San Francisco

This last weekend Bobby and Mikelle were able to steal away for a few days. Bobby has been working out of town for the last couple of months, and was just transferred to San Francisco a few weeks ago. What better time to go see it! Mikelle's mom watched the kids with a little help from her dad and Kristin. They are the best. We had such a good time. We got to stay downtown, so we walked almost everywhere, but also got familiar with BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the cable cars, the buses and even taxi's. A great place to visit, but we couldn't imagine living there, especially with kids.

Here we are at Pier 39 with Alcatraz in the background.

Here is Bobby in a cell in the D block (isolation) of Alcatraz. We loved this tour. They do a walking audio tour, which is fantastic and we learned so much. It was cold and windy, but despite that, it was well done with the amount of tourist there.

Here is the Warden's house. Did you know most of the guards working at the prison lived on the island with their families? Crazy! 

Lombard street is San Francisco's crookedest street. It was crazy.  Why anyone would build it, let alone live on it is beyond us.

This is a cool fountain that the kids were playing in and around right across from the Ferry Building. We also had fantastic Thai food near by at Osha Thai Restraunt and Lounge and of course Boudin's bakery was there too! Really we ate our way through San Francisco. The Burger Bar is good, as is Tony's Pizza in Little Italy!

This little rodent scared Mikelle half to death as she stepped near it's hole and it popped out. Mikelle screamed and made quite a scene, then had to take pictures because he was so cute!

This is Sutro Baths on the other side of the island. We had a lot of fun walking around and seeing remnants of what used to be there, which was a big swimming pool complex, with fresh and salt water pools! 

This is more of an overview shot. Way worth the crazy taxi ride we took to get there, but we took the bus home. Wasn't near as scary! 

The Park

The last few weeks we've really been trying to take advantage of the cool mornings before summer really hits. Jackson loves to ride his bike to a park and play, and Brooklyn loves a good push in the stroller, as long as she gets to play at the park too! Here Jackson is helping his sister. He really is a great big brother. 

A rare picture of him with an actually smile, not all  cheesy like. So cute, just can't resist taking photos! You'll notice his left eye looks a little red and puffy. He has a chalazion, which is like a stye, but it's not going away. The doctor said we may have to operate if it doesn't drain in the next two weeks. Poor boy. We are doing warm compresses and we have to put drops in his eye, which he hates, but hopefully it will pop on its own.

This picture just cracks us up! She is our little dare devil. She has no fear and loves the park.  She thinks she can do anything the other kids do, and really just likes to scare her parents!

Easter

The Friday night before Easter we went into Mesa to The Natural History Museum. They had a dinosaur egg hunt. It was actually super fun. The kids were allowed to find 5 eggs, then if they found more they could re-hide them. And the staff kept putting out eggs, so there was no problem finding them. Jackson loved it and Brooklyn did too, she just liked the re-hiding part the best!

Of course we had lots of egg hunts in the back yard,. Brooklyn did pretty good.

Jackson couldn't get enough. The more hunts the better.

Here is a picture of Brooklyn helping decorate the eggs. She got to do the shrink wraps! She is saying cheese for the photo if you can't tell.

Jackson loved dying eggs. We had superhero dye, of course!

The kids loved the baskets the Easter Bunny left. Brooklyn especially liked the candy. Nothing like a handful at a time, before breakfast!

One of the better pictures we took. 11 o'clock church is hard for Brooklyn, and she was so tired, but it could have been much worse! The boys looked so sharp in their ties, and Jackson wants to wear his every week. This week it was with a green shirt! We got these ties online at thematchingtieguy.com. So many cool choices!

More egg hunts at Aunt Kendra's and Uncle Barry's. The kids got to use real eggs, so they were super excited!

It also helps that their yard is landscaped, so there are way more places to hide the eggs!

Kiddos

Brooklyn has moved from trying to swallow your head when she kisses to giving actual kisses, and she loves to kiss. She especially loves to give brother kisses before naps and bed.

One of Brooklyn's favorite toys are dolls and one of her favorite things to do with dolls, change their diapers. She gets really upset with the ones that don't have diapers that come off!

One of Jackson new things is to get two different socks to wear, and of course, Brooklyn has to follow him. She takes his dirty socks, then puts them on. It's actually cute, and la little gross at the same time!

And not just socks, but slippers can't match either! It's sweet that he shares with his sister though. Jackson loves pajama day, and tries everyday to stay in his jammies. 

Brooklyn loves to attack Jackson and just sit on him. Here they are watching a show, probably Mickey Mouse, Brooklyn loves Mickey and will stop everything when she sees or hears him, sad but also cute! Jackson and Brooklyn really are super cute together, until she steals his toy he was playing with! 

Brooklyn stole Jackson's visor and put it on herself. She is super independent, which again is great and frustrating  all at the same time. Her favorite food to feed herself, yogurt. And every time she eats with her fingers and gets covered in it. 

Sports

We decided it was time to get Jackson involved in some structured sports. Our YMCA does an Itty Bitty program where they do a few different sports over eight weeks for younger kids. Jackson has loved it so far and has learned a little about golf, football, soccer and t-ball. It is starting to get too hot to be outside, so he also gets to swim one week. Hopefully  he can decide on one or two sports to keep up with. Overall it's been a good program, but it seems the program is new, so some kinks need to be worked out.