Aunt Cara & Uncle Jack visit Cali!

Aunt Cara (Justin's sister) and (her husband) Uncle Jack visited us this weekend for a quick trip before heading up to San Francisco and over to Yosemite for some business mixed with pleasure later this week. We were so lucky because it was a perfect weekend - the weather was amazing and the kids were in (mostly) good spirits. 

They arrived Friday afternoon and we spent Saturday hanging out. We had breakfast at Bill's (our absolute favorite breakfast place, yummy) and then a tour of the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden.

We had some fun time in the bath...Per usual...

And the most amazing part..."Big Jack" and Justin spent Saturday making the kids a GIANT sandbox in the backyard!! It's 4ftx8ft and it holds 27 bags of play sand!! They also rigged up a tarp/canopy because it gets really hot, but we will get real fabric and make that look pretty. It's an AMAZING play area. The kids have loved making mud pies with the hose here, so Justin totally took that opportunity away form them and gave them a real sandbox instead. I love it. I am so, so thankful. It will make our afternoons awesome! 

This girl LOOOOOVES her new sandbox!

Today, we all woke up early and headed up the road to San Francisco. Cara booked us Alcatraz tour tickets for 10am, which I was really excited about because I'd never done the tour. The history buff in me was super pumped! It was a BEAUTIFUL day in SF. Seriously, we couldn't have asked for better weather. Of course it was windy and cold, but bright and sunny and the fog was only in the distance. 

Waiting to get on our boat! 

She's really into birds right now, so she LOVED all the pictures of the birds!

We tried...

...the kids were a little antsy. And excited. And antsy!

This look!!! OMG!

Because when it's 10am, 45 degrees outside, and crazy windy on the open top of a boat,
every girl wants a frozen lemonade ;)

Jack stood at the railing the whole ride. He loved every second of it!

Looking back at downtown San Fran.

The fog in the distance. The Golden Gate Bridge is 3 miles from Alcatraz by water.

Originally called “La Isla de los Alcatraces,” meaning “Island of the Pelicans,” the name 
eventually became Anglicized to “Alcatraz.”

After it was a prison, it was taken over by Native American protestors from 1969-1971...
hence the graffiti. 

Annette sent me this photo of the Crosby kids in the exact same place...circa
1993?? So funny because...

circa 2014!

with quite a few more family members (and minus one other...we miss you Courtney!)

Just inside the main barracks. 

They had a free audio tour, which was pretty awesome. Lots of super neat obscure stories
and facts. I wish I had more time to explore and listen, but doing this with a 2-year-old
means that Justin and I had to trade off walking Caroline around. Jack, however,
was TOTALLY into it and listened intently to every word. He was a little scared...but
he was really very interested in the whole story of the place.

Tried to get a picture, but Jack was too interested in the story already unfolding.

Now I am a bit obsessed with learning about the infamous escape attempt. (Did it work?? DID IT NOT??)
There were many attempts. The bar-separator in the middle shows how one attempt was made. 

View of the GG from Alcatraz.

So yea...there were lots of pelicans. Bonus points if you can spot the babies
(lower left corner of the photo - they are grey, spotted, and fluffy!)

WINDY!!!! (Jack was still trying to listen to his audio tour. Lol.) 

The prison hospital. Ouch.

Super cute.

An otter? Seal? of Alcatraz!

 After getting back on the boat and having a nice ride back to Pier 33, we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch. We were all craving some San Francisco crab and man, we got it!

so.much.crab !!!! 

Guess who loves crab more than anyone?

This kid.

ohhhhh yea.

She didn't eat. She was SO TIRED...but unwilling to give up on the action!

 After a great lunch, we headed up to Ghiradelli. (I say "up" because if you've ever been to SF and walked from Fisherman's Wharf to Ghiradelli Square, it's definitely UP.)

yum.

Guess who made up for not eating lunch??

This kid. (This is her "don't you DARE THINK ABOUT TOUCHING MY ICE CREAM" look.)

We walked back down to the water and found a little park with a beach for the kids to play in.

...and get some running energy out.

And sand to dig in...Mr. Plumber....

It was really cool. They had a great time playing. 

Nice arm, girlfriend.

We took a chance that the kids would be okay, since it was already 3pm, and we continued our tour by heading to the Aquarium of the Bay. It's a small one (Jack was a little disappointed after going to Atlanta and Monterey), but it was still really cool to see.

Jack, who you know is "half shark" if you ever talk to him for more than 5 minutes,
was scared of the shark-snapping-jaw noise at the beginning. Go figure.

Poor girl finally gave up and, sadly, missed 95% of the aquarium. Good thing she was free.

They had this super cool moving belt through a big circular tunnel. It was really long,
and Jack loved it!

They also had these exhibits with pop-up holes in the middle to look inside them
(and take awesome pictures like this!) 

"WHOA MOMMY. WHOA."

I love this!!!! 

Convincing him to touch the touch pool stuff.

Maybe...

Yes!

He loved the sting rays.

Poor Caroline finally woke up when we were walking out. I was making funny
faces at her in the elevator to make her smile, and Cara took this picture. Love. Lol!

The end of our whirlwind day.

It was a SUPER busy, jam-packed, really fun day! We saw a lot of stuff that we haven't done yet, even after living here for 3 years. I walked too much and now my leg really hurts, but that's okay. It was worth it to have so much fun! Thanks Cara and Jack for a ggggggreat day!!!! :)