Birthday FUN- and a stop in San Francisco

Turning 33 isn't so bad.....when you get to spend it with family!!

Pretty sure I haven't spent a birthday with my sister in 10+ years......as far as my old memory serves!

We spent Saturday at Amy's in the city! She took us to a fun park for the kids, we hit a local restaurant on her street for afternoon drinks/eats, and then had dinner reservations nearby that night!

Oh and we even had a celebrity sighting on our walk from dinner to our car.......The guy from the "Dirty Jobs" show Mike Rowe! Mike pointed him out!

Experiencing city life for the afternoon was fun. Made me appreciate parking my car in my garage whenever I want......but it was a great place to visit!

Maddy brought me "birthday cupcakes" from the toy room!

 Friday night Mike and I got a sitter to escape for a dinner and movie out.
That was a nice treat! Yummy drinks too!

 We hit the road Saturday morning for San Francisco!

On the way we stopped to grab some pastries to munch on in the car.

 Off we go!!!

 And we arrived at THE CITY!!! (easy 2 hour drive from Monterey)

 The girls were pretty impressed with the steep hills!

 

 

Adam taught us the Canadian version of "Rock-Paper-Scissors"! 

It is a bit more than a shake of the fist.....It is "Bear-Ranger-Poacher"!!! 

So you stand back to back with your opponent, and say the phrase......"Bear, Ranger, Poacher" and turn around with your stance of choice! Bear= claws out, Ranger= hands on hips, Poacher= shooting a rifle. Bear gets Ranger.....Ranger gets Poacher, and Poacher gets the bear!

Too funny! Who knew!!?!!

 We were back at Amy's before dinner and rested for a few minutes.

 Awesome park! Kids didn't want to leave :)

 Really cool pole slide thing......never seen one before in my 6 years of having kids!!

 Dinner out! We had wonderful food, and Amy even got me a cake!! Mmmm!!!

 We were on the road by 8pm.....and Maddy crashed out shortly thereafter!

It was a long FUN day!! We will be back!!

Oh and we acquired a new dog for the week....helping Amy/Adam out while she is out of town for work we are dog sitting Jackson!

Misc January

 Abby is a big fan of silly putty. She will pull it out every now and again and construct something new. This was her interpretation of Roxy! Pretty darn creative! 4 legs and a tail and 2 floppy ears!!

This past Thursday night we took the kids out for frozen yogurt!

Mike and I are starting a "WHOLE 30" challenge cleanse "diet" as of today (Monday 1/27)......so we indulged a bit over my birthday weekend in preparation for 30 days of NO alcohol, grains, soy, dairy, sugars! Wish us luck! It should be an interesting month......getting thru Super Bowl & Valentines Day

Ribs.....MMMMMM!!!!! Good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dPKA18IJjM

Mike has been making some AMAZING meat on his new smoker/grill!

(historical smoking so far......ribs, meatloaf (my fav!!), brisket, pork loin.....)

And I can't lie.....I enjoy not doing all the cooking!! He even does the dishes!!

Yesterday during all the football he smoked 2 racks of ribs!

And we thoroughly enjoyed them for dinner! Especially the kids which was a huge shock to us....mostly Maddy since she's so hit/miss!

Enjoy the video of her chowing down! She loved chewing it right off the bone! A 1st!!

Beach!! In January??!!!!

Who knew our first official beach visit in Monterey would be in January!!??!!

I took the kids after school Wednesday as it was nearly 80 degrees!! How could I pass that up??!!

They had a blast and were even in the water. LOVE where we live!!!

Warm Days

We've been experiencing some WONDERFUL California weather lately!

A bit warm for my liking was far as "winter" goes....but its nice!

Mike and I got out for a morning run this week when he had a cancelled class. GORGEOUS!!

Disneyland Day 3- Back to Disney

Our third and final day at Disneyland.....we were there bright and early again at 7am!!

On this last day, our good Navy friends The Mitzners met us for the day from San Diego!

Their girls and Abby/Maddy were very good friends in Virginia......so it was fun to ride together and catch up!!

And headed straight to Dumbo....NO LINE!!!

 Then straight to Small World.....NO LINE!!!

 Meeting Ariel (The Little Mermaid)

 Meeting Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

 Meeting Snow White!!

The Mitzner Family--Julie, Dan, Reese and Emily

 Abby & Emily

 Meeting Mickey Mouse for the first time!

 He graciously signed their autograph book!!

 Family shot with Mickey

 Meeting Tinker Bell and her water fairy

 Snow White's wishing well

 Meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder (From the movie Tangled)

 

 Maddy and Reese on the carousel (while the big kids rode The Matterhorn)

 We wore Maddy out EVERY day!!

 Abby and Reese

 We finished up our third night, meeting good, old friends of Mike's (who he used to work with at KPMG prior to the Navy).....at Downtown Disney for dinner at The Rainforest Cafe!

It was a FANTASTIC trip, and we got to see so many friends and family!! 

WE WILL BE BACK!!!