Warning to the casual reader: this post is quite long and probably boring ;)

This past weekend, Auntie Denna was alone since Uncle Tom had his annual "go watch basketball with his friends in Tahoe" weekend. They bought a new place back in December and I had yet to see it. We made plans for me to visit and to bring Logan!! I've taken Brady on a few trips to San Fran, but he's getting to the point where traveling for 4+ hours on a plane just doesn't sound like a good idea. Logan, on the other hand, is finally reaching an age where he can be entertained and reasoned with during a journey like that. Plus...he's been wanting to ride on an airplane and go to San Francisco for quite some time. He was SOOOO excited. We talked about our plans for weeks and discussed what we would take for the plane and for Auntie Denna's house.


The night before we left, daddy and the boys FINALLY managed to actually "surprise" mommy. The boys hide under blankets all the time (giggling non-stop so it's no shock when they jump out and yell "surprise"). It's our jobs, as mommy and daddy, to make like we have NOOOO idea where they are, feign worry, question out loud what has happened to our darling children etc. I was trying to get Brady ready for bed when Brian rushed in and said "come with me right NOW!" I walked into our bedroom and saw a little pile of blankets on the couch so I started my whole "gosh....I wonder where Aiden and Logan could be"....
...and suddenly, they both popped out of the suitcase on the floor behind me! I was ACTUALLY surprised. Good trick boys! This is a picture of them doing it again (and again and again). Pardon the naked baby, like I said...I was in the middle of getting him ready for bed (or...maybe I was at the START of getting him ready!!)

We headed out super early for the airport on Friday morning. It was such a joy to wake Logan. He was all warm and groggy and confused until I whispered "it's time to go on the plane baby!!" He perked RIGHT up and got all happy and excited! Here is Logan, with Scruffy Puppy, waiting to get on the elevator from the parking garage at the airport. Scruffy was our traveling buddy...Logan either held on to him like in the shot below or held his ears together and sort of dragged him along. Logan LOVED the moving walkways in the airports and is now a champion escalator rider (I didn't realize that he had never been on them before and the first few we took were a bit scary....I had to run up one continuously until he took my hand)

We were on a pretty huge plane on the way out. It had the typical 2 seats on each window with another row of 5 seats in the middle. We were smack dab in the middle of the middle seats. Brian was bummin' that we weren't going to be able to see out a window, but we took a couple walks during the flight. We looked at the mountains below (discussed why they are covered in snow), watched the air blow through the engines (discussed WHY we can see the air), looked at all the clouds and looked at all the stuff inside the doors like the emergency doors and the compartments where the emergency slides are stored. Each seat had it's own TV screen (on the seat backs). The channel selections were GREAT....there was a channel that showed the flight's progress on a map, the miles we had flown, the miles we had left, elevation, speed etc. Here is Logan with his headphones on. He was either watching the TV or watching a movie on Daddy's archos. He is holding a special new green transformer I bought for the trip.

There was a Disney Channel option on the TV programming and guess what!? Our (newest) favorite cartoon Phineas and Ferb was on!!!! I was SO excited. It played twice during our trip so that killed at least an hour of time!

We're here!!! I had to laugh because I got the totally typical "are we there yet" at least 20 times during the flight.

Auntie Denna and sweet baby Ryan picked us up at the airport. We had a few problems finding baggage claim so thank God Den was there to help us out. She actually found our luggage and then came to find us...as we were coming off of the transportation tram <-- I swear I'm not a traveling newbie...I just wasn't paying attention when they told us where to go as we were leaving the plane...I was talking to daddy on my phone instead! After we left the airport, we went straight to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 (did I get that right Den??). I was thinking Boudin Bakery for lunch, but then we saw the Rain Forest Cafe. I know...totally NOT a San Fran thing, but Logan was going on and on about an aquarium so we thought it would be fun. (note: according to Logan, McDonald's is MUCH better than Rainforest Cafe! When I was reading him the menu, I asked him what he wanted and he said "McDonald's"......shrug). He did LOVE the fish though!!!

After lunch, we walked along the pier (stopped in and did some shopping at GAP....thank you Auntie Denna!!), moved quickly past all the GADS of street performers, and went to see the Sea Lions. There weren't nearly as many as usual, but Logan was thrilled to watch them for a few minutes.

These floating bouyies are usually FILLED with sea lions. We still got to see a bunch of them though...swimming around and laying in the sun. Plus...bonus - it wasn't as smelly as usual :)

Logan wanted to look through the "beenoculars" so Auntie Denna held him up and we tried to aim it at Alcatraz or any number of boats floating in the bay.

After stopping at one of the candy stores and procuring a GIANT bag of salt water taffy (yeah me!), we took a spin on the carousel. Look at my big boy trying to climb up all by himself! Of course we had to go to the top and he chose to ride a sea lion (what else, right?!)

Auntie Denna (pictured WAY below the top level of the carousel) waited patiently with baby Ryan. I was laughing because I have reached a point in my life where I get to go on carousel rides again, but I have to sit on the side in one of the "mom benches". This particular ride made me feel kinda nauseous...perhaps foreshadowing the events of early Saturday morning....

We stopped by a souvenir store on the way to the car and picked up a few things for the family. Logan has decided to collect pencils so he got a cool San Francisco pencil holder shaped...like a big pencil! (the top unzips and you put all your pencils and pens inside).

After leaving the pier, we took Logan to "the windy road". We kept telling him that we had a cool surprise for him on the way back to Den's place. After we went down, he was still asking, "so....are we going to go see my surprise now?" I was laughing because I remember going down that road the first time (at age 12 or so) and I didn't think it was all that exciting either. This time around....I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe you just have to be a bit older and wiser :) It's paved in red brick all the way down and it's hard to see, but it curves steeply back and forth 5 or so times.

Saturday morning, I woke up around 4am with a bit of a stomach bug (Brady threw up a couple times last week and I guess it was more than something he ate because I got sick and then, on Sunday as we were heading home, daddy got sick too). Anyway....after a little laying around in the morning (Wonderful Auntie Denna entertained Logan in the back yard with an airplane we had brought with us), I thankfully started to feel better. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and cold day so our entertainment options were limited. We tried to go check out a cool museum, but the line was literally wrapped around the entire building. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, drove back to the city, and got a slushy (Logan was happy!) Later that afternoon, Logan and I wandered down to the neighborhood park. It had the COOLEST stuff! Logan took a picture of me sitting in one of the only "swings" at the park - this giant disk thing.

A good majority of the space at the park was a sand box...filled with beach-like pebbly sand - totally cool!

There were two of these strange seat things and we couldn't really figure out what to do with them. Logan's idea was to sit inside one and have me spin him around. He LOVED it (see video!)

You'll have to excuse the fact that I had to spin him BY his head. It's hard to videotape and push at the same time.


Here, two local teens demonstrate how to use the disk swings :)

On the way back home, we took pictures of the houses that we thought were the "coolest". This was my favorite one - dark green with black trim. I love all the different garages on San Francisco houses!

There is just nothing like a street in San Fran....so unique and pretty!!

Yet another neat green house. Logan pointed it out (of course!)

Another amazing detail about the architecture are all the different wrought iron gates and door covers.

Here is Logan skipping down a hill

As we got closer to "home", Logan was walking and pointing at each house saying "no", "no", "no". When I asked him what he was doing, he said that he was looking for Auntie Denna's house. When we walked up to it, he pointed and said "yes!" I was impressed!!

Here is Den's building. I like the detailing on the window.

Ready to go back to Chicago!! Logan was quite sad to leave Den and Ryan. He was mopey as we went through the check-in line for our return flight. He perked up when we talked about seeing the rest of the family again. AND...we managed to get a window seat on the way home! We saw SO much cool stuff before take off too! We saw the line of planes waiting behind us as we pulled into a little waiting space on the side, we saw two other plans take off in front of us AND we saw two planes land on the runways before we pulled into line. It was a cool lesson for Logan on how the whole take off and landing thing is coordinated (we have a book about airplanes so we talked a lot about what it says regarding the pilot and the control tower while we watched out the window)

After a weekend of no naps, Logan was quite exhausted and fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport. We were SO happy to see Aiden, Bray and Daddy again!! Poor Daddy was sick and couldn't wait for our arrival either :)

We had so much fun together on our special trip!! Thank you Auntie Denna for having us and for showing us the city!!! Next time, maybe Aiden can come too :) (new rules for traveling with just mommy...you have to be potty trained and sleep in a big boy bed!)