2009 Year of the Ox and the Exploratorium

This bench was outside China Town...

Ponder no evil, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil...


Isaiah and me at the entrance of China Town.

How much for that doggy in the window? (Arf Arf) The one with the waggily tail.

In one of the shops the owners had a dog that was hanging out in the window. We thought that was pretty funny given the song.

It's a cool week to be in San Francisco. Chinese New Year started on Monday and China Town was all decked out with these banners. Happy year of the Ox!

After China Town we made our way down to the Exploratorium (building below). The Exploriatorium is a science kids dream place. There a tons of little stations that are all hands on. I didn't see any "don't touch this signs". It was pretty cool.

I think our favorite thing in the Exploratorium was the bubble table. Isaiah was really good at making big wavy bubbles.

I was not as skilled but sure tried hard.

After a long day of walking we ended at Kara's Cupcakes in Ghirardelli Square. It's an adorable little cupcake shop. So far we have been enjoying BEAUTIFUL 65 degree weather. It's been just lovely. I'm sure we'll come home to lots of cold and snow though :( Cheers!

San Francisco Day 2 - A Walk in the Park

We spent all day yesterday in Golden Gate Park. The park is HUGE! You could probably spend a few days there seeing everything. The park has lots of different museums and other attractions.

We spent most of our time at the California Academy of Sciences. It is the greenest museum in the world. These are the garbage cans they have. There is a spot for recyclables, compost, and landfill. Awesome!


Anyhow. This was the coolest museum I've ever seen. It had a natural history area, an aquarium, a planetarium, a rain forest, and a living roof exhibit!

Here is us infront of one of the ENORMOUS tanks. There were thousands of fish in there. It was really cool.

This tank was probably 20 feet tall and 40 feet wide.

Sorry I forgot to rotate this... The rain forest exhibit was really cool. It was located inside a HUGE bubble. There is a spiral walkway that circles the edge of the sphere so you can see the rain forest from all levels. All the trees and plants inside were real. There were tons of butterflies inside that would fly right up to you.

After the museum we walk over to Stowe Lake inside the park. We rented a paddle boat and relaxed on the lake. This was much needed! By the end of the day we probably walked around 6 miles or so!

This is us chasing some ducks. I was a little bit worried that some of them wouldn't get out of the way :) Don't worry, no ducks were harmed during this vacation.

There was lots to see from our view of the lake. Here is some Japanese architecture...

There was also a waterfall at one end of the lake.

Need to get away? Isaiah and I did! This morning we took off for San Francisco. We wanted to do something fun for our 5 year anniversary that is next week so here we are!

We left SLC this morning with snow lightly falling. After we got out of SLC this is what we saw from the airplane...

It's so weird to see the clouds below you instead of above you.




Self portraits are never a good idea...


Once we got into San Francisco we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf and enjoyed a DELICIOUS sourdough breadbowl with clam chowder.

We then walked around the pier. This is a pic of Alcatraz. On Thursday we're going to take the tour :)



At the pier they had a retired submarine (on the right you can kind of see it) and a retired ship that you can tour.

I love these signs...

We were able to board the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien and walk around. It was pretty cool to see what they look like up close and see inside.

We went up to the gunner deck and Isaiah took aim. Bad guys of San Fran beware - he's got you in his sights!

We went down below and I helped drive the ship. Full speed ahead!

Outside the ship there was a museum that had tons of old coin operated "games" from the early 1900s. They also had one of the coin press things. I got me a Rosie the Riveter penny :)

These are a great examples of what was in the Museum. Wow, this really is entertainment. I'm glad these only cost a quarter.

I kept waiting for this to do more...like have them attack the guys. Nope they really did just move their head up and down.

I thought this was funny...

Then Isaiah and I walked up to Ghirardelli Square. This is Isaiah enjoying a Ghirardelli hot chocolate in front of a Ghirardelli sign.

We thought we'd try walking back to the hotel and came across this hill. To get a point of reference on the incline look at the street light on the right. Can you imagine if San Francisco got snow?!? The cars would slide right down the hill!

After a long day of travel and site seeing we're looking forward to a good night sleep!

YW here I come!!

Last Sunday I got called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Young Womens! I'm so excited! For the last week I've been thinking of how much fun I in YW's growing up. We had the best ward and the BEST leaders ever! I'm so excited for Girls Camp, Youth Conference and all the other activities. We have AWESOME girls in our ward and I'm excited to get to know them better and be able to hang out with them.

When I told Isaiah I was excited for camping he looked at me and said - You camp? As much as I don't love dirt I do love the outdoors.

The best part of girls camp was this:

Hanging out with my girl friends. Becky, Paula, and I were known as the three musketeers...


Worst part about camping...enough said.

We called these B.I.F.'s (bathrooms in the forest :)

I noticed the date on the above pic is 2000. Some of the girls I'll have in Young Women's now were in diapers when this picture was taken. Wow...were getting old!


Here are a few more pics for your enjoyment....

This was the first year I went on the 4th year hike. I think Becky, Paula, and I went on the 4th year hike 3 times. I love the idea of backpacking it's just the no bathroom part that concerns me.

(If you couldn't find me I'm second from the left on the front row)

Happy Birthday Isaiah! Wow, the Big 2-7!

So for the last few months I've been trying to decide what to get Isaiah for his birthday. What do you get for the guy who has everything? (when I asked him he said the only thing he wants is a baby...LOL, I'm no help there :)

When he woke up this morning I did have one surprise for him that I hid in the freezer....

(This is Isaiah being surprised)


Since he said he really didn't want me to get him anything I got him his favorite freezer goodies: Ben and Jerry's ice cream (he's a BIG fan of Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal cookie if you can find it) and ice cream Snicker Bars.

He looks horrified in the picture but he is actually really excited.


We both have to work today so the birthday extravaganza will continue on Thursday since that is our day off. I figure we'll go out to lunch and dinner at his favorite restaurants and just hang out together. Happy Birtday Isaiah. I sure love you lots!

Who is the blanket thief in your house??

Usually when we wake up in the morning Isaiah points out how I "stole" all the blankets.

Of course I disagree - I started sleeping in full body pajamas to stay warm since I never have any blanket when I wake up in the middle of the night.

When Isaiah made the bed the other day this is what I found...



Can you guess what side of the bed he sleeps on? He put a majority of the blankets on his side (to the left) and said that way when we woke up they would be about perfect after I "stole" my share. Isn't he funny? I'm guessing that many other couples suffer from this unfortunate thievery. I figure if we all talk about it maybe it will help contribute to world peace...or maybe just marital bliss :)

So the question is - who's the blanket thief in your house? Be sure to vote on the poll!

Wii wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!

Isaiah and I started December with plans to have a simple Christmas this year...then we bought a Wii and simplicity went out the window! Isaiah surprised me Christmas morning with Wii Fit and Guitar Hero.

The challenge is on and the gauntlet has been thrown! Consider this an open invitation to come battle it out! My best streak (on Easy) is 407 notes. I got it on the Weezer song "My Name is Jonas" (Brooklin that song brings me back to our freshman year driving in your "shopping cart" car to our 730am self defense class :)

We also got BURIED in snow over the holiday. This isn't the greatest picture but it shows how much snow was up against our sliding glass window. We got around 2' Christmas day!

Here is our tree from the rain/snow storm on Friday. It weights the branches down on our poor tree and if you don't hit the snow off the limbs break (note the ones on the left touching the ground).

I talked my brother Mathew into de-snowing the tree - Which is fun to watch since when the snow comes off the branches they bounce back up in the air and shower you with snow :)

On New Years Day Isaiah and I went to the Aquarium in Sandy.

My review: It was really cool but would have been more fun with a couple of kids (anyone want to loan us theirs?). It's small right now but once they add more exhibits will be even better. There is an area where you can touch all sorts of ocean creatures too. If you haven't been it's worth a visit.

Watch out Isaiah! You're about to get wet!

I love the Jelly Fish...

If you are brave you can use "two fingers" to pet the sting rays.

Since you don't see either of us in this picture you can conclude neither of us were brave.