San Francisco- Day 2

One might think that two parents of toddlers would choose to sleep in during their vacation, but that wasn't the case on day 2 of our getaway . Due to the time difference, we were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30 (yes, that's 6:30 a.m.). If you think about it, our bodies thought it was 8:30, so I guess we really did sleep in, in a round-a-bout way!

Cory had researched some fun places to eat before we left and found a breakfast place that he wanted to try called Mama's. The online review said to get there early in order to avoid a long line. Since we were up early, we decided to give it a try. It was SO good-probably one of the best breakfasts I have ever had, and that is saying a lot because I am not a huge fan of breakfast.

Cory got a Californian M'omelet (with bacon, monterrey jack cheese and avocados) and I got banana pancakes. I am not a fan of omelets, but it was so good that I ended up eating almost half of Cory's breakfast. We were so impressed that we decided to go back the next morning. That time I got the Californian M'omelet and Cory got chocolate cinnamon french toast with fresh berries. Again- SO good! I can see why this place is so popular. All of the bread was homemade as well as the yummy mixed berry jam that went on it!

Waiting in line at Mama's

My Californian M'omelet (with fried red potatoes and sourdough bread)Cory's french toast

After breakfast, we were so stuffed that it was hard to even walk, but we pushed through it and spent a few hours just walking around a few neighborhoods in SF. I loved all of the communities, parks, houses...what a neat place to live. We ended up down at the piers and looked around at some ships. By then it was lunch time, but we were both still too full to eat a big lunch. We decided that the best thing to do was to go to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory and see what they had to offer!

This is what we ended up eating for lunch...healthy, huh?!? But it was vacation, after all, and we had been walking for several hours, so we didn't feel the least bit guilty for indulging in a warm, brownie caramel sundae.
After "lunch", we headed to Lombard Street- the crookedest street in San Francisco.

This is one of the hills we had to walk up to get there. Our legs were really burning by the time we got to the top, and I am sure we burned enough calories to take care of our unhealthy lunch choice!

At the top of Lombard Street At the bottom of Lombard Street

After some more walking, we ended up at Pier 39. It is a very crowded tourist area in SF, but it had some fun things to do, like watching the sea lions. There are hundreds of them, just laying around and smelling bad. We didn't stay there very long!

At Pier 39

Fruit market on the pier

After more walking and a lot of indecision, we ended up eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant down by the piers. We weren't sure how good Mexican food would be in SF, but we were pleasantly surprised at how yummy it was.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and put our feet up. I don't think I could have walked one more step that day, but really enjoyed everything we got to see in one day. I especially enjoyed just taking our time, walking and talking without anyone there to interrupt us. It is easy for me to forget sometimes how much fun I have with Cory when it is just the two of us. I am so glad we had this opportunity to get away from the daily stresses of kids and work and reconnect with each other. I highly recommend it for anyone with kids, even if it is only for a night or two.

Happy Anniversary Grandma and Papa!

Yesterday Cory's parents celebrated their 39th anniversary! We hope you had a wonderful day!

San Francisco- Day 1

Cory and I just got back from our first vacation away together since before Parker was born. We spent three days in San Francisco and had a wonderful time. I had forgotten how much fun we have when we travel together. Alone. Without kids that need to be entertained. And held. And fed. And changed.

We had both already been to San Francisco on separate trips but had never been there together. It was wonderful just to do whatever we wanted without any schedule to follow.

The first day was mostly a travel day. We left Dallas around 11 and had a connecting flight in LA. We only had 1 hour in between our flights so we knew we would be cutting it close. So when the pilot came on the loudspeaker and announced that we would be delayed due to one of the on-flight toilets not flushing, we knew we were in trouble. We got into LA and thought that if we really hurried, we might still be able to make our connecting flight. On our way to the next terminal, however, we were stopped by the police and told that the terminals had been shut down due to a bomb scare. Seriously. Needless to say, we did not make our flight.

We got on standby for the next flight to San Francisco and fortunately made it on without any trouble. This put us getting into SanFran several hours later than we expected which would have been ok if we didn't have a Ranger game to get to by 7:00.

Cory had looked online for directions to our hotel but had not printed them out, so we set out on foot and asked a few locals for directions. We quickly discovered that we should have gotten directions before we left. It took us FOREVER to get to the hotel. I think we went the longest way around the city to get there and both of our feet were throbbing by the time we made it to the hotel.

We literally threw our suitcases in the hotel and left for the Ranger game. (We discovered a few days before we left that they were playing the Oakland A's and thought it would be fun to go watch them. Since the A's aren't a great team, it was easy to get really good seats, even at the last minute.)

Due to our missed flight and long walk to the hotel, we didn't get to the game until the bottom of the 2nd inning. Our tickets were on the first row of the stadium, close to the Rangers dugout. We couldn't have had better seats. We were so close to the field that you could even hear the ball bouncing on the grass as it went by.

It was a very weird feeling to be a Ranger fan in a stadium of A's fans. I am not sure how it happened, but the people on both sides of us were also Rangers fans. It seemed at times that the six of us were the only ones clapping in the entire stadium. We were definitely in the minority.

One funny thing that happened during the game was that all of a sudden we heard a lot of noise in the stands. We looked out on the field and there was a fan running all over the field being chased by a bunch of security people. (Kind of like Drew Barrymore in Fever Pitch, but without the happy ending!) As soon as they got him handcuffed, another fan ran out on the field. I sure hope those 2 guys enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame and their night in jail!

View of the field from our seats

After a fun game (even though the Rangers lost) we headed back to the hotel and crashed! It was about midnight by the time we got in bed, but due to the time change, our bodies thought it was 2am. I haven't been to bed that late in many, many years!

(One side note to my sister Meredith: You would have been so proud of us... we took public transportation the entire trip. The BART (the SF subway) and the buses got us everywhere we needed to go. It was so easy once we figured it out.)

I will post more later about the rest of our trip. For those of you who have never been to SF, it is a great place to visit, especially if you only have a few days to get away. The weather was great and there is a lot to do, both for adults and kids.

Got it!

Eden has always been a baby who is easily entertained. Put her on the floor with several toys, and she can play for quite some time without getting bored.

Now that she is crawling, she can find new ways to keep herself busy without my help. (Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it is not!!)

Her new thing is to open my bottom bathroom drawer looking for treasures. This is actually very helpful to me when I am trying to get ready in the morning, because once she has pulled a few things out of the drawer, she will sit and play independently until I am finished.

Below you can "watch" as she searches and finds exactly what she is looking for!

Shake Your Oboe

Someone should warn you before you have kids that there is a chance that you could be changing up to 6 poopy diapers a day. I have no idea what I fed these 2 kiddos, but it must have worked! And now, as a result, our diaper pail runneth over!!

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Aunt MerMer was in town today and went to dinner with us. At the end of dinner, she taught Parker a fun new song that goes like this:

"Shake shake shake...shake shake shake...shake your bobo!"

Because Parker is still trying to master this tricky thing we call language, this is what he sang:

"Shake shake shake...shake shake shake... shake your oboe!"

Needless to say, we shook our "oboes" all the way home, all during bathtime, all during storytime...thanks Aunt MerMer for teaching him the new song!

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GOING! GOING!! GONE!!!

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And just because she is so darn sweet!

Brotherly Love

Parker loves to give hugs and kisses, especially to Eden. He looks for her as soon as he gets up in the morning and after his nap so that he can love on her. We have really worked on being gentle with her, as he can often get very excited and be a little too rough! I pray that Parker would continue to look out for Eden as they grow and that Eden would learn to love having a big brother!

Steps

Our new house has steps leading up to the front door, which has proven to be a great play area for a two year old. He loves to jump down the steps or stand at the top and kick a ball down to Cory. If only I were that easily entertained!