One of our favorite events is the annual visit from our children and grandchildren. Both families live much too far away to enjoy frequent visits, so our summer usually consists of two- to three-week-visits from each family. Now that the grandchildren are getting older, these visits often overlap. Even though our children think we're crazy, having all the grandchildren here at the same time is a great treat for us and highly anticipated every year.
When we moved to the ranch, our concern was, “What in the world do we do to entertain them?” We thought the allure of “Sonoma living” -- the vineyard and the terrific wineries -- would certainly be lost on them. Fortunately, we’ve been surprised how much the kids enjoy the ranch, and we’ve discovered that Sonoma County has so many amazing to-dos that we don’t think three weeks will be enough time to enjoy all of them!
We began, of course, with a day at the ranch, orienting them to the vineyard, the barns and their specific blocks. Grandpa Clay named each block in the vineyard after each of our grandchildren. They have taken their responsibilities in their blocks very seriously and keep busy with shoot positioning, removing suckers and pulling weeds. Being children, the allure wore off comparatively quickly, so we set up a badminton court which has now been the site of much competition and trash talking by our 10-year-old grandson. He also spent many hours in the English Walnut trees, catching up on his summer reading list. Our 14-year-old granddaughter has enjoyed learning to drive Grandpa's truck!
On Friday, I'll write about all the fun we've been having outside the vineyard gates with these wonderful kids.
