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. =) 

vegas baby!

this past weekend i went to vegas with one of my fabulous friends. all by ourselves. with greysen since he's somewhat attached to me still. luckily, i have grandparents who live there, so i got to nurse in the morning, leave and nurse in the evening. it was amazing. 

while we didn't do anything very vegas-y, we had a blast escaping from our kids, being free and being away from our kids. did i mention that already? it was a much needed break and escape for us. sometimes you just need to get away to come back refreshed and ready to play with your kids. 

we started our weekend by getting our nails did. although they took way too long, they upgraded our nails for free {gels? why have i never done those before? oh, i know. i'm poor. they're so awesome though!}

 nancy was very excited for her hello kitty stickers and bows. i was just excited for my polish to stay on more than a day. when we finished at 10:30, {this nail place was open until 2:00 am. that's vegas for you ;)} we decided we were starving and needed to eat a second dinner. so we went to serendipity. oh my delicious-ness. in case you haven't ever been there, it's famous for their frozen hot chocolate. get it. it's delicious. 

and because that giant hot chocolate wasn't enough we got dinner too. lots of dinner. nom nom nom. 

 we're not embarassed. haha. 

saturday we started off with massages at the palms spa. that place was amaze-balls. i've been to several nice spas before, but this one was exceptional. we got all day access to the pool, so we spent the rest of the day ordering delicious drinks, getting some sun, well nancy did, i didn't, and reading magazines. and talking like adults. ahhhhh it was great. so so great. warm and sunny. 

i swear i did have a swim suit on. unfortunately, i forgot my sunglasses so that was lame. however, the pool was totally fabulous, so i dealt with it. =) 

later, we hit the buffet, gained 5 lbs. and enjoyed the multiple rounds of ice cream cones. we spent the evening hitting the outlets and spending loads of money. 

sunday, we hit up nordstrom rack, and guess what?! i found a cafe rio. words cannot express how excited i was to see that goodness. and introduce nancy to that fabulousness. 

it's just not the same making it at home. cafe rio just has something extra special to it. 

then we went back to the outlets. i spent the day deciding if i should invest the entire amount of my vegas money on this beauty. obviously, i did. and it was worth every penny. i loves it. so so so so much. 

we booked a 9:40 flight home sunday night. that was a mistake. of course, greysen slept on our flights there, but when it's bedtime and he's expected to, no way man. our flight was delayed so he finally fell asleep around midnight after random bouts of crying. yep, i was that mom on the flight. who brings their kid on late flights like that? how annoying. 

this picture was taken at 1:00am. he was wide awake. lovely baby. good thing he's so cute. 

and this is what greysen did while mom was gone escaping. 

he was having fun, i promise. he loved those doggies so much. he spent the weekend with grandma and grandpa playing with ducks, dogs, and snuggling. unfortunately, i think he is a little sensitive to the heat, he was very grouchy being outside in the weather and he's never grouchy. but we found he loved getting in the pool and being wetted down.

all in all, we had a fabulous weekend and were ready to come home, kiss our spouses and snuggle our big kids. hurrah for a great time away!  

loves of the day.

some things i'm loving now. 

my new lipstick. i consider this an achievement, because we rarely get dressed. but when we do, for some reason red lips add an extra pizazz. if only i could get over the fear of having it on my teeth though. 

ha. someone else loves lipstick too. note: i did not help him do that. 

zak's adorable new shoes. love me some nordstrom rack goodness. especially when they have shoes that don't require me actually lacing them, because it's pretty much the worst. dang right i have "no time to lace". 

these moobs. man. boobs. moobs. i guess i could just write boobs. baby boobs. in any case, i love them. his fatness is so ridiculously fun. i just want to squish him all the time. =) 

my sunflowers from costco. they just brighten up the day. 

the fact that greysen just might be getting enough hair to have bed head. it's only taken 8 months. come on baby, let's start looking like a kid and not like an old man! 

zak's easter egg painting. it's quite beautiful. we've finally learned how to not make everything brown by smearing all the colors together. i think it's pretty cute. 

my new iphone screen.  i spent way too much time downloading all these shortcuts for my apps. but everytime i look at it, it makes me happy. it's an asian app call cocoppa if you want to waste three hours of your life changing your phone. 

driving across the bridge 1. with no traffic. and 2. on a gorgeous day! 

when dad gets to come play with us. zak's been counting down until he could push dad into the foam pit at rockin jump. his life has been made today. 

these ridiculously dumb eggs. that only look good from far away because pinterest sucks balls and  makes crafts look easy. so i guess i only kind of like them. but i still am glad i have some easter decorating going on here. 

this bracelet. i'm addicted to this dumb website. and every time i see this bracelet come up i seriously debate getting it. but then i become too cheap because twenty five bucks... now that's just too much. apparently i'm not an expensive jewelry person. my husband should thank me. but j crew has this bracelet for $125 and i covet it quite frequently. i should just man up and buy this one. 

i'm glad to see that my browsing tonight consisted of pinterest, pinterest, pinterest, facebook, blogging, shopping and facebook. thrilling. and to think my husband says he's going to pull an all nighter for his finals while i do this. i feel so productive. 

mother's club say what?

i'll be honest. after we moved here last year, i had a difficult time adjusting. levi being gone, having no friends, nothing to do, and not knowing where to go was kind of a downer. my mom visited a few weeks after levi started school and immediately signed me up for the mother's clubs in the area. i sat there, somewhat disgusted, and thought to myself that i would never go to something as tacky sounding as a mother's club. however, few weeks later with no friends and only my child to talk to, i decided that maybe i should go to the new member welcome for the san bruno mother's club. best. decision. ever. 

for those of you who don't know what a mother's club is, it is exactly what it says, a club for mothers. or fathers. a place for us to vent about our children not potty training/eating/sleeping etc, or hang out when our husband's are gone until late. or a place for us to go party all by ourselves with our mom friends. or switch off babysitting. i'm not sure about all mother's club, but ours has a walking club, book club, movie club, in a pinch {taking meals to those who had a baby/got sick etc}, crafting club, playgroups, classifieds and so much more. it also has a board {president, vice president, secretary, treasurer etc}. of which i am now president for the year with my fabulous friend elena. wahbam. 

i don't think i can say enough good things about joining it. i have met so many amazing people, in totally different stages of their lives, but we all have something in common-- crazy children. i love how different everyone is; it gives me and zak the ability to meet people different than those.... in the utah bubble. no offense, still love you guys. san francisco provides such a great opportunity for us to meet those who have spent their whole life here, and know all the secret spots to go to. 

{sorry for the crappy phone pics, but some of my favorite ladies at our board member appreciation lunch} 

how cute are our thank you bags with my delicious caramel corn? i love them. 

one of my fears is moving to canada and not having a network like this to immerse myself in, when like moving here, i know no one {besides levi's family, of course}. i'm hoping that by that time, i'll be an expert in mother's clubb-ing, and if necessary, i can start one up there too.

so, in conclusion. if you live here, join our cool club. if you don't live here, google one by you. or make one. because it's great.