Soccer

Soccer time is here again, and this is Tristan's 4th season. He's moved up to the U10 team now, for boys 8-10. He's on the younger end of the age range right now, and I swear a few of the boys out there yesterday were at least a foot taller! The field is bigger for these boys too. Lots of running. I had Aidan and Olivia with me at the game, and Aidan kept saying "Up and down, up and down" as the boys ran back and forth. Too cute!



My camera wasn't in a good mood yesterday, and I only got one good picture. Out of about 30. I think I need to get a good lens to use for sports, 'cause all my pictures came out blurry. All that running :)

Good game Tristan! Can't remember the score, but our boys delivered a shutout!

Scrap-Tastic!

Leslie came over to scrap last night. I didn't have the right paper to do most of my pictures with, but I got this layout of our tour of AT&T Park done.

Heaven on Earth

Saturday, Septmeber 8th was a lovely day. I took my very first trip to an IKEA store! We're in Portland for Mike's Reserves weekend, and I spent over 3 hours in the most beautiful place on Earth while he was working.

If you have bever been to an IKEA, you don't know what you're missing. It's a HUGE store, with TONS of housewares, at very good prices. I went back again Sunday for few hours and it was just as fun the second time around.


Here are my shopping treasures:

New lamp for my nightstand

Organizer for my scrap area

I'm going to fill these with buttons and ribbons for my scrap area

This is to display some cards and other small projects in my scrap area

Magnetic bar, I hung 2 of these up in my scrap area for display

I picked up a few other small odds and ends, and a little present for Leslie, and only spent around $40! What a STEAL! I can't wait to go back!

Home Sweet Home

Well, we're back! We got home around 5pm today, after another late start. We had a rough morning. We stayed at Travis AFB again, and discovered they were going to have a planned power outage this morning, for about 5 hours. So, power went out at 7am at the hotel, meaning no lights, air conditioner, or bedside clock. So we slept late. Then when Mike was carrying out our stuff (no power= no elevator) he discovered the car battery was dead. We forgot to unplug our little mini fridge in the trunk overnight (oops). So, after trying to push start it himself, we ended up having to get one of the hotel clerks to jumpstart the car. Eesh!

Yesterday was our anniversary (5 years, can you believe it?), and we spent a few hours in Santa Cruz at the boardwalk. We played some games in the arcade, walked around the boardwalk, and had lunch. We only rode one ride, the Skyglider, and then we had to head back upstate.

We were hoping to have dinner at Chilis in Vacaville, but after an hour of searching and driving in circles, we gave up and went to the Outback Steakhouse.

So now we are home, unpacking, doing laundry, all that fun stuff. Glad to be home, but sad our vacation is over- we really had a good time!

Alcatraz

After an unplanned late start, we just barely made it to our boat in time to tour Alcatraz this morning. Seriously, we ran from our trolley to the dock, and they stopped boarding about 2 minutes after we got there.

The boat ride was packed, and the island was pretty busy too. We took the cellhouse audio tour, I think it was about an hour long, walking through the cell blocks, the library, the administration area, and the dinning hall. Most of the cells were empty or falling apart, but several were dressed to look as they would when the prisoners were there.

The tour was really neat, got to see a lot of the cellhouse, and it was narrated by former guards and inmates. There was actually a former inmate at the gift shop, autographing his newly released book!

After Alcatraz, we spent some more time at Pier 39 window shopping and people watching.

It's been a busy week, so I am looking forward to a nice day in Santa Cruz tomorrow, celebrating our anniversary!

Play Ball!

Wednesday we spent pretty much the whole day at or near AT&T Park. After taking the BART train into town, we arrived at the ballpark about 11 am. We had tickets for the stadium tour at 12:30, so we spent some time browsing the "Dugout" store. The tour lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, and we got to see pretty much all of the stadium, including the visitors dugout and indoor batting area, the press box, and one of the suites. Here's some pics from the tour.

After the tour we went back and made some purchases at the store (I had to get my Giants gear) and then had lunch at a little diner down the street. Then we walked around the outside of the stadium and checked out the marina and statues.

We entered the park about 5:15 and headed up to our seats. We were in right field, front row. Batting practice was going on so Mike got out his glove and stood at the rail with a bunch of other fans, hoping for a ball. He didn't get one, he was competing with cute little girls :)

The game started at 7:15 and seemed to go pretty quick. Our section seemed to get pretty rowdy, and at least 2 fans got tossed! Unfortunately, the Giants lost, but we had a great time.

Oh, SURE!! We can walk there!!!...HA!

I think Mike made it his personal goal to walk me into the ground today. I looked up distances online and we walked at least 3.5 miles- from Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square, then to Fort Mason, then back to Pier 39. Most of it uphill. Plus walking around the shops at Pier 39, and all the other stops. My feet are killing me! But, we had a lot of fun and saw all sorts of neat things! BTW- in the picture at right, we started our journey on the far right side of the map.

So, here's what we did today:

Took a shuttle from the hotel to the airport, and then took the BART into downtown SF. We took a trolley over to Pier 39. Then we decided, we should WALK to the Exploratorium. Sure, it doesn't look that far on the map! WRONG! We only made it halfway there! We walked around Ghirardelli Square, the headed up to Fort Mason and saw the roof of the Exploratorium, about 10 more blocks away. We decided to head back and look at the aquarium instead. Along the way, we toured the docked submarine "Pampanito" and the ship "SS Jeremiah O'Brien." The submarine was very cramped, as expected. Here are some pictures from our adventures:

One of the ships we saw along the way

Returning from our "hike"
Mike in the submarine

I'm quite certain Mike will hate me for posting this one, but.... at the aquarium

The train back to the hotel... poor Mike got sunburned on his freshly shaven head!

Tomorrow we are going to tour Giants Stadium and then we have tickets to the game against the Cubs.