Heaven on Earth

It really might be. I've just returned from our annual Napa trip, and it was Heaven and more. I actually felt giddy riding the train to SLC all by myself to catch my flight, I knew how awesome this trip was going to be. My wonderful Husband picked me up at the train station took me to the airport and wished me a wonderful trip (I had to wonder if he was telling the truth or not, either way I was grateful he happily let me go!) Five of us and baby Sonnet flew out of SLC, the flight was quick and at the Oakland airport we were joyously reunited with our friends who'd flown in as well, Nic from Denver, Tiffany from Las Vegas and my sister Marci and baby Beckett all the way from DC, there were 10 of us total....we were gonna need a big car! Sherrie had booked two rental cars for the ten of us because the big van cost nearly $250 a day, but when we checked in the rental car agent took one look at her and upgraded us to that big van for only $200 for the entire four days(Any questions? Refer to Sherrie in her bathing suit in the following pictures)!
Anyway, we all piled into the "beast" and I, the designated driver crawled on up, this year we had my navigation system and come to find out it only takes a little over an hour to get to the house, a huge improvement to the nearly 4 hours it took last year! We stopped at the grocery on the way up and gathered our supplies for the next four days. Nic is our kitchen hostess, she plans all our meals and snacks and then creates the shopping lists, she then divides them up so everybody has a list to shop for. I had cheeses and meats, I bought nearly $50 in cheese alone, I counted 8 different kinds, brie, goat, baby swiss, blue, feta, cheddar.....well, you get the idea. We ate well, really well.

Meals were leisurely and usually late, we'd often eat dinner at 10 pm. Everyone did their part, on this trip I was of course the driver and chauffeur, and helped out in the kitchen, Tiffany ran the pool and hot tub, Nic prepared and coordinated meals, Sherrie was our own personal DJ and could find any song requested (courtesy of something called Pandora's box??) Tammy was bartender, and would deliver drinks to the pool every hour on the hour and all night long. Jen made sure we had snacks, treats, and always knew where the sunscreen was. Marci and Alyssia were both on baby duty and filled in where they could. It was heaven. The property and home are still amazing, they made a few minor improvements this year to the grounds and added a waterfall feature near the back patio.





We lounged and relaxed all over the place. Last year we scheduled massages at the local Napa spa, but were so sad about having to leave our little Napa oasis, even for a few hours, joked that next year we'd just bring masseuses to the house so we wouldn't have to ever leave. None of us actually followed through, however the owner of the house, a wonderful gentleman who happens to be my sister's father in law did. Friday afternoon TWO masseuses showed up at our door and gave each of us a full massage courtesy of this very generous man. Highlights of this years trip include, nightly singing sessions, a very revealing strip tease, and individual dance performances to the song of your choice poolside, I would love to go further in detail, however we declared long ago that "what happens in Napa, STAYS in Napa", hence you'll all just have to use your imaginations (trust me, it'll never be a good as the real thing!) Our weekend regretfully came to an end Sunday morning, we had offered to do some major cleaning of the house before we left as a bit of a parting gift and after all the wonderful generosity of these people we wanted to do a really good job.
Tammy and Sherrie own a cleaning company and knew exactly what had to be done, so bright and early that morning Tammy whipped us into shape, she has assigned jobs to everybody and checked up on a us regularly, we were a well oiled machine! That house sparkled when we left! So, here's to next year, I can't wait!