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02 August 2010

The Long and Winding Post

So, this is what happens when you add an out-of-town trip, tons of activities, a snap-happy mamarazzi {a Mama photographer} and sickness thanks to withdrawals from hive medication.  You get four days with no blogging and one big booty blog with lots of pictures now that I am back and feeling a little better.

Here's the gist of our last few days.

Dave and I headed up to San Rafael Thursday evening with Olivia for an installation on Friday.  The five hour drive was gorgeous and Olivia did awesome.  This baby of ours who hates to travel has turned a new leaf thanks to the portable dvd player.  I know what some of you might be thinking, Those videos only rot her brain, but she is actually learning from them.  We got some dvds that teach her sign language and in the course of the last few days she has learned about four new signs.  It also gives us some sanity when we have to be in the car for any length of time.  I can't find anything wrong with that!

Friday's installation was by far the easiest job we have ever done.  Olivia helped out for a little bit and then we plopped ourselves into one of the dorm rooms, set up the pack and play and she sacked out.  I quite enjoyed not having to clean house or do laundry and caught up on all of the latest Hollywood gossip. {Heidi and Spencer are getting divorced?  Where have I been?}

Is she not the most precious thing ever?

We had a little dance party after she woke up.

Friday evening we headed out to the most incredible little Puerto Rican restaurant, Sol Food.  If you know me very well, you will know that I am SO not adventurous when it comes to food.  I get the same thing at the same restaurants 9 out of 10 times.  The menu was so overwhelming that I ended up just getting the Friday night special, beef stew.  Let me just say that it was one of THE BEST meals I have ever had.  The restaurant was such a cool little venue where you basically sit at large tables with other patrons. The decor was just amazing....

Orange Mango Iced Tea and Fresh Limeade



David loved the hot sauce and ended up buying a bottle to bring home.

I came so close to ordering the tilapia and switched at the last minute to get something different than David...SO glad I did.  I don't like eating food that looks the same as it did when it was alive!

On Saturday morning, Olivia woke up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 5am.  Oh Dear Lord, I was not prepared for that.  I tried {unsuccessfully} to get her back to sleep for the next hour and then my very sweet husband took over so I could get some zzzs.    They toured the hotel, rode the elevator a zillion times and had breakfast at least twice while I slept and got ready.  We let Olivia take a nap before check out and headed down/over/up {?} to Sausalito to check out the Bay Area Discovery Museum.  This place is amazing.  If we lived in the Bay area, I would for sure have a membership here.  It is such a great place to take your kids and let them explore and burn off energy.  Olivia absolutely loved it.

Signing "frog"



She made some friends at the splash area

Wearing her turtle shell


Oh wow - I actually made it in a picture!

After a few hours at the museum, we headed into downtown San Francisco to check into our hotel.  We stayed at the Triton Hotel, a super pet-friendly Kimpton hotel, close to Union Square and Chinatown.  



This was pretty much where my San Francisco adventure started going downhill.  The short trip there from Sausalito was horrible -- I felt completely carsick and the sickness didn't subside once I got out of the car.  I pretty much laid down at the hotel and David took Olivia out exploring so I could get some rest.


I ended up meeting them for a bite to eat at a little French restaurant next door and David's meal didn't do much for my queasy stomach.


Saturday night was miserable with Olivia not going to sleep until 10:15 and then waking up at 3 and staying up until 7!!!  That was so not fun and when she turns sixteen I am going to ground her for at least a week because of it.

After catching a couple more hours of sleep, we headed towards the ocean and ate at the Cliff House.  David used to eat there with his dad and step-mom when he was younger, so it was great to be able to take Olivia to that same restaurant.  The food was amazing and the views couldn't be beat.  Unfortunately that old phrase held true, The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.  The sun did not want to peek out at all while we were there, but the views were spectacular nonetheless.

This may be one of my favorite photos yet.

Look at those curls!

After brunch we headed down to Palo Alto to meet up with some friends at the Stanford Shopping Mall.  The sun was most definitely shining down there.  It was absolutely gorgeous. I got a few pictures of Olivia before we parked ourselves in the J.Crew dressing room so she could nurp/napse...what's a good word for nursing and napping at the same time?  David enjoyed the hour of shopping and came out with some cute clothes!

Over it!


I needed something to make me feel better, so we motored over to Pinkberry and got a yummy yogurt.  

She certainly enjoyed the coconut yogurt!

I am now anxiously awaiting David's arrival home from work because after stopping at Pinkberry we stumbled upon a Sprinkles cupcakes shop and had to get a half dozen to go.  I was not about to waste a cupcake when I wasn't feeling good, so they are patiently waiting to be sampled until this evening.


That would be a black and white, a key lime pie, a milk chocolate, 
a peanut butter chip, a cinnamon sugar and a chocolate marshmallow just waiting to be added to my hips and thighs.

I've pretty much done a self-diagnosis and am realizing that the symptoms I have had for the past few days are due to withdrawals from the prednisone I took for the hives.  I am feeling much better now and should be back to our regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow.  I'll let you know how those cupcakes went down!  

Happy Monday from the Central Coast!

1 comment:

Marissa said...

My, my, my, I LOVE those pictures of David and Olivia together. Few things are as precious as daddies and daughters. :) You're looking great yourself, glad I got to see you in a post for once! :)