Alcatraz
Josie Elle Jamie
The Girls
Cash's Golden Guy
Cashy Boy
Crazy Acrobats
Golden Gate Bridge
Love...twue wuv
*Warning* Travelogue ahead plus ridiculous amounts of pictures. Keep in mind this is my journal.:)
So with Toby taking a new medical device job with Stryker he needed to head out to San Jose for a training. Well the kids and I weren't about to let him go to CA and be an hour away from Tory and Janie without us. So we talked him into letting us come...we drove out with him on Friday and flew back without him on Wednesday leaving him to his two week training which at the end he'll drive the car back alone. Sidenote: how awesome is he? He could have flown out and back but...he loves us. What a fun little adventure! The kids did awesome on the drive. We had been in the car SEVEN hours when in a sweet little voice Cash said, "mom it seems like this is taking a long time." They never even put on a movie. Tory and Janie were of course the hostessess with the mostesses. I know you'll read this eventually Janie but just for the rest of the world to know..or the three people that may read this...she is one HECK of a cook. For real. I've requested all the recipes because they were delicious. Oh and we let Jamie come along for the ride. Thought it might help to have another adult to even out the adult to kid ratio. Saturday we spent the day in downtown San Fran. I LOVE that crazy crazy place. We rode the bart to get there which our kids ate up, and as we got off the bart we came up the escalator into the city to behold the biggest Forever 21 I've ever seen. Jamie and I just started giggling like little girls...then we looked around and saw Anthropologie and H&M was just up the street. Our heaven:) We took the kids on the cable car down to Fishermans Wharf. The kids LOVED the seals on Pier 39, I LOVED the ice cream at Ghiradelli's, we all LOVED the street show with the incredible acrobats, Cash LOVED the golden guy, Jamie LOVED all the shops, Elle and Cash LOVED being with Ayson and Macey,and we all LOVED being there together with the Christensens. Then we got lost. Toby wrote a little post about our little "adventure" and while there may be a few discrepancies in his story for the most part it is correct so I will include it here:
"So I'm sure Josie will post something on her family blog about our trip to Stockton and San Francisco but I'd like to tell a funny story at the end of our San Francisco day. We had so much planned but things didn't exactly go the way we wanted. I'd argue that it went better because I wouldn't be telling this story otherwise. After lunch and a tiny bit of shopping we boarded the trolley car headed to fisherman's wharf. We then took some pictures of Alcatraz and headed over to pier 39 to check out the sea lions or seals or otters or whatever the &*%! they're called. We took in an outstanding street show and then had ice cream at Ghirardelli Square. We were a bit tired but still had a lot to do. That's when the fun started. It must have been about 4 o'clock at the time and we saw the trolley car right next to the square. The line was huge but we thought if we went up to the next stop we may have a chance to get on earlier. When we got there about 6 or 7 people were waiting in line and the trolley wasn't coming anytime soon so we thought, "How about the next stop?" We started climbing one of the biggest hills in San Francisco and got to the stop before the worst part. We were a bit tired. I sat on the step as we waited for the trolley to come. Finally after about 5 minutes it came up the hill. We stood up and stepped onto the street a bit so they'd see us. Flew right past us. Didn't even slow down. The sign was clear that it was a stop but the trolley was full at that point. So we decided to wait for the next one and about fifteen minutes later it came and guess what? - same thing. Now we'd wasted half an hour and we were two or three blocks from the square and quite a ways from the wharf. We started thinking and looked at the hill and said, "Why not? Let's go for it." And that we did. The hill was so steep and don't forget, we had 4 kids, 3 of which were squeezed into the stroller. I started by pushing it up the steep part and it was very difficult. I'm not going to lie and act tough - I had a hard time. I was sweating and breathing hard. I took about a block and passed it off to Tory. He did the same. We were both tired so Josie jumped in and volunteered. One of THE funniest things I've seen. Josie pushing the stroller up the hill looked the same as me trying to push over a house. The stroller was not moving at all. At least she was keeping it from rolling back down the hill. We checked mapquest later and found that the hill we walked was only about .7 miles. Not even an entire mile. It probably took us half an hour to walk it. And if you add in the half hour we'd wasted waiting on the trolley that less than a mile took us an hour. Awesome. So we asked for some directions and were told to turn at the top of the hill. The first spot we tried was so so steep going down that we turned around after walking half a block. It was unbelievable. I couldn't believe people actually lived on that hill. Elle was scared to try it. So we walked a couple more blocks before making the left turn back down the hill looking for Columbia. It started to get dark but right before we did we ran into Lombard and the girls got some pics. Pretty soon our goal switched from seeing more things and shopping to just finding a BART station. So we headed downhill. This wasn't harder than uphill but it was hard. My right arm was in pain trying to keep it straight as it wanted to slant down the uneven sidewalk into the street. Tory and I had a fun time with that. We were both sweating and it was black nighttime by the time we got to Columbia. Before we found the BART we wanted to get Jamie to Chinatown. We found it, Jamie got her shoes quickly and we were off. Asked for some more directions and after stints on Broadway and Sansomme we made it to the BART around 9 PM. It was great to get there. So exhausted and yet, never so happy to get on the BART with a bunch of people I really liked. Oh and one last thing. We got off at the wrong stop. Oh well. No big deal. Great night. I probably didn't do it justice. At the end of the night Tory figured that we walked a little more than 2 miles on that trek from Ghirardelli Square to the BART. It lasted around two and a half hours - maybe more - I really lost track of time but looking back at it I had a good time and was impressed with the kids. Fun times."
For the record, I did move the stroller a few inches...i'm not as weak as he makes me sound. Pretty funny night in crazy San Francisco but I loved it. Next few days to come...
Beach Day! Can't go to California without going to the beach even if it isn't hot and sunny. It was a little bit of a drive but so worth it! Bodega Bay is the sweetest little beach. The kids were so cute playing together and having sandcastle building contests. Sidenote: Macey is a crackup. I had to post this picture of Janie and Ayson...and Macey face down in the sand. No posing for her. She makes me smile. I'm afraid if I lived in Cali I'd end up being a full blown beach bum. I am so happy there. After getting home we ate a delicious dinner then left the kids with Tory (super uncle) and ran to the mall for some late night shopping....wonderful. Tuesday night Tory, Janie, and I were able to drive out to Dublin to meet Toby for one quick dinner before the kids and I flew home and he stayed for his two week conference. Big thanks to Jamie for watching the kids because we rarely get to do that. Good times. Next morning we woke up and took off to yet another Mall in lovely Sacramento before we had to hop on our flight. I was a little nervous to fly with both kids...I wasn't worried about them actually on the flight. It was just the getting there and checking in etc. I can't believe how EASY it was! Checked bags, checked car seats, walked straight through security, and had a wonderful lunch before we hopped on the plane...and the layover in Portland was quick and easy too. So relieved since I had built it all up to be a nightmare in my head. Afterall I hadn't flown in like five years. Sad I know. I feel a big trip coming on. Anyway thank you Tory and Janie for such a great few days!!!! It won't be another 4 years before we're back:) p.s. could elle be holding cashs face any tighter in that last pic. I swear she can do just about anything she wants and he just goes with it...hilarious.
