The Year of the Danish

Oh my, has it been a busy couple of weeks. Such big milestones for our kids. The Lord has been so gracious and each milestone has been reached with smiles, enjoyment and happy hearts. I'll get to the others soon I hope, but today will start with this one...

Grady turned 5 years old last week! We had such a fun few days celebrating our little "big" man.

For Christmas last year, we received a danish kringle in the mail as a gift. To Grady, that was the best thing he had ever tasted. He has talked about it periodically since then and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday (specifically food), he said "DANISH!". Seriously, what 5 year old requests a mail-order pastry for his birthday?

Much of the actual day couldn't be about him: we had Elle's open house for school and she had gymnastics that afternoon. He also waited very patiently all day for Daddy to get home so he could open his presents. We gave him a Jedi robe and a baseball glove (in addition to the Kringle:). We met my dad for dinner that night at Chick-fil-A (my step-mom had to be with her dad who was having surgery on his fingers), and they gave him the Captain America shield that launches discs! Steven's parents sent him a fun card with lots of birthday money that he has yet to cash in?! 

After dinner, we went to Chill yogurt for dessert. Our sweet friends gave Grady a gift card earlier in the day and he wanted to go there. Well, were we in for a treat. Not only did the employee give Grady his yogurt for free, but Reese's and mine as well. And then, he made us all balloon animals. Even me and Steven. It was hilarious. Steven and I kept joking that this guy might not be around long because he freely gave away so much yogurt:). 

My mom and Madison came in that night around 9:00 to spend the weekend with us. The next morning, Grady got to open gifts from them, which included all things Spiderman. He was thrilled! Now, he can be a Jedi, Captain America, or Spiderman. He got the "web shooter" glove and although initially he thought he would be able to shoot actual webs, he accepted the fact that it was just silly string with grace. 

Elle learned a lesson in waiting for an adult and not always trying to do it yourself when you're not sure what you are doing. Thanks to my sister's quick reflexes and Mom's silly string peeling skills, our ceiling is no longer blue.

That night, my two aunts and cousin came down to meet us for dinner and the after party at Adventureland. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm right before dinner and the go cart track was still wet and they were not running. Again, Grady was content to get a few tokens and play some video games, although we did promise to try again in the morning. They won several hundred tickets and cashed in on a bunch of junk, but they were happy and it was a fun time together. We did swing out to the batting cages where I may or may not have hit a few rounds of balls and had flashbacks to my high school glory days:). 

I have never in my life gone to Adventureland two consecutive days until last weekend. We were back up there in a little over 12 hours to ride the go carts. We had a blast! We had a few leftover arcade and batting cage tokens too. 

Grady and I started Kindergarten on Monday at home and it has been so much fun. It is such a joy to be able to see what he can do and what he knows without having a certain big sister answer or help or make him anxious. He has had such a good attitude about doing his work and has asked for more! (Trust me, I know everyday won't be like this so I am treasuring and recording these!) I am looking forward to this year and this special time with him. He is so wild and rambunctious (as are most boys his age!) but has such a tender big heart. I wish I could record some of his prayers right now. So sweet and compassionate. Just the other night, Steven was singing Give Me Jesus to the boys at bedtime. When he finished, Grady said, "Daddy, when you sing that song, it hurts in my throat."

Grady, you are one of our greatest joys. We love to see and hear your heart, to hear you hope for Jesus to come back. We are so proud of you and how brave and strong you are. What a great little and big brother you are (even though you still love to aggravate!). You are so emotional and passionate and we pray God will help you learn to control and use those for His glory. We are thankful you are in our family. It would not be the same without you. We love you buddy. Happy 5th birthday! 

The Last Day

We planned to spend most of our last day in Golden Gate Park. We walked down to the cable car turnaround at the end of Hyde Street, bought a "Muni" day pass and stood in line. There was nice entertainment provided by a street performer which helped pass the wait time. 

And of course, going over the safety tips provided entertainment. I thought some of these were silly and common sense, but after a short ride, I saw several people who failed to review the safety tips and did some of the silly things on there?! 

Elle and I rode standing up on the outside. Such a fun experience!

We stopped at Lombard Street and walked down to the bottom, then back up. The landscaping is beautiful but the cars are constant. I can't imagine actually living in the houses that line the street. 

The view's not bad though. If you can look past all the traffic!

Next we took the public transportation buses to Golden Gate Park. The last time I've taken buses like that was in Kazakhstan. Brought back great memories. And some not so great, when we were trying to get back to Fisherman's Wharf at 5:00?! Madison wanted to see an exhibit at the de Young Museum. I'm not much in to fashion design (surprise!) so I had no idea who this guy was but apparently he is a big deal in the fashion world. He's definitely creative and talented... in a very weird sort of way:). 

After the exhibit, we walked across the park to the California Academy of Sciences. We got in and grabbed some lunch first, then spent the next several hours enjoying the museum. We watched a movie in the planetarium about earthquakes, explored the live roof, walked through the rainforest and all of the aquarium. About 3:30 (5:30 Alabama time), I got a text from Steven that he'd just gotten to my dad and Sandi's house and Reese was running fever and had just thrown up everywhere?! It was hard to really enjoy myself after that, but I kept reminding myself that there was nothing I could do and he would be well cared for. The mommy and nurse in me wanted to be there. And thankfully, it happened at the end of our trip and not the beginning...

We finally made it back to Fisherman's Wharf and went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We souvenir shopped our way back to the hotel, mingling with more street performers on the way. 

**Remember her "Transformers" 6th birthday?

We made it back to the hotel and got our bags packed and ready for the next morning. A shuttle picked Elle and I up at 7:45 AM and we headed to the San Francisco airport. Our trip home was fairly smooth with just a 30 minute delay and a couple gate changes in Dallas. We got in to Montgomery around 6:15 and made it to Dothan around 8:30. Mom and Madison weren't quite so fortunate and ended up having to spend the night in Chicago without their luggage, then fly to Dulles and finally arriving in Savannah Friday night--when they were supposed to get in Thursday night! Crazy?! 

Steven ended up taking Reese to the doctor Thursday afternoon, but they said it was just a virus (they'd thought he might have strep) and it had to run it's course. Well, it did, through Grady Saturday and Sunday, then Steven all last week (while he was out of town for work!) and Elle Tuesday through Friday. Steven ended up going to the doctor for some medicine yesterday, his throat was hurting so bad. 

I think the family is almost healthy now and we are gearing up to start school in a couple of weeks! We are all ready!!

Lots of pictures

We had a reservation for a city tour on a historic cable car (now motorized!) the next morning. We had a little time to spare, so we checked out the free Musée Mécanique ("mechanical museum") at Fisherman's Wharf.  They have all these very old penny arcade games that still work. I say free, but we spent several dollars playing games:). 

On to the cable car tour!

First stop was the Palace of Fine Arts. We only had 15 minutes so we speed walked around the lagoon, snapping pictures as fast as we could. It was beautiful and breath-taking, in a different way than the redwoods. Originally built for the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in 1915, it was so well-loved, the people decided to keep it around. It was easy to see why.

Next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge! We drove over and almost got blown away, stopped at the viewing vista for another 15 minutes, then drove back across. 

This picture was taken right after Elle's hat flew off over the ledge. 

Thankfully, her hat stuck against a small bush close to the wall. I ignored the sign, jumped over and retrieved her hat, all the while thinking, "I'm going to get arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge."

We cruised through much of the city after that, seeing Pacific Heights, the Presidio, the Victorian architecture, Chinatown, Lombard Street, Union Square, Coit Tower, the Transamerica building and finally ending back at Fisherman's Wharf. It was a fun way to see all the cities' highlights in a couple hours. Not to mention none of the stress of navigating the streets ourselves! 

Madison spotted this In-N-Out burger at the start of our tour and we headed there for lunch when we stepped off the cable car.

Apparently, riding on the tour for a couple hours and a lot of walking did not tire Elle out at all. 

We walked down to Ghirardelli square after dinner at the Bistro Boudin. I learned that there is a specific lactobacillus used to make the sourdough bread named for San Francisco?! We had only one day left before we had to head back home! 

If you're going to San Francisco...

Make sure you clean out your rental car well.

We got in to San Francisco late that afternoon and went straight to the airport to turn in the sweet mustang. There's something about the airport that always makes you feel anxious and rushed. Mom dropped us off at arrivals and we hurriedly got our suitcases and bags out. She would go turn the car in and then meet us at the hotel shuttle stop. She was back with us in record time and we rode the shuttle in to downtown, to our hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. As we settled in the hotel room, I realized I couldn't find the redwood earrings I'd just bought anywhere. Mom had wrapped several pairs in napkins and I remembered laying mine on the floorboard in the front seat. And that's where they still were. I was a little bit heart-broken. We called the rental center, but got a message that they were closed for the day. The next day we got in touch, but of course, the car had been cleaned and "no earrings in a napkin" had been found.

I made my peace with the loss and we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf to sight see and find some place for dinner. We ended up eating at a little place called Chowder's on Pier 39 and I had some very rubbery calamari. I'm sure the chowder was delicious. The calamari was not. But Elle and I rode the double carousel, we watched the sea lions, admired Alcatraz and just enjoyed the sights. It did get very chilly as the night wore on and we walked briskly back to the hotel for a good night's sleep!

That's a WWII liberty ship in the background next to a WWII submarine!

Elle is a lefty!