The Party Starts!!

 We wanted to spend time with David's sister and her family this summer, but we decided instead of Texas or Utah, we would both travel somewhere different.  After a lot of indecision we decided on San Francisco and a trip to see Redwoods!!  When David and I went to SF a few years ago without our kids, I didn't go see the redwoods because I wanted to share the experience with my kids.  Becky and two of her girls drove out (they had more time) and met our group coming from Texas and her husband and other daughter flying in from Utah.  We were all SO excited to see each other!!

 Let's get this party started!!

After a yummy dinner in Oakland, we let our kids drive with Auntie Becky and we all headed out to our hotel.  It was a LONG drive.  In our car, we were tired and sleepy but in the party car our kids were keepin' everyone entertained.  We kept getting texts of jokes they were telling and word that Stephen was singing songs like Piano Man, I Love Rock and Roll, ICE ICE Baby, and Ozzie's Crazy Train to keep things lively!

 

Grandma gave Natalie and Stephen each ten dollars for some cleaning they did before we left Texas.
 They were PRETTY excited to have so much money!!

Time for some sleep so we can play tomorrow!

The next day when Stephen asked what we were doing on vacation someone said we were going to see a tree.  He was in a funny mood and without any more details given to him he started to complain about how boring that sounded and did we really come all this way to see a tree???  So David and I played along about HOW BORING it was going to be to go see a single tree.  He was especially put out when part way through the drive I got Natalie and Stephen out of their cousins car and made them ride with me (I really wanted to see their reaction as we drove past the first redwoods).  Even Natalie wasn't too pleased to have to leave the fun of traveling with their cousins--I think they were feeling VERY grown up being with teenagers too. 

SO BORING!!!!

Oh wait- maybe it wasn't so boring after all!
The sheepish look after he realized it was actually pretty cool!

Our first view of the redwoods from the car.  AMAZING!!! 
I was SO glad I was with my kids when I saw them for the first time, I didn't capture the first looks on their faces but they were truly impressed!

we stopped for a picnic lunch in a beautiful little spot and Stephen didn't waste time starting to COLLECT cool items.  Natalie joined in because she has always had a thing for pine cones. 

Ready to get this picnic started!

Warming right up to Auntie!

Auntie Becky wants to make sure Brian loves roller coasters as much as she does.

These last two pictures show my kids personalities--Natalie was carefully trying to count every ring on this old redwood stump and Stephen with a stick (SUCH A BOY)!!!