Monday, July 29, 2013

Seattle, San Fran & Chambers Bay

This past weekend was a weekend that we've all looked forward to for months. And it didn't even involve all of us together as a family!

It all started back in March when Brian was gone for a week training for a new position. I think it was on Day 3 of no sleep with the little ones and endless raining days, that I heard about Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's concert tour and decided that I deserved a weekend away to go see them! After no coercion at all, Lyndsey and Candice jumped on board and we had the tickets and flights booked to San Francisco before Brian returned from Cincinnati!

As luck would have it, Brian's yearly golf trip was the same weekend, but that did not deter me. Luckily, my parents had nothing going on that weekend (that never happens!) and were able to watch the kids for us that weekend - whew!! Crisis averted :)

So it ended up being an amazing weekend for all of us. It was the kids' first weekend without us since Talia was born and Tristan's first sleepover at their house since he was 20 months old! And Brian got to play at Chambers Bay all weekend (the future home of the 2015 Open Championship). And I got to see JT. Not too shabby :)

Here are some pics of our great weekend away!

Swingers
SO much to do at Grama & Papa's and golf cart rides are a must!
Brian's not really a picture taker, so this pic was borrowed from someone in his group.  A pretty good shot at Chambers Bay

But us girls are good at taking pics!  What to do when you have an early morning flight? Start the weekend off right with mimosas!  Oh, and of course we needed our matching JT shirts.  What started off as a joke, turned into us deciding it would be funny to be teeny bopper 30-somethings and wear these to a former boy band's concert.

How lucky for us - a wine bar right next to our hotel!!
Not sure I have enough stuff for two nights.  And not quite sure how I fit it all into a carry-on.
Our hotel had the best views from the rooftop.
We stayed at the cutest boutique hotel.  Even the fireplace impressed us.
Pre-show drinks.  Because that was needed.
So cool that the concert was at Candlestick Park. One of the last events that will be here!
Hmmm...apparently we got there a little early.
Early enough that we had enough time to take close to a hundred pictures.  This is just one of a million that we thought were hilarious at the time.  Guess you had to be there. 
More people starting to fill in.  Must be time for another picture.
Even Toe got in the pic.  He had his own persona that night.
Yes, we had nosebleed seats.  But that's what happens when you pay quadruple the amount of face value off of stubhub.  Not doing that again.
Jay-Z.  Amazing.  And a close second to JT :)
Love that we got a pic of the wind rolling in over the bay into the stadium.  People were not kidding when they said it would be cold and windy in there.  But it was kind of fun to play Mariah Carey in a music video every time the wind came through and flapped through our hair.  We were channeling Mimi for sure.
My favorite pic of the night.  Love these girls!
The next day we decided to take a self-guided walking tour of San Fran.  We literally went everywhere.  Seriously.  I'm so glad we got to see so much!  What is not pictured, is how horrible it was to get out of the stadium the night before.  We walked probably over 3 miles to a spot just to get a taxi back to our hotel.  That walk felt really good on the huge blister on my toe.  Never wearing heels at a concert again.  Which is also why flip flops were the only thing I could wear on our second walking tour the next day.  Between both days, pretty sure we walked off all Giants we consumed all weekend!
 
Gotta have the touristy pic of the Golden Gate bridge.
Our goal was to walk across it until we realized how long it was.  So we settled on about a hundred feet in, took some pictures and called it good.
We seriously walked everywhere that day.  In the distance you can see where we walked to after being at the Golden Gate.  Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with ourselves, considering we also walked a marathon the night before.
Lyndsey took us to this amazing place.  It looks like something you'd see in a historic part of Europe, not in the heart of SF.  It was pretty impressive.
Since we were here, why not also go to a Giants game?  Giants seemed to be a theme of the weekend.  That and Toe and Mimi. 
I was too cheap to buy this fan pic, so took a picture of it instead.  It's actually pretty cute!
Our last dinner in SF.  What an amazing weekend with these ladies!  Love, love, love them so much :)  Looking forward to more adventures with them!!
And then when we got back to Portland, Brian and the kids drove down from Seattle and we all went over to the Corrados' house for a BBQ.  Added bonus was that Dresel was in town for the weekend.  What a great ending to an already fabulous trip!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Summertime Adventures

We've had some fun adventures so far this summer! Here are some pics to document our fun times:
A very healthy picnic lunch at Drake Park
One of our favorite summertime activities - free concerts at the amphitheater!
Talia getting in on the kid dancing action
Many trips to the toddler park
Talia's new favorite thing to do - push Tristan down the slide.
And of course our bike rides we take at least three times a week.  With a beautiful view like this, why wouldn't you want to go out as often as possible??
Weekend bike trips with the whole family.  So lucky to have this amazing place just a few miles from our house!
Getting the Audi mom-wagon was also a big highlight!
And of course art projects are a must!
Somehow they always end up all over her body instead of the paper.  Which is why we color/paint without shirts on now :)
This is from a few months ago, but had to include it.  Both of them are wearing clothes that belonged to Brian and I when we were their age.  Both of our parents saved some of our clothes to give to future grandchildren.  We love to play dress up!
Happy hour with our lovely lady :)
Picnic lunches at the Pirate Park
The coolest slide ever!
Taking a little break at Mom's favorite summer spot - frozen yogurt shop!
Summer concert festival in downtown
Even Lincoln and his Grama Karen came to visit for a weekend!
And baths were needed each night as these boys know how to get beyond dirty each day!
Music and Movement storytime at the library
Making his first pizza
Final product!
Sleeping off her nose dive onto the concrete after jumping head first off the stroller.  Just another day in the life of Talia :)
Still has evidence of her road rash at The Big Play Place (best invention ever to wear out little ones!)
Bike rides and first snow cones
Painting their own Lightning McQueen and Mater shirts!
Talia and her BFF cousin Emma :)
Bella loves to cuddle with Brody :)
Yet another yard project.  After the unsuccessful grass seed project of '12, we decided laying all new sod is the best route to go.  SOOO much better!
Talia's new favorite way to make coffee.  This provided endless hours of entertainment :)  Oh, and you can see the final product in the background.  Love new green grass!
Making our own ice cream.  Shaking our bags for 20 minutes seemed like a great idea until we made it past the 2 minute part and they completely lost momentum. Even putting Paw Patrol on for added motivation didn't work.  Guess who got to do the rest of the shaking?  Great for the biceps! 
No more shaking.  Sitting down to rest after 2 minutes while I shook two bags!
But this was definitely their favorite part!
Blowing bubbles is always a summer favorite :)
All the cousins going up to one of the many Cascade Lakes just a few miles from our house!
Amazing views anywhere you look at this lake.  And apparently Talia needs a bigger sunhat :)

What a fun summer we've had so far! Looking forward to more fun adventures in store!