Secret Millionaires Club

http://www.smckids.com/intro

This show totally cracks me up. There is a place to watch all their episodes on the website. I'm not sure why I think it's so awesome.  It's pretty much as geeky as starting a chess club with the kids.

A Happy Valentine's/Happy 10th Anniversary Celebration

February is a great time to get away. After a couple months of high-intensity holiday, and night-and-day accounting, it's time to take off and enjoy some time together. We found airline tickets for way cheap, and San Francisco has always been on my list of places to see, so that settled it.

The plan was to leave Thursday afternoon, enjoy some time in Las Vegas, and be ready for our early morning flight the next morning. Instead, we drove through the night, and took a 3 hour nap at the Las Vegas hotel. We made our flight in plenty of time and tried to get as much sleep as we could on the plane (ha!)

We had planned to take a "side trip" to the first day and picked up a rental car at the airport. We headed off to Muir Woods, and enjoyed the beauty there. I am so glad we didn't skip this part of our trip. I really loved it. It was foggy and misty and vibrant and perfect!

Flat Stanley and I

See, he's not so tall.

Later, we spent time in Chinatown, in preperation of getting there in time for the Chinese New Years Parade. Whoops! That's not until tomorrow. Oh well, I wanted to go to the "Food from the Heart" party at the Ferry Building anyway.

Chinatown Stop #1: Ross Alley for Fortune Cookies

The Upstairs of the Ferry Building.  Apparently, we weren't supposed to be up there.

View of the party from upstairs.  We tasted some very rich foods that evening, and skipped the wine.

We took a talk down one of the piers by the ferry building to get a spactacular view of the skyline at night.

Our Saturday in San Francisco

Saturday morning we woke up in the suburbs of San Francisco, where we hit Trader Joes for breakfast, and caught the BART train into the city.

We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and had some crab, prawn, and calamari for lunch.

 Musée Mécanique.  A fun stop at Fisherman's Wharf.  We loved seeing all the ancient video games, and neat to think of them as the predecesors of our modern day video games.

Mike getting in on some of the parade action.  They had tons of these dragons, all chasing "Dragon Balls" that bring good luck.  Have you ever noticed how many things bring good luck in the Chinese culture?

Then it was off to see the Chinese New Year Parade. It is the biggest celebration outside of Asia, and over 100,000 people were in attendance.  This part of their culture is absolutely beautiful, and I wish the kids could have been here for this part of our trip. 

We had lots of people ask us if we were scared to be there. And other than the occasional firecracker landing by my feet and the bazillion "snaps" going off all over on our walk home, it was not scary at all. It is a very non-riotous celebration. Elementary schools and childrens marital arts groups all particiapted, we saw absolutely nothing offensive, and it was fairly non-commericial. The commercial entries were all very celebratory, and well-decorated to add to the occasion.

It was nice to have a hotel in downtown for the rest of our time in San Francisco, and great to be able to just walk home after the parade and enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by happy people.

San Francisco: Sightseeing without the frills

It is always fun to go to church in a new place.  Even if they wanted to guess, they'd never really know that we have 5 kids at home and that church is usually a little chaotic for us, because we were so chill.  We showed up, sat in a bench, reverently chatted before the meeting began, and certainly could have even borne our testimonies without worrying what the kids would do if left unattended.  Aaaahh!!!  It was nice... especially after the 2 mile walk UP Nob Hill to get there.  Yes, very nice.

We changed out went out to see some of San Francisco's sights. First on the list of Sunday-approved sights was the Painted Ladies. After driving across the Golden Gate bridge, and feeling like I was in the opening credits of Full House, I couldn't help tuck my hair behind my ears like Jodie Sweetin does upon arrival of the Painted Ladies. This is also where we had a very brief political discussion with a Berkley professor. Sorry folks, we weren't able to work out any compromises on any social issues at hand.

 We visited Golden Gate Park, which reminded us a lot of Central Park in New York.  Although, they may have had more buildings in San Francisco.  Anyway, it was beautiful, with everything manicured to perfection.  Ponds, flowers, walkways, and a three-legged dog.  Here is Mike giving a stunning Sunday performance in the ampitheatre.

Japanese Tea Gardens (that were closed)

We also headed down to the Cliff House and Sutra Bath ruins, but it was too dark to see anything unless it was lit up.  Luckily the Seal Rock Inn was lit-up and we got to see the famed honeymoon place of Mom and Dad Crockett.

Sunday was most memorable for buzzing from one place to the next, feeling like we got to see every single part of San Francisco from the seat of the bus.  It was a nice day.  It was a little picnic of snacks all day long.  All very nice.

San Francisco: the making of "Barefoot Bridge"

Is it cliche to walk or ride a bike along the Golden Gate Bridge? Yes, so we RAN across it... also cliche.  So we ran across it... barefoot- skin to ground.  With the response we got, I'm sure everyone is going to start doing it and they'll have to rename it barefoot bridge.

Checking to see how dirty my feet were.  Um, not dirty at all.

Earlier in the day we hit Alcatraz. This picture reminded us of one of the hallways from the popular-in-our-house-for-a-time TV series, Prison Break. It got even better when we found out that 3 of those who escaped their cells (but not necessarily the island), used spoons to dig through the vents... such a Prison Break thing to do.

We also hopped on the cable cars for a spin.  This picture may not show it, but I definitely had my turn at hanging off the platform, and rushing down a steep hill... in a dress... with a cell phone in a loose jacket pocket.  Overall, it was a great experience, regardless of the fact that I no longer have a cell phone.

Friday classes got cancelled!

One of the reasons we like living in Parowan, is being able to be a part of BIG things that families don't usually travel for.  For example, watching someone open their mission call, and it just happened that we were going to miss it all because we were headed to San Francisco, which was quite sad.  But then, he came home early, and we got to hear him read his mission call... to serve in Jacksonville, Florida!  We're so excited and happy for him.  Awesome!  I did a lot of genealogy before Adelyn was born, and learned so much about the history of Grandpa Hamilton, who was born there, and about the life of his parents, especially in Savannah Georgia, which is also part of his mission.  I'm just thrilled for him!

Chess Club Inductees

 How cool, to grow up having your own chess partner? For now, they are the same skill level, and enjoy playing about the same amount of time (4 seconds?). We already decided they could join our family chess club! The kids don't think they're quite ready, and get a little mad when they lick pieces, but we have to do something to make up for the brain cells they use while they watch TV.

Birthday Activity

Don't know if you can tell from Adelyn's birthday meal, but she is a foodie in the making.  It didn't surprise me that she thought, "eating out" sounded like a fun activity, especially if she got to choose the restraunt.  She chose La Fiesta and off we went.  It was a great night to not be making dinner, so THANKS Adelyn, from all of us, especially Mom.