Happy Birthday Jillian!

Jillian was happy to regularly point out she is the first kid in the family to celebrate a birthday after our move to Seattle.  And we made it extra special by planning a family road trip over the holidays which meant celebrating her birthday in San Francisco.  We started the day with a boat cruise to see some San Francisco sights from the water.  Then we went to Golden Gate park where we visited the California Academy of Science.  And finally we headed to Union Square for dinner then took a cable car back to the hotel.  

This sweet girl is 9 years old now!

Birthday tradition in our house is opening birthday gifts first thing in the morning.  Jillian assumed she would need to wait until we got home to open presents, but we surprised her in the hotel room with gifts we had brought from home.  She was really happy to open them up!  

Jillian is pretty amazing and I'm constantly impressed with her confidence, sense of adventure and abilities.  She loves to try new things including new food and especially new activities.  Horses continue to be her absolute favourite thing in the world (although we are on a temporary hiatus from riding lessons after the move).  She still loves gymnastics and at her new school she has joined the yearbook club, circus arts club (stilts are her favourite), and is doing yoga.  She is also starting sewing lessons soon.  It's a full calendar for her but that's the way Jillian likes things.

Jillian also loves her friends and is very social.  We still have tears sometimes about missing friends from home at times.  Skyping and writing letters helps but it's not the same.  Jillian is already making plans for our visit home in the summer. But things are going well here, Jillian has made many new friends here at her new school.  She is doing very well in school and gets along with everyone in the class.

Enjoying some spring rolls and Caesar salad for lunch...two of Jillian's favourite foods.

Touching starfish and some other creatures at the California Academy of Science

We had some Italian for dinner and fancy cupcakes with Starbucks for dessert at the request of the birthday girl (she loves chai lattes!).

A special day to celebrate a special 9 year old!  Next up is Jillian's art themed birthday party with her friends.

San Francisco

Such a nice city, so many things to see and do!  We started out by driving over the Golden Gate bridge.  We stayed at a hotel near Fisherman's Wharf which meant we could walk to many of the things on our check list.  We bought the citypass which included free transportation (cable car, bus, etc) and tickets to the Exploratorium, aquarium, California Academy of Science and a boat cruise around the bay.  With only two and half days to explore the city we crammed a lot of fun into a little bit of time.  

Checking out the sealions at Pier 39

The aquarium was busy but still enjoyable.  Jillian always loves a touch tidepool area where she could pet seastars, anenome and a shark.  Leah dipped her finger into the water many times before working up the courage to touch the starfish and anenome (not a chance of her going near that shark!). 

Alcatraz

We didn't get a chance to visit the island, but our boat cruise around the bay went by the island so we could see all the buildings.

heading under the Golden Gate bridge

We only spent a short time in the Exploratorium as it was crazy busy.  A favourite for the kids was the fog bridge (even though I reminded the kids we see lots of fog...we live in Seattle!). 

Lombard street...crookedest street in the world.  We walked all the way up and down.  This was near the end of our trip and Kyle was pretty much done with being away from home so there was some grumbling.  I had to laugh when Kyle's biggest complaint in life was that we gave him an Xbox for Christmas and then took him away on a family trip to San Francisco the next day so he couldnt play pn it.  Sorry, no sympathy here buddy!

One night we visited Ghiradelli Square for dessert.  It.was.delicious!

And the best part is they give out free chocolate samples (it was peppermint bark chocolates which Leah doesn't like, so I took one for the team and ate her samples too).

It was a great place to spend a few days as a family.  I'm so glad we got a chance to see so many iconic San Francisco landmarks.  One of the biggest perks to living on the west coast is getting to explore some new places as a family!

Redwood forest

We spent one morning of the roadtrip looking at trees.  Big trees.  Really big trees.  We visited Trees of Mystery which includes a walk through the forest to see some neat trees and a gondola ride with an incredible view at the top.

It's amazing to think about how old this tree is, the changes on the earth that have happened since it was a sapling

Roadtrip

With the kids off school for 2 weeks, no family or friends to visit and Jeff taking a few days off work after Christmas, we decided this was the perfect time for a family roadtrip!  After looking at the map and figuring out how long we wanted to be away, we decided on San Francisco as our destination.  Somewhere I've always wanted to visit, Jeff has wanted to go back since visiting years ago on a business trip and warmer weather seemed like a nice idea.

Checking out the waterfront in Crescent City, it was a beautiful morning and we spotted a few sealions.

We did the drive down to San Francisco over two days...one full day of driving to get into northern California, a morning exploring the redwood forest, and an afternoon driving south into San Francisco.  We had a few snags along the way including a bad sinus cold for me, some sniffles for the kids and one night of throwing up for Leah.  But overall things went quite smoothly and we all enjoyed the sights (most of us at least, the 12 year old was a tad moody pre-teen at times but managed to still have fun).

We learned they aren't kidding when the sign says "Elk crossing ahead".  No zooming required for these pictures, this guy was literally alongside the van as we drove past.

Driving into San Francisco on the Golden Gate bridge

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning!

First up is always stockings.  We've always had the stockings in a different room than the tree which made it easy to do stockings first thing when we come downstairs.  It's always fun to see them full and have the kids go through them.

Next up is heading to the tree to see what surprises are under there.  Santa brought them each a new chair for their rooms, new books, some clothes, a raspberry pi for Kyle and American Girl stuff for the girls including a new doll for each of them!

a new doll!  Leah wanted a doll with shorter hair just like her.

Breakfast for all, phone calls to wish Merry Christmas to family, then onto our gifts for each other.  The kids go through all the presents and make a pile for each person, then we go around opening them up one at a time.  Lots of fun surprises including lego friends and more American Girl stuff for the girls, and a kindle fire for Kyle (he was so excited!).

one of Jeff's favourite gifts...a box full of cereal!  Every time I go to the grocery store, Jeff asks me to get cereal because he says we never have enough.  Now we have enough (for now...)

cool new Minecraft shirt for Kyle

xbox 360 kinect (we tried out dance moves, hockey and some adventures)

lego friends

the difference just a few hours can make...what a mess!

The kids spent the whole day in their pajamas, even for Christmas dinner.  I tried to get them to change but was outvoted 4-1 (yes, even Jeff voted against me!).  We had a simple Christmas dinner of turkey breast, stuffing (Jillian's favourite part of the meal), mashed potatoes, corn, carrots and gravy.

Another wonderful Christmas with my family, I am truly blessed.