Touring around town

Luci's never been to SF before. Of course, I'm happy to go! Evan, well, we had to twist his arm a bit...

Lombard street

The adorable house on Lombard we all agreed we'd live in:

Mom, this one is for you:

And of course, a stop at Ghirardelli

Oh, and just so you all know, even though it's a holiday, you still need to feed the meter. ugh.

California Culinary Academy

As I mentioned earlier, we have Evan's niece Luci visiting. One of her possible dreams is to attend culinary academy, so we hit San Francisco for a guided tour!

It was enough to make me want to go to culinary school. I mean, isn't this stuff we all need to know?: make a good chicken stock, plan and prepare food for a large group of people, knife techniques, etc. For now I'm going to have to settle for on-the-job training. Luci might get to learn the real way though.

Here's one of Luci's masterpieces: our fourth of July cake. Yummy!

Happy B-Day Evan!!

Evan turned...errrhh, 30? We had a little birthday bash. Since the birthday boy always gets to chose what's for dinner it was flank steak, sushi, deviled eggs, and hamburger salad (ask me about that sometime...it's basically the fixings of a hamburger all cut up into a salad).

We had a few friends over. Of course, Evan insisted on decorations...(you know this is me, right, not Evan insisting on decorations??)

Our niece Luci is in town visiting from Minnesota. Being in California, of course you need to try sushi!

Dallin is always happy to help blow out the candles.

Fuzzy group shot:

Happy Birthday Evan! love you.

While the husband's away...Kate comes to play!

That's right. Jim was away on business so my sister Kate came to visit!

It was a week full of activities: dinner party, trip to the zoo, parks, library story time, a little bit of attempted shopping.

First, dinner party with friends. I won this Williams-Sonoma and Calphalon dinner party. I received some new cookware in the mail as well as a menu. I love this sort of thing, but man the preparation was a bit intense! Good thing I had all these extra helpers around:

Here's what the table looked like outside:

 

This is the little plot of grass outside our condo. Evan really tried to talk me out of eating outside, but I had a vision. Evan joked that someone with a shopping cart who is fishing for recyclables is going to come strolling right through our dinner (our recycle bins are very popular with the homeless crowd; they come by multiple times per day). Well, they did come, but he was walking, and when he saw us, he left.

Instead of what Williams-Sonoma recommended for dessert, we made homemade marshmallows for a smore spread. 

We headed to the baby story time at 11:30 (we missed the toddler one at 10:30--hey getting out the door with 4 kids 4 and under takes a while!) Here we are playing/picnicking at the nearby park afterwards:

First, happy Thad

Dallin and Billy sliding:

Kate and Bobby

This one of Thad swinging is hilarious because it almost looks like Dallin's legs could be his:

Billy loves the swings!

Finally, our trip to the zoo, a first for Billy, Bobby and Thad!

Trying (unsuccessfully) to get the brother's shot:

Billy wasn't too sure about riding the frog:

Billy, Bobby and Kate:

And finally, our trip on the train.

I think we're pretty much recovered from the fun. Come again soon, please!