Esther's Visit

We were lucky enough this week to have my sister Esther and her daughter Hannah come visit. We tried to do as much as we could without overdoing it and we had a lot of fun. The kids got stir crazy really quickly just staying in the house so we tried to get out as much as possible.

One day we walked to Coyote Point and played at the park for awhile. It was pretty hot all week...maybe part of the reason the kids were grumpy...so it was nice to get out on the bay where there is a nice cool breeze.

Matthew followed these geese around for quite awhile. He would start to get close and then run away laughing.

This park is also right by the airport so we got to watch several airplanes landing and taking off.

Thursday, after a stop at the Carters store, we headed to the beach. It had been so warm all week so we were really disappointed to arrive and find cold, foggy weather. Bummer!

The kids dug right in, despite the cold

After the beach we went to Golden Gate Park and played for quite awhile. We both left our cameras in the car though. It is such a great park. We really need to take advantage of it more while we're here.

Friday we were able to go eat lunch with Jon. In the evening Esther volunteered to babysit so Jon and I could go on a date. Thank you Esther! We got the kids in bed and then walked to one of Jon's favorite restaurants. It is an Afghan restaurant called Kabul. I had never been and was really hesitant to go, but it was delicious. Seriously some of the best food I have ever had.

Saturday we had a lot planned. The children's museum in Berkeley was offering free admission if you got your carseats checked. Having never had our carseats checked, I figured this would be a great opportunity to have it done since the museum would be free in addition. I thought it would be a quick 5 minute thing, just a quick check to make the seat belt/latches were tight, etc but it dragged on for about 45 minutes. It's a good thing the museum is so fun.

The water area is always a hit.

They had gak in the art area that entertained the kids for a long time, though Matthew and Hannah were both really hesitant at first.

They had another table for painting with spray bottles and droppers.

This paint wall is great.

I think we've got a lefty!

After the children's museum we grabbed some lunch at Ikea and then headed to the Chabot Space and Science Center which was also offering free admission that day. We didn't know what to expect, but it ended up being really neat. It was kind of late in the day at this point so we didn't get to stay as long as we had wanted, but we will definitely go back sometime. For several days afterward, Emma gave thanks in her prayers that we could go to the outer space museum and ride in the space ship and go in the star tunnel and put on the outer space suit.

On the way home...isn't this the sweetest picture?

Sunday afternoon we took a walk along the bay. We stopped to let the kids play for awhile. I love this well intentioned hug.

Playing around on Sunday. She is such a monkey!

Monday was Esther's last day here. She has a friend who lives a few hours away who came to our house to visit her. After naps we all went to San Francisco. She and her friend did some shopping at Union Square while Jon and I took the kids to the cable car museum. We had never been but heard it was really neat. It didn't disappoint.

I love San Francisco. Jon took a ton of pictures of the buildings and the views that I want to post, but I'm trying to not make this any longer than it already is...

A cable car

This was so interesting. These wheels are what keep the cable cars running. There are 4 different routes in the city and each row of wheels controls one route.

After the museum we met up with Esther, whose friends had to leave, and headed to the Ferry building for the Cake Wrecks book signing. If you've never heard of cakewrecks.com, go check it out. It is some seriously funny stuff. We weren't planning on buying the book, but we like the website enough that we thought it would be fun to go. They did a fun slideshow presentation and talked about how the website started. It was a really funny presentation and by the end we decided we just had to have the book. And it was totally worth it. We got our books signed and barely made it out of there without losing any kids. :)

Outside of the ferry building

There was also this crazy thing...I guess you could call it modern art...

Look hard, you can see Jon and Emma up there.

So that's a quick rundown of the week. I feel like there are all sorts of things I'm forgetting. Either way, it was fun to have them here and I am really glad she decided to make one last trip out here before she moves across the country. Thanks for coming Esther!