We had a fun...

day in Santa Maria today. We began with a relaxing morning as Katelyn decided to get up to eat at 5:30am and 8:00am, even though she's been sleeping through the night for almost 2 weeks. We ended up putting her to bed a little earlier last night since it took us 5 hours to drive up here yesterday and she was exhausted from being in the car all day long. Poor thing! Of course going to bed early backfired on us when she woke up so early. Thankfully after being up for only 1 hour she fell asleep in the king size bed in our room. She was so adorable snuggled up in all the pillows and blankets. Kyle ended up having to go down to the restaurant and smuggling the buffet up to our room so I could eat.

After showering off we headed to the Santa Maria mall, and after deeming it "ghetto," as most of the stores had gone out of business, we moved on. We grabbed a frap at Starbucks and met up with Kyle's parents to head over to the facility where they crush the grapes. We are in the process of harvesting and crushing grapes to make the 2008 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for Sierra Madre Vineyards. It was so interesting to watch them load the grapes into the bladder press (that's what they call the monstrous machine they put the grapes in) and watch the juice come out. After watching for an hour and taking some pictures we all jumped in one car, headed to the vineyard to scope out the spot where we want to shoot the family pictures tomorrow and then we were on our way to dinner. We ate at this amazing restaurant called, "The Hitching Post," which is know for their amazing steaks. Katelyn, by this point, was exhausted from being out all day and not having a good nap so we headed back to the hotel early. Kyle, Katelyn and I had an amazing day and we're looking forward to taking family photos tomorrow. David Tosti of Tosti Studios, who did my maternity pictures, is going to be photographing us tomorrow. If you are looking for an amazing photographer check him out at www.tostistudios.com

Here are some pictures from our fun day! Love, K, K, and A

These are the crates of grapes ready to be crushed in the machine behind them to make Chardonnay. A small pitch fork tractor loads them into the top and the weight of the grapes makes the juice come out. Then it spins in circles to move the grapes around so the juice from all the grapes is extracted.

This is where the grapes ferment for a couple hours before they are put into the barrels.

I love this picture of Kyle and Katelyn!!

Grandpa Circle, Kyle and Katelyn posing in front of the wine barrels that were made in France.