What a busy, fun week we have had!! John and I decided to take the week off becasue daycare was closed. This is really the first vacation we've had as a family since David's been born, and before that, I guess was when we went camping when I was pregnant with Isabelle.

We debated about what to do. Naturally, we wanted to do too much stuff in too little time, or attempt a big adventure like camping with a 2 and 3 year old. (I'm so glad we realized that was a dumb idea before we did it!) So in the end we decided to spend a couple of days in San Francisco, and then spend the rest of the time doing things with the kids that we can't usually do because work keeps us busy... GREAT plan.

On Saturday we spend the day with Mike, Heather, Jordan, and Colin. Isabelle has been asking to play with Jordan and we rarely get to spend time with them even though they are pretty close. Again the busy life for all of us keeps us from seeing freinds as much as we'd like. Anyway... we had a great time there. We played in the pool and just enjoyed good company of good friends.

Sunday we packed up for our two day getaway to SF. We left on Monday and drove to Tilden Park where we had a quick picnic lunch and then rode a mini steam train!! We all enjoyed this 15 minute little adventure through some redwood trees and the cute little village they had set up. They even had a steam whistle!! Then we went to a place called The Little Farm. This was just what it sounds like! They had fenced areas where you could pet the goats, sheep, cow (if they got close enough) and feed them lettuce or celery if you brought some with you. We didn't know to bring any, but some nice people shared theirs with us and Isabelle got to feed a goat. They also had a big pig and some chickens. My favorite part of this stop was taking a break to sit under a tree in a nearby meadow and cool off before getting in the car... David spotted a squirrel looking for crumbs around a picnic table and took off chasing him. It was one of the most entertaining things to see him running around the tree as the squirrel spiraled up the tree to get away! Maybe it was something you just had to see... The other fun part was watching Isabelle chase a big yellow and black butterfly across the meadow. Just priceless moments of carefree innocence.

After that we drove to check into our hotel. (Isabelle chattered and sang the whole time.) We stayed at a nice hotel with a huge lobby with a great big fountain in the middle and tiered floors that all faced inward. They had elevators that looked like pods to me, that we could watched go up and down because they also face in toward the lobby and were glass on that side... Probably not great for people afraid of heights... Once in the hotel room, the kids had a ball!! I think they thought it was more of an excercise room then a bed room, as they were on and off the beds with increasing frequency. Oh, and then there were the pillows! Kids love to have 7 pillows per bed. There were also curtains to play hide and seek in... literally hours of fun jumping on and off the beds and hiding.

The beds sat really high off the ground, and were not movable, so we decided to take the mattress off one bed and put it on the floor for the kids. This worked well for the most part. David is a wiggle worm and we found him in various corners throughout the night even though I tried to barracade the mattress with pillows and luggage.

Tuesday we went to the zoo. If you remember, we had been a couple months ago, but didn't get to see it all. This time I think we saw everything, including the lions humping...er....giving each other horsey rides... that was interesting. Isabelle was very attentive. David just wanted to see the heavy construction that was taking place on the other side. After the zoo we planned to go back to the hotel for nap, but for reasons not worth explaining, we didn't do that. The kids slept in the car for a bit and then we went to Baker Beach. David had a good time playing in the sand, but Isabelle didn't get enough rest so she didn't want any part of being at the beach. We headed back to the hotel then and had a nice dinner and shared a banana split in the room before bathtime. It's been ages since John and I have had a banana split, and the first one for the kids. After bath we had another slumber party of jumping on beds and running around...then David and I settled down together and Isabelle and John snuggled up for a movie.

The next day we headed to Steinhart Aquarium which is in a temporary location while they rebuild the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The first week of the month, museums, aquariums, flower conservatories, the zoo, the exploratorium and I'm sure other places have a day when admission is free. That was fun, but the kids were wearing out and Isabelle melted down waiting for the penguin feeding, so we left. We had a lunch date at the Emeryville Public Market to meet our friend Mark, who happened to be in town from SoCal, and so we went on... After an always entertaining visit with him we headed home. It sure wasn't easy going from seventy degree weather to a hundred and four...gotta love the Sacramento valley in July.

Thursday we met some of the kids' friends from daycare at a local pool. It was great because it had a shallow area starting at eighteen inches and gradually getting deeper and a water slide!! The kids were really into the slide and we went down it about 7 times. David would get to the end and say "again, again, again, again slide!!!"

On Friday we went to FairyTale Town in Sacramento. This is a park that was developed about 50 years ago to promote imagination and literacy. It has all these statues and sculptures and stories along the way about popular fairytales... Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella, Three Billy Goats, Peter Cottontail... you get the idea. There were slides and things to climb on and Mr McGregors Garden to water and animals to pet (and smell). It was a fun activity for a couple of cool morning hours.

Saturday we went to a 3 years old's birthday party. That was a good time!! This little person is a friend of Isabelle and David from daycare. The family had borrowed a bounce-house and had a nice shaded yard so we all enjoyed visiting and blowing bubbles. And there were CUPCAKES!!! David pooped out and fell asleep on John's shoulder.
Isabelle didn't want to leave, but was too tired to finish sentences.

Sunday was a quiet day... Whew. We just swam and played. Isabelle loves the water. We can't get her out of it!! David likes it just fine for about 15 minutes and then says..."time to go"

I felt mildly guilty that we did absolutely nothing but play for our whole vacation. I mean, we cleaned the bathroom and kept things picked up, but no major projects like we could have done with a whole week off. But thinking about all the fun we had and the joy of being with the kids and watching them play... moments that I can't adequately express in a blog post, the guilt wore off... cleaning and organizing will all be there tomorrow and the next day. And when I woke up on Monday, sure enough it was all still there.

We'll get some pictured up here in a couple of days. Incredibly, we forgot to bring our camera out, but we did run to a drug store and got a disposable. We just haven't dropped it off yet.