Lots of Pre-School Fun

So, here are some pictures of the girls from pre-school. I put on their first and last day of pre-school. The others are from their graduation ceremony. They performed a play about nursery rhymes. Rachel was Jill who flew to Mars. Juliana was Old Woman who lived in the Shoe and then had too many kids and moved to a Sandal. It was so cute. Sorry some of the pictures are a bit blurry, probably because I was the one taking them. You can get the idea though. They graduated and loved every moment of pre-school. We ended the evening by going out to On the Border, that was their pick. We all enjoyed a great meal. Congrats Girls. We Love You.

About the Pictures

So, I have posted some pictures of the last two springs. The first set is of Katherine's blessing day which was just over a year ago. I have been thinking a lot about her lately, so I just wanted to put them on the blog to remember her, we sure miss her and think of her often.

The other pictures are of the activities of the kids these last several weeks. Joseph had a spring choir concert which was a beach themed music night. He was one of the four beach boys and played a plastic blow up guitar to Surf in USA. He did so good, and he looked just like a beach boy. The best looking one of the bunch if I may say so myself.

The girls have been doing several fun end of the year activities for pre-school. They made little dolls that looked like them, which they have loved playing with this past week. They also had the Fun Bus come and they played on the bus for an hour and had the time of their lives. So much fun, what a cute idea. Tomorrow is their graduation and play for pre-school. They are doing a play about nursery rhymes. Rachel is Jill from Jack and Jill. Juliana is The Old Woman in the Shoe I think, she keeps switching back and forth from the Shoe story and Old Mother Hubbard, so I am not sure who she will be, but we will find out tomorrow. I will make sure to post some pictures of that as well.

We had the Multi-Cultural night last night at Timberline. Each family was to bring a food that their family likes to eat to share. We brought a bucket of extra-crispy KFC, because that is one of our favorites. There were a ton of people at the school. Each grade sang a song. Joseph sang "America the Beautiful." He did great of course.

I had a great trip to Utah this past weekend. I was able to be there for Diane's birthday and to see family and parents. I ate out a ton. My dad and I went out on a breakfast date to a fun waffle place. I enjoyed a pecan waffle, so yummy. Then we had Olive Garden, Pei Wei, and Ruby Tuesday's. I told you it was a lot of eating. But so good to see everyone. I miss them, and loved my time there. I loved sleeping in the bunny room at Diane's. So cozy and lots of good memories there. My flight home was delayed for over an hour due to mechanical problems with the plane in Vegas. So I spent three hours at the airport, but that was the only draw back to a great weekend.

Joseph and I were supposed to perform at our piano recital as we are both taking lessons for my friend Kayla. But about an hour before the recital Joseph decided to empty to contents of his stomach on my friend Lindsay's tile floor during choir practice. It was a mess, poor thing. He felt much better after, but he did not go to the recital. I got out of playing my two pieces I had prepared which was for the best, I was nervous. I was going to play Reverently, Quietly and Sweet Hour of Prayer.

Then on Monday, we took our family pictures with my friend Kristie. That went very well. It was windy, but a very sunny day. Kristie said the pictures look good, I am anxious to see them. I will post them on the blog when they are ready.

Pictures of the the Last Two Springs

About the Trip III

Well, I left off after Alcatraz which we loved.

After getting off the ferry at the wharf, we rode the buses up to China Town and spent the rest of the afternoon there. How can I describe the oldest and one of the largest China Town's in the country? Well, it was fascinating and I loved every bit of it. The streets are very steep and you need to hold on tight to the rail of the bus as it is going up the steep incline. You have to climb out of the bus at your stop.

Our first stop was at the Dim Sum place that was recommended in the guide book. It was called the AH He Tea Room. It has been opened since 1920 and looked like it. It was off an alley way but just about everything there is off an alley way. The restaurant was very small about 8 tables. We did not get there until 3:00, so we were the only ones there besides the people working there. They were sitting at the table next to us eating their lunch while we were eating our lunch, it was just that type of place. Very family friendly and casual. It was as if you had a Chinese grandmother and you walked into her kitchen and ate what she made. That is how they made us feel. Very warm and welcoming. The food was traditional Dim Sum and we ordered the Dim Sum lunch. It was a culinary adventure that is for sure. It was excellent, and has now ruined all other Chinese food for me. P.F. Change's pales in comparison now. Mike loved it. We ate everything and it was the perfect amount of food. We left full and happy much like the happy Buddha shrine that we passed by on the way out. Buddha eats lunch there as well, he had a plate of food out and candles burning. It was quite the sight.

We then walked up a very steep hill in the wrong direction, but when is SF you must walk up at least one steep hill, right? We got our bearings and then asked the man cleaning the streets where to find our next destination. He gave us the directions and we headed out into the busy and foreign streets of China Town. Everywhere you looked there were crowds people. Can you picture the old man pushing a little cart laden with his fresh groceries that he had just bought? Perhaps you can picture the tail of the red fish still flapping in the grocery bag, that was one fresh fish. Picture store window after store window of butchers. They had displayed their wares of whole chickens, pigs, birds. Can you see the pork fat dripping into the chop suey displayed in the window? Can you smell all the smells? The air was filled with spices and chatter. Absolutely magical, enchanting. I felt transported to a different place and time. Time as seemed to stop there.

Our next stop was the fortune cookie "factory." I use the term "factory" loosely as it was a very small store front. We found it off another alley way. The man sitting out front of the store took one look at us and knew we were there to see the "factory." I am not sure how he knew that, maybe because we were the only white people in several blocks. We were warmly invited in to see the cookies being hand made, each one carefully folded and stuffed with the paper. I asked the woman if I could take a picture. She said 50 cents. Apparently there was a hand written sign that was above her head that said if you wanted a picture, pay 50 cents. I dug through my purse and placed 50 cents in the jar sitting across from her. It was so much fun seeing that.

About the Trip Part II

The third day of the trip was spent partly on the famous island of Alcatraz. We had purchased the tickets in advanced as the boats book up quickly. We took the ferry out into the bay again and were dropped off on the island.

We were able to go on an hour long tour with one of the park rangers who took us around the island and took us into some of the places that are not opened to the public. The ranger has been working on Alcatraz for 20 years and knew his stuff. He said that the night before he had spent sleeping on the island with a school group. A sleep over on Alcatraz, sounds a little spooky to me. The tour was great. He told us a lot about the history of the island which has been occupied for 200 years. It was first a military garrison and then became a prison. It was only the famous prison for about 28 years, not for very long. He took us underneath some of the caves of the island and then took us into a room where they used to do the laundry. The prisoners would so the laundry for the military and part of their time. The picture of the wash basin is said to be the one that Al Capone used while he was there. This room was also where they filmed a scene from "The Rock" with Nick Cage and Sean Connery. There was a lot of history there, you could feel it in the air, I loved it.

After the tour we walked the island which is rich in wildlife and greenery. There were gardens that were tended by the prisoners there as well. Very beautiful. Alcatraz is a place of stark contrast. So much beauty yet so much pain and suffering. We hiked up several large hills and one steep staircase leading to the open yard where the prisoners had free time. We then went into the cell block and took the audio tour. Absolutely fascinating. This is a must if you have an opportunity to go. It was amazing, so much history, so dark, murky, and sad there. Again you can just feel it in the air. There is something haunting about it. After the prison closed down in the 60's, the Indians took over for 19 months and a large group of them lived on the island. This was when a large portion of the island was burned down, several of the buildings were destroyed and still remain that way today. We loved this time, I will say not kid friendly, there was a lot of climbing, you had to climb a steep incline the equivalent of a 13 story building. A lot of walking. But it was worth it.

About the Trip

We had such a great time on our trip to San Fransisco. We fell in love with the city, it is so fun and beautiful.

Thank you so much for the people who so graciously accepted to take our children for a couple of days, it was the perfect amount of time to be away. Thank you to all for allowing us some time away to have some fun as a couple. It was just what we needed as we continue to work through this difficult time as we are coming up on the first year anniversary. Thank you all for your unselfish service in our behalf.

Our trip began early as our flight left around 10:30. We arrived in SF around noon. The first item on the itinerary (yes we had one) was going to the temple. This part of the trip I refer to as our Oakland Adventure. We checked into the hotel and then hopped on the BART which is the subway through both cities. We took this to Oakland and could see the temple sitting high on the foothills of the city. Oakland is an industrial type of place. There were lots of shipping areas and factories. The streets were narrow and crowded. We decided to take a cab up to the temple. We met a very interesting cab driver, but aren't they all? He was very nice and talkative and of course Mike shared the Gospel with him as we wound up through the steep hills of Oakland. We made it up there and then arranged for him to come pick us up after. The Oakland temple is beautiful and sits high up on a hill and overlooks both cities and the bay. Truly majestic and breathtaking. The cab driver told us many people use it as a guide when driving around. The inside of the temple was huge as well as you can imagine. It felt a lot like the Salt Lake Temple in size. The session went well and then we walked around for a bit after. We went over to the visitor center and toured that while waiting for our ride. We then made it back to the subway and headed back into SF.

Our first item on the list then was to eat at the historic Joe's Cable Car Diner. This was Mike's pick which he got off of Diner, Drive In and Dives on Food Network. We loved it, so yummy. It has been there since 1965. It is a very small place about 10 tables. They hand cut the beef and then put it in the grinder for every order fresh. The butcher that night was named Nelson. Funny! We got a picture by him, it was a fun evening.

The next morning we arose early and were picked up by Tower Tours to begin our Deluxe City Tour. Our first stop on the tour was crossing over and then stopping near the Golden Gate Bridge as seen in the pictures. So beautiful. The weather was perfect, so sunny and warm, no fog, just great. Our next stop on the tour was at Golden Gate Park near the bridge. We were able to see where they do the outdoor shows in the summer and then toured the famed Japanese Tea Garden. This was a quiet, peaceful, beautiful place. We loved it. We then drove past the famed "Painted Ladies" which are the row of houses made famous from "Full House." Our next stop was at City Center and we walked around the financial area for a bit.

We were dropped off at Fisherman's Wharf by the bay. We then ate at the famous Boudine Bakery which was where sourdough was first invented. We enjoyed a great lunch of a clam chowder bread bowl. They made beautiful loaves of bread out of bears, crabs, lobsters, and snakes. The bakery was huge and toted around the bread in big baskets high above your head on an pulley system, it was fascinating, I loved it.

After lunch we hopped on a large Ferry Boat and went on an hour tour of the bay. This was so fun, we went around and under the Golden Gate Bridge and then went around Alcatraz.

After the ferry boat we walked the wharf and saw and smelled the famous sea lions at Pier 39. There were loud and stinky. We walked around the fun stores of that area. Then we ended up getting on the cable car and got off near Lombard Street. I loved Lombard Street. So fun, So San Fransisco. We then got a little lost because we did not have a car. We were getting around on the bus and the BART. We did have a great map and found a kind local who pointed us the right direction to the restaurant.

I had chosen this restaurant and it came highly recommended. It was called Enrico's and has been opened since 1958. There were many famous people who have eaten there. Famous poets, authors like Steinbeck. It used to be a great hangout for the beatniks during the 60's and 70's, in short it was quite historic. What the guide book failed to mention was that it was not in the best side of town. The food was excellent. Italian Bistro style we shared a great salad and pizza. We ate there and loved it and then walked/jogged out of the area because it was a more than a little scary and was able to get back on the subway to the hotel. What a fun and perfect full day. We loved every moment of it even the bad side of town.

Just Pictures from the Trip