San Fransisco Trip

I can remember as a little kid watching Full House and dreaming of one day seeing the Golden Gate Bridge for myself. It's been a life long dream to travel and this year we were finally given the opportunity to visit Northern California. I have a cousin (by marriage) who lives just outside of San Fransisco that invited us for a visit, so we made it happen...FINALLY! I was very anxious in the beginning about traveling with a little one, but I must say, Simon was a trooper! Not one tear on the airplane either way and pretty much slept the whole flight. He was awake for take off, so he will tell you all about the lights and the stars and how we were up in the sky. After that, he was out!

Day 1 (Tuesday):
We pretty much rested and tried to catch our breath. California is 3 hours behind so when it's midnight here, it's only 9pm their time. Let's just say the first few days, Simon and I were ready for bed by 5pm California time, 8pm our time. Yes, that meant getting up at 4:30am their time.
That evening, I walked outside to take the trash out (dirty diaper) and I heard music. I was overjoyed to see the ice-cream truck drive by. We were able to flag the truck down and everyone enjoyed an ice-cream from the truck. We also made a trip to Walmart for some Simon friendly food. Yep, they have Walmarts there!

Day 2 (Wednesday):
We had all caught up on some much needed sleep and decided to venture out to see what Northern California had in store for us. Sacramento, here we come! We walked around Old Sacramento. There was an old school building we walked through, as well as shops and a train station where (had it been opened) you got to ride a train and tour the area. We also toured the Old Sacramento Train Museum.

 Tower Bridge going into Sacramento

 Government building in Sacramento

 An old school house in the middle of Old Sacramento

 A bed and breakfast boat on the Sac River

Ziggurat Building off the Sacramento River

Enjoying his Whistle Pop Sucker in the Candy Store

We stopped for dinner but Simon wasn't too interested in eating, after-all, he had a sucker from a candy shop in Old Sac. 

Was going to clean his plate, even if it meant shoving it all off onto the table...

 

Feeding his daddy b/c he wasn't interested in eating his food.

Day 3 (Thursday): We ventured out to the Jelly Belly Factory.

 During the 20 minute tour, we had to wear the hats, as pictured above. Simon wasn't a huge fan but he did thoroughly enjoy the jelly bean tasting during the tour. I think they handed out a total of 6 different flavored jelly beans. The three pictures following this paragraph were all made out of different colored jelly beans. There were a ton of these hanging around the place but these seemed to be the ones David took pics of.

 After the tour, we were given a bag of jelly beans, all different flavors. David and Madison were feeling a little on the edge and decided they both wanted to try the 'dog food' flavored jelly bean (gag). Later on, David and I tried the vomit flavored jelly bean. Let's just say it really tastes like vomit. I'm not sure why anyone decided how or why to make that flavor.

Day 4 (Friday): I believe this way a good solid day of rest for the girls and Simon. David and Tony toured the Budweiser Factory but I don't have any pictures of that :/.

Day 5 (Saturday): If you've ever visited northern California, there are a ton of hills. Well, I guess you call them hills. They look super easy to climb and are covered in yellow/tan grass. David was dying to hike these so Tony took him to hike. This was the beginning of his hike. Seems pretty easy, huh. No tall grass, no steep hills.

Now we see what that yellow/tan grass really is...

And we have another trail.

And another...

A view of the beautiful hills from a little higher up.

Above: A view of Vacaville, CA from the top of the hill David climbed.

Isn't that such an awesome picture? I wish now I had gone with him on this hike.

If you'll look closely at the picture below, you'll see a row of windmills. Those windmills provide power for several nearby towns.

 A few other views of Vacaville, CA. Love the rows of houses he pictured below.

After his hike, we all piled up in the van and headed west for Dillon Beach, CA which is in the Marin County area. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Day 6 (Sunday): We had another rest and recoup day. Madison, David, Si and I did go hang out at the local water park/pool but Si played on their playground instead of getting in the water.

Day 7 (Monday): Monday came around way too fast. I'm pretty sure we all adjusted to the time change and were pretty much settled when it was time to leave again. Instead of dwelling on the fact we would be flying out later that evening, we embraced our last day and took off to see the city of San Fransisco and tour Alcatraz. I will say, once you've seen a prison cell, you've seen them all but it was very interesting to hear the stories that happened behind those cell walls.

Pier 39

SEALS!!!!!

This was actually a man built island/restaurant floating by the dock

Golden Gate

The Rock

Approaching the Rock

I guess if they made it to Alcatraz, they didn't deserve a bed

Their play yard

Madison, Tony, Amy and Brooklyn

We really enjoyed our (short) trip and were sad to say goodbye but it was so good to be back home in our own beds, on our schedules, and back to our lives. This trip wouldn't have happened without Amy and Tony Crawford. They sacrificed their home and busy schedules to accommodate us and we will forever be grateful for them allowing us this opportunity!

Silver Lining Remake

I use to watch movies all of the time. You could say it was a favorite past time. Then came marriage (well, it was still one of my favorites), then a baby who is now sleeping through the night, YAY!!! Watching movies now usually involves staying up (late) after Si goes down, or cramming it in on the weekends during nap time when I should be doing something else. Let's just say I don't do much movie watching anymore - what can I say, I value sleep! Today while I was at work I got a hankering to watch a movie, and I knew exactly what movie I wanted to watch, Silver Lining. I'd read great reviews and heard so many good things about it, and the best part, it didn't disappoint.

So many lines of that movie sum up how I view life, or try to. It's taken me almost 29 years to realize good comes out of every bad situation. My glass isn't always half empty, it's always half full! The two main characters, Pat and Tiffany, were dealt some pretty crappy cards in life but found each other in the midst of all their pain and agony. They were each others "silver lining". Can you get a more honest story line? No, these two didn't see it right off, well, Pat didn't, but that's the best thing about this movie. The minute I saw David I knew he was my silver lining to 'my crappy cards'. He didn't know it at that moment, but it didn't take him long to realize I was his as well (at least I think I am). We both have skeletons that could jump out at any given time and for the most part I'm always fighting off demons but that is what makes our love different and romantic. He accepts me for who I am today because of what has happened, and vice verse, except I have to say David came out on top for sure. He's a much stronger person than I am and for that I'm eternally grateful to God for allowing me to spend the majority of my life with a man who I know will always help me when I fall.

Life is hard. Nothing about it is easy. We all chose our own paths, even when we see the flashing red signs telling us not to go down them. We eventually recover (somewhat) and learn to live with ourselves and the others surrounding us. Its when you aren't looking or paying attention that the good intervenes. I may have just found my new favorite movie!

Early Christmas!

I've been searching for toy boxes for several months now. Let's face it, all children must have a toy box! Unfortunately, I'm not the person that is okay with toys strewn all over my house, taking up space in every room, occupying valuable floor space, etc. While I was doing a search I found a blog from a very crafty mother who decided a home made toy box was the way to go. After begging my father in law/husband to build one, they finally said yes :) (really my father in law loved the opportunity do get out of doing house work). I gave him the measurements and the blog link of what I wanted. I will admit to totally stealing this mom's idea, but hey, from the pictures below, I know you'll want to steal her idea as well.

The measurements are 2 feet wide by 3 feed long, yep, HUGE! What can I say, Simon has LOTS of toys! After it was built, I decided I wanted to paint it blue. Here it is sitting in my kitchen floor after I painted:

 

After the paint job was done, I had a friend of mine come over to do a little stenciling for me. The pattern was printed online and she basically just traced it on to the toy box. After the tracing was finished I went in for the hard part - painting the lines. Let's just say I have the most unsteady hand! While I was painting it looked terrible. I was quite worried. However, here is the final result:

 I could not be more pleased with this! It turned out amazingly beautiful and now there is one place for all those toys that are constantly scattered amongst my small but cozy house.

Thank you to all who helped make this possible: My father in law for building this and might I add he kilz'd it, my friend from work who stenciled this like a pro, and for my sweet husband for lifting and carrying this thing all over our house. I'm happy, Si seemed to love it, and now we have something to pass on from generation to generation...unless the zombie apocalypse happens and we have to use it to stay warm...