I seriously had THE BEST DAY last Friday, all thanks to these amazing ladies.
I am so lucky to have such awesome friends in my life, and although we don’t get to see each other nearly enough these days, any time we get together is always special. So this is just another thing to add to our list of favorite memories – along with things like our fall festivals, Friendsgivings, Mexico vacations, Summer Yard Olympics, and wine tours – just to name a few! ; )
After we all took care of getting our kiddos on the bus or out to daycare, we met up for breakfast at a new(ish) local spot, Cafe Madison. Gotta fuel up for fun day ahead!
Oh, and those pancakes were cinnamon roll pancakes, and they were everything and more. My friend Kanika and I shared those, on top of our regular breakfast picks. So. Good.
From there, we all packed into the car and made the 2+ hour drive over to Middlebury, VT.
We stayed at the Middlebury Inn, which was great. Although we didn’t really take advantage of many of their amenities like the spa or restaurant, the rooms were spacious, clean, and perfect for what we needed for the night.
We had just enough time to check in and drop off our bags before our van had arrived to pick us up for our wine/cider/beer tour, with our first stop being Lincoln Peak Vineyard.
It had a cute little tasting room, and had hardly any wait getting in (going on a Friday is definitely the way to go!).
We all enjoyed sampling about 7-8 different wines before each getting a full glass and grabbing a seat out on their covered porch area.
I wish I had taken an actual picture of their outdoor area because it was just beautiful! I did take a quick video and shared it on Instagram stories though, so some of you may have caught that. Definitely a great start to our little tour!
The next stop on our list was Woodchuck Cider.
I’m fairly certain that Woodchuck was the first cider I ever tried way back in the day, and I still love a good cider every now and then. We brought ourselves on a quick, self-guided tour of the facilities, before heading back down to the tasting room for some more sampling.
Again, going on a Friday was THE best. Nobody was around!
So I honestly had NO idea that they had so many different varieties of cider to choose from – it was a fun surprise!
I wound up choosing their Bubbly Rose, Bubbly Pearsecco, the Wyder’s Prickly Pineapple, and Spiced Apple, which they had just added to the taps.
Out of all of them, the spiced apple was, by far, my favorite. It was basically fall in a glass! And it was so good that I grabbed myself a six pack to bring back home with me.
I’m fairly certain that I laughed harder at that bar than I have in a long time. So many good laughs!
Our final tasting stop for the day was Otter Creek Brewing Co., which we were clearly, very excited about.
We ordered some undocumented smoked pork nachos to share and each enjoyed another tasting flight of beers. My favorite from here was probably a tie between their Oktoberfest and their Cranberry Gose.
After the brewery, we took our van over for a delicious dinner at Fire & Ice, but I apparently stopped taking any more pictures at this point, so I’ve got nothing to show for it! But I did get rather delicious (and necessary) cheeseburger for dinner, after all that day drinking. ; )
We all walked back to our hotel after dinner (less than a 5 minute walk!) and hung out chatting for a bit before finally calling it a night. Then we were up nice and early Saturday morning to make the drive back home, since most of us had plans for the next day.
My plans included baking a batch of THESE COOKIES (I substituted Heath bits for the peanut butter cups and Reese’s), and then a fun little pig roast, which just so happened to be across the street from our house at our friends’ Natalia and John’s house.
It was a pretty chilly day, but everyone had a great time, especially all of the kids who were running around, playing in the bounce houses, or in the back of pickup trucks. Cuties!
I also came home to a new box of goodies from Beautycounter on Saturday. <3
I got a bunch of new stuff to try, which I can’t wait to share with you all, but I was able to quickly try out my new Color Intense Lipstick.
I already shared on IG that I’m not typically a “colored lip” kinda gal (I’m all about neutral lips), but I was actually pleasantly surprised by this one, for a few reasons! First, loved the color (I got 9 To 5 – Luminous Mauve)…second, it has the most amazing peppermint scent/flavor, thanks to the peppermint oil in it…and third, I love that it has none of the crap, like lead or heavy metals, which are found in many popular brands (<–gross!). I think I’ll totally be rotating this one in and out along with my beloved Twig Lip Sheer!
FYI: All Beautycounter Holiday Sets & Collections are on sale to EVERYONE now! If you haven’t already, check them out!
As for the rest of the weekend, Sunday was pretty low-key. My parents came over for a visit, and my mom gave the boys some haircuts. It was a really beautiful fall day, so we also spent a lot of our afternoon outside.
Jay grilled up some strip steak for dinner, which wound up top of some big salads, since we both agreed we were definitely in need of some extra vegetables after our weekend fun.
And then, much to my surprise, we even got about 15 minutes of QUIET time with all of us sitting on the couch together watching some football. This is like, the rarest or rare events to take place in our house, so the fact that it even last more than 5 minutes just made my whole day.
Not to mention, these boys actually really love watching their football!
Whew, that was a long one. If you’re still with me, thanks for sticking around! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and are off to a great week so far. I’ll be back soon <3
Steph says
Weekends with girlfriends are the best and MUCH needed every once in a while! Looks like you had a great time!
Heather Brown says
I’ve never been to wineries and I’m itching to go! We planned to go away this fall for our anniversary, but things came up and couldn’t make it. One of these times I’ll get there!
Melissa says
The Vermont trip with your friends looks like it must have been a great time! I’ve always wanted to visit Vermont, it looks like a beautiful state!
Kaitlyn McQuin says
This weekend seemed like so much FUN, especially if it included day-drinking with your best gal pals! Also, seeing those leaves changing colors + the pumpkins makes me miss fall so much! I currently live in L.A., but the past two years I lived in Northern Virginia and our falls were beautiful!!! And any weekend that includes a little football Sunday is a great weekend! With that being said… go Saints! – Kaitlyn | IG: @kaitlynmcquin
Kayla says
Looks like it was such a really fun weekend, Courtney!! :) Hope you have a great week too! Xoxo
Fiona MacDonald says
This looks like such a great time! Going to have to remind myself to check it out for the next adventure with the hubs or a girls weekend!
Denisse Porras says
Hi girl! Your hair looks amazing! I wanted to see if you can share how you got into contact with a Monat representative. I looked through their site but it seems that I can only purchase from them directly. Thank you!
Courtney says
Hey Denisse, thank you!! Check out this post – it has a few different ways you can get in contact with Morissa (my rep), who is amazing!! https://www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/my-absolute-favorite-hair-products/