Tyler's Birthday Surprise

Tyler's birthday was last Wednesday April 14. He celebrated the big 2-6! So, I decided to surprise him. He HATES surprises when he knows they are coming, so needless to say he was dying to know what I had planned for the day. His surprise actually started Tuesday night. He took the day off of work and we hung out all day. I planned a dinner and we made it together. We had coffee rubbed lamb, asparagus and mashed potatoes along with a nice bottle of wine. Dinner was very tasty! We had some s'mores for dessert.

On Wednesday I blindfolded him and got him in the car, where 3 of our friends were; and we started driving down to Lodi. Part way there our friends surprised Tyler, he had no idea they were in the car with us! I'm so sneaky. I can't believe the 3 of them were as quiet as they were for so long. Our first stop was the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center.

Tyler, Sam, Juan and Veronica

A close up of the 4 of them. Sam, Juan and Veronica work with me at Bradshaw Vet Clinic.

We did some wine tasting at the visitor center.

Tyler deciding what he wanted to try first. We bought a bottle of Klinkerbrick Old Vine Zinfandel. It is grown from vines that are at least 85 years old.

Some of the wines at the visitors centers. I really liked how they were displayed.

It makes for very nice pictures.

Outside the visitors center. They had a few different types of grape vines.

Sam and Juan

Awww...how cute!!!

Next, we went to The Dancing Fox Winery and Bakery for lunch. They had really good sandwiches and soup.

They even had Blue Moon; Tyler was happy! We shared a glass.

Tyler and I at lunch.

Woodbridge Winery was second on our list of wineries to visit. They had a free tour that we went on.

These are the storage tanks for the wines.

More views of the storage tanks. Our tour group was pretty small just us and 3 other people.

Redwood wine tanks. It smelled really good in this room.

Sam taking a picture of me, taking a picture of her!! LOL

Tyler enjoying his day.

The wine filling station. It was all automatic.

I loved this shot. good motion shot.

I thought these signs were funny. Pedestrians make pretty good speed bumps.

Wine barrel storage. There were so many barrels in this room.

I love this picture! This is a wrought iron "window" in a gate. And Juan in the background.

Tyler, me and Juan

The couples

The boys are being dorks. Veronica is actually in a picture!!!

Last stop, Michael David Winery .

We bought a bottle of Symphony and some cheese and went outside and enjoyed the weather and company.

Tyler enjoying his wine.

It was a very nice day. Lodi is only about 30 minutes away so it's a very easy drive and there are a ton of wineries there. We may have to make another trip sometime. We ended up buying 6 bottles of wine! Can't wait to enjoy them with my husband and relive our day together. Now we just need a nice wine rack to store all our bottles of wine.

After the wine tasting we headed back to our house and had a few other people over for a BBQ. Tyler grilled up hamburgers and hotdogs. Sam made pasta salad, and Veronica made a 7 layer dip. I made German chocolate cake for the birthday boy. He liked it so much he ate it for breakfast the next morning.

Shelby and Duke

While playing around with my camera in manual mode I decided to practice on my puppies! I got some pretty good shots of the crazy beasts. Aren't they cute? Look at all the wrinkles!

This is Duke, he is almost 3 years old. We rescued him last Febuary. The owners could not afford to keep him anymore. He fits in perfectly and him and Shelby are inseparable. Who would have thought?

trying to figure out what the camera is. I love the up close shots of Shar Pei's, it makes their noses look even bigger!!

I love this shot! He looks so handsome..all those wrinkles and the pretty blue sky.

Here is the queen bee, Shelby. We rescued her from the Wood County Humane Society almost 5 years ago right before we moved out to California. She has been a lot of work, but she is a really great dog! she did not want anything to do with the camera. I like this shot with the sun in the background.

Look at those lips.

Her classic regal pose. She looks huge in this picture.

Yard Work

A couple of weeks ago Tyler and I redid some landscaping in our front yard. We had a ugly tree in front of our bay window that we ripped out and replaced with a smaller bush, some new mulch and edging.

Just a back/side view of my new car!

Side view of the car.

Cubie loaded down with landscaping supplies.

Action shot of Tyler trying to dig out the stump of the ugly tree in front.

Still digging.

It was really in there, it had a lot of roots; some of them were really thick too.

Depth of Field shot. I was having fun with my new camera!

Isn't he so cute?

Still working at it.

Me with a huge root ball I pulled out of the ground.

Look who finally won the battle!

Here's what the front looks like now. I know the bush is a little small now, but it will grow and look a lot nicer that the huge overgrown tree that was there before.

Close up of the bush, it has little pink flowers.

Tyler enjoying his accomplishment! He hates when I take pictures of him.