San Francisco: Part 2

I slept in the guest bedroom with Juliet on Saturday night...and woke up to her standing in the co-sleeper calling my name around 3:00 AM. When I opened my eyes to look at her, she said, "I snuggle you mommy." I couldn't resist that, so I pulled her into bed with me. She was surprisingly easy to sleep with...didn't kick me in the back all night like Aidric likes to do.

However, our sleepover did mean an early rising time. So, we got dressed and tried to sneak out of the apartment without waking anyone else up. John had slept on the couch though, so he ended up joining us for a walk down to Polk Street for Peet's Coffee and bagels from the Bagelry.

We brought them home and after we ate, we headed to Golden Gate Park. I'd been there before, but never to the Children's Playground area, which is SO fun!! The kids loved it. I've never seen anything like these cement slides before.



Lots of climbing for both kids..




On the carousel:




A few quick pictures with grandma:


And a little more climbing...



After the playground, we ate at Park Chow, an old fave from when I worked at UCSF. Then, the kids and I walked to the hospital to meet up with one of my former co-workers and good friend, Becky. The kids enjoyed the playroom while Beck and I did our best to catch up in 20 minutes.

We headed back to John's then and made some time for naps. I wish I had pictures of the rest of the day, but I decided to free myself from the camera! I had googled "things to do with kids in SF" and found something I'd never done before. It's called the "Wave Organ". It's so hard to describe, but it was very cool and I'm glad we checked it out. You walk out on a jetty to get there, which was a little terrifying with a 2 year old and 3 year old, I'm not going to lie. More info here if you're planning a trip and interested:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/plan_your_visit/wave_organ/

We capped our day with the ultimate SF tourist treat...a trip to Ghirardelli Square. We ate at The Pub and then devoured two sundaes between the 5 of us at Ghirardelli.

Overall, a FANTASTIC weekend...thanks for having us John and mom, thanks for letting the kids and I crash what would have been a much more relaxing weekend for you in San Francisco =)

San Francisco in 48 hours

My mom came to visit last week, and we took a road trip with the kids to see my brother in San Francisco. It was SOOOO great to be there...I immediately called Chris to ask when we could move back. The kids LOVED spending time with Uncle John, and I think he enjoyed it too. (that's not to say he wasn't ready for us to go and may never have children of his own now :)

We covered a LOT of ground in just a little over 48 hours. We arrived Friday afternoon around 5:00. Walked to Zarzuelas for dinner and then Swenson's for ice cream cones. (A quick stop at the market where I spent $28 on THREE things..a box of cheerios, a box of oatmeal and a loaf of bread.) Guess there are some things I don't miss =)

Saturday morning we took a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf, walked to Pier 39, had some donut holes, saw the sea lions, rode the carousel, checked out the candy store and John and Aidric went on a 4D "ride" that Aidric proclaimed was, "just a little bit scary".

Getting ready to start the day.


On the cable car- it's REALLY hard to take a picture in such a tight space in a moving vehicle.






Watching the bakers at Boudin Bakery


The sea lions






Carousel on Pier 39



Juliet at the candy store


We jumped on the ferry to Sausalito..Aidric originally did NOT want to get on..told us he wasn't going to get on with us. He obviously changed his mind and ended up loving the ride. Once we got there, we walked down to Horizon's...a great restaurant on the water. (I have one other picture from the ferry ride to share, but it's so good it deserves it's own post..wait for it :)





This guy is either new here or I just don't remember him from any previous trips to Sausalito. But, he's pretty amazing...he stacks rocks and balances them on each other. We actually watched him stack a few and it's unbelievable!







After a ferry ride back to the city and a cab ride from there, we finally made our way to John's around 4:30. Juliet's nap time generally starts at 1:00! She ended up not even napping, so I knew there was no way we were going out to dinner. We ordered Tony's Pizza from North Beach...I'd never had it before, but it was great! I think I fell asleep on the couch by 9:15. Looong day, but so fun!! I love that Aidric and Juliet are at the age where we can go do this kind of stuff and they enjoy it and "get it". We need to pack more of this "stuff" in before #3 arrives! There is another post coming covering day 2 =)

How big are HIS feet daddy??

Aidric and Chris were sitting on the couch, immersed in some website that showed a picture of a dinosaur and then pronounced its name out loud...you could listen to it "growl" and then click on a page with statistics. I kept hearing Aidric ask Chris how big each dinosaurs feet were and thought that was an odd measurement for them to list..and for Aidric to be so interested in. Then, I walked into the room and heard Chris answer, "that dinosaur was 12 feet tall". Cracked me up that he continued to ask how big each dinosaur's feet were when Chris continued to tell him how TALL each dinosaur was. Hmmm, it's possible you had to be there for this one =)

Superman

I posted some of these over on my photography blog, but wanted to add a few more here b/c he is just too cute to limit =)

Week 14 of 52 Weeks with my Kids

This weekend, my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, niece and nephew came for a visit. We had a GREAT weekend, which included a lot of fun cousin time as well as a babysitter for a few hours so we could get out and watch Butler advance to the Championship game!

On Sunday morning, Sarah and I took the kids to Sea Lab in Redondo Beach, a small but very cool hands-on aquarium type place. I wish I had brought the camera, but an iphone pic will have to do for this week!