Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Brandon! You are truly the best daddy to our little boy! I know he wants to grow up to be just like you!

Of course, we wouldn't want to forget about our Fathers too! We sure wouldn't be parents without them! Love you Daddy and Lee!

Cousin Weekend

Saturday we went over to hang out with Nana, Papa and all our cousins. Branson had a great time playing in the pool. We were also able to get a couple of good shots of the four cousins as they are now. We have a very old one before when Branson and Dawson were babies. If I can locate that picture at home I will post it. I will also add posts of playing in the water when Nana sends them!

Preston, Dawson, Ashton and Branson

Samurai Branson

While in San Fran, we picked up this cute outfit for Branson. We are debating whether he will wear this or his tux for Halloween. Both are adorable and he seems to like them! A much better problem to have then last year when we couldn't find anything!

San Fran Day 3

We decided that we would take our last real day in San Fran a little slower. We took the cable car up the hill to Lomard Street where we got to witness (and walk down) the crookedest street! It was beautiful.

Then we walked our way down to Chinatown, bought some trinkets for the boy and headed back to the room to rest before going to see a movie. After the movie we went back down to the bay, took some sunset pics and had dinner. WHEW! What a fantastic vacation!!!!

We had such a blast, but boy did we miss our little boy! So glad to be home to spend time with him again!

Alcatraz

I have always, always wanted to visit Alcatraz... ever since seeing the movie The Rock, it has been high on my list of "must sees". This weekend Brandon and I were able to go and observe all the sites the Rock has to offer. It wasn't as grand as I thought it would be and wasn't as "prison-like" as I thought either. I really enjoyed the audio tour and seeing Alcatraz!

How's this for a welcome kit?

Brandon in solitary confinement. These rooms were bigger, but they were completely dark. That would totally suck!

Taking a moment to smile for the camera in the rec yard.

San Fran Day 2

So we woke up early Sunday as we still weren't used to the time change and are terribly used to getting up early with Branson. We went and ate at a local hot spot (its a good thing we were up early since everyone decided to eat there by the time we were leaving). Then we cancelled our reservation for the Gocar (a very small, slow touring car - with our experience the previous day driving a real car, we decided a double decker tour bus would be safer and more relaxing!) and hoped on the tour bus bound for great tourist attractions! First stop was Alamo Square where you can see the 6 sisters or Painted Ladies that are featured in the opening shots of Full House (yes I am a fan!) We got off, took our pics and enjoyed the sereneness of the city. Next, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge and took some shots (we'd already driven across it the first day and knew that it was too cold and too long to walk! :) )

After that, we continued on our journey and stopped off at the Japanese Tea Gardens. They were exquiste.

We wrapped up Sunday afternoon with a trip out to Alcatraz! I'll put that in its own post...

San Francisco Day 1

Back when Brandon and I got married, we decided that we would go to Italy for our 5 year anniversary... at that time we forgot to factor in many things like kids and money... so instead of Italy, we settled on San Francisco. Day One was packed with excitement! We arrived at the airport at 5am for our 6am flight, waited through the lines and laughed to ourselves as a family in front of us got in a fight about a "hello kitty bag" that was forgotten. As the husband tried to defend himself for not bringing in the bag, the wife says "stop! its your fault!" then turns to us and apologizes for fighting in front of us, turns back and continues arguing! It was very amusing and became a running joke for our trip... "stop! its your fault!" So we arrived in San Fran bright and early and rented a convertible (both of our first time!) and drove to Muir Woods just outside of the city. The trees were beautiful!

Following the woods, we continued up the road to Napa and Sonoma. On the way, we saw a sign for biplane rides... after carefully weighing our options, we decided that things like this don't come around very often and we decided to go for it! We paid the money and climbed aboard! It was tons of fun even though the plane is basically only made of fabric!!! We had to wear parachutes and were shown where the rip cord was (YIKES!!!). We went up for 20 minutes and enjoyed some acrobatics before coming down. I tried to video these events, but as we were flipping upside down, I forgot the planes' top was right above us and ended up just videoing that! Oh well! We have the memories!




A perfect way to see the wineries and vineyards!

After our plane ride, we continued our drive, had a little lunch and then headed back to the city for an evening show. Getting back to the city wasn't bad, but the traffic, one way streets and nonexistent road rules nearly killed us, but we made it! We quickly changed clothes and headed out again (via cab this time) to dinner and our show. We saw Spamalot which was very funny!

Ok, so with a day that long, I wasn't able to stay up for the WHOLE show, but I did pretty good... I think I only dozed for 10 minutes or so!