Weekend hike and friends

We went on our first hike in Cali this weekend.  We've been wanting to go since we moved down, but the weekends just fill up and before you know it, 9 months have come and gone.  It was a short hike, but pretty much a steep incline the entire way.

 

Our destination was Lake Ranch Reservoir in Saratoga.  Saratoga is literally right down the street from us and the trails are about 25-30 minutes away.  The reservoir is really low due to the drought this year.  It sure was pretty.

 

When we first reached the lake, there were 7 deer grazing near the water.  They were really checking us out.

We followed some other deer watchers to get closer to them, but we scared the deer away.  I guess it is very rare to find them where we did, so we were excited to have seen them.

After the hike, we took a detour and followed some signs to wineries.  As we wound up the hills the homes turned into mansions and the views of the hillsides full of beautiful homes and vineyards were amazing.  We went all the way to the top of one hill to find this place, Mountain Winery.  You can see a small amphitheatre on the left which you can pay a pretty penny to see a concert, and then behind it is a view of all of Silicon Valley.  It was quite a sight.  These wineries are even closer to us, just miles down the road from us, and we were just discovering.  There is just so much to explore down here.

Sunday night we got a surprise visit from friends who are appropriately called Auntie and Uncle by our kids.  The kids just love them and there is good reason, they get down on the kids' level and play hard with them.  As a parent, it is a wonderful thing to have community that loves on your kids, especially when family is far away.

They played some card games and finished the night off with a rousing game of Old Maid.

 

 

The following series of pictures is from the last two trying not to end up with the Old Maid.  I love this! 

Poor Hannah was the Old Maid twice.  :)

 

Such a fun weekend.  The funnest weekends make for the hardest Mondays.  It is so good to know that the kids (one little boy in particular) absolutely adore having their daddy home on the weekend and feels complete when we are all together.  It just makes the Monday blues even harder.