San Francisco!
Well this post is going to be quite odd because all of my pictures are in reverse order and I am too lazy to move them all around. I just wanted to share some pictures of our trip to San Francisco but I will have to tell the story in reverse order so the pictures make sense:)
Day 8 (Last Day): We drove home from Reno Nevada. 8 of us in the Suburban... every seat filled (Rob, me, Liam, Lance, Holly, Rhett, Lucy, and Camilla)! Snacks, toys, bags surrounding us everywhere. We left at 10:00am and did not get home until after 7:00 pm. We were all ready to be home and out of the car. The rest of our family was in a Van - every seat filled as well(Richard, Elaine, Derron, Emily, Ava, Grace and Rick). We drove next to each other the whole time - with Walkie Talkies as my father-in-law insists. The drive seemed to take FOREVER! We had only been on the road for a few hours when the Air Conditioning went out in the Van and we had to pull over - it was our 3rd stop in 3 hours - the other 2 stops were for the people with weak bladders in the Van:) Those poor Van people:) Suddenly the AC went back on in the van but unfortunately it stopped working again soon after we were back on the road. It was 96 degrees outside. I was lucky I was in the Suburban. My feet were already swollen up like Watermelons because of the heat so I think I would have died in the Van - thank goodness for the brave Van people!
Day 7: (By the way it is kinda fun telling the story in reverse order.) So this day we also spent over 8 hours in the car - little did I know we were going to spend so much time in the car with the little kiddos - kinda crazy. I guess I should have paid more attention to the travel plans. So we left from Turlock California at 8:00 am for a drive to Yosemite National Park. I could not sleep the night before because I was having odd contractions and intense pain in my hips and back. I had done way too much walking in San Francisco and my body was not happy with me. But despite that we got up early and drove something like 3 hours to Yosemite. The mountains were beautiful there. The trees were also huge and breath taking. Once we got there we drove for over an hour inside the park because it was huge!! Most of the group decided to go on a hike. I instead took a shuttle to the Yosemite diner with Lance and had a grand old time eating watermelon, fries and a grilled cheese sandwich and drinking Root Beer. Ah, just what I needed! After Yosemite we were back in the car for a drive to a National Guard training place in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Yosemite and Reno. My father in-law's long time friend is on duty there and he showed us around all over their facility. It was interesting and nice to be out of the car but we still had a three hour drive ahead of us that night. So after that we drove to Reno where we crashed after eating a quick dinner at In-N-Out Burger at something like 11:00pm.
Day 6: This was the most relaxing day of the whole trip because we had nothing we had to do which was great because this was when the pain in my hips, pelvic bones and back began - and weird contractions. It progressed throughout the day and by the end of the day I thought I would have to be carried to the car the next morning it hurt so bad. This post makes me sound like a very dramatic pregnant person but in fairness to myself I have never ever experienced or complained about any sort of pain this intense during any of my 24 total months I have been pregnant in my life. Wow that is weird I have been pregnant 2 years of my life - crazy. Wow, I am really rambling I am never going to get through this post. I really need to learn how to summarize! So we spent this day swimming at the hotel pool, eating at my favorite soup and sandwich restaurant, Panara Bread, and I took Liam to see the new "Ice Age" movie. Liam and Lance had a blast that day.
Day 5: This was our last day in San Francisco. Rob, the boys and I walked to China Town. Liam went there quite a few times while we were there with either Rob, or his uncle Derron or his Grandpa. He loved it because he got a little toy every time, so he was constantly asking to go to China town. Every store seemed to have the exact same things in them but it was a cool place. That afternoon we went to the coolest Children's Museum I have ever been to. It was a science museum called the "Exploratorium." It had tons of hands on science exhibits for the kids to play with. We could have stayed there all day. The kids were in heaven and I was happy because I felt like they were learning a lot as well. We were there for a long time and only got through half of the museum. At the end of the day we went to a nice dinner which was the closing social for the American Association of Justice convention which Rob and his Dad were attending while we were there.
Day 4: This day I went to a nice luncheon with my mother-in-law, sister-in-laws, my friend Heather (who is the wife of an Attorney that works with Rob) and my husband's Grandma Henriksen. The luncheon was part of the AAJ convention and was hosted by the Auxiliary board - of which my mother-in-law was the President of for the last year. That is part of the reason why we all went to San Francisco in the first place. It was a delicious buffet! After the luncheon Rob was in meetings so I headed to Union Square with the boys for some shopping. That night our whole group went to a Giant's Baseball game! It was a blast! It was the first time Liam or Lance had been to a Major League Baseball game! They loved it! It was a lot of walking that day though!
Day 3: I did more walking this day than any other - I should have known better! In the morning we headed to Pier 39 with my sister-in- law Holly and her little girl Lucy, and my sister-in-law Emily and her two little girls. We went to the "Aquarium of the Bay." It was awesome! The aquarium was set up so that you are completely surrounded by water and fish swimming all around you. There was also a lot of fish to touch! Liam and Lance LOVED it! Then we walked around the Pier and saw the stinky sea lions. Rob had to run to meetings so I walked to In - N - Out burger with Emily and the boys for lunch. YUMMY - we LOVE in-n-out! Then we walked back to the Pier and caught a boat that travelled all around the bay. It went under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. It was fun. Lance was having a little too much fun and I spent most of the boat ride chasing him around the boat and trying to keep him from jumping off all of the benches. AHHHH!!! Gotta love that kid. After the boat ride we walked to Ghirardelli square. I am not exactly sure what all the hype is about that place. I paid $6 for a chocolate shake that was way too rich! The day was still not over. That night Rob and I walked to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for an AAJ social. I was WAY excited to go there. I could not believe all of the amazing art that was there. As part of my degree I took an Modern American Art History Class and I swear half of the art work I learned about in the class was there in that museum. It was a 5 story tall museum full of art work and my sweet husband patiently walked through the entire museum with me allowing me to elaborate on why some of the pieces were soooo cool. I think it was the highlight of the trip for me.
Day 3: I went to breakfast with my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws, it was yummy. Then we went to Church. We are used to our ward that is full of little kids and the ward we visited had only a handful of kids. Our whole group included 7 young kids and we all sat close to each other during sacrament and I felt like we were being soooo loud. After sacrament we drove down Lombard street - that crazy crooked street. There was a long line of cars just to get to the street. That night we went to Muir Woods which is less than an hour drive outside of San Francisco. The trees there were amazing! Liam and Lance loved running all over in there and they really needed to get some energy out!
Day 2: This Day was pretty much spent recuperating from the LONG drive the day before. Rob went to some AAJ meetings while I walked around Union Square with the boys checking out all the fun stores - including H & M and Gap Maternity! That night my sister-in-law Melissa babysat for us so we could go to a fun dinner at the California Academy of Science.
Day 1: We left at 8:00 am to head to San Francisco. The kids did amazingly well for the drive - thanks to the entertainment of my sister-in-law Melissa and a family friend Camilla. We spent all day in car except for eating at Del Taco, stopping quickly at Circus Circus and eating at In-N-Out Burger of course. We pulled into our hotel at something like 10:30 pm!
Wow, sorry for WAY WAY WAY too much information. Rob is laughing at me because this is so long and apparently he does not think anyone wants to know all this about our trip. So if you made it this far - congrats!
Rob had to take a picture of his perfect marshmallow! 
Silly boys having the time of their life!
