Monterey Bay Aquarium

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we finally made the much anticipated trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had heard such great things about it and we were not disappointed. We were a little bummed that it took 2 hours to get there, but it was worth the drive. One of our favorites was this window wall pictured below. Every few minutes these huge waves would come crashing down onto the windows creating this cool effect. You can tell from Michael's reaction that he really enjoyed it. We tried having Alina by the windows to experience it as well, but the waves really scared her!

The view from the outside decks was amazing! It is in a bay after all! Alina tried taking some steps with Mommy's assistance. She is still stubborn and prefers to crawl!

The jellyfish were totally cool! They had tanks and tanks of several types of jellyfish!

My favorite part was this tank, pictured below. It was a floor to ceiling tank and it was filled with all of these rare fish and a few sea turtles! My favorite was this fish, it's called a Sunfish and it has a really narrow body and it's fins are on the top and bottom instead of the sides. It was fun to watch swimming around. I had never seen one before!

After our aquarium visit, we ate dinner at a fun restaurant and then we had the best dessert: Tollhouse cookie ice cream sandwiches! There was a Tollhouse store right by the aquarium. You got to choose what cookies you wanted and then choose the flavor of ice cream for the middle. They were HUGE and a little overwhelming. Alina got to share some bites of her sibling's cookies. YUMMY!

Crissy Field

The Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we went to Crissy Field for a picnic. We got yummy subs from Vikings Submarines. We had read great reviews of Crissy Field online, but we were still very pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was there. We had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. We also didn't realize how close it was to a beach! My kids LOVE the beach! We are sure going to miss it when we move.

We made a point of telling the kids that we were not going to swim, so not to wear or bring swimsuits, but our Andy..... well, where there's water - there's a wet Andy. He cannot help himself! Especially when it's the ocean. He is just fascinated with the ocean and has to get into the water and enjoy the waves - no matter how cold it is!

Alcatraz Island in the background.

The kids set to building a moat. They did a pretty good job! I love it when they work together for a common goal and do it happily! It's a happy mommy moment!

YOWZA!

Just after Christmas break, Andy was going to go outside to get some "fresh air" and he slammed his finger in the front door. At first we thought he had cut open his finger right through the nail. We discovered a few days later that he had ripped his fingernail, root and all, completely off! Nathan actually found the nail by the front door (tells you how much I sweep the front entry way) and that is what Andy is holding in the picture. Luckily it was his left hand, so it didn't harm his writing, but he had to wear a bandaid and first-aid tape for more than a week because we didn't want the nail bed to get infected. He was so relieved when he didn't have to wear a bandage anymore. His new finger nail is about halfway up his nail bed now. Poor little boy!

The Painted Ladies

Every Saturday we try to go somewhere new. The first Saturday back from Christmas Break, we went to Alta Plaza which is the park with "The Painted Ladies" in the background. If you've ever seen "Full House" you are familiar with these houses as they are prominent in the opening of the show. These houses are famous and people come from all over to see them and we were no exception. The kids didn't get it, "They are just houses" but we made them pose for a picture anyway. The park had an awesome playground and an even more awesome view (not just of the houses). We played our hearts out and then had "linner" or "dunch" (lunch/dinner) at "Cheesecake Factory" which is so YUMMY!

Our Baby Girl Turns ONE!!

I can't believe it's been a year since our sweet baby girl was born January 5, 2011! Alina brings such joy into our lives and we are so grateful she is part of our family!

I wanted to get a picture of Alina to text to all our family...

...so I tried putting her birthday crown on her, but she was having none of that!

But she put the crown on herself and that's how we got this fantastic picture of her. I giggle everytime I see this picture!

We had dinner at the same greek restaurant that we ate at on Nathan's birthday. It's called "Park Gyros" because it's right by the Golden Gate Park. It is so yummy!

Alina was so tired after our dinner out, that we had to wait until the next night to have cake and presents. Here she is excited about her cake.

Alina is trying to grow a whipping cream goatee!

Alina's favorite present was a book that Grandma Bice gave her that's called "Guess Who?" She kept coming back to the book and reading it in between opening her other presents.

Thanks Grandma!