"Fear the Tree"

For those of you that are sports fans I am sure that you already knew this but Stanford University's mascot is a tree. A Cardinal to be exact. This actually fits the personality of the school exactly. Who needs a tough mascot when you go to Stanford? A tree will do.....

A couple of weeks ago we attended our first Stanford football game. The kids loved the crowds and watched most of the game. I think this is the only game we will make it to this year as they are sold out of the cheap seats but we look forward to next season and are ready with our Stanford gear to cheer the Cardinal on!

Above is my attempt to get a picture of our family at the game. Johnny was not cooperating so he gets a picture posted of him picking his nose.

We all went to the Stanford bookstore and got to pick out a shirt for the game. Emma picked pink...of course...

And Johnny picked a football player and insisted on taking his football to the game.

Santa Cruz

Our next day trip had to be to the beach. The beaches on the San Francisco coast are beautiful. The closest large beach area is Santa Cruz. It has a big boardwalk with a ferris wheel and lots of other stuff to do at the beach but we passed on the crowds and went to the state park to see the tide pools instead.



The kids loved looking in the tide pools and putting their fingers in the sea anemones.


Emma told Johnny all about how to touch the sea life though he was perfectly happy just watching.




And of course, they loved playing in the waves. Though the water was freezing (yes we definitely miss the warm Atlantic ocean) the kids still had fun being chased by the ocean.




And got nice and sandy in the process....

Had to include this picture of Johnny. This is what he does no matter where we go..RUNS!

End of Summer Fun

One of the things that has made our move easier is having a pool. When we need to get out, we put on our suits, take a five minute walk, and we are at the pool. Emma can now swim on her own across the pool and John has even taught her to do a crawl stroke. Johnny jumps in with no fear and floats until someone helps him up.



Since swimming during the day isn't enough for our kiddos, one evening we headed to Stanford and let them walk around in a fountain. Apparantly there is no rule against this on campus so it is a common sight to see kids cooling off with their feet in the water. It is just more fun when you can walk around in water that seems like it should be off limits. It is also more fun when it is paired with a Jamba Juice!

The City

We decided our first trip exploring the area needed to be to "the city". This is how everyone in the Peninsula area refers to San Francisco. You can drive to the city in less than an hour but we wanted our first trip to be by train so we rode the Caltrain.

The kids LOVED the train. It takes about 45 minutes to get there on a normal train, 30 minutes on an express train.

We didn't have any agenda for the day so we got off the train and started walking. We walked down to the Ferry Station and walked around the farmers market and then walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. It was a beautiful day and there were a lot of street performers and vendors everywhere. We ate lunch on Pier 39 which is full of restaurants and shops.


Alcatraz from a distance....(yes....we did go home and watch "The Rock" that night)
Then we decided to keep walking and walked up to Giradelli Square. At this point we had walked almost four miles so we took a break and let the kids take a nap in the stroller while we enjoyed a hot chocolate from the Giradelli shop.

We were going to take a trolly ride but the lines were long and it didn't take us back where we came so we decided to save it for our next trip.

Once the kids woke up we headed back down to the water to catch a cable car back up to where the train station would take us home.

We quickly discovered that the cable cars are packed at 4 in the afternoon and there was no way a family of four and a huge stroller were going to fit. So we started walking again. By the end of the day we had walked almost 8 miles. Our feet were sore for the next week but it was well worth it. We really enjoyed San Francisco and are looking forward to our next visit.

"Stanford is Bike Friendly" is an Understatement

When John came out for his interview, he came back and told me everyone he met rode bikes. I thought...ok, I can see how a flat area with good weather would have a lot of bike riders but surely everyone doesn't ride bikes; what are we in the 50's?. I have been proven wrong. Everyone from the ages of 5 - 85 rides bikes. It is a reasonable way to get around in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and around Stanford's campus. There are bike lanes everywhere and drivers are very pedestrian and bike aware. Here is a photo of the kids saying goodbye to John on his way to work.

We are a one car family now and John rides to work, rain or shine (though to be fair...the shine is almost all the time). Stanford's campus is so big that it would take the students too long to get from one class to another on foot so everyone gets a bike to get around. Crossing a bike path at Stanford is kind of like crossing a street. You look both ways and stay put during traffic times (between classes) or you might get run over. We are loving this new way of life. For some reason, an outing is just better when you can walk or ride there. We have not yet invested in a way to pull the kids behind us so for now we are a one bike family. But I predict that I will not be able to resist the trend and will be searching craigslist for a bike trailer in the near future.

The New Digs

I have finally caught up with our journey this summer so I can start posting pictures of our new place. I will have to admit, moving from Greensboro where we owned a home to a place where we had to be on a wait list for an apartment was a bit nerve wracking (not to mention we are paying 5 times what we did in Greensboro for our apartment). Just as I was starting to panic about having a place to live, the apartment complex that we wanted to live in had an opening and we were next on the list. It is across the street from Stanford and walking distance from a ton of parks, the grocery store, and best of all John's office. Our apartment is GREAT! It feels a lot bigger than we expected it to feel, our patio is big enough for the kids to play and have a small table, the kitchen is a good size and even has a desk for the kids to eat breakfast at (the dining room table has carpet underneath...yipes!), our bedroom fit our furniture and even my desk to use for tax season, and we are loving having our own bathroom. The complex itself has two heated pools and hot tubs along with a fitness room and two good sized playgrounds. They take really good care of the grounds so there are lots of flowers and grass along with courtyards and even a small lemon grove in the middle. We feel very blessed to have landed here sight unseen. Here are some pics...

So the Pell Bed and Breakfast is open for reservations....who is going to come visit!?

Long Haulers

Our time in Washington was over and we had one more long day of driving to get to our final destination. We left Wenatchee at 5 AM and headed south. We spent a large part of the day in pajamas and stopped at McDonalds three times.

There was a lot of napping....
Some giggles.....
And 17 hours later we were crossing the golden gate bridge and almost home....

Our kids were once again great. The picture of them giggling was them at 10:30 at night after being in the car for FOREVER. We arrived at our hotel in Palo Alto at around midnight and went to our apartment the next morning. We were home.....

A Sad Goodbye

We had about a week after the wedding before we headed down to California. We had such a wonderful time visiting family and friends during our 7 week vacation and it was finally coming to an end. Three days after the wedding we had to say goodbye to Auntie Heidi, Uncle Nick, Hannah and Hailey. They were moving to Tanzania and it would most likely be TWO YEARS until we saw them again. Ughhhh!! I can't really explain how hard it is for me to have my sister, who has become one of my best friends, living across the world with my sweet nieces (and Nick I miss you too :). She is such an important part of my life and there is a part of me that doesn't feel right without being able to just call her up and chat with her about this or that. We got married a few years apart and became mothers less than a year apart so our lives have become intertwined with similar experiences. I hate that she is so far away though I am so glad that they are where God has called them to be. Our family looks forward to our reunion Summer of 2013.......

Some of you know my sister so if you want to know more about what she is doing they started a blog......http://forrestfamilyinafrica.blogspot.com