San Francisco Day 2

One thing I loved about this trip was that I got to picture Tommy's childhood a little better. Tommy was born in Oakland and came home to this house below when he was born, just a mile from his aunt's house where we were staying:

I've always heard about the Leiningers living in California, and this is where Tommy's dad grew up, but it was really fun to actually see it and to be able to envision it a lot better. I also met a lot more of Tommy's extended family this time on his mom's side, which was also really nice for the same reason. 

We went on a boat tour of the Bay--and we bought a sourdough bear from Boudin's to eat on the way.

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge.

What a great picture! Maybe this will be our Christmas card! Haha all the kids were tired and cranky and determined not to look at this picture, haha. The nice guy taking the picture did his best but they refused.

Alcatraz behind us.

We spent a while walking around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.

And rode on the double-decker carousel there, which was a highlight of course.

And we trekked forEVER down to my dad's favorite pupusa place, La Santaneca, for lunch. 

Then we had plans to meet up with Tommy's cousins south of the city, so we decided to drive out to the coast to make it a prettier drive. We stopped at the beach for an hour or so, and this was how the boys felt about it:

They were in heaven! It was absolutely freezing but they didn't care. Of course they both got wet even though we warned them not to, and they didn't mind at all. They could have stayed there all day, even without sand toys or swimsuits.

Lucy had just woken up from a nap when we got here, so she spent most of the time snuggled up and trying to wake up.

Look at this cute girl.

Then we went to Tommy's cousin Dana's house for dinner. It was so nice of them to host a big group of us, including our crazy kids. 

Luckily, Tommy's cousin Paige has two kids too, so Dane and Graham had fun playing with them.

Tommy and Aunt Shamm.

San Francisco Day 1

I am slowly going to catch up on the last month, starting with the first few days of our trip to California a few weeks ago. It was one of the best trips we have ever taken! I was nervous because it was a lot busier than most of our trips, and I knew that our kids would be super, super tired and cranky a lot of the time because of the time difference and missing naps and going to bed late. But they did such a good job, and we got to do all of the things I had planned. I really couldn't believe how smoothly it all went. It made me want to do more traveling.

We flew into San Francisco and spent two days there. We stayed with Tommy's aunt Shamm, who lives in Marin County just north of the city. The kids were up at 4:30 the first morning, so we were off to see the Golden Gate Bridge bright and early.

As a side note, I spent the two weeks before our trip checking out all of the books I could find about San Francisco from the library to read to the kids. It wasn't all that many, but there were at least five or six, including two specifically about the Golden Gate Bridge and how it was built. As a result, Dane and Graham were SO excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge and literally screamed with joy every time we drove over it (four times in all). That prep time was worth it because it made them so much more invested in and excited about the trip as a whole.

And now, tons of pictures of us with the Golden Gate Bridge!

While we were there, we drove over it, we took pictures with it, we walked on part of it, and we went under it on a boat tour (the next day). Definitely got our money's worth with this bridge!

I have a picture of me at age 9 ish doing this exact same thing on this bridge. 

We visited this little beach in the city, which the boys loved...

Graham loved the huge Ghirardelli sign with the big G. "G for Graham!"

Another huge highlight for our boys was going to ride on a cable car. This was a big deal for them, so we made it a big priority. 

Krystel came and met us in the city and did our cable car ride and visit to Chinatown with us!

Is this not the cutest picture in the history of all time?

We didn't get many pictures in Chinatown. But we had a GREAT lunch there and had a big incident with a child who shall remain nameless about a toy that he wanted, which involved screaming for about four blocks before Tommy relented and went back and got it for him. Parenting at its finest!

We got ice cream at Ghirardelli Square too. 

After the city, everyone was exhausted so we let the kids nap for a while in the car while we drove up to Muir Woods. It was so amazingly beautiful! It was definitely worth the short drive up there (especially considering we were staying up there).

This was exactly what I wanted... to let our kids run free in these cool parks.

Selfie stick win! Graham's face!

This was just a small preview to what we would get to do in the Sequoias...

After the woods, we had dinner with Tommy's aunt and cousin near their house. 

And Lucy was very cute at the restaurant. She was playing peek-a-boo with Tommy around this glass door.