Temple Tuesday

Before Mark had to go back to work after his vacation we spent the morning of Tuesday May 14 exploring the temple grounds with Noah. He always asks to go see "Jesus house" as he calls it so we decided to take advantage of the nice morning and go. It's just so peaceful there, even just being outside brings peace. Noah said it was a castle when we got up close and was amazed at how big it was. 

We walked around behind the temple and Noah informed is that the big door down there was for "Jesus garage". It was a wonderful way to end our extended time together

 

Mothers Day 2013

I got the best Mother's Day gift this year, I was able to attend church with both my boys.  It was wonderful to have both if them and be at church as a family.

After church we headed up to my parents house where we had a hotdog roast. It was wonderful! 

Noah enjoyed the hotdog but really liked the marshmallows

The twins were spoiled and got to try grandmas homemade strawberry ice cream. It was delicious! 

This is Eliza

Amelia likes it too

Noah and I were outside when the sun set, it was one of those breath taking sunsets. With the flag in view I couldn't help but sings the words to "God bless the USA" in my head. We are so blessed to live in this land 

After bath time for all the grand 

kids my dad & Eliza spent some time reading together. 

It was a wonderful day! 

May 10-11

Friday the 10 we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and having time off and went miniature golfing. Karen and Tawnya were able to join us since they were in town visiting for  granddad's birthday. We had fun chatting and trying to play around our moving obstacle AKA Noah. 

Saturday Mark and I joined other family members and did a session together at the Logan Temple. It was wonderful. Alaina kept noah while where at the temple. They attended the zoo icecream social, Noah got to have his picture with curious George...really a painting but close :)  

Following the temple we gathered for lunch, games and celebration if granddad at the church pavilion. I only got one picture at the party, Noah and Mark's cousins son were having "a drink together".  

It was wonderful to celebrate granddad and hear stories of his youth and adulthood. We love you granddad!

Imagination

I believe we have mentioned before that Noah has a very active imagination. His new friend is named Mickey, I have no idea if he's a mouse or a person but we talk to Mickey and he has lots of fun playing with him.

Last week Noah spent a great deal of time telling me had to find his brown little car before he could go to bed. He has no brown little car and when I would say this he'd get upset. Finally he got out of bed kneeled on the ground and handed me a "car" saying here it is. He than crawled back in bed and went to sleep. I sat holding nothing and looking at him wondering what else he's going to come up with. 

Noah also spends a lot of time "working" on our old laptop. He'll even have pretend phone calls with people. Sunday he asked me to watch him work, so I did.  The picture is blurry but still cute.

Dad & Mom take a vation part 4 (the final chapter)

We awoke and got ready rather quickly so we could do some shopping before we had to check out of our hotel so that we could leave any purchases we made at the hotel with our bags until we went to the hotel at the airport that night.  What better place to do souvenir shopping than Chinatown, plus we hadn't taken the standard tourist photo in front of the entrace.

After finding a few fun stores and making fun purchases to remember our trip by. I love tea sets, I always have so when Mark started looking at them to we decided what a fun thing to bring home with us to remember our trip by. It even looks good on our orange counter tops.  The writing means happiness and long life.

 

After checking out of our hotel and leaving our bags in the hands of the hotel we decided to visit the cable car museaum. We happened upon the website when looking for things to do and decided to go check it out. It was really interesting and actually fun.

 

These are the actual cables moving the cars around the city, the have them open so you can watch it and if you go down to the basement they show what it looks like under the streets. It made the entire fact that we had been riding these amazing, you know they are old and called cable cars but they actually are run by cables. The cables are replaced once or twice a year, it takes the workers 5-6 hours which is done during the hours the cars don't run because they replace them all at once. 

This is one of the original cable cars. It looked a little iffy to me!  

photo opp

 

After the cable car museaum we headed back toward union square to catch a bus to our next adventure. This is us riding the cable car up nob hill, it's a super duper steep hill which the picture doesn't show but we hiked up that thing on our way to the museaum. The cable car employee couldn't believe we had hiked it. He let us stand in the back by him and we got to chat a bit with him, he was hilarious.

 

We decided we should get some lunch,  Little Dehli has some lunch specials that looked pretty good so we decided on indian food for lunch. We used to get this all the time at home but must admit we haven't for awhile, mostly my fault, we shared an order of tandoori chicken. It had the most amazing flavor.

After lunch we decided to head to the California Academy of Sciences. Our city pass came with a pass and we had read amazing things online about it so we figured lets check it out. First off we couldn't figure out how to get there, Mark actually got frustrated by how difficult it was and if you know if you know it takes lots for him to be frustarted. This should have been our number 1 sign to just go on another attraction on our list but we continued on because well we did. We finally reached Goldgen Gate park where it was located. We were both excited about getting to walk through the living rainforest they had. We arrived to find that exhibit closed for some reason, sigh number 2. We walked around and there were some informative things but nothing to great. They aquarium at the bay had been more fun and interactive, this one had fish in little aquariums and you weren't allowed to take pictures.  We left wondering if it would have been more fun with Noah, we still haven't decided and it's been more than week so I am going to say no. It's not on our list of do agains. No pictures were even taken there, see it wasn't that fun.

 

We would like to go visit golden gate park again, when the attractions are open...they all closed at 4 which is when we left the museaum. We did get to see the fog roll in while we were there, it's on higher ground so we actually did see it roll in. It was gorgeous. I didn't take pictures, probably because I was tired,  hungry, disappointed in our last adventure and my feet hurt which means I was slightly ornery.

 

This is where my amazing husband decided he was going to salvage the last evening of our trip and make is ornery wife happy. We headed back to Pier 39, we really liked the pier if you haven't figured it out yet, and had a list of options. First he bought us chocolate, amazing how this makes a woman nicer and makes everything seem brighter around you. Next we decided on an activity, Magowans infinite mirror maze

It was awesome. You'd be walking along and all of a sudden there were 4 of you staring at each other. We did it multiple times, the ticket price of $5 lets you do it as many times as you want, it was funny every time we did it. You wear plastic gloves so you don't dirty up the mirrors to bad and so you can feel your way around. This is on our must do list, with our without kids. Imagine watching Noah run around and into mirrors, the image in my head is hilarious.

 

After enjoying the mirror maze we wandered through stores on the pier. We wanted to eat somewhere on the pier but could't decide what we wanted so we asked a store clerk for a recommendation,  she simply stated chowders. Since it was rather chilly we sat inside but close to the window so we could look out and enjoy the view one last time.

Mark ordered fish & chips and I had clam chowder in a bread bowl. I was cold and it sounded yummy so I had it for the second time this trip. I am pretty sure they brought Mark the entire fish minus the head he had already eaten one in piece when I took the picture. Both dishes were really good,

After dinner we knew it was time to leave downtown and head to our cheap airport hotel for the night since we had a 6:10 departure the next morning. It was cold and we had a coupon for Biscoff so we got 2 hot chocolates for our trip back to union square to get our luggage. They were also good. If nothing else we had good food on this trip.

After collecting our luggae we made for the BART station, the subway. We were rushing to try and make a train in like 2 minutes and this homeless man asked Mark if he had a dollar to change for a gold dollar coin. Mark did so he did than the man was kind enough to help us figure out the machine to get our tickets. Yes he asked if we had money for him to get something to eat, we gladly gave him a few bucks and ran for the train. Thanks to the nice man we actually made the trip and didn't have to wait 45 minutes for the next one. At that point we were so tired we declared it the best 2 bucks of our trip. We took the subway to the airport where we caught a shuttle to the Travel Lodge for a total of 6.5 hours. At first I was like why don't we just sleep at the airport after sleeping for 6 hours in a bed I think it was good Mark was in charge and made a reservation.

We boarded a plane early the next morning for home. We were able to land about 9am and pick Noah up about 11:30. Thanks again to our parents for taking turns watching him while we were gone. It was wonderful to get away just the 2 of us but it was extermely wonderful to see our little guy.



 

 





Zoo visit

Mark had additional days off before he had to go back to work after we got back from California. Mark had to study for this airline transport pilot exam, he passed the written and has the other portion in a few weeks in Texas. We did steal him from his studies for a few fun activities.
On Thursday May 9 we met Jessie, Amelia and Eliza at the zoo. Noah had fun running around and playing with the girls, he likes the animals but having his cousins smile and giggle at him was more entertaining. I stole pictures from my sisters blog, I forgot to take my real camera.

Noah needed a water break

The twins had their first swing experience, the loved it. The sharing swing didn't last long, it was an attempt to have all 3 kids swing that didn't work. Eliza is in the polka dot hat and Amelia in the pink

.

 

 

Dad and Mom take a vacation part 3

May 6
As soon as we secured a hotel room in San Francisco we started researching things to do. One of my daily searches for good deals for our adventure involved checking groupon. One day I happened upon a bike tour that included riding over the golden gate bridge, seemed awesome and the deal was great. We decided Monday of our trip was a good day to go for our bike ride, we'd have a hotel to shower at after if we did it Monday. After a restfull nights sleep we awoke and prepared for our bike adventure. We were able to take a historic street car to the bike shop.

 

We arrived at blazing saddles and were outfited with bikes, helmets and met our tour guide Chris. He was a great tour guide, new lots of fun facts and was okay waiting for everyone never making anyone feel silly for being slower than others. I quickly made friends with a girl I will call Chicago since I don't actually know her name, I say we are friends because we were each other's crutch on the step San Francisco hills. We chatted with Chicago, road at a nice pace and enjoyed the amazing scenery you can't get by car. We started out at Pier ??, I don't know what number it was. Paused by the beach on the bay for instruction and an outline of our tour.

                                               This is the view from our starting point.

First we biked up a rather large hill to a beautiful look out over Fort Mason and out onto the bay. After that we continued along the bike trail next to the water and ended up at the Palace of Fine Arts. This building/park are gorgeous! If you look closely in the picture you'll notice the woman ontop of the pillars are showing their backside. No one knows why the architect did this, some say he was upset, some say they are looking at something, some say he liked womans backsides. The architect took the truth to his grave so believe what you will. You know you are jealous of how attractive we look in the helmets.

 

After stopping for a photo opp we headed to Presido National Park, photos of a person from a bike tour are not very flattering....

Presido national park runs along the shore and up to the bridge. We stopped at a cute little cafe/shop, The Warming Hut. It had fun souveniers and baked goods that looks amazing! We didn't buy anything but wished we had about 30 minutes further into our bike ride, it was exhausting. We did have a gorgeous view of the bridge from the warming hut.

 

Now it was time to pedal up the switch backs and to the bridge, it was at this point Mark helped me get the gears on my bike set correctly and the hill got much easier. I have such a smart husband. Biking the bridge was amazing. You couldn't really look around much because it was crowded but it was amazing to just be biking across it. The breeze from the bay, looking down and seeing water way below...I can't explain it you just have to experience it yourself. Half was across we stopped to enjoy the view, watch dolphins jump around and of course take photos.

 

 

Mark captured this photo, it really shows how HUGE the bridge is.

 

Look close there are dolphins, I could have watched them much longer than we did :)

 

San Francisco skyline from the bridge

Proof we really were there and still wearing our bike helmets

From there we finished crossing the bridge and road down into Sausalito. It looks like seashore town out of movie, adorable houses, cute shops all looking over the water. We ended our bike tour in the middle of town by the ferry dock. We were on our own for the rest of the day, we had our bikes until that evening if we wanted them. First order of business was to find something yummy to eat. We took our tour guides advice and enjoyed lunch at Scoma's



 

We enjoyed some delisious seafood sitting on the deck over the water. We even got to have a little sea life to watch, pretty sure it was a sea otter but we didn't get a good picture.





We had a few options following lunch we could bike around Sausalito an the nearby towns or we could take the ferry back to San Fracnsciso. We were debating about what to do when we noticed the last ferry for 3 hours was leaving in 10 minutes, decision made! No way were we biking back, the hill down into Sausalito was one of those steeps hills that if you aren't careful you'll end up out of control quick. We jumped on the ferry and enjoyed a quick ride across the bay. Now to return to our bikes, we only had about 15 blocks to ride them but with traffic. We did as is legal in our town, we obeyed traffic laws. Apparently in California people don't do this, they were insane and I am surprised we didn't seen any accidents from bikes doing whatever they wanted. We made it back and turned in our bikes. Now it was onto a crowded cable car back to our hotel for much needed showers and air conditioning.

 

Feeling clean and refreshed we made our way to Lombard street. We walked down the side of it since we didn't rent a car that was the only way we were able to experience it, which was okay with me. I am not sure why someone built a road like this, it has not useful purpose other than being pretty look at. Maybe someday I will research it. My Dad & Mom like to tell the story of how my dads former boss took them down in a 15 passanger van (many years ago), knowing the boss they are talking about I believe it, having seen the hill in person I know he is officialy looney!

 

From there we wandered the streets slowly just enjoying being out in the nice fresh air. We decided a treat was in order when we found we found Norman's ice cream and wandered inside. As we looked over the flavors Mark became excited when he saw a purple ice cream with the name Ube above it. Apparently an ube is a purple sweet potato found in the Philippines, this is where Mark served is missin for our church so he loves everything Filipino. We were able to sample it, it was actually pretty tasty. We settled on chocolate and cocanut ice cream covered in their famous hot fudge. OH MY GOODNESS! The cocanut ice cream had real cocanut, the big pieces not the stuff you buy at your local grocery store in the baking section. The hot fudge sauce was AMAZING! We could have each had our own but were somewhat healthy and shared.

 

From there we wandered down the piers and in and out of  shops looking for things to take home with us. We wandered to the beach at the end of the piers and put our toes in the sand for a minute.



 

It was rather chilly so we took a quick photo together, made a video for our little guy who we were missing and set out for our next destinitation.

Ghirardelli square, it was okay. There were fun boutique type shops and of course ghirardelli chocolate stores but the price was way more than buying it at home (I was tempted to buy it but resisted) so we took our free sample and wandered around looking at all the different flavors available. We had just had ice cream so a treat wasn't appealing to us.

We decided to wander around and see if we found something that sounded good for dinner. We ended up headed back to pier 39 when we saw this sign:

Walking by would not have been acceptable, we both enjoy games to much. In to Musee Mechanique we walked and it was like something out of an old movie antique games everywhere! I mean real antiques and you could play them! We had lots of fun trying out the games, giggling over what our ancestors found so entertaining and obviously we still find enteraining. I guess the simple things are the best!

 

Mark said I won because his hand slipped off the handle, I say I won fair & square!

Target practice

Once upon a time I was good at this game, not anymore :(

Mark was so excited to whac-a-mole

Classic black & green screen!

We didn't put money in to see what she did but as the plaque below her stays she is rather scary, not sure I would have been able to sleep if she would have done more than just stand there looking at me with her big eyes. 

 

We would have probably stayed longer but our quarters ran out and our stomachs started yelling, remember our bike ride from earlier...we were starving! We do recommend this as a stop if you visit San Francisco.





 

Where to eat dinner.....couldn't decide and somehow we ended up in Chinatown trying to find somewhere to eat. Obviously Chinese sounded good but where does one start in such a place. Finally we asked to nice guys where they suggested, they gave us directions to their favorite place and directions to their american friends favorite place. We decided on the later. During our walk to the suggested place we happened upon the Chinatown restaurant. We were hesitant, it wasn't rated well on urban spoon but a couple coming out said they enjoyed it very much so we took their advice and went in. We decided to be a little daring and tried the dim sum sampler. It was really yummy.

Nothing to crazy but different than what we usually order.

 We ate with our chopsticks, except rice, and did pretty good. As you can see we also got a little sun kissed on our bike tour

After a very yummy and feeling dinner we decided to walk back to our hotel instead of take the trolley or street car. Mark thought this wall painting was cool, I must agree it's pretty neat.

 

I have to be honest I was a bit hesitant about all the homeless people we had seen prior to this walk in the dark but it wasn't bad, the homeless never bothered us as we walked in the day or night. It was such a wonderful day, exhausting but wonderful. We fell into bed exhausted.

Stayed tuned for our final day on our trip