The Play By Play, Day By Day

Saturday, July 2nd. I got my hair cut. I may write about the experience some other time, because it was an interesting experience. I’ll just say for now the gentleman who cut my hair was older than I expected (like in his late 70’s), with a thicker accent than I expected and I didn’t get the haircut I expected. That afternoon we went to the Exploratorium in SF and then picked up Marshall on our way back home. He stayed the weekend with us. The girls LOVE Marshall. Eva wants to marry him. Too bad he is already married. We went swimming that night. Marshall opted to not swim and just stay poolside and watch. The girls kept saying “I love swimming with Marshall.” Just having him near is total bliss to them.

Marshall joining in on the bedtime story routine.

Sunday, July 3rd. We went to church and like always Eva cried through all of nursery. After church we were invited by Stephen’s co-worker to join his family and some friends at the beach. Marshall stayed back, fortunately for him because what was supposed to be an hour drive south turned into a 3 hour drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic in 100+ degree weather. Through the heaviest part of the congestion it took us 2 hours to go 20 miles. It was a MISERABLE drive. Luckily, the heat knocked the girls out and they slept most of the long drive. Once we got to the beach town Capitola it was so crowded I figured there was no way we would find his co-worker. But finally luck was on our side and by chance we put our towels right by Stephen’s co-worker’s friends. Within minutes his co-worker arrived and introduced us to his friends. We were quite and international group. His co-worker and wife are French, and their friends were French and Iranian. Our girls made fast friends with their daughters and we all had a wonderful evening at the beach.

His co-worker brought juggling pins and tried to teach others how to juggle. We joked that all French have to learn an act to perform on the side streets of Paris. Stephen tried to learn juggling, but at one point he threw a pin up and missed it and it came crashing down on my nose. Man, that hurt. I don’t think Stephen is taking his act to the streets.

Monday, July 4th. We went to our Ward’s Scout Fundraiser pancake breakfast and ate way too many chocolate chip and strawberry covered pancakes. Later that morning the family fun began. Stephen’s sister Sarah and her husband were visiting from Utah and his other sister Laurie and most of her kids drove down from Sacramento to play. The plan was to drive to Half Moon Bay, but as we were driving the traffic looked very congested and I got scared that we would have a repeat of our miserable drive yesterday so I recommended we go to a park by the Bay in our town.

Picnic by the Bay.

We spent the day visiting the various areas of the park.

Stephen and Marshall took a quick and cold dip in the Bay.

Hanging out and chatting at the playground.

Stephen couldn’t resist climbing up on this swirly contraption. Sarah, Amber, Erica, Sterling, and Garret all followed Stephen’s lead. Though, Sarah getting up there was the most entertaining.

We ended the fun day with Sarah and Brett treating us all to all-you-can-eat pizza. Then Laurie and her kids headed back to Sacramento and Sarah and Brett took Marshall back to SF. Although it was the 4th of July we didn’t end the day with fireworks, but with chatting with our guests, Sarah and Bret.

Tuesday, July 5th. Sarah and I took and early morning walk. Our walk took a bit longer because we made a detour to Trader Joes to buy orange juice for our husbands. DreamWorks gave all their employees an extra day off so Stephen didn’t have to work today.

We went to the Legions of Honors in SF. It’s a world class art museum full of classical works of art. I was very impressed. I felt like I was back in Europe. The girls were pretty good through the museum. Eventually Stephen took them out while Sarah, Bret and I finished up.

My thinker thinking by Rodin’s Thinker.

A couple of happy couples posing by columns.

The girls enjoyed playing and posing around the columns outside the museum. This picture is our favorite because it so perfectly captures Eva and Mallory’s personality and relationship.

Picnic lunch outside the museum. The grounds were beautiful and constantly had misty fog rolling in.

We ended up going to a playground near the museum. Here’s Sarah posing like The Thinker.

Later that afternoon we went back to our place watched Kung Fu Panda and had dinner. And even later, Sarah and I went to Cost Co. Sarah drove and sadly she got rear-ended right in front of our apartment building. Both cars pulled over and the guy admitted it was his fault and told us he didn’t want any contact with the police and it wasn’t his car and he didn’t have a license. Great, just the kind of guy we want to have contact with. Sarah’s husband came out to take a look at the situation. Fortunately, her car looked okay, so we parted ways with the guy.

Wednesday, July, 6th. Sarah and I went walking again. Stephen went back to work and Sarah and Bret left to go to the Exploratorium, the temple and then back to Laurie’s in Sacramento. We’ll miss playing with them for a few days, but then they will be back again to play with us this weekend. We have all really loved having family visiting and look forward to the fun this weekend.