San Francisco

Paul and I recently took a date trip to San Francisco!  It was really fun having several days to explore a new area, eat out, and be together, just us two.  While the weather was low 50's and rainy, it sure didn't stop our fun!  We had a blast walking around Pier 39, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, hiking in Muir Woods and seeing the giant Redwood trees, walking around China town, going whale watching, touring a bread factory, exploring Golden Gate Park, looking at ancient art at the de Young Museum, and cheering on the Loons to a 3-0 win at their road game in San Jose.  We are so grateful for Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl coming to stay with our kiddos while we were away.  I'll include pictures below of both our trip and the kids' special time with Grandma and Grandpa! 

Wednesday

After our flight was delayed, we got into SF later than anticipated, but we enjoyed a late lunch, seeing the Golden Gate bridge in the fog/rain, hearing the crazy sea lions at pier 39, and doing lots of exploring of the area near our super cute motel, Marina Motel with super amazing gardens!

Thursday

We were so excited to drive to Muir Woods on our first full day.  After seeing a rainbow over the Golden Gate bridge to start our drive, we embarked on the craziest drive (full of turns and hills!) up to a beautiful start to our hike.  We chose an 8 mile round trip "difficult" hike that climbed into the most gorgeous ravine filled with waterfalls, bridges, redwood trees and more, eventually leading us to the ocean.  I would totally do this hike again in a heartbeat!  Every turn revealed gorgeous views and "interesting" climbs.   We took a zillion pictures trying to capture the beauty, but both agreed, you just can't capture it on film.  After returning from our day hike we enjoyed a quick dinner and then walked to/around China town at night with all the lights, and finished off our  night with icecream :).

Friday

We headed to our whale watching tour early Friday morning and spent the morning on the boat, seeing wild life, whales, and gorgeous views of the city and bridges.  Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch and strolling Pier 39, watching fudge be made, and touring a bread factory.  We then headed to the Golden Gate Bridge Park, a long park full of paths and points of interest, my favorite being the Japanese Tea Garden, but also including buffalo, windmills, a Chinese pagoda, interesting plants and animals and gardens, and gorgeous paths.  We walked well past sunset, trying to get it all in, and then Uber-ed back to our Motel for a very late, but delicious dinner of Thai food.

Saturday

We woke up Saturday to pouring rain, and a forecast of expected rain all day, so we enjoyed a delicious breakfast out and touring around a fascinating art museum, with artifacts dating back to 0 AD from areas all over the world.  We then drove to San Jose, origin for our particular trip destination, a road game for the MN Loons.  As two of ten Loons fans in the stadium, we got quite a bit of TV air time according to our friends and family back home, appearing multiple times and even being mentioned by name by the reporter!  We received several screenshots and videos from friends back home saying they saw us, which was fun!  We enjoyed making our voices and cheers heard in a stadium full of San Jose Earthquake fans, and cheering our team to a 3-0 victory.  When we arrived back in San Francisco, we squeezed in one last thing I really wanted to see...the site where Full House was filmed.  Despite the front of the actual house being under construction, I really had fun seeing where one of my favorite childhood shows originated!

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Grandkiddo/Grandparent Fun

Meanwhile, back home, the Grandparents were having quite a bit of fun with the Grandkids....we arrived home to this note...

LOL! Anyway, they DID have quite a bit of fun!  Grandma and Grandpa took Larkyn to the children's museum while the big kids had school on Wednesday, and then did an amazing job keeping up with the kids crazy after school Wednesday activities of gymnastics for the girls, after school engineering lego class for Colton, and church night for all three!

On Thursday Grandma and Grandpa got to experience Southview because it was the kids' Leadership Day.  Summer was one of the tour guides, and was excited to have Grandma and Grandpa (and Larkyn) in her tour group.  Grandma and Grandpa stayed for lunch too!  After school, Uncle Jordan came and joined in the fun! 

On Friday, the kids used their Christmas present wristbands to Mall of America rides from Aunt Nancy and Uncle Paul (thank you, guys!) as it was the perfect day with no school for our district (short lines at MOA being a weekday) and two adults to run the kids around to the various rides as Summer and Colton can ride the big rides while Larkyn's height keeps her on the fun smaller rides.  The kids had a BLAST and were there for eight hours! 

 On Saturday, Colton had a birthday party at the roller rink, and Grandma and Grandpa brought the girls too and they all had fun skating!  They got to come home for popcorn and movie night, a special treat!  

While the snow storm kept them all home bound on Sunday morning, they even watched their curriculum "Whats in the Bible" on Right Now Media and didn't miss a beat ;).

Grandma and Grandpa, A HUGE THANK YOU for loving on our kids and giving them such a fun time and memories with you both!  Seriously, we don't take you for granted.  We feel so lucky to have grandparents that will willingly look forward to and enjoy babysitting our 3 crazy kids for 5 days in a row...running them all over, cooking for and cleaning up after them....and even riding CRAZY rides and going rollerskating WITH THEM!!!  They had a blast with you both (and Bode!) and we are beyond blessed to have you in our kids' lives.  We love you so much!!!!!