Wine is bottled

We bottled most of our 2009 wine on Sunday after we finally decided our winery name and got the wine labels printed. We decided on Des Jardin which is of the garden and is also Meg's maiden name. Meg painted the dogwood branch and they came out looking really professional.
We ended up with about 200 bottles and we kept 8 gallons of Cab to blend with our 2010 Cab next year. We have Zinfindel, Syrah, Cab Sauv., Merlot and a Zinfindel Rose. Most of them we kept solo but we did blend some Zin and Merlot (named Nepenthe) and made a Meritage with Cab, Merlot and Zin and also a few bottles of Cab Merlot.
I obtained some huge bottles last summer and we filled up 4 of them. They each hold about 4 regular bottles. Lots of fun for parties.
So, the wine is still a little young but we are anxious to share it. We need to have people over soon.

Disneyworld Pics

I took about 500 pics at Disneyworld and uploaded 100 of them to Flickr. I know that is a lot but there were a lot of good ones. Here they are. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nylands4/sets/72157625771887944/

Last night in the Magic Kingdom

Our last full day- spent in the magic kingdom. Just enjoyed the Electric Light parade and then fireworks over the castle. My theory that the park would be less crowded this afternoon/ evening because people would be heading home was wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Who are all these people, and don't they have to go to school and work tomorrow??!?!

Cocoa beach

We are sick of disney so we rented a car and got away for a day. Ended up at cocoa beach and had a great day on the beach. The boys dug in the sand and then we had a good lunch on the cocoa beach pier.

Thursday

I (bill) stole megs iphone so i can do todays blog post for a change. We have now done all the parks and all of the premium attractions. But we still have a few days left here so we are just doing the best rides again. It gets really crowded after about 1 so we have been going early and then returning to the hotel to chill out. Last night we watched a piano show at our hotel that was a lot of fun. We are all still a little hoarse from singing and screaming with the show.Tonight we are going to see a jazz show in the "French quarter". The picture today is jess practicing for his drivers test on the Disney speedway. Tomorrow is new years and we will probably spend it at downtown Disney after going to an Irish restaurant.

Everest, Disney style

Spent a great day in park #4, Animal Kingdom. Think Northwest Trek meets San Diego zoo, then taken to Disney heights.

There was a great safari ride, and many animal exhibits (all real animals, not anamatronics). Then throw in some killer rides, such as a Dino thriller and Expedition Everest (kick ass roller coaster, pictured). Makes for a fun park.

We were there early - it was very cold in the morning, but we managed to go on all the headliner rides once or twice. By 2pm it was absolutely jammed, so we left. Luckily, it warmed up a bunch by then, so we spent time by the pool at our resort.

For dinner, we "left the property" and took a cab to Joes Crab Shack, where we chowed on seafood. DisneyWorld is freaky: when you stay on the property, it's like being on a cruise ship- you are totally isolated from anything outside...in fact, you forget there *is* anything outside. But just about 2 miles away is regular old strip malls, with food and sundries for a third the price of resort-land.

Brrrrrr

It's been cccccooooolllld in Orlando! Highs around 35-40. Yesterday we spent the day at Hollywood studios. Highlights were the Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster, and 3D Toy Story. A fun ride, but probably not worth the *3* hour wait time!!! We had fast passes, which made it perfect - just 5-10 min to get in.

Later in the evening we met Bill's aunt Sandy and Cousin Meghan in downtown Disney for dinner. It was great to see them and catch up.

Today we hit Magic Kingdom fairly early, when the crowds were lighter. We let the kids run around on their own, then met back in the early afternoon. By then the park was jam packed, so we hopped the monorail to Epcot, where we are now hanging out.

It's slowly warming up, it's up to about 50. Tomorrow is supposed to be near 60, yippee!