Wells Fargo Museum

We're here in San Fran because of Wells Fargo, and we're hitting as many museums as we can, so it was only a matter of time before we made it to the Wells Fargo Museum.  We planned ahead and came on "Take Your Kids to Work" day.  Of course, Nick was working, so for us it was "Take Your Kids to Your Husband's Work" day.

There was a little something for everybody.  Curie and Rigby like the coloring and riding this horse-drawn wagon.

Bethelle liked those, but she also got into using this olde timey telephone.

The museum had a saddle to mount in front of a large screen which played a scene of riding down a bumpy trail, old historical telegraphs (WF has been around for a looong time), a telegraph machine to learn Morse code on, gold to weigh on a balance, and a carriage that jostled to ride in.

As there is an "Old West" theme to the museum, I let the kids each bring a Toy Story toy.  Rigby brought his Woody cowboy hat, Curie brought Bullseye, the horse, and Bethelle brought the cowgirl doll, Jessie.  We crossed Jessie street on our way back from the museum and had to snap this shot.

This is how you know you're on gov't property

Puh-lease!

John (9)

I could write about Mothers' Day, or I could show you the so-cute pictures that I took of Curie last week.  And I probably will, but not now.

First I want to tell you about what I learned today in Sunday school.  Our text was John, chapter 9.  In this part of the New Testament, Christ comes across a man who was blind from birth.  His disciples inquire who caused this punishment on the man.  Was it due to the sins of himself or his parents?  Jesus teaches them that we are not given our trials due to our sins, "but that the works of God should be made manifest" in us through our trials.

Christ then heals the man of his blindness in front of witnesses.  When later pressed, the man and the witnesses cannot refuse that a miracle occurred and that Christ must be what he says he is.

I've had this lesson many times before.  But this time was different when a man in class, John, commented.  John is himself blind.  He has the white-tipped cane, the sunglasses, the whole bit.  He became that way at 40 and said that he went through a period of suffering and blame and depression.  Then one day he decided that he didn't want his condition to make him that kind of a person and to ruin his life.  He said that he pulled himself out of his misery through prayers and the scriptures.  I've only known John for four months, but he is absolutely amazing.  He's bright and considerate and motivated.  I would never have thought that he went through such a dark time.  He just seems too strong.  Miraculous as the healing of the blind man in the New Testament was, I think that John's spiritual and mental healing was even more vital and miraculous, more essential to who John really could become.  And there he was, a "manifestation" of God's power and goodness, right there in the room as we marveled over the example in the scriptures.

Wave Organ

My blog has turned into a San Francisco travel guide.  There is just so much to do here.  For our next adventure, we visited the Wave Organ at the San Francisco Marina.

It is a happy little place built on the ruins of some tiny little building at the end of a skinny jetty.  Pipes come up from the surface of the water...

 ...and end in little listening ports where you can sit and listen to the music made by the crashing waves.

Isn't that a beautiful concept?  Nature creates the music.  That reminds me of the bridge at the SFMOMA that I wrote about earlier in this post.

I had this crazy idea that we would take some great family pictures while we were there.  While this did turn out to be one of our favorite places in the city, pictures don't work so well here.

The wind was whipping!

And the sun was so bright!

Most of our pictures have hair in faces, or a mass of squinting eyes.  We did get a few nice ones, though.  Just look at my favorite little man.  He found a hole to crawl in that was just his size.

Bethelle would rarely stop exploring the endless crannies of the sculpted ruins to smile for the camera.

And Curie.  Well, she's a bit of a pill lately.  She is a D.I.V.A.  We are trying to break this.  Really, we are.  But for now she does just what she wants to do.  The trick then becomes to manipulate her into wanting to do something cute.  Something photogenic.

The holes in the wall behind the kids are more listening ports.  At adult height, they surround your ears.  This is one of the best places to sit at the wave organ and has a beautiful view just to ice the cake.

Nick seemed to enjoy himself.

You can see how long and skinny this jetty is.  It is a bit of a walk from the closest parking lot.  But city life accustoms your legs to walking.

I hope that we will make it out to the wave organ one more time before we leave our little big city.

Santa Cruz

Last Tuesday, we all went to Santa Cruz, a beach town with a boardwalk carnival.  I realize that our life lately is not normal.  We are spoiling ourselves and our kids.  My rationale is that I am the kind of person who will live in one place forever, if I have my way.  This trip is a rare chance to live somewhere else for a short while.  So live we will!  I'll be a California girl, through and through, for five short months!

We rode the ferris wheel.

We flew in airplanes.

And we swam on the backs of orcas.

We went on this kiddie coaster three times.  In a row.  There was no line.

While the big kids coastered, Curie drove a truck around the park.  Also three times.  Maybe four.  Then Bethelle and Nick went on the spinning room ride in the background of this picture.  It's the one where you spin so fast, gravity gets all messed up and then they tip you 90 degrees.  Both of them agreed that it was nauseous torture.

See that beach right by the rides?  This is why people love California.

My favorite people!

This ride was more fun than I remembered.

And this one made me nervous.  It was very high and lasted seven minutes, carrying us across the park in open, ski lift-like cars.  Hold on to your babies!  But Nick was sitting in his lucky number 11, so we made it out OK.

The rides close at six (so get there early).  This gave us an evening on the beach.  I must mention with this picture that an era has ended.  I knew it would someday.  Having Nick with us for eight straight days made the difference.  He is now Curie's favorite.  And Bethelle and Rigby's, for that matter.  I get a short year and a half or so out of each baby.  That's what all my efforts buy me.  Then they switch to him.  I may sound like I am griping, but it's sarcasm.  I really appreciate that I married the kind of Daddy who can be the favorite.

Nick says the water is practically as cold here as in the northwest, but it seems a lot warmer to me.

Did I make you want to see Santa Cruz?  Good.  But visit soon, so that we can go with you.

On the Sixth Day of Daddy...

I mentioned that Nick recently had a few days off.  Well, including the weekend, it was actually eight days off!  Many of his coworkers needed the time to fly around the country for interviews, but since our job is already lined up, we made a local vacation out of the time.

I am working on a checklist of things that we want to do and see before we leave.  These eight days were the perfect time to get to the rest of those items.  I've already blogged about many that we did (Ghirardelli, sourdough, Chinatown, taking the kids to the temple, the lighthouse...), but here's the mish-mash that we did on our sixth day with Nick.

We live "next door" to a lot of great places.  One that we hadn't been to yet is an IMAX theater, one of Nick's favorite weaknesses.  We started our day by seeing "Born to be Wild," a 3D IMAX film about women who rescue wild, orphaned orangoutangs and elephants, raise them, teach them to survive in the wild, and release them when they are able.  I was touched to see that they try to imitate the animals' mothers by staying with them all day, everyday.  They even sleep with the animals.  The woman who raise the orangoutangs said that more than any particular skill, they need to feel loved and secure.  That is what I have always thought about my own children.  That more than anything, they need to feel loved and secure.  That is why I choose to stay home with them.  And that is why this woman stays "home" with her monkeys.  Hmm.

We then crossed a few streets to the Westin, a fancy hotel with a fancy elevator.  It is glass-walled and ascends 32 stories, right in the heart of the San Francisco skyline.  We rode it a few times like it was a roller coaster.  It was nap time for the younger two kids, so Nick took them home and I took Bethelle ice skating!  The local rink is another "next door" attraction.  When we go to our nearest park, we always walk past the windows and see the ice dancers or hockey players at work.  Bethelle has been patiently wanting to have a crack at some skates since we arrived.  I couldn't imagine taking all of the kids, with or without Nick, so this was our chance to try it out and to have some girl time.

Bethelle thought that she would be really good at ice skating.  She can be very optimistic. I was nervous that when reality set in, it would upset her.  But she was awesome!  Even when just propelling forward was hard to do, she was trying to do twists and turns like the pros in the center of the rink.  We had a great time.

Nick took the kids out to the pool that night to close out the day.

Easter 2011

I'm only one week behind in my blogs.  Subconsciously, I think I kept the kids in all day yesterday on purpose so that I would not accrue any more occasions to be blogged until I catch up.

We didn't take many pictures on Easter because we were so busy filming.  The bunny did come...

And we had a sweet, simple church service.

Also a great Easter egg hunt.