Five Cute Kids

Five Cute Kids

Friday, March 31, 2017

Spring Break - San Francisco

San Francisco was the perfect place for us to go for Spring Break!  We loved exploring a new city and seeing some very impressive places!  We flew in Monday afternoon and left Friday morning but the three full days we did have there - were jam packed full! On our first evening we walked down from our hotel, Pier 2620, to Pier 39, Fisherman's Warf and ate clam chowder in bread bowls at Boudin's.  Yum!!  We loved being able to watch them make their famous sour dough bread and Nathan bought clam chowder to bring home to his co-workers.  After dinner, we walked along the warf waiting for Sophie (our cousin) to fly in to meet us.














The next morning, we boarded The Big Bus and began our journey to see the city!  First on our list was to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's not surprising why it's so famous.  It truly is a sight!  At first we were just going to walk a little on the bridge, but then I thought, we should walk to the whole way across.  The kids weren't too happy about it, but when they got done, I know they were proud to say they walked the whole Golden Gate Bridge!














After walking all that way, we ended up in Sausalito and ate a very delicious lunch at Napa Valley Burger Company.  We did a little shopping before getting back on The Big Bus and heading back to SF.



Looking at blogs before we left, we all wanted to find the fortune cookie factory.  It took some wandering and more wandering until we finally found it.  This is a picture of us wandering.  (You can see more of the factory in Sarah's video which will be at the end of this post.)  We walked around China Town and Union Square and spent most of this day getting off and on The Big Bus to see the sights.





The next day, we ate a hearty breakfast in the hotel and then began our journey to see the windiest street, Lombard Street.   We had to hike some serious hills before making it to the bottom of it and then, I made our kids walk up it and then back down.  They sure did a lot of grumbling but I know they are all glad they did it!










At this point, we split up and the older kids went to Madame Tussauds wax museum and I took the younger kids to Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.  We were all impressed with what we saw.

















We couldn't go to SF and not go to Alcatraz.  We all enjoyed the boat ride over and back and being able to see the city from a different perspective.  We all learned a lot from listening to the tour but I'm pretty sure, Levi enjoyed it the most.  He loved it so much he asked for us to buy him some comics that tell about the escapes that were made from Alcatraz and he has read and reread them many times since.  Hope he's not learning too much!



















The Baked Bear was just down the block from our hotel and so we had to stop and try it out.  They make custom ice cream sandwiches which includes choosing cookies, donuts or brownies for the outside, different flavors of ice cream for the inside and different toppings to complete the ensemble. They were definitely one of my favorite things I ate while there!!!











A trip to San Francisco wouldn't have been complete without a trolley ride.  We had heard that they are the most beautiful at night and we couldn't have agreed more.  We loved our ride!











On our last day, we got back on The Big Bus and spent the morning at the Academy of Sciences.  It is known for it's white alligator, Claude, who is pretty cool looking but it has an amazing rain forest, aquarium and natural history museum.  We were all impressed and enjoyed our time there!


In the afternoon, we got back on The Big Bus and stopped at a corner grocery store to get Bi-rite ice cream and then walk to Alamo Square.  This ended up being my favorite thing we did all week.  It was just so relaxing and we sat and talked about all of the fun things we had done.  All of the kids have watched Full House on Netflix so to see the iconic "Painted Ladies" was a highlight for everyone.





Later, we went back to Fisherman's warf for more shopping, dinner and enjoying all there is to do there.















It was fun to think about my grandma Eileen living in this beautiful city and taking advantage of the many things to see and do here more than 70 years ago.  Perhaps she even rode in this street car.



PLEASE watch Sarah's video about our trip.  It really does a fabulous job of showing our amazing time in San Francisco!!


On our last night, we accidently ran into Angie's best friend, Teresa and her kids in a park where Sarah was flying her drone. They were driving Sophie back to Bend the next day so we knew they were in town but it was pretty cool to see them in the great city of SF!!

Thursday, March 2, 2017

February

February was a great month! For being so short, we really did a lot. Starting the month off, was Levi's trip to Lego Land with just dad. It was for his birthday and it was a very special trip. He called all the shots and planned his days full of rides, shopping, eating, shopping, fun and shopping. He's just like his dad as he loves to shop!

This was their room. Levi got to have his own TV and bunk bed. He loved everything about his hotel!









The first of many minifigs that he was able to trade.









The water part of the park was awesome!



Eating a meal outside their hotel which was right next to the park.



Thrilled with his "win"!!



Driving a lego car...can't get much cooler than that!






Dad finally got to be in a picture!









Levi found every Batman Lego movie minifig and was pretty proud of that accomplishment! Both dad and Levi had THE BEST TIME!!! Fun memories to last a lifetime!!



We got more snow and had SNOW DAY #7. It was an all time record. All of the kids moaned when I told them school was cancelled. This was the only time Sarah shoveled and so I needed to get a picture so I would remember it.



Valentine's day was completely lovely!!



The most wonderful thing happened in February...our cousins (and Auntie Jayna and Uncle Ryan) moved here from Pennsylvania!! To say that we were excited is a complete understatement!





And then, one weekend Jon, Heidi and his family came to visit AND Nonnie (and Angie, Mark and Sophie but we didn't see them) all came one weekend. It was super fun!!!



Nonnie and Caleb playing Solitaire.



Uncle Jon taught Benjamin how to solve the 3x3 rubik's cube and retaught me. Now we can both solve it.



Sarah and Penny (Ryan's new puppy) snuggling on the couch.



Palmer and a silly face!



Spencer started basketball season. He had two or three games a week for what felt like forever (February and March)!! He did great!!




We went to the Discovery Center and checked out T Rex Sue. She's was pretty cool!!!

Andrew started Driver's training and got to carry this clipboard around everywhere for three weeks. Fun times!!

Related Posts with Thumbnails