One Week in Houston

I have spent my first week of two in Houston, as of today, and it has been so wonderful! Mitchell was with me for Marcia & Topher's wedding weekend and then he flew back Sunday evening and has spent the week working. He is currently on his way back to Houston now and will be here until June 3rd when we both go back.

My mom picked us up from the airport and took us to lunch... at Whataburger! We definitely don't have those in Cali and Mitchell was craving an A1 Thick and Hearty burger. My sister met us up there and I got to see her after 5 months.

The wedding weekend in New Braunfels was beautiful but unfortunately my pictures from that are on the camera and I didn't bring the cable home to connect it to the computer! The Texas Hill Country is my favorite part of Texas so we fully enjoyed being there. At the wedding we got to see a lot of our Houston friends which was so amazing. We miss those guys so much!

Having lunch with Hubs in New Braunfels before the wedding

On Sunday, Mitchell went back to Sac and I have spent the whole week spending time with my family and seeing friends. I'm trying to take pictures of everything I do but I've unfortunately already forgotten some! Bummer!

Cheers to two weeks in Texas with my parents!

Taking my little brother, Ricky to lunch

Happy Hour Sonic drink!

Meeting my brother's girlfriend, Ashlyn and Liddy at Starbucks

One of my old coworkers had her baby a week ago! Meet Baby Damon!

My other old coworker, Laura came along and brought her 9 month old, Easton!

Doing nails with Liddy!

Next week will be just as jam packed with fun activities and seeing people so I'll be sure and update the blog. After living in a completely new place for 5 months it is so relaxing and comforting for me to come back to familiarity. It's so funny how you miss the most insignificant things, like the weather being warm in the mornings, having history at certain places, or favorite restaurants. This trip home has felt like one giant "Ahhhh". :)

Mitchell's 26th Birthday

On May 15th, Mitchell turned 26 and considering birthdays are kinda a big deal, I wanted to make sure it was special!

Birthday breakfast: Growing up, Mitchell always had blueberry muffins with "crumblies" (streusel) on top so I got out of bed at the first alarm and whipped them together and got them in the oven. Mitchell woke up right about the time that the aroma of the muffins hit the bedroom.

Birthday presents: Before work, Mitchell opened up his birthday cards and gifts. His parents sent him/us gift cards to the movies and our favorite restaurants. From me, Mitchell got a book about the CIA and a guitar! I am not qualified to pick one out so he just got a picture of a guitar and a promise to find him one!

All his cards and gifts

With his new CIA book from me

Gift cards from mom and dad!

Playing his new guitar... kind of

Birthday work: Mitchell is going to work on his birthday. Apparently he's ready to conquer the world!

Birthday lunch: Freebirds opened a brand new restaurant pretty close to us on Mitchell's birthday so of course, we had to go there! One of Mitchell's coworkers and his family came with us. So many people wished Mitchell a happy birthday because I bought him a "Birthday Boy" pin to wear on his shirt. The entire restaurant even sung him Happy Birthday! Special!

Mitchell with the Mortons

Birthday cake: I took Mitchell's favorite Snickerdoodle cake up to the office to share. One of his coworkers thought it was the perfect cake. I have to agree ;)

Greenleaf saying Happy Birthday!

Birthday dinner: Two couples that we are closest with thus far met us at Cheesecake Factory for Mitchell's birthday dinner. We had a blast! We had a great waitress, great food, great cheesecake, great conversation, great laughs. We are truly blessed with some really great friends!

Happy Birthday from the Cheesecake Factory

With my love on his birthday

With the Nickols and the Lynns

Mitchell says he had a wonderful birthday! I surely hope so. Making someone's birthday special brings me much joy!

Greenleaf Retreat

Mitchell's company, Greenleaf Power, generously invited all of the shareholders and their spouses on a retreat aka "off-site meeting" in Napa Valley Thursday and Friday of this week. The company has been doing really well and the employees working really hard so this was a way to celebrate and reward everyone. The location of the retreat was the Silverado Resort off of the Silverado Trail, which runs along the east side of the valley.

The mansion of the Silverado Resort

Mitchell worked half a day on Thursday, came home to pick me up and then we headed out to Napa. All of the employees had to be at the resort and in the conference at 2pm. While they were in the meeting, the spouses hung out in the resort's restaurant and out by the pool. The meeting went until 6pm so I had a bit of time to relax on the porch of our room, right off hole 1 of the golf course. It was a beautiful view!

The view from our room

So proud of him :)

Outside our room - definitely a set the camera on self-timer type picture

Dinner was catered by the resort out on the bocce ball courts! They had three tables set out with a buffet style barbecue dinner with cherry cobbler and ice cream for dessert. It was delicious! We played bocce ball before and after dinner. If you haven't played bocce ball it's kind of like shuffle board but on the ground and with bigger balls. We were out there for about three hours and had a wonderful time!

Amy, Marsha and Amanda after dinner on the bocce ball courts

Rob, throwing out his ball

Blurry Mitchell throwing his ball

Friday morning, we woke up early to a beautiful view before the sun rose over the mountains.

About 30 minutes later the sun came up and we were blinded

We met up with some of Mitchell's coworkers for breakfast at the restaurant and then embarked on our company sponsored activity for the day - either a round of 18 holes of golf or a wineries tour. Mitchell chose golf, I chose the winery tour. There were six golfers so they split into two teams of three and played best ball. I forgot to ask Mitchell to take pictures so there are none of his day. :(

Here's our group picture of those on the winery tour before we left :)

Our driver took us to three wineries - Black Stallion, Mumm Napa and Rutherford! All eleven of us piled into a van and were on our way! Our driver had already set up our tastings and planned out our day so we just got to go along for the ride! It's so much prettier in Napa now that the vines are actually growing! The vines are about to flower and then the grapes will start growing. They will harvest in August/September when I hear it is absolutely beautiful because the leaves will be turning colors!

Black Stallion

Out in the vineyard

Brooke, Amanda and Christine in the Black Stallion tasting room

Marsha, Amy and Pat tasting their Sauvignon Blanc

View from Mumm Napa - gorgeous!

The men of our group - Bob, Charlie (Mitchell's boss) and Pat

Picnic lunch at Rutherford!

After rendez vous-ing back at the resort after golf/winery tour, we headed back to Sacramento! What a wonderful time with such a generous company!

First ever Martin Family Camping trip

This last weekend Mitchell and I went on our first camping trip together! We got a lot of camping supplies from our families for Christmas and we finally got to put it to good use. Since this was our first trip together and our first trip with all of our new stuff, we didn't venture too far away from Sacramento. We booked a campsite for two nights at Folsom Lake State Recreation Area.

When Mitchell got home from work on Friday afternoon, I had everything laid out and ready to pack into the car. We loaded it up and stopped at the grocery store for our food for the weekend and then got on the road!

Once we made it to the park (about 20 minutes away, haha) we located our campsite and begin to set up camp! Our instant tent took literally two minutes to pop together - best idea ever!

With our tent up and everything unloaded, Mitchell went to work on our camp fire. We realized pretty quickly that I forgot matches/lighter/lighter fluid. :-/ In my defense, they were on the list but I didn't grab them before we left. So I take the car back to civilization (2 minutes away) and buy the supplies needed for Mitchell to make a great fire!

Right before bed we realized I forgot one of the most important components of our comfort on this trip... pillows! Again, they were on the list, I just didn't grab them. So our "pillows" were crumpled up towels and fleeces. *sigh*

Saturday morning, we woke up and I made a cup of camping coffee with my fancy coffee mug that presses the coffee and then strains the grinds out. Sweet! I used our handy dandy propane stove to make breakfast burritos. Yum!

For the most of the day on Saturday we either went for hikes around the lake on the trails or read and chilled at our campsite. The weather was perfect for camping!

Mitchell is looking all studly as he looks out over the lake!

I picked a bluebonnet because I'm in California now and there's no law against it!

Dinner and dessert on Saturday night were epic... silver turtles and dutch oven peach cobbler! Uh-mazing!

Putting together the silver turtles!

Peach cobbler baked to perfect!

Yum!

Sunday morning we woke up and had the same breakfast as the day before and enjoyed a quiet morning before heading back to town. Poor Mitchell got sunburned on our hike on Saturday and we were both a little sleep deprived after sleeping on an air mattress without pillows for two nights. We were ready to be back home!

Our trip was a blast and Mitchell was a great camping partner! We can't wait to do this with friends and kids one day! We are practicing now so we'll be pros when we're with other people! :)