Sunday, October 18, 2009

Trip / Vacation (lots of pics)

My little sister wanted me to come and visit, so the day after Conference I took the kids to the airport (well, with my friend Tawna's help) and we flew to California. Turns out, Alameda is a beautiful place. For those who don't know, Alameda is an island in San Francisco Bay, right next to Oakland. Alameda has just about perfect weather, is safe enough that you can take walks at night without fear, has a great view of San Francisco, and is 15 minutes from the Oakland airport.

Going out there was a little bit stressful, but I have to say that the suggestion to use Sky Cap was genius. I will never fly without it again - at least not if I have bags and babies to worry about.

Once we were there, we got to spend some quality time hanging out with Sarah and Jacob and little Ammon, who followed Felix around expectantly waiting for something fun to happen and who inspired Amelia to try to walk more. Those three little kids had lots of fun. During our 8 days there, we took a couple of great walks, spent a couple hours at the beach (my sis's apartment complex is across the street from the beach), shopped at Trader Joe's (my new fave store, I think), visited China Town and paid way too much for lunch, hung out at the Oakland Zoo (perfect zoo for little kids - smallish and very friendly with lots of great animals and play places), drove out to Sacramento to visit Aunt Lorene and cousin-in-law Andrea (and even cousin's kid Stephanie for a little bit), went to play group with some ladies in her ward, swam in one of the apartment pools, etc. Amazingly, it didn't feel busy at all, but perfectly relaxed. It was my idea of a perfect vacation.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! I love the pictures.

Especially Amelia's expression at the beach with all that sand in her mouth :-)

No funny stories?

Than & Lina said...

That is fun you got to go and great that you felt relaxed. I always love that. :)

Becca said...

I agree with Ethan- that pic of Amelia in the water with sand in her mouth is classic.

Kristin said...

Sounds absolutely wonderful! I didn't know Alameda was so safe! I love the Bay area and am way jealous of your trip. I love the picture with your babe on your shoulders and your sunglases on. You look so relaxed and happy!