Wine & Pig Races

Another great weekend under the belt. Last Saturday was the Sugarloaf Mountain Winery 2nd Annual Grape Stomp. It was a R&R (Reeve & Rendzio) day last year and we added a few more this year. We got samples of some great Maryland wines and shared a few bottles between the families. The event is held at the winery on a big open area. There was a band, tastings and a BBQ sandwich truck (that had a constant line of about a 30 minute wait - they did pretty well). The highlight of the Grape Stomp is of course The Grape Stomp. There is a stage set up with 3 wooden barrels. The contestants line up and take their turn competing against each other in stomping grapes. The winner getting a free glass of wine and those underage get Hershey bars. It was a cool day but the kids really wanted to stomp so I got up there with them. That's the stompin' barrel above.

Dylan with his game face and Chloe were in one barrel and I was in another. There were two other girls in the 3rd barrel but since I don't know them I'll leave them out of the rest of the story. We step into the barrel and it is pretty cold. Then comes the countdown, the start of the music and we stomp away.

The product of our stomp goes through a hole and into a bucket under the barrel. At the end of the time the judges view the contents and the one with the most juice gets the win.

I think I was robbed by the judges who have an affinity for letting the little kids win. I know Dylan and Chloe had more than the two girls but I'm pretty sure I beat them. Not than I'm all that competitive and have a need to win - against my U-10 kids...













This is the aftermath of our feet. I'm not sure if the purple is from the grapes or from my feet being nearly frozen and numb. We did pick up a couple of bottles of wine with strict instructions that we are not to open them until the baby is born so that Steph can enjoy them too.

The next day we met up with Frank, Katya, Jonathan and Cole Scanlan. Brief intro - Frank and I went to school together and have know each other since 5th grade - good friends since 6th. He lives out here in Alexandria and we have recently made a promise to each other to get together every other month. It's a little crazy that we live about 40 minutes away from each other and we haven't seen each other since January.

ANYWAY, we all met up a a farm out in Virginia. It has little hayrides, a band, food, animals etc to entice the city folk to come enjoy the country. The kids had a great time as the did the wagon ride, trampoline bubble bounce, watched a mechanical dinosaur eat/smash pumpkins and see a pig race. The pig race even got a little political as they had 4 pigs racing and named them after the candidates. The crowd was pretty split as they were introduced and ran. The announcer had to do a double take and was astonished. She said for the very first time since they've been doing it this year the McCain/Pallin pigs won. Some thought it would be the last time that ticket would win anything and others thought it was just the start. The big news was that the announcer said that if you were at the farm that day you could go across the road and up the hill to the Bluemont Winery and have a free tasting. Wouldn't you know it that the farm we pick to go visit is right across the road from a winery. We couldn't turn that down. The kids spent most of the afternoon having their fun so now it was the adult's time. Steph was a trooper and for the second day in a row held off the urge to have a glass of wine at a wine tasting. I think we're done with wine tastings for a while. Much more and it would just be cruel.

The kids still love gymanastics and we will be signing them up for the next session. Last week Dylan got to learn to do backflips - with a spotter - from a large foam pad to the floor and work on handstands. Chloe said she learned backflips too though I didn't see her and she tends to repeat what Dylan says. I did see her do some balance beam work and handstands.