Museum Day!

 Sometimes a parent needs to step in to secure the most effective playdough tools,

 The elevator shot

The Shoes

 Some liquid refreshment after a long run of play...

 It's more fun to share.

 Shopping.

more sharing...

 Cooking up some tasty grub.

Today was a whopper of a good time.  

And at the end of this fabulous, long-over-due day, I have only one question....

Grady, what are we NOT going to do at the museum today?

Circus Circus

That was the theme of Preschool this week.  The boys had a ball making clown ice cream cones, clown masks, tossing balls, jumping through hoops, walking the tight rope, and doing all things circus. 

Weekend

 Friday we snuck Jake out of school for a little lunch.

 Saturday we took Jake to do baptisms for the first time.  He loved it.

 And check him out, grabbing our bags from us so we wouldn't have to carry them.  What a stud.

 Then we met the Fischers at the Children's Museum.  

These two got a taste of just how hard us Moms work during the day.

And Jer got a few compliments on his good looking purse.

 These guys loved it.

These guys....well, the museum was just a little too much on the children side for them.  They went off exploring on their own and were almost immediately stopped by a museum worker who told them they were not allowed to be away from their parents.  She promptly escorted them back to us. How embarrassing. Ridiculous.  These two could not believe her nerve!  They are practically adults, you know.   

 We had a little party in the smallest elevator on the planet.

Fabulous Weekend!

Grandma Heads Back to ID

 It might have been the 3-day-long Risk Game that had her packing her bags.  

 Hard to believe the soup-slurpin' boy beat his Dad, Grandma and even Me!

 No one wanted to say goodbye!  The kids were so sad when they got home from school!  

The house was just a little empty and sad without Grandma.

Luke and I stopped off at IKEA on the way home from the airport to chase away the goodbye grandma blues.  It definitely helped.

Thank you again Grandma for taking care of the kiddos and then sticking around to play! 

We love you!

Luke's First Day!

 Luke asked almost every day this summer if it was time for Preschool to begin, so he was pretty fired up today!

Gabe, Luke, Ezra and Jackson (Gabe's friend and honorary preschool member).

Ms. Amber had them paint, make cookies, do their names in beans, relay races and all sorts of fun things.  

It's gonna be a stellar year!

Four Days in San Fran

 First Day: car, plane, shuttle, taxi, ferry, bus, BART, tram and feet. Feet that logged miles strolling, walking and yes occasionally running up and down the streets of the San Francisco. It was an adventure to navigate the city and let me tell you Jer can read a map and run down a bus like no other. Authentic Italian on the wharf cafeteria style, sharing a shuttle with a former Raven's player, Walgreen's stops, attack of the bush man that made both Jer and I jump (and no dollar cuz he made us holler) and Alcatraz, maybe our favorite stop!

 100 mph winds almost knocked us over.

 Second Day: Knowing the city so well that we only needed shuttle, train, bus, double decker bus and feet today. We loved the Double Decker bus tour that started off with 'welcome to my nightmare and your vacation', Jer's favorite white-haired row-boat ladies, angry $7 man at the Japanese Gardens, tour bus guide/live music video crasher, playing it safe at HardRock, and jumping the night tour early, "it's only 6 blocks" (and there might be a small stretch of the ghetto in there).

 And there were tons of older Asian people out doing exercise in the park.  I thought this was pretty amazing.  Jer said he could show me something even more amazing.

 Giving it his all.  I think it was the back pack that was keeping him from looking like the yellow lady.

 Our crazy tour bus driver getting in our Full House shot.

 Third Day: Shuttle, Double Decker bus and feet only - oh yeah. Golden Gate bridge, Besty from Escondido, stories of mayorial corruption and her husband Jack Sprat, 4 minute photo-op and Jer's quick thinking to hustle back to the bus to secure our warm seats, sugar high, Chinatown and Jer's question and the witty, "Thank you, No Thank you" response, my question and the obvious zero-response, Jer miraculously finding the fortune cookie factory, the food dealer waiting for us outside in the dark alley, Jer's fateful hesitation which blew my cover and led to 20 questions about our lunch plans because you know that clam chowder down at the wharf is 50-50 from a can.  Jer you may own the map skills on this vacation but let me handle the back-alley dwellers.  Securing seats on the sardine packed shuttle home (actually Jer gave up his seat, he's so sweet), our Canadian friends and their thirst for happy hour, and finally getting back to the hotel in time for the manager's night-time freebies.

 You are looking at the entire fortune cookie factory. And you will get more than fortune cookies here.  I may have gotten a kiss and some hand-holding as well..  We loved this jolly, cute little man.

 We hiked several blocks literally straight up to Lombard street. 

 It was such a workout even I broke out in a sweat and had to peel the coat off.

Fourth Day: Taxi, shuttle, plane, car.  No pics of this day.  We relaxed at the hotel,  then went to the mall and the movies before catching the plane home.  It was the perfect ending to a jam-packed, fun-filled vacation.

Loved every second of this trip with you Jer!

Thanks mom for taking such great care of the kids (and Sarah and Jamie too:)!!