Golfing in January... and we're in Idaho!

Last year at this time we were waist deep in the white stuff and it was C*O*L*D! Fast-forward 12 months and here we are with our days in the mid to upper 40's and sunny. The snow is hard to find here at StoneRidge. What we do have is water, lots and lots of water.

Monday the forecast was for 45 and sunny, so we made an unofficial tee-time for 1pm. We had a 5-some of StoneRidge Guy and me with 3 of our StoneRidge Pals Mac, Dennis and Carol. Truth be told, I wasn't going to go until Carol said she
wanted to play. We all agreed that there were plenty of days last spring that were much colder.

Dennis teeing off on hole #10

Carol warming up

Carol and me

All of the carts are locked up so we had to walk. We decided to play the back side. So we started off to hole #10. I haven't swung a club for almost 4 months so I was a bit nervous. Last to tee off, I was pleasantly surprised at my first drive. It wasn't much worse than any other day on the course last summer.

This was the location of my 3rd shot, about 90 yards from the middle of the green. The reason you don't see a flag is that there isn't one. All of the pins were set at temporary greens, in the fairways about 50 yards in front of the greens. We were playing to the holes on the greens, which were filed with ice. Fortunately, Mac had played a day before and knew where they were.

Steve putting on the 10th green. The round thing next to Steve's foot is the cover plate for the hole.

 






























 Most of the bunkers were filled with water, ice or both like this one to the left.

 


























 Looking back down hole #11 from the green. Beautiful blue skys and not a spec of snow.

From the tee box on hole #14 you can see some snow on the mountains.

 Floating ice in the bunker by #11 green

Looking down the fairway from #14 teebox

 

Putting on the 18th green

It really was fun. Steve liked it so much that he played again today. 

Santa Never Fails!

We had resigned ourselves that we wouldn't be seeing our families this Christmas holiday. We would just have to be patient and wait until our trip in February. Late November, to our surprise, we find out that StoneRidge Guy's brother and sister were planning a trip to Boseman, Montana the week after Christmas. What was even better was that sons Casey & Ryan were going to join them. This option afforded us an opportunity to not only see our sons, but to see other family as well. A no brainer, we would make a quick trip to Montana. The plan was to leave on Dec 27th and stay until the 31st. The boys would drive back with us and spend New Year's Eve at our new home. Casey had to leave on the 1st and Ryan would stay til the 6th.

Because I knew we would be seeing the boys only 2 days after Christmas, I opted to not ship their gifts, but deliver them in person. Much more fun for everyone all around, especially since they both had included another unusual request from "Santa". So, if you don't already know, a few years ago they started to include some type of wacky gift request on their Christmas wish list. It has become quite the challenge for "Santa" to come up with them. It seems each year they become a bit more imaginative on both sides.

Casey asked for a pinata of himself as an elf filled with eggnog candy canes and Ryan asked for a remote control Laker car. Santa had been working diligently for a month on both of them, so I was very excited to see their reactions.

As planed we left for Montana on the 27th arriving in Boseman late that afternoon. We would be staying in my sister-in-law's sister's condo right downtown and only 15 minutes from her Mother's 15 acre ranch house where the rest of the clan would be staying.

They all decided to have dinner at the condo that night to give us time to settle in. It didn't take long before the Christmas presents came out and the games began. Santa makes our boys work for their gifts. Usually there's a scavenger hunt involved to find clues to the location of their presents. This year they had to find the numbers 1 - 7 in order. Each member of the family was assigned a number and they had to guess who was who. A wrong answer meant they had to perform a task.

Act like a chicken

Steve thought it was quite entertaining.

Rub your tummy and pat your head.

Casey & Evan

The clues

The elf pinata filled with candy canes and eggnog candy

There is a remote that controls this movable basketball court. The Coby doll actually throws the ball.

The next day we headed to the ranch house after renting cross country skiing equipment. Brother's-in-law Paul and John cooked the two dinners we would enjoy. The days were filled with games, skiing, reading and just relaxing. Hard to believe you can do that with 12 people in one house, but it was all done gladly.

The ranch houseThe siblings: Paul, Teri & Steve

The cousins (top to bottom/left to right): Grant, Tyler, Ellie, Evan, Casey & Ryan

Paul's wife Sue. Mother to Grant, Tyler and Evan.

Casey & Steve

John, Teri's husband, in foreground left, giving Ryan & Steve a lesson. Dad to Ellie.

Taking a walk: Teri, Grant, Ellie, Evan, Tyler & John

Maggie looking for a stick. She loved going along.

Casey

John made 15 bean soup for dinner our 2nd night there.

This was dinner each night. Loud but fun!

We left Montana on New Year's Eve morning in a very crowded car. 4 people and a dog along with every one's luggage and presents made for tight quarters. We made it home in time to get ready for the New Year's Eve party which I talked about in the previous post. And enjoyed the few days we had with the boys before they headed home. We were lucky to have wonderful weather the whole time so we could truly enjoy Montana. Boseman is a very cool town and I wouldn't mind going back to visit again.

Party Like It's .... 2010!

Last year we missed the New Year here at StoneRidge. After hearing how much fun they had, we were really looking forward to 2009. The plan to revisit the Ranch Club for dinner and partying was scrubbed. Instead, our resident Master Chef Steve and Gabe offered to prepare dinner at StoneRidge Pals Tammy & Russ' home. Now we wouldn't have to drive in possibly bad weather after partying all night. All we had to do was show up with an appetizer and cocktail of choice. They did the shopping and the cooking and we just paid the tab. How could we pass this up?!

Our menu for the evening? Steak, Lobster and shrimp with potatoes and salad. YYYUUUMMMMYYYY!!!!!

Guests started to arrive around 7:30pm. There were so many good appetizers it was hard not to be full before dinner even started. A late dinner time was planned so we would all make it to midnight. By 9pm we were all chowing down. Followed by cards and Wii to keep us awake. We waited until 11:45 for dessert.

Tammy busted out the hats and noise makers while we watched the count down on T.V. As we watched the ball drop in Time Square we brought in the New Year here at StoneRidge.

Enjoy the following video as you pause the "MyTunes" in the sidebar.

2nd Annual Holiday Wine Tour 2009

You'd never think that the Pacific Northwest would be a place where you'd find wineries. But they're here. As a mater of fact there are 145 in the state of Washington. Since StoneRidge is only 2.5 miles from the Washington border we are able to take part in a Spokane annual tradition... Holiday Wine Tour

Twice a year, Mother's Day weekend and the weekend before Thanksgiving, the 14 Spokane area wineries have an open house. They are open regularly for wine tasting, but on these two weekends they also include appetizers and offer wine specials.

Last year there were about 8 of us that went. We worked our way into town and ended the evening with dinner at a downtown restaurant. We had so much fun, that our small group grew to 16!
We chose 6 wineries and this time decided to start downtown and work our way back so we could have sushi for dinner. Our caravan left StoneRidge at 11am. First on the itinerary were the 3 wineries downtown only a few blocks apart.


#1: Whitestone - Here we got our first surprise. The wineries decided to charge $5 per person this year, which could be put toward any purchases. I don't think this will be on our itinerary next year.

#2: Barrister - Now we're talkin' good wine and appetizers. We went here last year and decided that they had the best spread, so we figured we'd better go back. They had the best chocolate truffles!

We actually bought a couple bottles of Rough Justice, uuummmm good! They also let me take a bunch of corks.

#3: Grande Ronde - Here with your $5 entry you got a wine glass that you could take home with you.

#4: Knipprath Cellars: I don't think we bought any wine from here.

#5 Latah Creek - You can see this winery from the freeway. The only other winery that we decided we would check out again. We got to taste all of their wines and they paired each one with a tasty treat.
#6: Liberty Lake Wine Cellars - We thought we made the wrong turn as we headed into a residential neighborhood. They converted a house into their store and wine tasting room.





From here it was a 15 minute drive to the small sushi restaurant. It was already crowded when our party of 14 showed up, (2 of us had to go to a birthday party). Steve and I didn't even order sushi. It's just too expensive up here. We'll get our fill when we visit family in February.

postscript: A few days after our wine tour one of our group gave me a bag full of Grande Ronde wine glasses. Some of our group found out that I only had 3 wine glasses so gave me the ones they got there. Now I have more than enough wine glasses for our friends.

Feel free to stop on by. If you bring a bottle, I'll have the glasses and the time.