the hornacek family: day in the beautiful napa valley.

for my mom's birthday, we all spent the day together wine tasting in the napa valley! lauri watched kyri and kaden so we could join in on the fun! mike, my mom's husband, planned a very special surprise indeed. he rented a cadillac limo to drive us around in style. so cool! he asked me to help find a gluten-free-friendly restaurant in napa for lunch and i found an amazing taco shop at the oxbow public market. we can't wait to go back there...the entire restaurant was gluten-free! my mom's good friend's jim and linda joined us too. my mom was so happy to be with those she loves most!

our first stop...castello di amorosa in calistoga. a beautiful winery in a real castle! we were just in awe of it's majestic structure. this was our first time wine tasting and what a perfect place to start. we did the entire tour of the castle and then had a private wine tasting with our group. our tour guide was hilarious! he had probably been sipping wine all day and was full of knowledge and witty humor. we thought he was a hoot! i'm not a huge wine drinker so there were a few i tried that i liked and a few i didn't. our favorites were the dessert wines! so fruity and sweet. kev and i even bought a $28 bottle of wine because we like it so much! we'll be saving that for a special occasion.

we stopped at one more winery . kev and i opted out of tasting any more wine...we had reached our limit. it was a beautiful day so we all enjoyed our gluten-fre pumpkin spice cupcakes outside. of course i was up for bring the birthday girl a treat! the whole day was coming along perfectly. i think it's safe to say that my mom had a fabulous birthday! she deserves all the love in the world. so glad we could be there to celebrate with her! they all had to get to chico early, so after kev and i were dropped off at our car in vacaville, we went on a little mini date. we couldn't not take advantage of being alone. we went to b.j.'s brewery and shared an amazing mediterranean pizza and wedge salad. oh yeah, and a warm, gooey pazookie too!