting for the water to melt already!]

We headed back earlier than Art would have liked, but one of the families with us had to leave early, so we got back around noon for lunch. Normal time for most people. We noticed right away that there were new signs posted on the picnic tables. Art glance at it and said that it was the winery's rules. I never even looked at it. We should have though, because one of the winery staff came by and asked us to stop playing with the balls. Then, upon reading the rules, no longer allowed to play any ball games. That significantly reduces the fun factor for our family. I am not sure what entertainment the kids accept (besides iphone, ipad) now when we go. It just means that Art and I will have less time to sit after lunch b/c the kids will get bored faster.

We put 5 of the 7 kids at one picnic table (two kids were infants and stayed in the stroller etc) and the adults sat at the other one. It was an enjoyable time, even if we ended up doing more parenting than chatting with adults. Poor Noah fell off the bench and got a bloody nose, though after about 2 minutes, he did not seem to mind.

we did not stay for the wine tasting mainly because the boys were getting a bit antsy, with the fun balls RIGHT THERE in the stroller and not being allowed to used them.

And enjoyable outing!

And yes, all 5 of us had our tie dye shirts on we made last summer!! Yep, we are THAT family! :)