San Francisco

Ian works a lot in San Francisco so I flew up to meet him for the weekend.  We love San Francisco, but especially during the holidays.  We started out meeting Ian's Aunt Helen and her three daughters for a performance of the Nutcracker at the San Francisco War Memorial Performing Arts Center.  This was where the Nutcracker premiered in the United States.  The theatre itself was amazing and the performance was second to none.

 

We stayed at the St. Francis hotel in Union Square.  This nice gingerbread castle was in the lobby.

We tried to do some new things in the city that we don't normally do.  One of those bucket list items was to visit the cable car museum.  It was very interesting to learn about how the cable cars work.

Luckily, Ian has an incredible sense of direction.  He was able to find the fortune cookie factory.  Or, more like a really small room off of some random ally.  The cookies were sure good though.

We both have our favorite foods in San Francisco that we must get every time we visit.  For me, I can't pass up the clam chowder and sour dough bread bowl at Boudins.  

For Ian, it is the pork sandwich at the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings.  We woke up early and stood in line for a while to make sure he got one because they sell out so quickly.

The weather was perfect during our weekend stay.  

We always like to try new restaurants when we travel.  This trip a vegetarian restaurant was recommended so we decided to give it a try despite the fact that neither of us are vegetarian.  As you can see from the pictures, we still don't really know what we ate there.  It was pretty good, but we may stay away from strictly vegetarian restaurants in the future:)

Because Ian is in school most weekends, this trip was a rare free break that we considered our "Babymoon".  

We're Having a Baby!

In early December, we found out the gender of our arriving baby!  On our way home, I let Ian choose a pair of shoes that would could use for our gender reveal party with his family that night.  Not surprisingly, he chose to go to REI.

So, for those who still haven't heard.  Drum roll please...

It's a Girl!

Seeing as it was also my mom's birthday, we celebrated with pink peppermint ice cream.  My mom always had peppermint ice cream on her birthday so it was a fitting celebration.

We are so excited to meet this little lady.  Her due date is April 23rd.

  

Thanksgiving In Colorado

Yes, I know I am blogging about Thanksgiving in April.  Just trying to catch up our little family blog.  Looking back at pictures I have also decided I am the worst picture taker.  So, here are a few highlights I did manage to capture about our Thanksgiving trip in Colorado.

For Thanksgiving this year, we had part of our family there to celebrate.  We took a day to explore the Denver Zoo.

Siblings.  (We missed you Lindsay and Kristen)

We had a fun time playing at Westlands Park.

My Dad and Julie introduced us to the Raclette.  It is a small grill that sits in the center of the table where everyone can cook their own dinner.  

Thanksgiving day, my family always has a tradition of going bowling.  I think it started way back when my mom was growing up to get everyone out of the house so the cooking could be done.  Miraculously, I don't have a picture, but I bowled a turkey (three strikes in a row) on Thanksgiving day! 

Sadly, this was the only picture I got of Thanksgiving dinner.  But, my dad did do a good job as always on carving the turkey.

Halloween

We had a fun time carving pumpkins in preparation for Halloween this past year.  

I found this cute idea on Pinterest of a healthy Halloween treat.  We had a Halloween dinner with Ian's family on Halloween night before the kids went trick or treating.  This was my contribution to the meal.

Napa Valley Ragnar Relay

Ian enjoyed running the Napa Valley Ragnar Relay with family and friends this year.  We have run the last four Ragnars together, but being pregnant, I decided to opt out this year.  This is a picture of this year's team at the start.

The Ragnar race is a team relay where teammates run around the clock running a total distance of about 200 miles.  There are two cars of six teammates each that trade off running.  This was Ian's van with his brother James, James' brother and sister-in-law, cousin Jeannie and friend Brian.

Ian loved being the runner that got to run across the Golden Gate Bridge.  

This is the fifth year running for the Big Kahunas.  We started this funny tradition the first year of having each runner pass on the team mascot Nemo to the next runner.  The crowd waiting always seems to enjoy watching.  

Hiking Mt. Baldy

Ian and I were feeling a little homesick for the Colorado Mountains, so we decided to hike Mt. Baldy in California.  We took a chairlift to the restaurant part way up the mountain where we enjoyed a delicious and hearty breakfast.

The hike was steep in parts, but the view was beautiful.

We have so many happy memories being outdoors together.  It was nice to get away from the smog and freeways to enjoy the mountains of California.

Birthday Weekend

Ian and I enjoy celebrating our birthdays together every year since they are only 4 days apart.  I made Ian his favorite breakfast of a veggie egg scramble with sour dough toast.  For his family birthday dinner we made several different kinds of pastas Italian style.  Being a bit of a foodie, he loved the delicious food on his special day.

All I wanted for my birthday was a pan of gluten free brownies.  My sister-in-law Megan was so nice to make me some.  They were delicious!

We both enjoyed eating out for a joint birthday dinner at Roy's to celebrate our 30th birthdays!