WINOS Weekend 2016

For this year's edition of WINOS Weekend, held the second weekend in November, we decided to keep it short (but very sweet) and close-to-home since both Jill and Laura have little babies.

We met up on a beautiful Saturday morning for brunch at Brio in Southlake.

 Mimosas, check.

As well as Irish coffee.

We also ordered the weirdest and yet most delicious appetizer I've had in a while: bruleed parmesan cream with balsamic roasted grapes. Ahh-mazing. 

 After brunch, some of us indulged in mani-pedis (not pictured) while others had to take baby-feeding breaks (also not pictured). Then it was time to check-in to the Gaylord and prep for our evening activities by painting 80s-inspired shirts. As one does.

The fact that we didn't leave any paint residue/weren't charged anything for these extracurricular activities is shocking. 

While the shirts were drying, we headed out for the main event...a wine tour around Grapevine. (In our fabulous Vote Vino shirts from Target. Very timely since this was the weekend after the infamous 2016 election.)

We used the Grapevine Wine Tours company, which I would recommend as it was well organized, the bus was nice, and they picked us up at the hotel. However, our tour guide was quite the character...and not in the best way. But he tried. Bless his heart.

We went into this wine tour knowing it would be nothing like Napa, and it definitely wasn't (huge understatement). However, with the bar set low, we drank lots of wine and had lots of fun.

The first stop was Homestead Winery. The historical house was really cool, and some of the wines were pretty good. But do not try the chocolate wine! (Unless of course you like super sweet, tootsie roll flavored wine.) You have been warned.

For the second stop, we headed to Su Vino. Because of the focus on sweeter wines, this wasn't my cup of tea. However, I appreciated the fact that they made their wine in-house, and the staff was super knowledgeable and friendly.

Since we participated in the 2016 dubsmash craze during last year's WINOS Weekend, it was only fitting that we go with the mannequin challenge this year...WINOS style. The sweet bachelorette party on our tour even went along with it.

Our last stop of the night was a wine tasting plus dinner at Farina's. I have to be honest...this may have been one of the worst meals of my entire life. However, as was the theme of our wine tour, we still had a blast.

After the wine tour was over, it was time to get dressed for the final event of the day. By happy coincidence, The Spazmatics were scheduled at the Gaylord's Glass Cactus bar that Saturday night, and we found out in enough notice (24 hours) to round up a whole lot of 80s-themed accessories plus the supplies to make our fabulous shirts.

"I missed my calling as an 80s high school bitch." - Lolly

We danced for hours, sang along to all the songs, stayed up way past our bedtimes, and had SO MUCH FUN.

After sleeping in a bit, we enjoyed a breakfast taco feast at Jill's (we had to get some Alex snuggles in) and made our traditional "Hot/Not" list for the weekend.

Big shout-out to all the husbands for holding down the forts while we were away. My kids loved having Daddy in charge all weekend...it meant hamburgers and donuts :).

I can't wait for WINOS Weekend 2017!