New Year's Resolution....

It is my New Year's resolution to be better at posting on this blog. I am going to aim for 3 per month. They may not be long posts- but that is my goal. I decided to start my resolution early so I can work up to it by January! :O) We just finished a busy couple of weeks with hosting Cousin's weekend 2009 and then Halloween. Cousin's weekend was an absolute blast. We had so much fun with all of the cousins. We started out the weekend on a Yacht sailing around San Francisco Bay. It was a beautiful day and we were all (including Natalie) enjoying the fresh air and sun and true to my family's style- nothing can ever go as planned.... the wind picked up, the boat started tilting, Candace started crying and Natalie started petting Candace's head. I had a death grip on Natalie and the boat railing and Candace had a death grip on me. Natalie was watching her with a look of confused concern and then started petting her head. It was pretty darn funny. So, once our captain figured out that it wasn't "fun" anymore, then he got us a little more leveled out and a discussion ensued in regards to sailing to a little bar in Sausalito for drinks and appetizers before returning to the car at about 8 ish. I said, No problem- as long as we're back at the car by 8 so Natalie can sleep on the way home. Riiiiiiiiiiight...... so we ended up leaving the bar at 8 and ooops! We're stuck because the tide went out. Try as we might, we can't get unstuck. So, we settle down to wait another 2 hours until Low Tide and then another couple of hours after that until it comes up again enough to get unstuck. Needless to say, we didn't leave the dock until 2:00am and after motoring around the Berkeley Shore looking for our marina (yep, our drunken captain couldn't find it) we finally got to the marina at 4:00 am and got back to the house at 6:00 am. Natalie was a trooper. She did sleep on the boat from about 9 till 4 am which I suppose is better than nothing. Whew- glad that's over... no more boat trips for us for a while. :O) We spent Saturday in Napa and went to Placerville wineries on Sunday with the cousins who didn't leave. What a wonderful weekend!!! (minus the boat drama) I was going to try to add some Halloween details, but that might have to wait until tomorrow night, I'm getting tired. AND that will give me my second November post! Enjoy the pics and I promise I'll post again soon!