Family Appreciation

Today was a really great day. We started off by waking early to get to church for the 8am mass. We got there a bit late, but the kids were fairly well behaved – we only got a couple of grouchy stares through the whole service :P.

Afterwards, it was Family Appreciation Day in San Francisco. Mayor Gavin Newsome’s office sponsors the event all over the City, where basically families that are able to show proof of address for San Francisco are admitted free to all sorts of attractions all over the City. Lucky for us, Rose and Rene were free today and also happen to be residents. We met up at the Exploratorium and they got us the green bands that served as the free passes all over the City.

I love taking the kids to the Exploratorium…the looks on their faces as you let them run around and explore to their hearts content. None of the usual “don’t go there!” or “don’t touch that!” – it’s just the opposite and you see grown ups all over the place pointing stuff out to their kids just to see that look on their little faces that they get when they see something for the first time…that look of amazement that is just completely priceless.

We let the kids run around for a couple of hours (got some great shots of the action too :)!), then we took a nice long walk to Chestnut Street to have lunch at Amici’s. I love going out with Rose and Rene and their kids – their girls are almost exactly the same age as our boys, so it’s really cool that we’re pretty much going through the same things and can understand the amount of time it takes to get through a meal with kids or the number of stops you have to make to go to the bathroom or to feed or change diapers. It’s kind of hard when we take the kids with us when we’re out with people who don’t have kids – it can be kind of frustrating on both ends for the single people and us :P.

After lunch, we decided to head to the Bay Aquarium since that was an ordinarily pricey attraction and it seemed like a good deal to get in for free. The kids loved that too! It’s almost like scuba diving. In fact, Rene said it’s exactly like scuba diving except without the pressure :P. So much fun to see the sharks and fish through the kids eyes.

Right after the Aquarium, we headed to the Hard Rock Café to get our parking tickets validated. I consumed way to many calories with the Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch dessert that I ordered, and we spent way more than the validation was worth with everything else we ordered :P, but it was a nice way to end the evening. Logi fell asleep right at the table while he was still chewing on his hamburger! That’s how exhausted he was from all the fun we subjected him to throughout the day J. Rose and Rene had to leave around 6 for Rose’s mom’s birthday celebration, so we wrapped it up and then Glenn and I took the kids (Logi sleeping in his stroller) for a walk around the Pier before heading back to the car.

Towards the end of the Pier, there was a merry-go-round and Ryland started making all these excited noises and bouncing up and down in his stroller (I love when he does that – it’s so cute!), so Glenn took him for a ride. He just kept looking up at all the decorations at the top of the merry-go-round – again with that awesome look of amazement! I wish I could capture that look on film, but I never seem to get the right shot. It’s indescribable (for me anyway).

On the way home, at one point, both boys were each holding one of my hands. Then, Ryland started kissing my hand like I’ve done to his on a number of occasions. I loved it and it’s a moment that I truly want to remember forever.

Now we’re at home and I’ve just finished straightening up the mess we left downstairs yesterday. Before I headed down to straighten up, I got to hold each little guy in my lap and just breathe in their little baby head smells and feel the contentment of the day. Glenn and the boys are up in our bedroom now. I’m going to join them for a little more family fun before we turn in for the evening.