The Stevens Family

 
Memorial Weekend {Camping Trip}

We joined my parents and the rest of the family on Sunday in Buelton for a Memorial weekend "camping" trip.  I put camping in quotation marks, because we stayed in a hotel!  My parents got an RV spot for BigE, and my nieces stayed with them, while my brother and sister-in-law camped outside the RV in their tent.  The plan was for Katelyn to stay in the RV with the girls and my parents, but she had a slight fever and runny nose so we took her with us to the hotel.  Fortunately, she did not put up much of a fight which we were anticipating because she LOVES her cousins.  Even though we only got to go up on Sunday and Monday, it was a fantastic weekend!  Here are a few of the highlights of our trip:

Sunday evening we hung out at the camp site, and ate a delicious German dinner (all cooked in the RV...go Mom and Laura!)

The only shots I got the first night were a few of the kids running around:

{Emu and Ostrich Farm}
Monday (also Jason's 37th birthday!) was a jam-packed day of fun!  First we went to the crazy ostrich and emu farm.  Katelyn was of course scared of the giant birds, and Eric loved them!  I thought this sign was funny:

Lined up and ready for food!

Some emus eating food from Brianna's bowl:

Those ostriches were a little bit crazy, I think.

But, they have pretty eyelashes, and made us all crack up.

And finally, the craziest birds of them all:

Katelyn:

Eric:

 

and Allison:

 

{Miniature Horse Ranch}

After the emu and ostrich farm, we were off to the miniature horse ranch.  The coolest thing was that these miniature horsies had babies!  The kids loved looking at the horses, and being able to see one-day-old babies.  The one in this picture had actually been born the day before.  It's mama was certainly keeping a close eye on it.

There was a crazy horse kickin' in the field:

And here I am, so happy to have my picture taken!!  Ack!

 

Eric being oh-so-cute trying to "get" Daddy.

And, finally, one of the kids together looking at the horsies.

 

{WINERIES!!}

We took off next for the wineries for a picnic lunch and some wine tasting.  The first stop was lunch since everyone was hungry.  Roblar had a huge lawn area where we were able to let the kids run around and eat at a picnic table.

 

Allison and Brianna walking and playing with Eric.

These were some olives growing in a tree near where we ate lunch.

Why do kids never want to look at the camera??

Here he is...always running!

Karl, Laura, and the girls.

The Stevens Family

Katelyn keeps telling us, "Don't bother the bees, cuz they have work to do!"  I asked her where she heard that from, and she said Yo Gabba Gabba.  Figures.

At the next winery (don't remember what that one was called!) the kids, Jason and GramE went out and explored the property.  There was a pond with lots of dragonflies flying around, tadpoles, and lilypads.

Grapes growing:

Allison and Katelyn watching the tadpoles and crazy dragonflies.

If you look really closely, you can see the blue dragonflies.

Brianna and Katelyn:

Eric took a snooze on the way from the pond winery to Melville, my favorite of all the wineries we went to.  He slept for a bit, and woke up in a horrible mood once we got back to the RV park.  This is one of the few kids that likes to go take naps!

Melville Winery