California Adventures- Week 3, Part 1

Okay, so 2 1/2 months after our return home, I think it's finally time I wrap up our California Adventures posts! I think I ended last time with our Tuesday day-trip to Lake Tahoe. Wednesday was a stay-at-home lazy day. Tyler actually got up early and drove by himself back up to the mountains to meet his Dad and brother for a day of fishing. I think I spent most of the day reading a book based upon a blog recommendation from my good friend Mary. Some of you just might have heard of it... Twilight, anyone? When Tyler got home from fishing that night, I made him go with me to Wal-Mart so I could get the second book in the series, New Moon. These books are highly addicting, and because I refuse to pay more than $10 for a book, I have yet to read books 3 & 4 in the series, as they aren't out in paperback yet. Anyways... back to CA Adventures. So Thursday morning, we all woke up early again and got ready for yet another day trip. This time, though, we headed South... to San Francisco! Our first stop in S.F. was the Exploratorium. This place was SOOOOOOOO cool! I cannot recommend this place highly enough. It's like a big Science, Physics, Math, the way the world works museum, and just about everything in it is hands-ON, which makes it so much fun for everyone! Since we were only in S.F. for the day, although we very easily could have spent all day there, we spent about half a day there, and weren't able to see everything. Here are a few pictures of stuff we did see, though.

Madi, Caiden, and Tyler stacking wood bricks and learning some of the laws of Physics.

Having so much fun and not even realizing they were "learning"!! This thing was pretty cool... it was one of those giant pin-cushion thingys. You know.. the kind that has all those nails poking through one side and you press your hands into it to see the "reverse" indentation? They had a blast with this, and all I could of think of was germs, germs, and MORE germs. Kami and Kayleb playing with "blocks". Caiden & Kami thought this chair was the coolest! I love how little Caiden looks!

Snack time!

Nothing goes better with snacks than a little toilet water! :-) They had this really cool exhibit on Superstitions, and Perceptions, and they had this Toilet Drinking Fountain. The sign next to it says something along the lines that even though it is a perfectly sanitary drinking fountain, just the fact that it is a "toilet" will keep many people from drinking from it. I was one of those "many" people. Apparently Caiden was not. Caiden and Grandpa checking out their endless refelctions in the Human Kaleidascope

Family Photo Time After the Exploratorium we headed to the world famous Pier 39! It ended up being a little colder and windier than we had planned, and everyone quickly grew tired, hungry, and grumpy. So after doing a little browsing and window shopping we faced the daunting task of trying to find someplace where 9 people all wanted to eat. We ended up at an outdoor Boudin's bakery, or something like that where we paid WAY too much to eat, for not very much food. Oh well... we were in a tourist town! Tyler and the Girls... Alcatraz in the (way) background. My Mom & Dad! My sis, Mom, & Me Climbing on the Sea Lions! My Dad (who's name is Zoltan) had to have his picture taken in front of Zoltar! Family Photo in front of Alcatraz and the Bay Madi and the World Famous Pier 39 Sea Lions!

After Pier 39 and some food, we headed home... but not without one last stop to get some great pictures of another world famous landmark... the Golden Gate Bridge! What's a trip to San Francisco without Golden Gate pictures?!?!

Getting ready to drive across!

Cousins!

Family Photo!

This picture is one of my favorites of Kami! Okay, since this has turned into such a mega-long post, I think I'll have to make another 2-parter. But before I sign off for now, I'll leave you with a video clip I took of Kami on the way home from S.F. She LOVES music, so before we headed to CA I loaded my iPod with all kinds of music as a way of helping to keep her entertained for the plane ride, and our many car rides. Here she is singing one of her all-time favorite songs! Look out Taylor Swift!