San Francisco Trip

Justin and I decided we were in need some much deserved "us time."  I can't even begin to explain whats been going on at the company and all the stress Justin has been under.  It seems to be never ending.  He does so much and it's like his secretary says, "He is the brains of the business!!!"

I have wanted to go to San Francisco with Justin ever since my trip there with my friend Steph.  So that's just where we went.

Enjoyed yummy food at the Rain Forest Cafe.

My ears where freezing one night while we were out enjoying the city so I decided to buy a beanie that the kids would like.  Yes I know I look like an idiot but I was a lot warmer with it on!

This was our home away from home for 4 days.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this place.  It was interesting but not a place I'd want to stay again.

It had a real old school elevator.  It was more like a scary carnival ride then an elevator!!  It did add to the whole experience of the place I must say.

We had a wonderful brunch at Rose's Cafe just down the street from our crazy hotel.  It's a place the locals love we were told.

My granola, yogurt and fruit was delicious.

But Justin wasn't too fond of his fancy french toast.  He was more hoping for like the Ihop type french toast plate.

Aunt Carol recommended we go to the Palace of Fine Arts.

I am glad she did.  It was a beautiful place!

It's amazing the magnitude of these pillars. 

We saw a lot of couple getting wedding pictures while we were there.

We knew our kids would love to see this picture as they all really like the old tv show, Full House.

Yes I wore yoga pants the whole trip .....don't judge me!

This is the actual house that the Full House was filmed in.  Funny enough it's not even on the street that the opening scenes of the sitcom makes it look like.  It was a mile or more away from that street.

We enjoyed a little hiking at Lands End Park.

What a wonderful trip with the Love of my Life!

I really enjoyed all the vegetation.  

Gorgeous views!  Justin and I explored different aspects of San Francisco then I had on my trip with Steph.  So it was nice.

This is Mile Rock Beach

Of course we had to hit China Town.

I like all the lanterns hanging across the street.

I was super excited to find the Little Italy of San Fran.  

We had some yummy pasta at Mona Lisa.

Then we had to find some cannoli's to try after all it was Little Italy.

Stella Pastry & Cafe had some yummy pastries but not as good as the ones we had in NYC's Little Italy.......those were AMAZING!

I love all the different cultures you can experience in big cities.  I hope to be able to take our kids to places like San Francisco and New York City so they can be exposed to these cultures. 

One of our favorite things we did, and by far Justin's favorite thing was taking a tour on the segways in Golden Gate Park!  I didn't get any pictures downloaded from their site yet, but it really was AMAZING!  Of course after doing this Justin wanted to rent a segway every where so he didn't have to walk.  He's not a huge fan of walking.  

The Golden Gate Park is 1,000 plus acres and it is gorgeous!  It's amazing....we loved being in this park.  It's just huge and beautiful!

Justin really wanted to do the segway tour to Lumbard Street, famous for being the crookedest street.  But I wasn't too sure about such steep street, me, a segway and I was having some bad cramps from a procedure I just had done at a doctor in Tempe.  So Justin finally agreed to walk the steep streets to get there.  Of course we could have taken a trolley or cab.  Mostly I think Justin just enjoys giving me a hard time, so of course he had to whine about this walk.  Or should I say hike!

We enjoyed the food and fishing down at Fisherman's Wharf!

Couldn't pass up fresh made Trish's Donuts now could we?

Nope we couldn't!

Love all the sea lions down at Pier 39.  Our kids would just love to see this.  

And what a gorgeous sight of the city!

One thing I really enjoy about big cities is the street entertainment.  These spray paint artist are always fun to watch!

I was excited to make it to Alcatraz this trip to San Francisco.

Alcatraz has such interesting history to it.  It's eerie and neat at the same time.

All the tunnels and underground portions of buildings were interesting.

This is what the cells look like.

I can't even imagine spending any amount of time this a place like this.

This is the cell of one of the inmates that was part of the Alcatraz escape in 1962.  Those three men that escaped were never found. 

We did the audio tour of Alcatraz and it sure was interesting to hear about the high profile criminals that were housed here. 

This is a view of the courtyard where the inmates got to have a few moments of "leisure".  

I really enjoy traveling places and hearing about the history, walking the grounds where such interesting people lived, and imagining the lives they lived.

It was neat to see such beautiful flowers and gardens on the island.  Much of the staff that ran this high risk prison, families included lived on the island.  The children went to school here and spend years and years just feet from such insane criminals.  From the audio tour we learned that the children rarely, if ever, saw inmates.  

It would be tortuous to be imprisoned on Alcatraz and be able to see and hear the city so close, yet unreachable!  What a great thing for those criminals to have to endure I think!

One of the many delicious meals we had while on our trip!

Enjoying a little Joe's Crab Shack!

I could have crab legs every day if I could afford it!

The cable cars were a ton of fun to ride on.  Defiantly a must do when in San Francisco! 

And yes I wore yoga pants the whole trip.............don't judge me Ha, ha, ha.... I had a good reason for doing so.

It was such a wonderful trip!  I am so grateful for the long weekend Justin and I were able to spend together in San Francisco.  Next trip we take though is going to be to a location where there is no cell service or Internet.  

Without me knowing it Justin had sent up my MacBook to be able to remotely access his computers at his office.  So every morning and every evening he was busily working on the computer doing CKC stuff.  Not only that but he was on the phone many, many times a day regarding the jobs going on and what not.  I felt bad he worked so much while we were on "vacation", but that's what happens when you own your own business.  

Even though Justin still was working I wouldn't trade our little get away.  He loved San Francisco, but not quite as much as I did.  He is a country boy through and through!

Are You Serious?

Kiersten has some luck I tell ya!

 She got invited over to the Smith's house on a Thursday night for a party (which is like Friday for our kids since they don't have school on Fridays).  It was Chase's friends at the party for the most past.....they are all in the 8th grade and then there was Kiersten and Maranda Smith both who are in the 6th grade.  

So Kiersten was excited of course since it was so many older kids.  They were all having a great time just messing around.  At some point they were all playing chase or hide-n-seek in the house.  Yes Tressie and Jason were home and they were letting the kids play this game.  

Kiersten was running in the hallway and ran into the bathroom to hide from Chase.   She was not aware that earlier in the evening Melanie (8) and Ashley (10) had made a huge mess in the bathroom.  It consisted of them washing their dolls in the sink with soap and water.  Of course they let in overflow onto the floor making the bathroom floor a big slippery mess!

So Kiersten comes running into the bathroom and slips on the wet, soapy floor and lands on her right elbow.

Because there were so many older kids Kiersten holds in the pain and doesn't make a fuss about her elbow.  She not only didn't cry, even though she said she really felt like it, but she stayed at the party.

When Tressie walked her home I was already asleep.  She stayed up most of the night because her arm/elbow was hurting so bad.

I asked her why she didn't wake me up she said, " I came into your room to wake you up but you looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake you!"  Needless to say we had a long talk about waking me up next time!!

The next morning around 11:00 I decided to take her to get it checked out because she was holding her right arm with her left arm and wouldn't let it hang down at all.

I took her to the Urgent Care because they have an x-ray machine there.  We were both surprised when the doctor came back in and said it was "fracture in the growth plate of her elbow!"

I guess I was so surprised because Kiersten was tough enough to stay at that party after she broke her elbow.

I told Tressie when we were headed to the Urgent Care but she acted like there was no way it could be broken because Kiersten not only did not cry but she didn't even complain about it.  Plus she stayed at their house for hours after in happened.  When I called Tressie and told her the news from the Urgent Care doctor she was in shock!!!  And she felt extremely bad about it!

Kiersten had to wear a hard splint for a few days and then go see Dr. Bryce the orthopedic surgeon.  

When the doctor told Kiersten that her elbow was broke she just started bawling.  He felt so bad and thought it was because she had been in so much pain.  She was actually just very upset that she would break her elbow one week before her end of the year gymnastic show!

Kiersten had gotten her unassisted back handspring down.  I had even let her take about 5 private lessons to help her get it down because she was working so hard on that skill.  

She was so proud of herself for getting it down and then this happens a week before the show.

My heart just broke for her!!! 

At first we thought she might have her cast on for her dance competition and dance recital.  It was a hard thing to think about to this dedicated girl of ours.  But lucky enough Kiersten was able to get her cast off the week of competition and the week before the dance recital. 

She had to the cast for 5 weeks.

The whole situation was a sad deal.  But I was amazed at Kiersten's sweetness and strength through out it all.

Kiersten's Piano Recital

The is the end of the year piano recital.

Kiersten's teacher, Rea Schmitt, challenged her to do three pieces from memory for the recital.

Of course Kiersten will rise to any thing that is asked of her.

Sister Schmitt is a great teacher!

She is a bit tough on her students and pushes them hard.

It's been a big adjustment coming from the very positive atmosphere of Tracy Brown's lessons to Sister Schmitt's way of teaching.  But Kiersten has done great and plays the piano beautifully!!!

Kiersten and Ashlyn Brown

Kiersten played all her pieces so good!

It was a real joy to be at her recital!

9 Year Old Boys!!!

No one ever told me how much fun 9 year old boys are!  It's been fun discovering this truth on my own though.

This is what happens when you ask your 9 year old boy to vacuum out the car.  Now he did what I asked and did a great job at it.  He also had a fun time using the vacuum hose to create this nice hickey in the middle of his forehead.  Do you think he was embarrassed at all?  Heavens no, something like this is "AWESOME" when you are a 9 year old boy! 

This is Hunter with his 4th Grade teacher, Mrs. Jessica Skinner.  She is also our neighbor.  She has been Hunter's most favorite teacher yet!  She is pretty amazing teacher!

So this was on one of the many dress up days during the Love of Reading Week.  It was dress like a cowboy or cowgirl day.  Of course, for our "think outside the box", Hunter he decided he was going to dress up like a cowgirl!  He was so very excited to do it and even picked out his own outfit.  How could I say no, plus isn't he adorable!

I am always impressed with Hunter and his ability to think outside the box.  Plus he has a dang good sense of humor to match it!

Mrs. Skinner sent me this picture and told her this was her favorite day of the year.  She even asked of she could put it on her FaceBook page because she loved Hunter's personality and creativity so much!

So I must say, 9 year old boys are so much fun!  I am grateful I get to experience these fun filled moments with Hunter!

Our Conference Garden

Our tradition is to plant our spring/summer garden the weekend of General Conference as we listen to it on the radio.  I think we actually hear more of it this way and Justin stays awake!  The Sunday sessions are about all our kids can handle just sitting down listening to all the speakers, no matter how good they are.

We have quite the work crew this year!

And then we have a good three year old foreman, Mr. Grant!

Kiersten is our kid that gets into the garden the most, but Hunter is getting more and more interested in it the older he gets.  Kiersten is just like her dad in that way.  As a kid, Justin was the gardener of his house his mom tells us.

Apparently, Foreman Grant told Logan to come join him in the mud hole he made.  How can you say no to those smiles?  I know I couldn't!

Of course when you play in a mud hole you MUST cover each other in mud right!

Everyone enjoyed the day of planting the garden, listening to Conference and of course the fun of the mud hole!

Justin does a great job showing and teaching the kids about planting the garden!

These two were such hard workers!  Justin and I were super proud of them!

We enjoyed our garden the entire summer.......tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini squash, green chills, jalapeños, and carrots.

Project completed!

My mud magnets needed a dip in the pool after their long day of "work".

Great job foreman Grant.  Pretty sure he might have had the most fun out of everyone!