southern california sunday

hiking up lion's head

summing it up

to summarize our time in south africa is quite simple: 

every day was amazing.

we enjoyed beautiful weather, great food & wine, and undisturbed quality time with our family.  jade met her grandpa thomas, aunt elin & uncle pär, aunt anna & uncle christian, and cousins, august & ingrid, for the first time.  she was reintroduced to her grandma lisa for whom she was named.  we were together as a family on christmas for the first time.  calle and i celebrated our wedding anniversary with beloved family & friends in the place we were married.  we were able to spend three entire weeks with jade, uninterrupted by telephone calls or emails.  we spent morning, noon, and night enjoying fresh air, sunshine, and each other.  we could not ask for more; thank you mamma lisa & grandpa birdie [toots] for opening your beautiful home to us.  it may have been chaotic at times, but we loved every moment.

tasting reds at waterkloof

cousins playing at long ridge

lunch at somerbosch

bilbo baggins playing with a sprinkler head.

view of table mountain from v&a waterfront

talking a walk on the beach kommetjie

seal playing in the water at calk bay

son and mom enjoying the sunset

bo kaap district in cape town

showing jade where we got married

re-visiting vergelegen for our 3rd anniversary

jade climbing the table at morgenster

view at waterkloof - our favorite winery

another view from waterkloof. note the metal tree.

picnic at warwick.

jade & christian playing at warwick.

colmant - our favorite cap classique maker.

sugarbird manor

in honor of nicole and i turning a collective 60 years old [in march 2011] , our beloved sister and brother-in-law, elin & par (pronounced pear, like the fruit), arranged a magnificent two-day mini vacation.

first stop was the winery ken forrester, famous for their chenin blanc and excellent cheese selection. we sampled 6 wines during this tasting and agreed the FMC 2009 chenin was the best white wine any of us had tasted in a very long time.

view of heldeburg mountain from ken forrester.
this mountain overlooks all of stellenbosch and somerset west and functions
as both a landmark and a navigation tool (after too much wine).

par and elin enjoying cheese, served on a cheese platter the form of a mouse,
and, of course, the fantastic wine.

next stop was clos malverne. thomas and lisa recommended this winery and restaurant and we had high expectations for our lunch. it turns out, we were not disappointed. a four course lunch, each dish paired with one of clos malverne's award winning wines. price for this incredible lunch? $20!

par, elin and nicole outside close malverne.

view of stellenbosch valley from our lunch table.

nicole and elin posing in front of our rental car.

after a three hour lunch we decided to give champagne - cape classique and sparkling wine producer j.c. le roux a try. this winery is very different from most of the hundreds of wineries along stellenbosch wine route in that it has more of a commercialized modern feel to it with art deco decor.

calle, nicole and par outside j.c. le roux.

all four of us sampling champagne, cap classique and sparkling wine. 

elin and par made reservations at a wonderful little hotel called sugarbird manor. they stayed here during a previous visit to south africa and said it was "nice". their expectation management could not have been better because the place was actually amazing! tucked in between lush trees on top of a hill with panoramic views of stellenbosch valley, heldeburg mountain and thousands of vines.  we decided we could live here…

elin jumping in to the infinity edge pool at sugarbird manor.

love this photo!

the sugarbird cat watching the sunset with us.

this two-day getaway, tucked perfectly into our three week vacation, was incredible.  we can not adequately thank elin & par for this amazing gift.  i guess we've got some serious planning to do for their upcoming birthday celebrations...

we have arrived!

our long awaited winter holiday has finally arrived. while we looked forward to the time away from our daily routine, we absolutely feared the very long flights with our sweet little jade.  courtesy of many dear friends and relatives we heard the typical horror stories of flying with toddlers and did all we could to prepare for the worst possible behavior.  we armed ourselves with a "trick" bag filled with every treat one can imagine, including lollipops which are forbidden in our home.  we figured if jade should in fact start screaming at the top of her lungs we would give her an assortment of cheese doodles and sugar canes; anything to quiet the noise.  we arrived at lax to find a line resemblant to space mountain on a summers day, in other words, a very long wait.  once we made our way through the queue we encountered some errors with the printing of our boarding passes and had to be escorted through the security line by a very friendly Turkish gentleman to avoid missing our flight.  Once we took our seats we double checked the arsenal of tricks & treats.  the plane ascended and jade was quiet, happily sitting on pappa's lap, kicking her legs and humming happily.  the bassinet was assembled shortly thereafter and jade was happy to take her new seat, which a few minutes later would transform into a very cozy bed.  flight #1, all 13 hours of it, were a success with jade sleeping at least 8 hours and playing happliy the duration.  we arrived in istanbul where we had a 7 hour layover which went by surprisingly fast and then boarded flight #2, another 13 hours, where we assumed our lucky cards would run out and we would surely encounter the monster toddler.  again, jade slept and played and never screamed.  it was an extraordinary success.  finally in cape town, we were greeted by calle's parents who drove us to their beautiful home in somerset west where we arrived to find calle's older sister playing in the pool with her children.

before dinner was even served, jade and i were both asleep at the table...

on our first full day in SA we were shown the grounds at vrendeim. jade's 3 year old cousin, august, took to playing big brother.

we enjoyed a fanstastically leisurely lunch and departed only when we felt we would fall asleep if we sat another moment.

here you see sweet ingrid, only 2 days older than jade, happily snuggled in her blankie and mamma's arms.

as with most wineries, the owners live on the grounds.  i found this particular estate to be breathtaking.

of course one winery is not enough on your first day in south africa so we determined a visit to uwa mira was absolutely necessary.

here, the breathtaking views from uwa mira.

enjoying the breeze with calle's younger sister, elin.

an angry [sleepy] little jade bug sitting on pappa's lap.

the wineries close relatively early, at 5:00, so we were home and in our pajamas well before the sun went down.  here you see the three children snug in the pj's, ready for an evening of eating and playing.  what a wonderful way to start our holiday!