Beach Baby!

Aidyn has been taking swimming lessons the past 2 weeks at our local beach.. Today was the last day so I remembered my camera! After lessons she and Nolan had a blast playing together. Jumping off the dock was the hit of the day.

Ready...

Set...
GO!!!
Yep, that's MY girl. Walking on water...
When they're not fighting or tattling on each other, they are such good friends. I really prefer the friend part.

Paul Bunyan came to town...

And he chopped down one of our trees.
Just look at these 2 manly men, so proud of their accomplishment. Now Jeff & Shawn just have to finish their project and get the stump out of the ground.
Notice Jeff's tree chopping shoes. Flip-flops. Paul would not approve.

Cardinal Watch

We have a cardinal nest in the lilac bush right in front of our house. The mommy and daddy birds have been so busy the last couple days, flying all over and squawking up a storm. I think they are teaching the baby birds how to fly. I did get a couple pictures today, they're not great, but you can kind of see how pretty they are.

Slip-N-Slide Fun

We have had beautiful weather this week and have been taking full advantage. We've been to the beach, the pool, the park and yesterday we got out the slip-n-slide. The kids had a blast zooming across the lawn and I enjoyed Jeff's new hammock while they played. What a great day!

Friends!

We were so excited today because our friends Campbelle & Christian and Jill & Leif stopped by for a visit. Since they live so far away we rarely get to see them but when we do get together it is so much fun to catch up!

We love our friends, thanks for coming to visit!!!

Fathers Day

We had a very fun Fathers Day yesterday. The kids gave Jeff a hammock to relax in and he took full advantage! They actually gave him his gift on Saturday so he'd have more time to use it this weekend.
On Sunday, we made Jeff breakfast, went to church and then took him out for lunch. After lunch we headed to one of Jeff's favorite places...the horse races!


It was a beautiful day to be there. Here are the kids waiting for the horses to come through.
Everyone got into the action yesterday. Before each race we went over the horses with the kids and let them pick which one they wanted to cheer for (or bet on, depending on how you look at it!) Aidyn's picks included Bubbly Bubbles, Meet My Kid and Commanche Feather, all based on their names. Nolan had a different plan. In the program, each horse had a picture by it as to whether he runs out front (rabbit), in the pack (hound), with the early leaders (fox) or runs best late (turtle). Nolan only cheered for the turtles. But boy did he cheer, at the top of his lungs, over & over again! Go Turtle Go! Go Turtle Go! Go Turtle Go! It was pretty darn cute.

After the races, Jeff relaxed in his hammock while we made dinner for him. We made one of his favorite meals, spaghetti & meatballs with all the fixin's and for dessert, butterscotch pudding. He was in heaven! It was a great day for a great dad!!

T-Ball

The t-ball season has started. Aidyn missed the first week, but got into the swing of things in week 2. Although she really likes basketball, I think she prefers t-ball because she gets to play outside.
I can already see the improvements over last year. The biggest one is that she actually tried to field the ball. Last year was all about drawing in the dirt in the infield. Monday night she actually got a ball! It's so much fun to watch your kids do these things.

Our last day in SF

We had a couple hours on Saturday before our flight left so we made a morning trek to Golden Gate Park and walked around the Japanese Tea Garden.
It is a beautiful area and it would be a nice place to just sit and relax or read a book.

We headed back later that day after watching the Belmont Stakes at the airport. We really enjoyed our trip and feel so fortunate that we were able to go. We had a great 10th Anniversary, but more importantly, we've had a great 10 years together. I'm looking forward to many more!

Day 4 - Our 10th Anniversary!

Friday was our 10th Anniversary. Fittingly, we spent it at Alcatraz. Just kidding!!! Anyway, it is quite the dreadful place. Nowhere I'd like to spend much time.

I think if my mom were to go there she might actually pass out on the spot. 2 reasons - the confinement (she's claustrophobic) and the birds. There are sooooooo many birds there, some pretty, some disgusting and stinky. Mostly it is the latter.
This cell housed one of the only successful escapees. They dug these holes with stolen spoons and escaped into a utility corridor, out of the prison and off the island. Officially, Alcatraz claimed the men drown in the bay although their bodies were never found. I think they made it...


After our Alcatraz tour we climbed to Coit Tower. 457 steps to get to the top. It provided some pretty views of the city, but nothing 'blog-worthy'.
We then proceeded through Chinatown. A very interesting part of the city. I really liked it, I'm not sure it was Jeff's favorite.

We also made a stop at Grace Cathedral on the top of Nob Hill. What a beautiful place! The stained glass windows are amazing and we both walked the labyrinth inside the cathedral.
After all that walking, we were hungry for a delicious anniversary dinner. We went to a romantic little restaurant called Frascati. We had a delicious meal (I had the duck and Jeff had the scallops) and a lovely bottle of CA wine. It was a great way to celebrate 10 wonderful years together!

Day 3 - Muir Woods & Sonoma

Thursday we went on a tour north of SF to Muir Woods and Sonoma.

Muir Woods was beautiful and amazing. The size of those redwoods was unbelievable. These pictures don't do them justice, but take my word for it, they're HUGE!
Here we are standing inside a tree.

I laid on my back to take this picture, it was a pretty cool view.

We got to see this owl along the pathway. He was not happy to have visitors as he was screeching at us the whole time.
After we left Muir Woods we headed up to Sonoma to visit some vineyards and taste wine! The first place we stopped was Loxton Winery. The guy who talked to us and poured our wine was Chris Loxton himself. He was so interesting to listen to and a really nice guy. He even autographed the wine that we bought from him. It was tasty wine too!

We stopped at 2 other wineries and tasted wine. We also went into the town of Sonoma and had lunch at the city square. We didn't need to eat much because we also stopped at place for cheese tasting and another place for chocolate tasting. Needless to say, there was more of me on the way back to SF than there was on the way out.
We stopped near the Golden Gate Bridge on our way back into town and got some great pictures of the bridge and the city. As you can tell, it was a bit windy there...

That night we sort of felt like slugs so we found a bar, had a few drinks and a greasy burger and watched the Celtics/Lakers game. Another great day in the books.

San Francisco Days 1 & 2

We arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon. After checking into our hotel we hopped on a bus and went to the Giants game. We were anticipating a chilly game, but it wasn't chilly, it was damn cold. We made it through 5 innings and went back to our hotel.
Wednesday we spent exploring Fishermans Wharf .

It was such a cool area. So much to do and see and great people watching! But our favorite thing was on Pier 39, the sea lions. They were so much fun to watch, I could have stood there for hours. Some were sleeping, some were playing, some were fighting and a lot were barking.
Just look at this mama and her baby. Isn't that adorable?!?!

Another cool thing we saw was the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien. It is a Liberty Ship from WWII and it was so interesting to be able to go inside and climb around. We spent a lot of time exploring the ship.
Rosie the Riveter and Captain Jeff
We checked out Ghirardelli Square and ate some chocolate.
We also went to see Lombard Street. That was pretty cool, I was glad we were walking instead of driving though. Besides being the crookedest street in the world, it was also very pretty. It is landscaped with tons of beautiful flowers and shrubs.

Jeff's Spidey Sense kicked in on one street, but he didn't make it too far up the wall. Which is OK, because I'm guessing coming down would have been rather painful.
We had dinner that night at a great restaurant on the Wharf and ate some awesome seafood. (We had eaten seafood for lunch too.) Yum!! We had a very fun day exploring.