Rainy Canadian Saturday

We woke up on Saturday morning to a gray rainy day.  I actually love these kinds of days, so I was A-OK with the weather, but knew we would have to find something to keep the littles from going stir crazy.  When Cammi suggested we go over to the school gym (right up the road from Ross and Judy's) we thought it would be the perfect solution to run off some energy.

Ross playing with Hunty and Z in the rain on Saturday morning

Check out Tralee's basketball skills!  She was dribbling the ball all over the court!

Jim and Cammi started dribbling on either side of Zayah.  I don't think it was her favorite thing.

Cammi going for her shot.

Grandpa Ross kept the little boy and girl busy with the colorful balls.  Hunter's favorite ball was the blue one (of course!).

After a while Ross started to play

Not bad for a grandpa

Jim did all right too!

We played a lot of card games on Saturday as well.  Some of the braver people went down to the old Jacobs' property to fish down by the river.  I did not go.  Fishing in the cold rain didn't appeal to me, so I stayed in and visited with the girls.  Good times.

Friday In Canada - June '12

We drove to Canada on Thursday, June 21st.  We traveled the whole way in one day and the lil' kiddies did GREAT!  Hooray for happy little travelers!  The first night in Canada we went fishing at Romeril's Lake.  I don't have pics from that night.  Sometimes I like to leave the camera behind and just enjoy the moment!

On Friday afternoon Jim woke up and went golfing with his dad.  I woke up and got the kids and myself ready, and we went over to Cammi's (Jim's sister lives just down the road from Ross and Judy). We played with Cammi and Baby Zayah until the boys came home from golfing.  After that we went up to the Mountain View cemetary.  Ross informed Jim and Cammi that they had a bit of a gopher problem up there, so he told them to go take care of it.  I'll just leave it at that!!!

We were also able to see Jim's name sake's (his great-grandfather) gravestone as well as Jim's grandpa Mervyn Owen Jacobs' (Hunter Owen's name-sake) resting place.  That was nice.

Old Chief mountain as seen from Mountain View Cemetary

James Sabey and Eva Jacobs' place of rest

Mervyn Owen Jacobs place of rest

Sometimes this girl does the most fantastic poses!

Both of my kiddies LOVED their cousin Baby Zayah.  They never called her Zayah.  It was alwasy Baby Zayah!  That's her official name in this house!

Making her mama proud!  Cammi is really handy with a gun.  I have a feeling Zayah will be as well.

After our visit in the cemetary we stopped by Grammy Jacobs' house for a game of crib.  It was Cammi and me against Grammy and Jim.  Cammi and I SKUNKED Jim and won the tournament until Grammy pulled out the ol' "let's play one last game; WINNER TAKES ALL" trick.  Grammy ALWAYS wins at winner takes all!!  Cammi and I should have known, but you can't really say no to Grammy, so I guess you could say we let Jim and Grammy win.  :)

Grammy Jacobs.  All time crib champ!!

Playing crib at Grammy's.  A trip to Canada isn't complete without a game of crib at Grammy's.

Friday night was a roast by the fire.  We roasted the usual, and visited together.  After dinner we played some more crib, golf, and poker.

Ross tending the fire.  He also did an amazing rendition of "He-Man -- Master of the Universe" for Tralee this night!  I'm not sure Tralee loved it, as she wanted to play princess, but Jim and I sure thought it was hilarious!

Cooking dinner over the firepit.  See the church in the background?  That's were Jim mostly went on Sunday growing up, some summers they drove into Waterton for church.

Our Canada trip was off to a lovely start!

Off to Canada We Go!

We're headed off to Canada for a few days.  I'll get back to posting when we're home again!

Bye bye!

San Francisco's Chinatown

Last time our family was in the San Francisco area (see here) we visited Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Golden Gate Bridge then called it a day.

This time I had a few more areas I wanted to see, one of them being Chinatown.  After Jim took care of some work this last weekend, we set out to see, "a city within a city."  I was not disappointed!

We parked our car close to the pier, and started walking in the general direction of Chinatown.  The walk was probably a good mile or so.  We weren't sure we were heading in the right direction, until we heard some zithers, lutes, and fiddles being played, along with noticing the signs in front of buildings changing from English to Chinese letters.

Our first stop in Chinatown was at a park.  There was a little playground that caught our childrens' eyes.  Since it was their vacation too, we decided to stop and let them play for a bit.  It was so fun to see our little blondies running around with Chinese children.  All my children saw were children.  Other children  = instant playmates.  So, around went our blondies with their new found friends.

I saw a fabulous looking group of older ladies sitting on a bench at the park.  I tried to be sneaky and snap their picture by pretending to take a picture of Tralee.  I'm sure each one of these ladies has a story to tell.  I wish I could hear them all!  Besides from resting on a park bench, there were people playing games, meditating, and listening to the live musicians playing their instruments at the heart of the park.  I LOVED the energy there!

I dared Jim to join in this group practicing Falun Dafa.  He declined.  If we had more time, and no children around pulling on my legs while asking for a drink, I would have liked to give it a try!

Street lamps in Chinatown

I could have spent ALL DAY LONG exploring each and every crevice of this part of San Francisco.  Jim did not share my enthusiasm.  We are polar opposites in so many ways!  How we ended up together, I'll never know (remember this post?)!  On the drive home from our trip, Jim saw a little stream and said, "I could spend all day just fishing and exploring in that stream."  I told him that's how I felt about Chinatown.  He looked at me like I was crazy!  I returned the look.  Then we both started singing Paula Abdul's, "Opposites Attract" making up our own lyrics that went something like, "I like big cities, while I catch stream-trout, but when we get together it just all works out!"

  We're both dorks.  

That's probably why we work out so well. . . that and the whole opposites attract thing.

Anyways, after exploring (a tiny bit of) Chinatown for a little while, and eating at a fun little restaurant, the children (and Jim) were ready to go.  Jim also had to get back to work, so I threw in the towel and promised to come back someday to explore a little more.  I'll have to bring someone who shares my enthusiasm for the city life, as my partner for eternity only tags along to amuse me, and because, you know, he loves me!  It's a lot like how I wait patiently for him to catch, "just one more fish" on our (mostly his) outdoor excursions, because I know it makes him happy -- even if the bugs are biting, the sun is sweltering, and I swear I just heard a bear galloping towards us.  I do this to amuse Jim, and because, you know, I love him!  

On the walk back to the car we saw people riding in a trolley.  That is one thing I still need to cross of my San Francisco to-do list.  Next time for sure!

We let the kids throw a penny in the fountain pictured below.  Then Hunty starting running all around it.  I snapped a picture.

We also let the kids chase pigeons around.

The building below is a YMCA.  Are ya freakin' kidding me?  Look at the architecture!  I love San Francesco for the architectural diversities alone - not to mention all the other cool stuff to see and do!  I mean, this is a YMCA!  Sigh.  They just don't make 'em like they used to, do they?

Before we had to drop Jim back off at work, I made Hunty and Jim pose for a picture in front of the Bay bridge.  We crossed this bridge almost everyday to drive into San Francisco, as our lodgings were in Oakland.  Why Oakland you ask?  Well, all the hotels were booked in San Francisco for that weekend due to the U.S. Open Golf Championship.  There were a few hotels available, but they came with a price tag that was a little too much for Jim's work to cover.  So, we earned some street cred by staying in Oakland.  What what!  Jim also took BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into work a few days so the kids and I didn't have to drive him into San Fran during rush hour.  

Fun Fact:  Did you know BART goes UNDERWATER?!?!  It zooms right through a tube on the ocean bed!  Ka-RAZY!  It was stuck underwater during the 1989 earthquake.  I WOULD NOT like to be stuck underwater in a tube!  Therefore, I will probably never ride on BART.  Just sayin'.  Jim said he wasn't too worried about it.  So brave!    

Do you like Jim and Hunter's facial expressions below?  It was their rendition of "Blue Steel" from the movie Zoolander.  If you ask me, these two boys are really, really, ridiculously good looking.

That's about it from our get-away.  It was a short lil' trip, but a whole lot of fun!  I hope to do it again sometime soon!

Francesco's

On one of our nights in the Bay area we stumbled upon an Italian restaurant called Francesco's.  There was a big sign that adored the place which read something to the effect of, "In business for over 43 years!"  The decor looked like, it to, had been in business for just as long.  There were old family photos, grandma's parlor room-esque furniture, grapevine lights, and other fun decor for the eyes to behold.  I LOVED it!  I love kitchy, family-run, unique eateries. 

As soon as we arrived, Jim and I started talking to each in (probably horrible) Italian accents.  The kids joined in.  I was able to get Hunter saying, "I-a like-a Francesco's!" in his Italian accent.

We filled our bellies with yummy eats like a Fritto Trio appetizer (fried zucchini, eggplant, and artichoke hearts) served with Francesco's homemade tomato sauce, spaghetti with sauce, and minestrone soup.  All menu items were delicioso! 

We had a fun family date night!

Zoo Day

I took the kiddies to the Oakland zoo on Saturday while Jim was at work. I went back and forth with whether we should go to the San Francisco zoo or Oakland's zoo. In the end I went with Oakland. The reasons being, there were elephants (Tralee always wanted to see one), it seemed like the perfect size for me to manage alone, and I read the animals seemed to have better treatment there.

We weren't disappointed. Our zoo day was a lot of fun!

We're in San Francisco!

The kids and I flew into San Francisco on Wednesday night to spend some time with Jim while he's working here.

The first part of the trip was a little rocky. Tralee woke up on Wednesday morning and wasn't acting like herself. She didn't eat much and just wanted to sleep. A little later she threw up. Yikes! Of course this would happen on the day we were supposed to fly. I immediately texted Jim and told him to pray for Tralee as I was not going to take a sick child on an airplane. I also called my mom and requested she do the same. Then I started her on an essential oil regiment and gave her some other medicine. By the time we were supposed to fly she seemed in fine spirits.

Once we were on the first flight Tralee began to look a little tired again. She tearfully asked to please sit by me, and the nice stewardess who seemed in tune with our needs asked the man next to me to please move so we could have the whole row to ourselves. Thank you! Tralee was able to sit by me, and soon fell asleep on my lap. About 20 minutes later she started to cough. The coughing lead to. . .puking! I had the barf bag and baby wipes on the ready, so all was contained, and I don't think anyone even noticed the ordeal. The same stewardess helped us, and was super nice about the whole thing. Tralee and Hunter both fell asleep the rest of our time in the sky and we made it to San Francisco in one piece!

The first day here Tralee had a fever and was nauseous. We stayed in our hotel room. Hunter got a little stir crazy, but was pretty good. Tralee slept most of this day, poor little dear. But, all the rest must have helped because by Friday morning there was no fever or pukage. Hooray!

I waited a bit to be sure, but after Tralee scarfed down a huge breakfast, then started dancing around the room I felt safe to leave our hotel.

On Friday afternoon we met up with my cousin Meagan and her three cute kids. We spent the day exploring Golden Gate Park. It was a lot of fun, and Tralee was awesome!

Friday night I found the Full House painted ladies by Alamo Square! I was super excited about this. I probably waisted several hours of my childhood watching the shenanigans that went on on that show. Although, was it really waisted time when I learned phrases like, have mercy, how rude, and Cut. It. Out. (accompanied by the appropriate hand gestures)? Good times.

Now that everyone seems to be back to normal, I think we're off to have more adventures!

Since I'm typing this on the ol' iPhone, I'm not sure where the photos will end up (top or bottom of the post, or in what order they'll be in). Oh well, I'm just gonna go with it. Enjoy!