We Did the Puyallup!

Friday, 9-23-11

Elissa was really aware of the Fair this year. Of course she got the "free" ticket (not so free once you are in the gates!) and then several of her friends had went and showed her the cute prizes they got. So we decided to take the kids Friday evening.

They had a GREAT time! They were overwhelmed with all the activities going on. Zach was really into it to. He wanted to run from ride to ride. Though we tried a couple of "older" rides and HE WAS SCARED. The first ride was the tilt-a-whirl and he freaked out. They had to stop the ride and let him off. Poor guy! He also got really scared on the Dragon coaster. He really just wanted to stick to the calm, sit in the car and ride rides.

Here they are waiting in line for the tilt-a-whirl.

Elissa's excited for it to start. Zach, very hesitant.

Now he's TERRIFIED!

This was much more his speed!

Elissa thought it was super boring. :-)

Elissa sat this one out, so Zach rode with a little girl in line.

He thought it was great!

This one.....not so much.

He did like this flying adventure.

And Elissa was very brave on the jr swing ride.

I, myself, would not get on this ride. Much too scary. I was either late teens or early 20s and rode the regular swing ride at the Seattle Center and I had to have them stop the ride to let me off. Not pretty.

Then we went back where the crazy sling shot ride and huge "swing" are to see what was back there. I wouldn't have went back there, but Darin lead us there. Well good thing, because the kids had a great time on these trampolines!

Watch closely at the end where Elissa does a double flip! She did a great job!

We had fun walking through the turkey and chicken barns. Then the horse barn. And walking past the clydesdales that have heads as big as Zach. They are crazy huge horses.

We finally went to the games. Elissa was persistent on wanting to do games that her friends had done so she could get similar prizes. We tried to tell her that the games are rigged so that it is hard to win, but she just didn't understand. That was until she played a couple of games and didn't win. Poor girl. She was so heart broken. Thankfully she won a couple of stuffed animals.

We finished the night with cotton candy.

You can't leave sad then. :-)

Zach's Art

Zach came home with these little pieces of art the other day. I thought they were very artistic. :-)

This one was for Elissa.

And this one was for me.
I love the "pop" of red. :-)

There was one for Daddy too, but I just can't seem to find it. It was very minimalist.

THEN he had this one.

The small circle is him and the "person" is Grandma Myrna.
Grandma Myrna is traveling, so this is how I am sending it too you. I hope you like his interpretation of you. LOL!

Zach was very intentional on who each drawing was for. His story never changed. He had it well thought out.

I'm pretty sure we have a budding artist!

San Francisco 2011 {Part 2}

9/12-15, Monday - Wednesday

Monday

We started our 2nd day in Tiburon by finding a nice little cafe to have breakfast. We picked right because it was very delicious - both the lattes and the food.

After breakfast we decided to take a couple of complimentary bikes out for a ride around the town.

Aren't they cute?! I took the purple one.

We saw this cute deer.

Isn't this the most amazing house!

Some other favorite sights.

That is a family crest in the middle of the stain glass.

I loved this district of Tiburon.

We finished our bike ride and headed to the pool for some relaxing time.

After a couple of hours we went back into town to walk around and decide on dinner.

We ended up eating at Guaymas Restaurant. It was unusual, but good Mexican food. We had some really good, spicy prawns and chicken & steak skewers with rice & beans & fresh tortillas.

There was also a beautiful moon this night.

It was a perfect day!

Tuesday

Darin got up early to catch the 6:50a ferry back into San Francisco for his conference. I took my time getting up and getting ready. It looked like it was going to be more of an overcast day. I went and had breakfast and decided that I would just go ahead and catch the next ferry after I checked out. I left Tiburon at 11:20a and got off at Pier 41 to tourist around there.

I didn't feel like being too touristy, so I made my way down the pier back toward the Ferry building and lunch at Gordon Biersch. Here are a few sights I saw while making my very long way down there.

Ok, so that is the end of the photos. :-) It is so hard not to take a ton and then not post them.

I met up with Darin at 6p that evening and we went out for a decadent meal at Morton's.

It was a perfect ending to our trip.

Wednesday

I decided that I wanted to catch an earlier flight. I missed my kids. I was supposed to leave at 7:30p that evening, but it was just too late. The 5p flight was overbooked, so I ended up with a "same day confirmed" (they no longer do stand-by) at 1p.  I didn't even end up leaving my room until I headed to the airport at 10:30a. I hung out at the airport for quite a while. The flight ended up being 30 minutes late. I finally landed in Seattle at 3p.

I didn't tell Patty that I was coming home early, so I surprised them. :-) Zach was the most excited. He has a hard time when Mommy is gone. Sweet boy. I got home in time to get them dressed for soccer and take them to practice.

I always think that September is going to be slower then our busy Summer, but that is never the truth. It really never slows down. It is just a constant humming of activities.

It was another fabulous trip to SF!

San Francisco 2011 {Part 1}

9/10-11, Saturday - Sunday

This was our third trip to San Francisco for a conference that Darin attends. It is a really terrible time of the year to be gone - just after school starts - but I can't pass up the opportunity.

Saturday

Our plane left at 7:30a and we arrived at 9:30a. We checked into our hotel and headed out to walk around and get our bearings of the area. Then we headed down to the Ferry building to get some yummy tacos again. As we were having lunch, we talked again about getting away to another area. Last year we went to Sausalito for the day and this year I was looking into going to Tiburon to get out of the city for a day or two. I was really looking for some time to just chill out and read. I had found a cool Lodge to stay at, but they were booked Saturday night and I didn't know if we really wanted to move after checking into our hotel today. Darin said he wouldn't mind a couple of days at the pool, so we called The Lodge at Tiburon to book for Sunday night.

The rest of the day we spent walking around and doing a bit of shopping. For dinner we went back to North Beach - the Italian District - that we had gone to two years ago. It was a fun evening eating outside and watching all the people go by. I LOVE outdoor living!

Sunday

Today we slept in and got ready to take the ferry over to Tiburon for the night.

It was a beautiful day. The sites from the ferry were beautiful. It is hard to capture that beauty.

There were tons of sailboats out.

The sea lions of pier 39.

This is a restaurant that is a very small island. I guess there is seating underwater. I would like to go here next time. It seems like it would be quite an experience.

Coming into Tiburon.

This is the cute main street of little shops and restaurants. Our hotel was just a couple of blocks down.

This is a really cute hotel. Though some of their rooms really need some updating. I had thought I had got this super good deal on a King Spa Suite room they have. There is a big jetted tub in the room and it looked expansive in the pictures. Well....we walk into the room and it is the same size as any hotel room and it has not been updated and there are mirrors everywhere. Above the bed, above the spa tub, along the wall....oh my! This is not what I expected at all. We went ahead and got our swim suits on and went out to the pool. As we are sitting out there, Darin thinks we should change rooms. He doesn't want to stay in that room. hee, hee  So he got us a really nice renovated room. It felt very cape code - white wood vaulted ceilings, blue/green paint, flat screen TV, lanai - a very nice room. Thanks Honey!

The pool area was very nice. They had 3 cabanas set up that were first come, first served. A nice size hot tub and pool. The weather was perfect for laying out and relaxing.

As we were sitting at the pool reading and relaxing, we wanted this to go on another day so we talked to the front desk and extended our stay for one more night. :-) After the pool, walked into town to see what kind of shops there were.

Isn't this the cutest Firehouse you have ever seen?

We ended up eating dinner at Servino. It was yummy and a beautiful scene to look at. There was a beautiful moon that night with the clouds drifting by and I just couldn't get a good picture of it. It will have to stay in our memory.

We were SO glad that we decided to come to Tiburon. It was just the relaxing experience we were looking for. And we were excited to have another full day the next day.