Christmas in San Francisco

Snowy cabin

What could be better than a long weekend with the family in a mountain cabin in the Sierra's? Add some skiing and fresh snow and you have a perfect prologue to Christmas.

Nutcracker Ballet

The girls look so forward to this every year. Going to the Nutcracker with Nana and the cousins is the best way to swing into high gear for the Christmas season! Thanks for a great tradition, Nana!

Extreme Gingerbread

Diablo Gymastics

Much needed week off

I can't tell you how much our family needed last week off of school.  A lifesaver.  Now if only we could take next week off also...

Overscheduled

Preface:  My children are allowed to have "Treat Cereal" on days when they don't go to school (mainly Saturdays).

Kiera:  Climbs into bed with me when she wakes up.  (Clay is already out on his early Saturday morning ride)  Mama, what day is it?
Me:  Yea!  It is Saturday today.  Daddy doesn't have to go to work day.
Kiera:  Oh, good.  No school today.  Lucky charms for breakfast.
Me:  Did you know that we don't have school today, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  Can you believe it.  We can do whatever we want to.  Doesn't that sound SO nice?
Kiera:  Mama, can we please stay in bed all day and stare at each other?  Please?

I am ready for some down time, some good food and family.  And I think my kids are, too.

Las Trampas

We usually go to church from 12:30-3:30 on Sunday's, but because of Stake Conference, our afternoon was free for some good clean family fun. Can you believe this place is only 15 minutes from our house? I love living here.

Stake Conference

I love it when we have Stake Conference (churchy area conference). I love to go to the temple grounds with the kids.



Sometimes it is SO nice to be off for a week.

We even get to see all our friends from church, no matter what ward (congregation) they are in. We all get to come at the same time, same place.



I wanted to get a shot with all their friends. This one is cute, but you can't tell we are at the temple, so I decided to get a better angle...



Look, ma! I went to Stake Conference in Oakland.



OK. So I love to get the shot. Am I out of control?  Thanks to Rach for this shot of the Mamarazzi in action.

A Decade

On Saturday my first born turned ten.



On account of the special day, we got our shirts on.



Got our chocolate ready to roll.



And readied the cake.





Took a bunch of kids on the train into San Francisco.









Then we did some wicked photo scavenger hunting.





We spelled words.  Hi!



Funny.



We found statues.



We posed by man in uniform (we passed on the rent-a-cop only to find a bona fide SFPD Officer stocked with honorary officer stickers).  Way to go Miss M for being brave enough to approach.



We danced with our shadows.





We all fit in here!





We did as we were told. "No Stopping"



"Touch"



Each team found almost all the items on the long list. A ferarri, fire truck, an animal, a yellow car,  an empty cable car, spelled out names, and posed with street performers.  The only elusive item:  Hello Kitty.



We worked up an appetite and needed some Blondie's pizza to get us ready for the super slide.









We didn't even loose anyone and safely got back on the train home.  Hallelujah.

I can't believe she earned her double digits. Happy birthday my darling baby girl.