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. 

muir woods.

daddy's home! we survived 30 days of being spouseless & dadless. it's so nice. so so nice to have another hand wrangling the beasts. i think zak wins for being the most excited because he has been exclaiming "dada, i'm so glad you decided to come home!" about every half an hour. it's so cute. 

in any case, we took advantage of daddy not having to do school things yet and decided on a spontaneous trip up to see the redwoods. it was fun, way more crowded than i thought it would be, i was imagining a more peaceful and tranquil hike through the redwoods for our sunday activity, but then i realized this is san francisco, and people like to be tourists and do things like that on the weekends. 

however, the redwoods really are amazing. zak looooved going through there, he would love it if his parents got their act together and actually went on hikes such as this more frequently. and by hike, i mean flat walks through the trees. 

 we strapped zak on because we had to park so far away and figured that by the time we got there he would be tired and just want to go home. yeah for ergos. 

and yeah for dads who carry both children when mom's arms get tired from wrangling the wiggly wee one. 

i need to learn how to work my camera, because it either made it look like it was pitch black in the back with the flash on, or you couldn't see anything with the flash off. someday... 

haha. zak. always the star of the show. 

 it's crazy to me that a place like this exists so close to us, where sooo many people live. totally crazy. 

zak was getting very tired by this point. haha. 

they're just so totally handsome. 

greysen looks like a mullet man in this pic. that kid needs a trim badly. 

we had a great time! i would love to go explore ones that are less touristy, but being that these are so close, i don't think we will anytime soon. 

the last hurrah.

as most of you stalkers know, levi left for a month on the 14th to go be super awesome and do two externships at hospitals in Indiana and North Carolina. it was the great and terrible day we've all been dreading-- and by we, i mean me, because who wants to be alone with children voluntarily for a month? not that i don't love them. side note: single moms/army wives/ anyone who spends a lot of time away from the spouse-- i'm so amazed by you. like seriously impressed. it's hard work man!

sooo the spouse and i took advantage of some amazing babysitters and spent thursday night and friday day together alone. without children. it was glorious. 

we started out thursday celebrating being done with finals/the end of the second year of dental school {whaa?}/father's day by going to seafood. which turned out to be just lobster. i'm not a huge lobster fan, but levi was in heaven and it was his day, so whatevs. i got the lobster corn chowder and that was pretty tasty. 

he was very excited to crack open this big guy. and it was nice to sit alone. and talk to each other since finals is always such a fun time in all of our lives. boo to school. yeah to only one more year! 

after that we just went to the movies, one of our favorite past times, especially since we don't get to do it very frequently anymore. we saw now you see me, which was actually very interesting. the ending wasn't my fav, but it kept you guessing. 

friday, we decided to check off things on the bucket list we didn't care if the kids did with us. so we started at coit tower, which is basically a lighthouse on land. it was interesting. only downside is that there is glass on all the windows at the top so it's hard to take pictures with the city in the back. 

levi shaved his beard off so he didn't have to bring his clippers to his externship and it's blowing my mind. i didn't realize how much i liked the beard until it was gone. something sexy about good facial hair. raaawr. 

 it's a pretty amazing view from the top on a sunny day. i don't know if i would pay to go up to the top again, but you know. you gotta do touristy things at least once. =) 

next we went to lunch at ghirardelli square, one of my favs. we had lunch at the diner there, and then stopped by for ice cream for dessert. nothing like not having to share/wipe dirty hands when you're eating delicious things. nom nom nom. 

ever since we moved here, levi has been dying to drive down lombard street. dying i tell you. every time we go in to the city, the line to go down it is horrific so i say no. but it was perfect that day. and because i'm an amazing photographer, i got some pretty good ones while riding on the back of a bike. it's pretty cool, i would hate to live there though. how annoying to have to wait to drive down a curvy road with tons of tourists. 

 i had a fabulous time hanging out with my spouse before he left. i miss that. someday we'll be able to go on dates whenever we want. and some other he'll come home from being gone forever!! we're surviving, but miss our favorite dad/lover.