Road Trip III: San Francisco

After our day in Monterey, we went into San Francisco. We explored around the pier and took a boat ride around the Bay to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. It was really beautiful, but also very windy outside. Audrey couldn't keep her eyes open it was so windy, so we went back inside till the wind died down. Todd headed to the Flagship Apple Store in Union Square to get a case for the "I-Pad Mini" I got him for Father's Day (that's our clever name for an I-pod Touch), and we finished up the day by grabbing some Mexican food and cookies in the Mission District. Oh, well we actually finished the day by driving until 1 a.m. to get to our next destination, Eureka.

I love San Francisco, I do. I love that it is the closest thing to an old European city on the west coast that we have. There are many other things that I love about it. What don't I love, though? Well, let me tell you: All of the young hipster people there who think they are really, really cool. And they were all at the Mexican restaurant we were at, feeling really self-important and hip. But other than that, I do love San Francisco.

Random Happenings

Todd's brother came down to help do some things around the house. Joseph was very helpful.

So was Audrey.

We had a church picnic at the beach. We anticipated it would be chilly so we didn't take swimsuits. We should have known that Joseph would insist on swimming anyway -- we turned around and he had stripped down. So we put on a pull-up and he had a blast.

Joseph is officially potty-trained. It was a long process but he is enjoying the "laptop" he got as a reward.

Meanwhile, Audrey's learning to drive.

She's also learning to eat finger foods.




And to get into mischief.

Road Trip II: Monterey

So blogging about this trip will never happen if I try to take the time to do elaborate posts and picture captions ... I am already a few months late. So, quick descriptions and a bunch of pictures and that's that.

We spent our first day in Monterey. In the morning, we walked around Monterey from the Wharf down through Cannery Row to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After spending the rest of the morning in the aquarium and grabbing some lunch, we headed to the 17-Mile Drive to see the beautiful Monterey coastline and visit Pebble Beach. (I am editing this post to note that Todd insisted on changing into slacks when we got to Pebble Beach. Even though he wasn't golfing, he didn't want to APPEAR to be a non-golfer.) That night, on our way to a hotel near San Francisco, we ate at this adorable little German restaurant in this tiny little town in the Santa Cruz mountains. Todd didn't think the food was as authentic as he wished, but it was an idyllic little place in these huge trees and it was still pretty fun.

Monterey:




Aquarium:







Pebble Beach:

6 months of Audrey

Today our little girl turned 6 months old. Here's what you need to know about Miss Audrey B.

Her body is still too tiny to contain her smiles. She wiggles, squirms, flaps her arms, and kicks her legs when she smiles.



She does not cuddle. She does not want to be held. She only wants to roam the floors and go wherever her rollings take her. She'll cry when she gets tired or hungry, but mostly she's just content calling the shots about where she goes.

She owns many "age-appropriate" toys. She plays with none of them.



She's especially fond of cars, dinosaurs, and wrenches.

Unlike her brother at this age, Audrey likes needs to put EVERYTHING in her mouth.



She's now learning to eat solids. She enjoys rice cereal, applesauce and mashed bananas.


Mostly she enjoys grabbing the spoon away; it feels like fighting a hydra to get the spoon to her mouth, but we're making progress.



She loves the camera




She looks like her mommy



But her daddy thinks she has a little bit of grandpa in her too




Her favorite person in the world is her brother. Oddly enough, other than a few immunizations, Joseph has been the source of every traumatic, painful, and bothersome experience in her life, yet Audrey still beams whenever he walks into the room.



Audrey is under this tent:


This is how she got in this tent:



This is how she feels about her brother putting her in this tent:




She loves watching what Joseph does and wants to do whatever he's doing.



In turn, Joseph loves taking care of her and greeting her when she wakes up from sleeping:




They like to play a game Joseph named "T-Rex and Meat."



They take turns. Audrey doesn't like being the meat.

Other random details: She's strong enough to sit on her own, but hasn't figured out the balancing part yet. She's got a couple of teeth poking through on the bottom. She may just have an ear infection, but she frequently does this cute little thing where she pulls on a curl on the side of her head.