Memorial Day Weekend

With out upcoming trip to the east coast, we decided to stick around home Memorial Day weekend and relax.  That Friday was Spirit Day, pajama day, and Roll to School Day...so we had a bunch of kids riding around on bikes/scooters in their jammies..so much fun!  I like that school lets them do things Mommy never would!

We spent Saturday in Pleasanton visiting some friends and it was hot!  We tooled around downtown a while, participating in some holiday festivities.

Monday we took the kids to a Giants game!  It's our first game this season and everyone was so excited! We had great seats, which was important for Timo to be able to follow the game.  We had great weather and just a really fun time out at the ball park...to bad the Giants lost!  But there were soldiers everywhere and it was amazing to see all the spectators honoring those who fight for our freedom.  The Giants also honored several servicemen on the field at the pre-game.  Good thing I was wearing sunglasses so everyone couldn't see what a sap I was!!

Cameron was getting a little bored and hot...we have SF kids that just can take it when the temps go over 75.  We had to take several walks to get refreshments to keep them cool.  So was everyone else...this was the line for ice cream sundaes...

The giveaway that day was a this beach towel.  Cameron's towel pretty much goes everywhere with her these day...she even took it to school that week for show and tell.

After the game we headed downtown for some dinner...we were in the mood for some real food after all that ballpark food.  We made a pit-stop in the St. Francis hotel and then this happened...things got silly.

And a great finish to a great day and a great weekend...beignets!

End of Season Baseball

We wrapped up Timothy's season of baseball last weekend with his last coach pitch game.  His coaches and teammates were so great this year, it was a really really fun year of baseball!  At the end of the game, each player got a medal and photo of themselves and the whole team.  I had trouble getting the team pic to come out but here's our #24!

Timo's favorite positions to play are catcher, first base or short stop...all of which he got to play in the last game.  It was amazing to see his catching skills grow so much this year.

 Cameron and Daddy each took turns sitting next to Timo, giving advice before he was up to bat...

A little pot luck party afterwards and awards.  Timo loves baseball so much, he's so upset that the season is already over.  And I think this was our last year playing coach pitch ball...next year he will move up to the big leagues...the kid pitch team!  I think he'll be more than ready!

Yosemite Pt. 4: Mother's Day

I don't I will hurt my husbands feelings if I say this Mother's Day was the best one so far!  I started my day with breakfast by the fire with my two little monkeys while we left Daddy to catch up on some sleep. And it was my chance to see Timo's bump up close.  He had slipped on a rock the day before and somehow fell so that his hiking stick jabbed in his forehead.  Luckily it didn't go in his eye!  The swelling had gone down a little but it still looked pretty nasty.

We decided to relax Sunday morning and let the kids just chill doing something fun.  The Lodge had tons of kids activities so Timo chose archery and Cameron chose rock climbing.  While Young had the kids, Mommy slipped down to the spa to relax and have a short steam room detox.

After checking out of the hotel we headed back into the Valley, this time to the famous Ahwahnaee Hotel for Mother's Day brunch.  Our view from brunch was spectacular.

We explored the hotel after eating, trying to find the woodpecker we heard, Cameron wants a desk like this to do her homework on and our new souvenir friends had to have their pictures taken too.  Everywhere we turned on the grounds of the hotel was like looking at a postcard...

 

Timo had found two rocks on our hike to the Lower Falls the day before and thought it was the same kind of rock the Indians made arrowheads out of, obsidian.  He really really wanted to go back and show the demo guy at the Indian museum to see if it was real.  Luckily the same guy was there, remembered Timo and informed us one was obsidian and one was granite.  You could tell Timo had been thinking a lot about the information he got the day before and had a few more follow up questions for him about making a bow and arrow.  We got all the instructions and it was time for us to head back to SF.

I was so blessed to spend Mother's Day weekend with my family and to have a husband to plan the whole thing for us.  Our drive back seemed long but the Lord had one more reminder our blessings and of the beautiful city He allows us to live in...a beautiful sunset over home as we drove back over the Bay Bridge.

We've already decided to make Mother's Day weekend an annual trip every year.  Reservations are made for next year and the "to-do" list is already pilling up!  I can't wait to go back....

Yosemite Pt. 3: Village, Lower Falls and Sunset

 ...So after our LONG hike to Vernal Falls, we finally made it to the Village.  By this time we were all starving and settled in at the Grill for burgers all around for lunch.  The most amazing thing about Yosemite is that everywhere you look there is a gorgeous view.  I just couldn't stop looking around and taking pictures.

After lunch we slowly moseyed into to Village to check out the shops and museums.  Then we headed to the Indian Museum, which Timo had been very much looking forward to.  There was a Native American in there doing hands on demos of a variety of Indian techniques.  Timo was in heaven.  He asked such detailed questions about making arrow head, Mr. Demo Man was very impressed.

We finally pulled Timo away and had one last hike, Lower Yosemite Falls.  This short little 1/4mile, paved, easy hike took us a little longer than normal.  By this point we all getting tired and sore feet.  The kids weren't that excited about seeing yet another waterfall.  We tried to make it as fun as possible, stopping to climb rocks, skipping stones and playing ninja off the pathway...can you see Timo in the trees?

At last, our final waterfall of the day!  When we finished the hike, Young looked at his Fitbit at we had hiked a total of 12.6 miles for the whole day!!  What little (and big) troopers we all were.  Funny side note, once we go to the Falls, Timo said "we've already seen this one!" Guess once you've seen 4-5 waterfalls, they all start to look the same.

Can you see how happy everyone was when we hopped on the shuttle to take it back to our car??

We decided on dinner at The Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, a well deserved meal!  I don't think I've ever seen Cameron eat so much food at one sitting, she burned some serious calories up today.

It was sunset when we were leaving the park and the Lord blessed us with some of the most amazing views of the day.  We kept stopping at all the pull-outs on the way out of the park to take pictures.  And a quick stop at Tunnel View again for some beautiful sunset pictures. Cameron was too tired to get out of the car but Young and Timo snapped some breathtaking pictures.

The 45min drive back took a little longer too because we just couldn't help ourselves from stopping and taking more pictures.  Timo kept asking to stop so Young let him take a few pictures...I think he did a pretty good job.

Yup, I was pretty sure they wouldn't make it all the way back.  Fast asleep with their souvenirs and very tired feet!  We got them dressed and in bed without much notice from them...except for Timo.  He had had two bad bumps on the head while we were hiking and was complaining of a headache.  The front desk was so nice to open the gift shop up so we could buy some children's Tylenol (which is now standard on my future packing list).  Not a peep from them until morning!  What an amazing day in God's beautiful Yosemite Valley.