the academy.

man, it's been a while since we've crossed stuff off our bucket list. today, we were lucky enough to  join some friends at the academy of sciences in golden gate park. 

i kept trying to convince levi to get passes there, but he rejected my idea. something about us being poor dental students... i don't know. in any case, this place is totally awesome. the boys were in heaven, and after only a major minor melt down of both of my children before lunch due to aggressive behavior towards each other, we managed to have a pleasant time afterwards. 

 everytime i see this, i think of the night at the museum. 

the boys were really loving the fish. and diver george. 

they have this amazing kid area. they could have played there for a long time but alas, mom wanted to go do other things. 

greysen has the cutest baby friends doesn't he? i just want to squish both of them. 

zak was also loving the sting rays/shark feeding. it's pretty cool. reminds me of when levi and i swam and fed the sting rays. so gross feeling. blech. 

golden gate park is a beautiful place. there are so many places within there that i want to bucket list. next up is the botanical garden and the conservatory of flowers. i'm sure that both of them with just love it. 

i'm glad we i decided to man up and go out today. sometimes i have no motivation to do anything with them because it's a lot of work. i'm glad i didn't decide to go home with our lunch meltdowns today, because i was pretty close. they were both so happy and cute afterwards, must have been the hunger pangs or something. 

experts of marriage.

well. it's official. the spouse and i have made it to five years of being married. i feel like we deserve
something awesome for that. i love how when you're married, part of you feels like you just got married, and the other part feels like it's been way longer than five years. in any case, we didn't really celebrate on thursday due to the cursed night clinic. however, my spouse did make me breakfast in bed and bring me home flowers after he was done, so i count that as celebrating.

but he did surprise me and make reservations for us at a little B&B in napa on the 23rd for us to go hot air ballooning the next morning, which i am super excited for! i don't think the man gets nearly enough credit for his romantical planning abilities, because i did not assist in this adventure besides arranging babysitters. who are our bestest friends for being willing to house the monsters overnight. ;) 

i have decided to make a little list of things i have learned in the past five years to show our growth and development as a couple: 

1. we did not take advantage of sleeping in nearly enough before we had kids. 

2. i am terrible at doing laundry in a timely manner so my spouse does it. in return, i unload the dishwasher, which i also hate. 

3. some of our best dates are dinner and a movie. which we thought was unoriginal and boring when we were dating, but now i have come to realize that that is just something we love to do. eat and then sit and eat popcorn. 

4. i'm not quite sure how at the ridiculously young age we got married, that we managed to pick the right people. i still am boggled that we survived and thrived being so young and adding kids into it. 

5. being married in college was the bomb. you could pick your schedules to match each other, have three day weekends to just hang out, do super cheap dates at the dollar theater, and be free to pick up and do whatever you wanted with friends. 

6. however, at the same time, having kids now is awesome. although there are times we would both like to just sleep in until whenever on the weekend, our kids have helped us make some of the best memories, and even better memories when we get the chance to escape without them. ;) i wouldn't change a thing about the timing we've had, even though to the majority of the world, it is just totally crazy. 

7. the statement "absence makes your heart grow fonder" is absolutely true. 

8. sometimes it's ok to go to bed mad. both of us get all nutso at night time, and when we wake up in the morning, we don't even remember what the problem was. 

9. levi had/has amazing taste in women. 

10. i had/have very high standards for men. 

yes, you can see how much we've grown? i know, me too. we always talk about how we would never go back to being just married again. it was fun and all, but still kinda awkward. now we're basically like marriage experts. go ahead. ask for some advice. we have lots. ;) 

in any case, it's been the best five years, and i can't wait for the rest of eternity. whoop whoop! 

 love you babe. 

this is levi's favorite picture ever. yes. i am sexy. 

tourists.

i am behind on posting things. for some reason august is crazy! oh right, it's because our anniversary and my birthday are here so we celebrate all month long! woot woot! 

but a couple of weeks ago, my mom celebrated her 50th birthday. so, my grandma brought her and a couple of her friends up to San Francisco for the weekend to play tourists. of course, i got to show them a few of our favorite spots and places to eat and play hooky from my family for a couple of days. it was great! i ate probably a whole weeks worth of calories in that short weekend, but it was worth it! soooo many amazing places that we ate at =) 

since we stayed at the marriot on the wharf, it was only to be expected that we stopped at hollywood cafe. ummm. holy breakfast. it was incredible. this is my french toast with caramelized bananas and roasted pecans. man. i could go back there right now. that place is delish. 

after that, we started our weekend off at the legion of honor, my favorite hidden gem of the city. it was freezing cold, as was to be expected in august here, but the place is still amazing. it was nice to be able to go take my time in there, not having to worry about my beasts running amuck. 

they have a whole new exhibition of impressionists on the water, it's packed and you can't take photos, but i'd highly recommend it. lots of matisse in there. 

after we finished the museum, we briefly stopped at the bridge on the way to sausalito. as you can tell, the weather was just fabulous. 

and yes, we do look alike. we get that quite frequently. haha.  

then we made our way to the enjoyable part of the bay, where it is nice and sunny and warm. oh sausalito, how we love you. we ate lunch at a delicious place right on the water, and then walked around to buy random assortments of stuff such as christmas decorations.  

after a whirlwind day, we came back to the hotel, freshened up and were whisked away to McCormick and Kuleto's right next to Ghiradelli. they made the most amazing prime rib i've ever had. and i've had some amazing filet's. like melt-in-your-mouth filet. oh my goodness. 

  

plus, they're pretty cool about birthday stuff! 

i didn't take a picture of my meat before i devoured it, but my salad was just as delectable looking as it. it was a watermelon, feta, balsamic salad. sooooo good. 

i went home that night to go and teach the sunbeams at church on sunday, but when i came back we went to the palace of fine arts, which is another amazing place. i think i'm going to take our family pictures there before christmas, so expect to see more of this amazing place on here. 

then we tried to go to the conservatory of flowers but it closed at 5:00, so instead we walked around stow lake in golden gate park briefly and got the most amazing ice cream i've ever had. it was swirl soft serve, dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt. OMG. i don't even like dark chocolate, but it was incredible. and it was a good thing that i wore my pregnant leggings all weekend, cuz i needed them!

and for dinner we ventured to our favorite eatery on the wharf, fog harbor. which was crazy busy, but delicious as always. unfortunately, by that point i had no desire to eat anything due to the last six meals, but it was still good. 

it was a great weekend spent playing, eating, getting to know each other, eating more and being away from the kiddies! shout out to my spouse who played with them all weekend eating lame food while i feasted. =)