San Francisco I- Lombard Street and lunch at Scoma's

We couldn't really go to California without visiting San Francisco.  Our first stop was Lombard Street where I drove down the windiest road there is!  It was fun.  We also visited Golden Gate park but we didn't have time to stop and spend time there, so we just drove through.

Daniel was the Lombard street photog... not bad, eh?  Thinking about letting him photog more often... thinking about it anyway. :)

Everyone came to San Francisco this day and we were treated to my aunt's favorite SF seafood restaurant called Scoma's.  We had kind of a cookey waiter.. it was fun though.  The food was delicious!  I am feeling sad that Austin isn't the best for seafood because I really love it.

Our waiter was a little in love with Mags so he gave her lots of food "on him".  She even got her own chocolate cheesecake, but she shared.

Just hanging out

This wasn't one of those relaxing vacations... this was kind of a 'go, go, go' vacation.  However, there was a little down time as we drove, leisurely got ready in the mornings and our evenings were pretty relaxed as well.

The California Coast

It was so amazing how only half an hour after being in a thick forest of redwoods, we were suddenly looking over one of the most beautiful shores I've ever seen!  We came out over some lush green hills (that's another thing--- the hills were so green all over the state that all the driving we did was just gorgeous the whole way), and suddenly we were at the ocean!

I love this picture... This is us with my aunt and uncle--- it was so fun staying with them.  It felt like home because Uncle Rob reminds me of my dad and my cousins are the same ages as my brothers and having my aunt to hang with was almost as good as having my mom to hang with!

This may have been the moment I fell in love with California!  I could have watched those waves crash all vacation long...

The Redwoods

On our first day of sightseeing, my family (my Uncle Rob who is my dad's brother, his wife who is my aunt Nancy and my cousin Eric-- Mike stayed home this day) took us to see the Redwoods.  These are not the huge giant redwoods, but they were still quite large and tall!  The scenery was so beautiful.  I am not really an outdoorsy/woodsy person but I could have stayed there all day.  Last time I saw the redwoods was the last time I was in California when I was about 8 years old.

Bad lighting, but this is my cousin Eric and I.

My Uncle Rob looking at a tree that was about 1400 years old.

Mags and I INSIDE a tree.

Daniel did not want to take this picture... I told him to hug the tree and he refused, this is the best I could get out of him. :)

These are some pretty nice pictures, but it really doesn't do justice to these beauties!

Dan's first trip to In N Out Burger

I spent some of my childhood on the west coast so In N Out burger is nothing new to me, but Daniel had never been to one before.  All of his friends at BYU always talked about it so on the drive up to my aunt and uncle's place in Roseville, we stopped off for lunch.

Maggie's First Plane Ride

Daniel had a conference that he was presenting at in San Jose last week.  Since his trip was paid for we decided to make a little vacation out of it and get a trip for 50% off.  Not too shabby.  Anyway, since Maggie is still pretty reliant on me, she came along.  This was her first plane ride and she did wonderful!  Besides the full diaper that I had to change in the 2 x 2 foot lavatory on my lap, she was sleeping or happy the entire time.  This made me happy since we always get looks like, "oh crap! not a baby!" when we board an aircraft.  Each time I have flown my kids have been perfect! (Thankfully, I haven't had the pleasure of flying with Owen yet).

Maggie was so well behaved that several people (who were even sitting near us) said that they either didn't know there was a baby on the plane or that she was surprisingly well behaved.  This is great, but really it was because she was being held most of the time by me... her favorite thing to do.

We've been on vacation...

...more to come soon.

Owen is AFRAID of His Room

A couple weeks ago, out of the blue, Owen started being scared of his room. As he went to bed he started saying that his bed was scary. I was confused but thought it was probably some sort of pretend play that he and Ellie had done and he had carried it over to bed time. Well, he was genuinely scared of the grates/headboard on his bed. He would say, "It's reawy scary". So, I did what any good mom would do and showed him behind his bed, under his bed, looked all around the covers to show him that there was nothing to be afraid of. Finally, I covered his headboard with blankets and that is how he has been sleeping since then.

Then, a couple nights ago as I was laying in bed with him, he pointed to the shadows above his bed and said "I'm reawy scared". So, I showed him how it was just his night light casting a shadow and made some funny shadow shapes for him. I was getting concerned that he was just afraid to be in his room anymore.

Then yesterday, Elise said she wanted to watch Monsters, Inc. Again. She really loves the movie, thinks it is hilarious and often requests to watch it. I've watched it several times myself and it doesn't have any swears, has a good message, etc.

A couple minutes after putting the movie on, I found Owen in the play room by himself playing. I asked him, "Don't you want to go watch Monsters, Inc. with Ellie?". He replied, "No, It's too scary". OOOOOOOOOHHHHH I thought. That's it!

Monsters Inc. as the culprit was confirmed as I asked him if he wanted to come help me clean my closet instead. He said, "No, it's monsters in der". Poor kid. He's been traumatized by the cartoon. I think I just thought since Ellie was 'mature' enough for it that Owen would follow suit (after all, they seem to be much the same most the time). Poor Owen.
So, not really sure what we are going to do about this. I suppose we are going to have to have some talks about what is pretend and maybe even how the monsters are nice. Well, at least it is nice to know why the boy is afraid of his room.