san fran trip. day 1.

Arrival at the SF airport...we really did it!

We stepped out of the subway to this....we felt like country mice in the city...wide eyed and fascinated by everything.

We loved our cute hotel. It had just been remodeled and it was within walking distance to most everything.

showers in the prison.

The view of the city lights from the prison. 

tiny cells. super creepy.

Oh, you know....had to. 

Best. thing.ever.

Oh wow, I've been putting off this blog post because I'm overwhelmed by all the pictures that we took. Jer and I have talked about going somewhere for our 10 year anniversary since we were 2 years deep :) So with wild ideas and lots of daydreaming and time spent booking fake trips to New York, Hawaii, and a 7 day cruise....it just didn't happen for our 10. So, we resolved to go somewhere for our 11 year no matter what. Having an anniversary so close to Christmas is tough, makes you not want to spend extra money when you know that December is a huge money draining month as it is. We talked about where where where for so long and nothing was sitting right. Not the cruise, not Hawaii, not New York. We've never been to a real city so I really wanted to do that, but New York is so far and so expensive. So when I suggested San Francisco, Jer was unsure. But the more I talked to people who had been and googled my heart out, I was so sold. We still hadn't done anything except talk about it until one night at almost midnight when Southwest flight deals to Sf were about to expire...in 15 minutes. So we decided to just book it then and plan later. In the back of my mind I knew that Jer's little sister, Cede was in between jobs and would help us with he kids. So between her help & the Southwest deal, our minds were made up. The timing and situation was perfect, for once. Of course last minute work stuff threatened our trip and right up until that very morning I still felt like it could fall apart, it just didn't seem like it would really happen. But, we dropped the kids at school on Thursday morning and went straight to the airport. Couldn't believe it was actually happening! is this ridiculous or what? I know couples go out of town all. the. time. but NOT US. 

When we arrived at the SF airport, it was pretty funny because we had no rental car, no shuttle, and we needed to get to our hotel quickly. Neither one of us had ever been on a subway, city bus, or taxi. We asked around and figured the best deal would be to take the Bart (subway) to the F Line....what? soooo not our language & it was intimidating. But we got lucky with a few nice locals who helped us along the way and it was a major crash course in city transport right off the bat. We even had a homeless man who was staging himself as a transit employee messing with us for 20 minutes trying to get $ before we discovered he was not even a real employee. We realized that we were going to be easy tourist targets if we allowed it, but resolved to toughen up--quick. When we hopped on the next bus (or the "F line"...really why all the confusion!) the driver almost threw us off when we didn't have exact change. Laughed when I asked if he could break my $20. He berated us and then had some fun humiliating us before it was time to get off and he decided to be nice and let us ride being $1 short. 


Finally arrived at the hotel and checked in and it was time to board the Alcatraz ship. We did the night tour, and in my mind when I booked the tickets, I don't know why but I totally pictured this tiny boat with a motor and 10 or so of us out on the ocean heading to a haunted prison in the pitch black night. I was spooked for no reason because the boat was more like a cruise ship, well lit, and hundreds of people on board. The island of Alcatraz was bright, and actually quite beautiful. The tour was long (2.5 hours) but fascinating. I had no idea that the families of the officers all lived on the island as well. Children grew up there, it was their home. They said they didn't even lock their doors at night and that it was like living in a small town, everyone managed to forget about the prison next door. But there were several stories of escapees, so I'm not sure why they all felt so comfortable! After the tour, we were famished, and walked to the first restaurant we saw and lucky for us it ended up being Boudin--the best bakery, and we went there three more times on the trip. We also walked to Ghiradelli Square and got the most delicious Sea Salt Caramel Hot Chocolate. The best treat I've ever had, and we went back there pretty much every single night after that. 

3rd grade "fine dining" event.

Ok, this is the only Thanksgiving picture I have! Whoops. The 3rd grade at Patterson has a this cute tradition of "Fine Dining" the day before Thanksgiving. The kids (and parents) are supposed to dress up fancy, and the cafeteria is dimly lit with candles and cute tablecloths and place settings. The kids are supposed to use their utmost manners, and we dine on turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and sweet potato casserole. It was such fun day! I love love loved it. And Brayden was a perfect gentleman. I look forward to getting special treatment from Kosty when he's in 3rd grade..... (?)

halloween. (seriously!?)

Ohhh this seems like years ago! But had to put them in here. I realized this year that my kids never pick easy come-in-a-plastic-pouch-with-a-hanger costumes! Its always a big ordeal that involves several trips to various stores, every thrift store, and online searches that I don't have time to wait for shipping for...luckily the piñata lego head I made broke only through the bottom and even luckier...Kosty had already decided he wanted to be a Lego head for Halloween. Thankful about that, I was stressed about the thought of having to make another lego head. So, thank you party kids, for your gentle piñata blows!

Brayden decided to be Ash Ketchum, Pokemon trainer. So when I spotted the walmart in a bag version, I quickly snatched it up, in the biggest size, smiling to myself about my easy costumes this year. Too bad when he tried it on, it was so tight, so polyester, so body hugging in all the wrong places....it had to go back. Not to mention the large plastic mask with plastic hat and hair attached. Scary. But my thinking was that he would wear the outfit and we could find a hat somewhere else. Too bad. So back to the drawing board...I needed to find gloves, hat, black spray paint, and the blue top with yellow buttons and zippers. Eeesh. No easy task. I ended up buying a blue soccer shirt at the thrift store and painted the yellow details, and after searching high and low for a simple red trucker hat, decided to get a plain red hat at the dollar tree and paint the front white & add the green design. Jer is always ZERO help when it comes to costumes and is always so delightfully surprised when I pull it together. But, there are things I do, and things I don't do. Carving pumpkins is always on my don't list. Jer is the carver and that will not be changing. The kids loved the angry bird.

brayden turns 9.

We really outdid ourselves this year (grrr), promising each kid a friend party on top of their real birthday celebration, which always turns into a big family party anyway when all the grandparents live close. But...we did it for Kosty, had to make it fair with Brayden. On his real birthday, he woke up and opened a couple gifts from us and then went to school as usual. I was able to bring his class goodies and then after school we went straight to the park so he could ride his new toy, the Land Shark. Afterwards, we met up with his 3 grandmas and a grandpa and aunt and uncle at his choice, Texas Roadhouse. Watching Brayden open gifts is always a real treat, he is SO overly but genuinely gracious and thankful...heartwarming is the only word I have for it.

A few days later (and we (me + jer) were SO over the birthday thing at this point!) Brayden had his friend party. He has been talking about getting a cooler of snowballs from Bahama Bucks for so long, and that's what he wanted to do at his party. So I put Jer in charge(figured I paid my dues at the lego party)and he had them playing all sorts of fun games that I had never heard of, they threw snowballs at the park and had pizza and cake. They finished off the party with a round of "how fast can you beat the first level of original mario"..and that was quite the competition for this video game loving group. I didn't want to embarrass anybody, but I would have totally beat them all. I can play that game with my eyes closed ;)

Brayden at nine years old! What a sweet boy he continues to be. Things I want to remember about him: He still wakes up early every day to have some "Brayden" time after he eats and gets ready for school. He enjoys playing a new computer game called Minecraft. He is as responsible as ever, and sometimes Jer and I feel he is the parent, and we are the immature children. He takes the high road whenever Kosty teases him, he never hits back or seeks revenge with words or actions. I DON'T KNOW HOW HE DOES THAT! Even when I tell him to use blocking tecqniques(that will hurt kosty a little...he won't). He is so tall! And the other night I had to lift him from the couch to his bed and I got sad to think it was probably the last time. He is heavy and growing by the minute. He loves his teacher this year and loves writing in his school journal, memorizing math facts, and going to piano on Thursdays. He is so loving and loyal to his momma, and he is always worried about my feelings and looking out for me. He notices my clothes and hair and sweetly gives compliments that I swear no other boys his age would notice. He is very observant and clever. Loves reading and can't put a (good) book down until he's read it all the way through. He loves grilled cheese sandwiches and would eat them for every meal, every day if I allowed it. He is becoming so independent that I feel a little too comfortable leaving him home here and there, and the real kicker is when he asks, what should I do with dinner? He is so used to me having him pull things out of the oven when the timer beeps, turning up heat or down heat on burners, bringing water to a boil, etc etc. Jer was horrified when he overheard me telling him to go ahead and make his own macaroni one day. He didn't realize how independent he has become. He is a good friend. I love watching him around his friends, he is cute and funny and considerate. He has this new crazy thing with bedtime. He stresses out majorly if he notices it is past bedtime. He is a rule follower and is always concerned about what is healthy for his body. He recently went through a little stage where he refused to eat any sugar. And every snack consisted of fruits and vegetables. I gotta say, it drove me nuts. I even threatened to ground him one day when he wanted a chocolate cupcake but refused to eat it because it was not good for him! I'm happy that he wants to eat healthy, but I want him to enjoy life's sweet stuff too. His grandpa gave him this book called "eat this, not that" all about food choices. So, that's where it started. Luckily, its worn off a little and he is finally eating dessert with us again. :)

He is so very special! He has so much self discipline and strives to do whats right. He is very polite and makes people feel good. He brings so much JOY into our home, and he's an example to all of us. We really feel like the world's luckiest parents to have him be ours. We LOVE YOU Bray!

more from way back in October...

(... 6 weeks ago), we did our traditional pumpkin patch, Vertuccio's Farm. Besides it causing an athsma/allergy attack every year, I really like the place. As always, we failed at the corn maze about 20 minutes in, we all give up. I wonder if one of these years we will actually stick it out and find our way. The kids missed the tractor bikes which were replaced with inflatable ponies (?) they laughed pretty hard on those though. Oh, and the kettle korn is the best EVER. I'm sure we are quite the sight when the four of us get a fresh bag--there is no stopping to chew, we like to inhale the stuff. Or at least me and the kids do, Jer was a little freaked out.

halloween bunco.

 When it comes to dress up, its my favorite. But since I don't like to spend $ on a costume for myself, I always scrounge something up from my closet and if that doesn't pan out, like this year, I resorted to the kids costume box. So what if Brayden wore this Mario costume when he was 6, so what if I had no boots to cover up my not supposed to be seen ankles, so what if I had to drive (and get lost) for an hour in overalls pulled so tightly in the worst places that I could barely stand it. I won first place :) Yes I am covering the giant wedgie with my leg--you don't need to see that. And the backside was even worse, trust me.

-Brayden got a pogo stick from Nana and spent 2 straight days on the thing, even in his pj's

-Kosty got the gold piggy bank he requested for his b-day from his aunt mindy & he spent a solid 10 minutes polishing it with care

-Kosty buried in his paper airplane book (all.the.time.)

I've got tons to catch up on, but we'll start here...