Full Day of Adventuring

We got one more hike in--as a family and with friends. We did the 3rd Pantoll Quad hike, and this was our favorite so far. So much hiking through redwood forest along side a raging creek. We had postponed this hike from yesterday because of the rain, which ended up coming late and it was still raining when we were in the parking lot. The wet drive over had all of us questioning if this was going to be a miserable hike, but instead, we had a dark, drippy forest, but no actual rain once we started hiking.

The views of the ocean were beautiful.

We found about a dozen different types of mushrooms.

And several banana slugs!

I love the tiny ones.

And any that are red. I didn't take pictures of as many as I would have liked--one of the hazards of hiking with friends. I just save the mushroom hunts for when we're with a smaller group.

The creek was so pretty--so much water!

One of the highlights of this loop was the ladder, for sure. We'd hiked down the Dipsea Trail stairs--hundreds of steps leading down the mountain, and then had to climb back out, but part of the climb was on this ladder.

Then, after eating lunch back at the Pantoll Campground, we said goodbye to our friends who all had to get back for various things, and we drove into the city for a little more adventuring. I wanted to check out a couple of beaches so we could see the big waves that had come with this series of storms.

And see the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach. We usually go to the east side of the bridge, or the overlook on the Marin county side--I don't think I've ever been to Baker Beach before.

We even got a family shot! I need to start collecting these so maybe I'll have some fun ones to use on a Christmas card next year. We always get to November and I realize we don't have any good photos of all 5 of us.

Or maybe these will be our new family photos to document our adventures. I'm kind of loving them.

On the way back from the beach, we passed this bunker and stopped to play for a few minutes.

The kids love taking album cover photos. They actually have named their "band"--Hippies with Shotguns--and have a whole story about their rise to fame and selling out to the man, complete with album names and song titles for each one. It's hilarious.

Found another banana slug on the hill above the beach.

And more cute little mushrooms.

I'm so excited that it is mushroom season. I know that embracing winter in the Bay Area doesn't mean a whole lot since our average highs are still in the 50s, but the fact that winter also brings all the rain, and mushrooms, has made it so easy for me to fall in love with the season. I used to hate fall and the shortening of the daylight because it reminded me that winter was coming, but I think I'm over that now.

Another great view of the bridge, from China Beach. We went looking for a swing, but if it was ever there, it isn't anymore (and I didn't really see where a swing would be hung in the area marked on the map, so who knows.)

And then we drove over to the Fairmont hotel. We got so lucky with a parking space just a couple blocks away, and on the top of the hill so we didn't have to do anymore hills. After all of the hiking (we'd probably done 6-7 miles of mostly hills at this point) , everyone was feeling it and pretty much done with elevation changes.

We'd all brought a change of clothes so we didn't have to tramp through the hotel lobby in muddy hiking boots and pants. I always feel under-dressed as it is in there.

We were mainly there for the gingerbread house. It's always so impressive.

It wasn't designed to walk through this year, but it was huge and even had a room inside with a table where you can have dinner. It's a $500 reservation fee and still has a minimum cost per person.

We went out to the roof top garden, 

and enjoyed the view.

Such a full day. As we drove home, and it got dark, we felt like it was the middle of the night, and then realized it was only 5:30, haha. Busy winter days fly by.

Getting Outside

The weather has been pretty cooperative with us getting out and about to try to finish off our 1000 hours outside. Peanut and spent 3 hours at the park on this gorgeous afternoon, hanging out with friends. And we camped out in the backyard one evening--he really wanted to get his hours in, and I needed the hours and was excited to try out my new camping pad.

And then, today, we went on a short family hike. We will not make it to the 70 family hikes that we'd hoped for, but we are averaging more than one a week, so it still feels like a win.

Del Valle was gorgeous in the mist.

We talked to some friends later who were out there biking at the same time--turns out they could hear us and know that it was us from a mile away, haha. We know we're loud.

The rain held off long enough for us to enjoy the morning and get another hike in.

Deacon Dave's on a Rainy Night

We finally made it to see the lights up close. First try, the line was too long.

We're spoiled living so close and can just come another night.

But then, we returned just after the rain stopped this evening,

and got to see the "Christmas through the Eyes of a Child" theme.

Always a fun time! And we only got sprinkled on a little bit, mostly on the walk home.

de Young Art Museum and SF Fun

Some friends invited us to the de Young museum today and even though we were planning to come to the city on Friday afternoon, too, Bean, Peanut and I decided we had nothing else going on so we joined them for a couple of hours.

Bean had been talking about a scale of how you do museums, from 1-5 with 5 being a quick walk-through/no reading, and 1 being Bug, haha, meaning you want to read and study everything there (which to be fair, he's only like this in science and nature type museums, not art). Bean is a 1 or 2 in the art museums, 

most of the rest of the kids are not, haha. 

After we finished inside, the three of us wandered around the park for a little bit.

We found the tunnel that leads to a playground we had visited with other friends a long time ago.

And found some wildlife over by Stowe Lake.

It was pretty drizzly or we would have walked farther,

but we found a new duck (Moscovy)

and some really pretty Mallards.

Glad these two will adventure with me.

And then we came home for some cozy reading while it rained outside. Poor Bug had to miss out on this one because he is in the last days of college apps, but the end is in sight and he wanted to be free for the fun we had planned later in the week, so he had a quiet house to work in.

The Day After

December 26th can be a little bit of a letdown some years--all the anticipation is over, we've usually over-indulged and the exhaustion tends to hit hard. But this year I really enjoyed the day. Poor Daddy-o had to go to work, so that was a bummer, but Peanut and I got up on the earlier side and went for a walk which was a really nice start to the day.

Rara and Unkie made it over by mid morning and the kids soaked up one more day with them before they were going to leave to beat the storms that were forecasted. Bug showed Rara all of his fossils that he now has displayed museum style,

and we broke in our new game--Mölkky. We'd played at Thanksgiving on the beach and it was so much fun so we got a set for the family (and for two of our brothers' families, too.) 

Probably not the greatest idea to play on the concrete--the pegs are pretty dinged up--but that was the best spot in our backyard.

 This one is a fun one because it seems like everyone can play and even though some skill helps, there's always the chance that it will bounce or spin in some weird way that either helps or hurts you, so it's a little random, too. 

We finished the evening with a quick dinner and then went to see Boys in the Boat--a family favorite in book form and we were really excited to see the movie. And it was done well enough to be thoroughly enjoyable, even if they did have to leave out a ton to make it fit in a normal movie length. But such an inspiring story, either way.

The Most Wonderful Day

'Twas the Night Before Christmas,

with kiddos excited,

And then morning came and we realized we have all older kids and no one was awake, haha. I'm not complaining about getting people up at 8, or later, to start the day. That's way earlier than their normal rising time, so it still feels like an early start, and not getting woken up by giggles before 6 a.m. has some huge benefits. Rara and Uncle D came over before anyone else was allowed out of their room and then the fun began.

And these big kids are still a lot of fun. And get some fun gifts--although Peanut's gift was the clear winner in that department: the Gringott's Bank Lego set, which is amazing! The other two got a new computer and a day of rock climbing in San Diego--fun for them, but without the immediate wow factor, but that's what happens when you get older.

After the Santa gifts and stockings, Daddy-o's parents arrived and we visited while breakfast took forever to cook (have to remember that frittatas take a lot longer than they say when there are two of them in the same oven.)

We ate and then opened the gifts from each other. 

Maybe we had too many gifts under there, haha.

The rest of the day was spent playing games, chatting, cooking (and Daddy-o got a new grill to make the Tri-tip on, so that was fun. Except for the part where I had stashed things in the grill to transport it from our friends' house to ours the night before and the screwdriver was overlooked when we pulled everything out so the plastic handle melted all over the charcoal. Oops. It didn't seem to affect the meat and we'll just pretend like we didn't end up eating plastic.)

But decided to work on the OCD he doesn't really have (and made me twitch every time I looked at his cards. I'm not obsessive, but I don't like looking at that jumble.)

Dinner was amazing. Daddy-o makes a good meal and seems to enjoy spending the afternoon cooking.

And with that, our celebrating was just about over. Grandma and Grandpa had to head out right after pumpkin pie to make the 2 hour drive home, but we were so glad to have them with us for the day. We realized that we hadn't had Christmas with them since Bean was a toddler, and it was fun having a full house. Rara and Unkie still have a couple days left, so we didn't have to say goodbye quite yet.