Summer started with a bang. On June 3, 2013, I took the kids to Halfway for some swimming in Oak Creek with friends from our ward. The boys spent the day wading, swimming, catching fish, snacking and playing on the shore. When we were done with our fun in the sun we changed in our car and headed to Cordes Junction to meet Oma.
Oma took the boys to her house for about a week while I went to girls camp. Oma also had Andrew while David and Melissa went on a cruise. Shelli came for a bit of the time and helped out Oma but it was a wild week with a trip to the zoo, a visit to the splash pad, walks to the park and a few swims in her pool.
Here's a video Shelli took with the boys to send to me:
On June 12, David, Melissa and Andrew came to visit for a few hours on their way up to Utah. Tyler and Andrew love to play with each other. It was a scary sight watching the two of them try to drive the Jeep together. On June 13, we headed to Crescent Moon Picnic Area with friends for some more swimming in Oak Creek. The kids slid down the rapids on the slick rocks, catching crawdads and swimming in the water. It was a great day of fun, food and sun.
From June 16-22 we took a family vacation to San Francisco. We drove the first day to Bakersfield where we slept, swam and rested up. On June 17, we drove to Monteray to go to the Monteray Bay Aquarium. We spent the day looking at sea animals. For dinner we went to one of the yummy seafood restaurants at the end of a pier. While we enjoyed fresh seafood dishes we watched sea otters and seals swimming in the marina. After dinner we drove to San Francisco and checked into our hotel.
On June 18 we went to the wharf. We went to the Exploratorium on the wharf. It was an amazing hands on museum with all sorts of hands on and learning exhibits and experiments. It was a jam packed museum full of people and and things to do. We didn't get to see all of it because it had so much in it. From the museum we walked over to Pier 39 and picked up our tickets for a San Francisco Bay cruise. While we waited for our cruise we walked around the boardwalk. We ate crab sandwiches, fed the annoying seagulls and watched them make sourdough bread. At the sourdough restaurant the boys drew the attention of the manager in the bakery. She came around and gave each of the boys a small, sourdough bread turtle to much on before the cruise.
The bay cruise was so much fun. We took a big boat out and around Alcatraz, out and under the Golden Gate Bridge and back to the wharf. They told us interesting facts about the architecture and history of San Francisco. It was a gorgeous day and a gorgeous view. After the bay cruise, we left the wharf and drove down Lombard Street, drove by my first ward building and apartment then headed back to our hotel for dinner and bed.
June 19 brought the true, underlying reason for this trip ... Chad's pilgrimage to Giant's Stadium and a Giant's home game. We took the commuter train from our hotel straight to the park with a lot of other fans. We spent the day at the park watching the game and exploring all of the fun things they have. The boys loved the huge slides and the small baseball diamond for batting and running. We had great food and watched a great game.
After the game we took the train back to our hotel then hopped in our car and headed to Oakland and Berkeley for Fenton's ice cream and a drive around Berkeley. Needless to say the boys were in love with the heaping mounds of delicious ice cream. We were supposed to visit Grandma June but she got sick and wasn't up for visitors.
On June 20 we drove out of the city to Muir Woods and Muir Beach. The road is a treacherous stretch of horrid switchbacks but luckily we all kept our breakfasts down. By the time we got there parking was backed up on the road a mile at least so it was a long walk from our car to the park but it was worth it. We walked the path and enjoyed the cool forest of gigantic old trees.
From the woods we drove further on to the beach. It wasn't quite what we'd hoped but the kids still had fun. The wind was so hard it was blowing the sand sideways off the beach straight into our ears and eyes. It was freezing and the water was colder. Tyler hated it and wouldn't leave the blanket. Grant and Cole on the other hand weren't phased one bit. They were in the water up to their hips, splashing and making sand castles.
That night we had dreams of authentic Chinese food in China town for dinner but that didn't quite happen. We made it to China town but the food we ended up with was far from delicious. We ended up with still mostly unknown dishes that were luke warm at best then heated in a microwave. Chad tried to be adventurous and eat what we'd purchased but that backfired on him later. Luckily, the boys and I were less willing to be brave and daring. We did discover the Chinese bakeries with their delicious treats. The boys were all over the donuts and cream filled pastries we kept finding. Our day at Muir Woods wore us all out. The boys passed out when we got back to the hotel.
Our last day in the city was spent at the California Academy of Sciences, which had a mixture of sea life, science, animal life and all sorts of other things. There was a lot to see and do. Chad and the big boys went on a real earthquake machine. I took Tyler to the toddler play area. There is a full size dinosaur skeleton on display as well.
The museum is in Golden Gate Park so after we finished at the museum we drove and found a spot by the big duck pond for a picnic then took a walk around the lake. The boys chased the pigeons and ducks. We explored the Japanese pagoda. The boys played, ran and enjoyed a little bit of citified nature.
When we'd had our fill of Golden Gate Park we left the city for Bakersfield. We left right at rush hour though and a trip that was only supposed to take 4 or so hours took closer to 7. It was rough going and we were exhausted but we finally made it to our hotel. We went to Las Vegas from Bakersfield and spent a night with the Wadleys before coming home.
When we weren't roadtripping or swimming in Oak Creek we could be found at the Aquaplex playing air hockey and climbing or at the bowling alley, the movie theater or the soccer fields.
Here's a cute video of Tyler:
http://youtu.be/vS1cmkFUYHk
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