Catching Up, Pt. 1: Summer

"Work-cation"

Definition: making the most of a summer when the hubby has to "put in his time" during his 1st year w/ the company and would prefer not can not take any vacation time

Translation: we became official "tag-alongs" on work trips

Destination: Bay Area

First stop:  Children's Museum (San Jose)

Critique:  8 thumbs up (as only 4 Garates went, due to the daddy who's hard at work ;)  Great price, walking distance from our hotel which was located near a fun little hub of San Jose.  Btw, the happy hour at McCormick and Schmick's is almost worth entirely determining your home base upon...

 

They had a great bubble station.

Seriously. ;)

There was also a pulley/fan thing.

Simply, you have to use the pulley to get the bowling balls to the top, 

where they would generate enough power coming down to spin the fan.

Basically, "work = fun".

Same applies to the Bob the Builder station.

I'm trying to figure out how I can apply this novel concept to homework... ;)

Of course, Ty discovered the closest thing to a wii the Children's Museum had to offer.

 

But my personal favorite was the "Gnome Home" station.

Ty built all of his homes w/ trap doors, while Gwen and Kennedy favored the more traditional route.

She made many gnomes very happy. ;)

The girls tried their hands at corn husk dolls... 

and taking a picture...

together.

We call them "Kennedy and Gwen".

And Ty was busy pretending he was a teenager.

Second Stop:  Fisherman's Wharf

Critique:  8 thumbs up.  As SF is one of my favorite cities, it wasn't too hard to convince me to make the little day trip.  And after the kids tried the bungee jumping thingy, they now love the city as much as their madre.  Awww, be still my beating heart. ;)

  

Gwen, of course went first and quickly figured out the flipping thing...

 

... while Kennedy was quite content, simply jumping.

But she did jump high... ;)

And Ty drew an audience.  

I kept hearing, "Look at that kid.  He's so small... can he even be up there?"

Once he started flipping, game over.

We could have joined the circus. ;)

Gwen took the obligatory pic in front of the Lefty store.

And they all had to take the obligatory pic in my favorite store.

I mean, really, there are barrels of salt water taffy... ;)

We even squeezed in a guy who did magic... with cigarettes?

So maybe not all magic is magical...

But what was really awesome, was spending time with the kids together...

even if it wasn't in the same photo... ;)

Third Stop:  Marriot Pool and Smores with the Smiths (Walnut Creek)

Critique:  8 enthusiastic thumbs up.  Was there ever even a question here?  Cousins, chocolate and marshmallow goodness, while hanging out in a killer backyard?  And if a question dared to show its face, it was quickly silenced with an introduction to Just Dance.

Cousins are fun... and cute. 

And eatin' smores is serious business.  

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. ;)

Fourth and final Stop:  Home Sweet Home

Critique:  Nothing can beat it.  In fact, there's something downright intoxicating about settling back into your own 4 walls...

So maybe work-cations aren't all that bad... :)