We Heart San Fran!

Wow, did we have a fun week in California!! On our last day, Mark said "How in the world will you ever blog about this?" I said, "I'm not even thinking about that yet!" There is just too much! As you can tell, we were full of excitement from the FIRST minute, as the plane took off. Carlie's birthday trip was finally here!

Every day in San Fran held a similar routine: Daddy went to work. Meanwhile, Mommy and the girls had "school" in the hotel room for an hour. We would read books about San Francisco, the history of California, or something more specific like redwood trees or the cable car, and they would update their travel journals (where they glued tickets, stickers, etc. and drew pictures of what they learned the day before.

Then the girls watched Sesame Street (still a hit after all these years) while I got packed for the day, and we left the hotel by mid-morning.

We spent every day exploring and learning all we could about San Francisco, its history, boats, oceans, sea life, nature, transportation....the list goes on and on.

We would use some kind of fun form of transportation each day (there are so many to choose from there!),

and would be home around 5:30 to meet Mark for dinner before he would go back to work events for the evening.

Then, we would head to the hotel pool to swim, where the girls made friends from literally all over the world.

We would go back to the hotel room around 8:30 or 9, I would read a few chapters of our read-aloud book (which Abby Kate would sleep through by page 2), and then lights out by 10.

Whew! I was one tired mommy by each night, but it was so worth every minute of fun. The girls were such great ages for this trip, and we felt so blessed to experience SO much in the six days we were there.

But, since we want to remember the fun but not write about it ALL, the girls and I came up with the perfect solution. We're attempting to describe our trip in one or two word phrases, using ABC's and ONE picture for each letter (or maybe two). This is really hard for me...Should be interesting. :)

Our Trip: From A to Z

A is for Alcatraz

B is for Boat Tours

C is for Chinatown

D is for Diablo Mountain Climbing,

Danville, and Daddy's old house

E is for Eating! (our favorite pastime)

F is for Family Time

G is for Golden Gate Bridge

H is for Homeschooling...away from Home!

I is for In-N-Out (Kendyll's first try!)

J is for Jellyfish...and sharks and stingrays!

K is for Keeping us laughing...

L is for Last Night Baseball Fun (cheering AGAINST the Giants!)

M is for Muir Woods

N is for National Park Junior Rangers (three badges in one week!)

O is for On Our Way!

P is for Playgrounds & Parks (the coolest I've ever seen)

Q is for Quarter Collection (18 states and counting!)

R is for Remembering Chase (AK said "hi" to him in the clouds)

S is for Starbucks (daily),

Sisters, (oh come on, you knew I couldn't do ONE sister pic!)

...and Souvenirs

T is for Transportation (of every kind!)

U is for Union Square picnic lunch

V is for Views from the Top

W is for Wildlife (hawks, deer...and penguins)

X is for X-ploring God's Creation

Y is for Yummy Clam Chowder

Z is for Zeum Kids (Dallas needs one...)

And, my favorite picture...

We even found Africa in California. :) We were thinking of you, little one!