San Francisco

This past weekend we went to San Francisco. The company that David works for has a condo down there that we can use. It is a nice 2 bedroom condo with a garage in Dublin, CA. In Mount Shasta people come up there to get away from the city and hustle and bustle of it. Well, I felt I went on vacation and enjoyed not having pine needles, dirt, and animals. It felt so good to park in a garage and leave a door in the car open. To clean the car out and have it stay clean. In the end, it was nice to come home.

Near the condo is a really nice park that is huge. There was some kind of a bust in the parking lot while we were leaving. It involved two civilian cars and four police cars. It wasn't an accident. We were thinking drugs or prostitution. It really was a nice, very clean park. We went and played there Thursday night after eating Korean food.

On Friday David went and looked at a few other buildings in the area with his boss. The kids and I stayed at the condo and got ready to swim in the afternoon. When David got back we ate lunch and then swam in the community pool. Around 4:30 we went over to David's bosses house for more swimming and a bar-b-que. They have a really nice house. The kids had so much fun swimming, I'm sure they drank half of the pool water. Right as we were getting out Carson decides to throw up all the water he drank and his dinner. I am just so glad it was outside of the pool and not inside. After that we built a fire and sat outside and talked. We got back to the condo about 10pm and all the kids were asleep.

Saturday moring we planned to go into San Francisco and sight see. We decided we would either take a trolley or a ferry that day. The ferry was the winner. While waiting for the ferry we walked around the farmers market by the pier. We bought some fresh bread, garlic flavored olive oil, and kettle corn. The bread and oil were so good together. We took the ferry across the bay to Sausalito. It was very crowded on the ferry and we didn't get very good seats so we decided on the way back we would be the first in line. While in Sausilito we walked around and looked at all the shops. We bought some salt water taffy, a favorite in our family, and some ice cream cones.

Here we are waiting for the the next ferry to come.

The kids spotted some jelly fish in the water while waiting.
They were pretty excited about that.


We made it. We got a nice spot right on the front deck. It got quite crowed as more people got on. We had a really nice view as you can tell by the pictures.From the port we headed for China Town. We walked several miles trying to find it but we made it. The kids were such good sports. We were all really tired after we were done.

The gate to China Town. That column right by the taxi is a public bathroom. We never used one but I thought it was an interesting concept.

A Chinaman playing an instrument.

This was a park for the kids in China Town. Our kids were the minority. Way to go George.

After China Town we went to another Korean restaurant and then drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. I took some pictures at night but they didn't turn out. It was beautiful.

About 9:30pm we headed back to the condo. On our way we stopped at the Oakland Temple. Again I took pictures but they didn't turn out. It looks like a castle from the freeway. It too was beautiful.

Getting home at around 11pm we all collapsed.

On Sunday our plans were to go find a high school friend of David's. We only had an address so they didn't know we were coming.

David's friend Ethan went to high school with him in Grants Pass. Now while in high school, David was a member but not active and didn't know a whole lot about the church. David went over to Ethan's house, who was a member also, and saw a picture of President Benson on the wall and said isn't that guy from church. Ethan was shocked that David knew who President Benson was. Who knew they had so much in common!

Ethan draws for Ben 10 comics and some Star Wars comics, so the kids got some comics from him. They were pretty stoked.

Here are some misc. facts from our trip:

You know those signs off the freeway that say "Homes in the low 100's, 200's or even 300's." Well you know you are in California when you read one that says,
"Homes in the low 1,000,000."
I wish I had a picture.

All the kids were hoping to see someone famous. So every limo that went by they went crazy about. Callie counted 11 limos on our trip.

On our drive there and back we saw fields of olive trees, sunflowers, rice patties, some nut trees, corn, and probably something I couldn't recognized. It was really pretty to see all of different fields.

It was a very full but fun weekend!

Lucy's burn

7/18/07

6/11/07

I still bandage it just to make sure it heals all the way. It still seems weak in some places.

Let us all speak kind words

Carson and Ginger have a tough time getting along. Carson really gets annoyed by Ginger and Ginger knows just what to do to annoy Carson. The other day Carson wasn't being very nice to Ginger so I asked him to come up with two things he liked about her. After awhile he said, "she has nice hair and the perfect nose".

Never judge a book by its cover

Paul Potts on Britain's Got Talent

Obey your mother or else...

Yesterday I needed to go to the bank. I told all the kids to get dressed and ready to go. George didn't want to get dressed so I followed him to get dressed and to direct him from his protests of going. I finally got him dressed while the others waited in the car. I then tried to push him a little to get in the car and he stood his ground and didn't move. I decided then that I would just get going and turn the car around and see what he would do. As I was slowly driving down our road he came running after us. I stopped the car and let a tear filled George get in. I had him sit in the front to talk to him. I was very calm and I told him that when we need to go to the bank, we need to go to the bank and you need to obey your mother. With big tears he cried and asked why I left and I explained it again. He then said, still crying, "You scared me like a freakin' chicken!" I had to turn my head so he could not see me laughing and I had to hear it again. I turned and asked him what he said. He repeated it exactly with tears and all, "You scared me like a freakin' chicken." Poor guy! I just chuckled a bit and hugged the little guy.

No More Thumb

I believe I am safe to say that Ginger no longer sucks her thumb.

Ginger did it from the beginning and I was worried because her older brother did it and I had no idea how to get him to stop. George finally stopped a month before he turned 4. We actually got a game cube for Christmas and it kept his hands busy so he didn't think about it. Within a month he gradually stopped, even at night when he did it most.

With Ginger I painted her nails with regular polish then I tried some of the "stop the bite" nail polish that is suppose to help keep you from biting your nails. And let me tell you it is nasty and bitter. I got some on my fingers barely and then on my lips. I tasted it for half the day. I didn't use it quite as long as the bottle says to but it seems to have worked. There were two times in the beginning when I caught her and I just painted her nails more often.

A couple of other things that have helped her is all of her new surroundings here, lots of things to do with her brothers and sisters home from school, and her age which is close to George's when he quit. One thing I've noticed is that she tells me she's tired a lot. So I think that has substituted her putting her thumb in her mouth.

NOW, we are just waiting for her front teeth to grow back. We had them pulled when she was almost 3. She badly chipped one and the other one was greying when she fell down some stairs.

Some things we've been up to

Ginger loves to use marker and put eye shadow on.

We went to the lake with part of the bishop's family. The blonde girl in the picture was a registered participant in the 4th of July walk/run in town and each participant was entered into a drawing to win prizes. Well, she won a 2007 Toyota Yaris. Pretty wild. My kids want to enter next year for the run.

Lucy had fun playing in the lake. That was the first time she went without her bandage on her leg. It was looking really well. I thought it would dry out and become a big scab but a few days later it started cracking and bleeding again. So I continue to put antibiotic cream and a bandage on it. She is really good about it all.

This is a baby deer on the side of the road. So cute! Its mom was close by so I couldn't get the best picture.

I thought it was cool you can see the little teats on the mom.

We've been planting flowers. Yes, its a bath tub. There was green weeds in it when we got here. I thought I would go patriotic with the colors.

The pots on the walkway were already there as well. It was fun coordinating colors and arranging the flowers.

I just love how bright and sunny these flowers are.


This is the view of the creek from the gazebo. The water has been cool and refreshing on these hot days.


The kids love to wade in the creek. My parents drove out for the 4th of July. While they were here we got a couple of watermelons and put them in the creek to chill them. We didn't secure them very well and they started to float down stream. Carson braved the water and went after them. We got them back and they were delicious .


The 4th of July is my mom's birthday so chef Callie made a cake for her.


While not obeying her mother, Ginger climbed onto the counter and fell into the cake. She tried so hard not to hit the cake that her bum landed into an empty frying pan and her elbow into the cake.