JANUARY

Happy New Year! The past few years we have headed up the mountain to Graeagle for New Years. This year we stuck around, and last minute made Cioppino and had a few friends over that were also with no plans. Good times had by all.
 

Winter break with friends.

 LEGO obsessed, these two!

 Who says it is too cold and rainy out for ice cream???

2017 in REVIEW - I always like looking at the top 9 pics from the year on Instagram.

  Such fun memories from the year.  NYC, Anniversary, Holidays, 1st day of school.

Fun day on the ranch with Chloe & Joe Barbera.  The Barbera's just had baby #3, and Gino was so sweet to take the big kids on an adventure and give Erica a break at home with the new addition.

 Basketball time.  Both kids are pumped to play Upward this year. This was Mike's first time coaching, and I think he has the bug. Giada loved it, and he really enjoyed helping each girl grow in her skills throughout the season.  We had a few girls that had never played before and coach Adam and Mike did a great job with them.

This guy is just here for the snacks!

 Happy birthday to Kam!

 Our Sydney girl had a rough month. She had a massive growth removed, but is on the mend. As of this post (April) she is doing great, back to her old self, and all healed up! I was really worried about this one. The vet told me it was more dangerous to leave this growth on her than the worry of putting her under at her age. So, off to surgery we went!  Good thing I had the best vet helper around to keep me company. 

 Good Foods Celebration.   Mike went up to accept the award for our company this year.  Hot Virgin Jalapeno was the big winner. As a bonus we got some time with our fellow winners, the Oliver Family.  This business has allowed us the opportunity to meet many amazing people and this Georgia family is at the top of the list.  So glad the girls could finally meet. One of these years we will make it there to see those Sunflowers in person.  It was Giada's birthday weekend, so she spent it in the city with us.

 Of course this girl wanted crab for her birthday dinner.  She did not understand why it isn't all you can eat at a restaurant, as it is at Crab Feeds. Fun spending the weekend with her all by herself. Special memories.

 Then we put her to work slinging olive oil. Thanks Linds, for sneaking her away for lunch.

 Boys didn't look like they were missing us at all!

 On her actual birthday I had to leave early to get back to the city for meetings. We had an early celebration before school, cake pops for her class and she was headed to dinner with Gino and Dad.

 Spoiled, she even got to sneak in so fun after school with Auntie Kristen.  Nail shop for the win.

 Crab Feed! Possibly one too many drinks, but what a fun night out!
 It always seems like a good idea at the time. 

 These two have been friends since birth and are just growing up SO fast.

It's a wonder that this guy has made it this long. "Hampse" seemed to enjoy his first tractor ride.

This year Nonni and Patsy took Giada for the day to celebrate her birthday. They were off to the American Girl Store. Caroline got her hair fixed and a new basketball outfit to boot.  

She even got a pet hamster herself. No trip to the American Girl store is complete without popping into the Williams Sonoma Store in Palo Alto to check on our Calivirgin products.

 

I am tired just reading all the celebrating Giada did. This year it was so special to not have a big party and have 1:1 time with her and all the loved ones in her life.  I hope she enjoyed it as much as we all did. 9!! How is she 9??

JUNE

End of the school year, and ready for some fun this summer. 

  

 

 

Last day of school and we were off to the Central Coast. Every year we go as a family to the Paso Robles Olive Oil Festival. This year we stayed a little longer in Avila for our Coldani Family Beach Vacation. So much fun to just cook, visit and let the kids play in the awesome pool! 

Thanks Nonni & Nonno!

 

 

Children's Museum in Paso Robles

 

I guess Scott and Gino thought we were taking a silly face photo. Giada missed the memo.

There were about a million baby frogs where we were staying and the kids LOVED collecting them.

 

 

 G was thrilled to see her buddy Addy on our day at the beach. I am not sure what I was doing at the beach, but I wasn't taking photos and I was getting sunburned!

Giada and Nonno worked on their pool playing. 

We even went on an adventure one day to Morro Bay, great trip on the Central Coast.

 

It wouldn't be a trip to SLO if we didn't stop by the Avila Barn, only bummer was we were too early for the corn stand to be open. 

 

Of course we had to bring some frogs home with us. 

This big guy lost a bottom tooth.  Tina the tooth fairy delivered 

the glitter dollars sometime late that night!

 Sum has a baby girl on the way! Can you even tell...NO, her tiny belly. Nice day of visiting, eating, drinking and celebrating. We were all looking forward to meeting her!

 Bedtime snuggles in new pajamas.

 Super fun 24 hours in Murphy's.  Toby Keith did not disappoint. If you have not been to the little town of Murphy's or a concert at Ironstone, I highly recommend it.  Such a fun night out, thank you ladies!  You make rolling into 37 not look so bad.

 "I am NOT tired"  Ok, Lorenzo, whatever you say.

 24 hour trips seemed to be a theme in June.  We took a quick drive up to Klamath Falls, OR to pick up a piece of cattle equipment. Turns out we could not take the equipment home, but we had a nice dinner and visit with the Shively's.  The kids loved walking Conner to the bus stop and wish they could ride a bus to school.

Happy Birthday LINNY!  We invited ourselves over for a little swim and cupcakes.  

Giada spent more time on the artwork than in the pool.

 These pictures are not the best, but the experience the kids loved.
Loading up cattle to bring them back to the ranch.

 Swim time with the Gonzalez's. We miss them at St. Anne's!

 Lots of swim time with cousins this summer.

Happy Father's Day boys!  I don't think they ever made it to the golf course, 

but they had a nice casual brunch to start off Father's Day.

Sooo some years I am more on top of it for the "I "heart" DAD" photos than other years. Also, some years my participants are more cooperative than others. On this particular day they would only take them with this lovely car in the background, but at least we got them done!

CC loves the water, cooling off and then making a muddy mess!

 Gino ran in to put on a Calivirgin shirt and Mike's boots and said, "Dad I look just like you"

The kids did a few camps this summer to keep them busy!  Always fun when you run into classmates. Gymnastics camp for the win! 

 Even though we were at Ginger Bugs less this summer, we did manage to snag a few fun mornings there and look forward to more when the big kids are back in school.

 The last week of June was busy!  Lusty Lemon and Guilty Garlic Olive oil were big winners at the State Fair Olive Oil Competition.  They both won Double Gold, and the Lemon was Best of Show.  We were invited to an awards ceremony at the capitol, and finally won a Golden Bear. We were so excited. It is such a honor to be recognized with these awards, such a qualified taste panel doing the judging, we are humbled.  It also reminds us that taking the extra effort to make the flavors with fresh produce is all worth it.

 After the ceremony we took a red eye flight to NYC for the Good Food and Fancy Food Show. It was a lot of coordinating to be gone with the kids so many days. It takes a village and I so appreciate all the help.  We did get a few good dinners in after the shows, but it was a busy trip!

We landed early morning, and it also happened to be Mike's birthday.  He wanted to see the 9/11 memorial, then head to dinner and drinks at Finnegan's the SF Giants bar on the East Coast.  We had been to the memorial before when they had just the fountains and not the museum.  We took a guided tour which was very interesting to hear various things that happened that day and leading up to that day to the surrounding buildings. We were silent for a few hours just taking it all in. The fountains are breathtaking and so huge. It really gives you the sense of how large the buildings were and the loss.  New buildings are making their way up in the area and the museum has so much information. It's hard to put into words the way you feel taking it all in.

 Go Giants!

 When we got to our booth to set up, it was a little challenging since another company was using ours as a storage unit! Move over Hippeas, Calivirgin is here to set up!

While Mike tried to set up the booth and attend some business meetings, Nick and I were off to the Good Food Mercantile.

I did an interview on Olive Oil with Heritage Radio and Olga from Olica Olive Oil Company. Always good to get the message out about buying Good Quality California EVOO.
This year the Fancy Food Show was extra special since we swept the Olive Oil Category. We won the Gold, Silver and Bronze. Jalapeno Gold, Blood Orange Silver and our Premium Calivirgin EVOO Bronze were the big winners. We had some special events at the show in honor of the wins.

Another highlight from the trip was seeing Valerie and Clay Oliver. We met them a couple years ago at the Good Food awards in SF. We fell in love with them and their sweet girls.  Oliver Farm Artisan Oils is the place to go if you are looking for Peanut, Sunflower, Pumpkin or Benne oil!

While we were away the kids seemed to be having tons of fun!  Root Beer Floats with Stella!

Pedicures, Movies and Sushi with KR and Jas
 

Lodi Lake with Nana

 

 Lorenzo spent the weekend with cousins Cole and Carter.
I am pretty sure he never wanted to come home!

 Practicing on the roller blades and much more!

 Birthday Party, Forts, and Summer Camp with the Kerns. I am pretty sure they did not miss us with all of this fun!  Thank you again Nicole, Nana, Steph, Matt, KR, Jason, Gina, & Scott. It takes a village! 

BABIES! I love snuggling babies. I was so glad to be home and not miss the birth of Hayden James Lange ...Rolling in on the last day of the month.  6/30/17 ~ 7.7lbs ~ 20in.  

Cute as can be with tons of hair! Congrats Sum and Phil