Birthday, FSY, Dentist, Top Golf, Washington DC, Chicago (Again)

Here’s what we have been up in the last two weeks. Matthew’s birthday is coming up. He has been saving up his money and set up a trip to St. George with his Group Home Manager this upcoming week. Since he will be gone to St. George over his birthday, we celebrated his birthday yesterday. Matthew requested hamburgers and a chocolate birthday cake. Grandma T had dinner with us, too. Here’s Matthew giving her a hug after opening his presents:

Opening presents:

His chocolate cake with chocolate frosting as per his request:

Matthew has had some excitement. A few months ago he got a bike. He has been riding it around his group home and been loving it. When we all met together to make goals and plans for him, we only included restrictions for him walking around his house because he didn’t have a bike at the time. Well I don’t know if Matthew had a new staff that was unfamiliar with his rules or just didn’t think things through. They gave Matthew the okay to ride his bike from his house in 7th street in Ogden down to West Haven for an activity alone.  That meant Matthew had to cross all kinds of busy highways and roads  that were complicated with little to no shoulder to ride on. The only way I found out this happened is he called Grandma T to let her know. He had tried to call me, but I was at work and couldn’t answer the phone. He told Grandma how far he rode and was so proud of himself. Grandma T was concerned and called me and left a message. I was leaving my clinic about that time so I called her back and she explained the situation. I was quite concerned. I called Matthew to see how he was going to get home before it got dark. He hadn’t even thought about that. Anyway after a few phone calls his house manager found someone with a van to take Matthew and his bike back home after the activity so he wouldn’t have to ride all the way back home in the dark needing to cross different highways. We are currently updating his restrictions in his care plan of where he can ride his bike. That gave me instant stress, but I am glad Matthew didn’t get lost or hurt or hit by a car!

A few weeks ago I had the chance to go to the temple and do an endowment session and then lunch with my friend, Erin. It was so nice to go to the temple and visit over lunch. It was a nice break from the regular day to day grind.

Sarah and Noah had a dentist appointment this past week. Noah, unfortunately, has a cavity, but Sarah got a clean bill of health.

They will start checking Noah’s Wisdom Teeth placement next time to see when he will need to get them out. I am not looking forward to another Wisdom Tooth removal after what happened when Sarah got hers out a few months ago. Ugh!!

Last Tuesday we had the morning free so I took Sarah and Noah and we did some Top Golf.

On one of Sarah’s turns her bracelet fell off as she swung. We could see it on the green below, but couldn’t do anything about it.  I guess Sarah left her mark--haha!

One game I was really on point. I got my highest score I had ever gotten. Wahoo! It was a fluke because the rest of the time I really stunk.  My super high score:

It was a fun time!!

Last week Aaron had to fly out to Washington DC for work. He left early Tuesday morning and was supposed to come home late Thursday night. However, there were a bunch of storms and his flight Thursday night got cancelled. Boo!  He rescheduled on a Friday afternoon flight, but that meant he had Thursday night and Friday morning to site see. He and his work mate rented Lime Scooters and rode around DC to see different things. They saw the White House:

Lincoln Memorial:

Jefferson Memorial:

Mount Vernon:

National Cathedral:

It was hard to have Aaron stranded in DC for the extra night, but we survived.

There was one day where everyone was gone except for Aaron and Sarah. Aaron took Sarah out to one of her favorite restaurants to get Chicken Pad Thai. He even splurged and got Sticky Mango Rice for dessert. It was a fun Father/daughter time.

Sarah and Noah enjoyed their time at FSY down at BYU. Here’ s a few pictures shared of her FSY week:

Sarah and her friend and roommate Gabby:

Here’s some pictures Noah shared of his FSY week, too:

Noah even was able to get a picture with one of the Band Members from One Direction:

Josh has been doing FSY for the past summer. Here’s some pictures from his time from the last three weeks:

Josh spent two weeks at Perdue in Indiana. The interesting thing is they had to fly into the Chicago O’Hare airport and then take a bus to Perdue. Since Josh was there for two weeks the Saturday inbetween a bunch of counselors and Area Coordinators drove the 2 hours into Chicago to do some sight seeing.  Josh wasn’t super excited about that since he has seen and done Chicago so many times during his mission  and two more trips after his mission, but he still went along. Here’s a few of his sight seeing pictures with his FSY counselors/area coordinators:

They stopped at the Bean first, but it was really raining. They came back later in the day when it was clear.

Here’s a few pictures from his last week at BYU. (Sarah and Noah missed Josh at BYU by one week.)

This was a skit that Josh volunteered to be the tied up guy. I don’t know what the skit was about, but Josh said it was in good fun.

Now summer is winding down we are getting back into starting school mode. I am not ready, but ready or not school will be here soon...ugh!!

San Francisco, Segways, Alcatraz, Muir Woods, Redneck First Class, Trolley, Fisherman’s Wharf

The last week of July Sarah and Noah were scheduled to go to FSY (For the Strength of the Youth) down at BYU from Monday to Saturday morning. Josh was going to be an FSY counselor at Purdue University in Indiana for the week as well. That meant Aaron and I were going to be empty nesters that week. Since I have started my new job I haven’t been able to go anywhere due to my schedule, but that week my work gave us all the 24th of July off to celebrate Pioneer Day. Wahoo! I looked at the week and decided I wanted Aaron and me to go somewhere just us. Aaron also had a free airline ticket somewhere so we only had to buy one ticket. We settled on going to San Francisco for a few days. I was able to find someone to cover my Monday shift at work which was awesome. Monday morning we got kids dropped off at their friends’ houses that were going to take them all down to check them in at FSY that morning and then we headed to the airport. We tried the redneck first class trick where you book seats one by the window and one in the aisle in economy class and leave the middle seat empty hoping that no one will sit there.  It worked for us last time when we flew home from New York, but it unfortunately, didn’t work for us this time. Last minute a flight attendant who was flying to California got the last seat on the plane which was between Aaron and me--DOH!! Oh well that is the risk you take for trying out the redneck first class--haha!  The flight was only 2 hours so it wasn’t a big deal. Here we are thinking we had the empty seat between us:

 When 5 minutes later it got filled. Oh well.

When we got to San Francisco we took an Uber from the airport to the hotel on Fisherman’s Wharf and checked in. After dropping off our luggage we headed out and caught a Trolley and rode it over to Chinatown:

We wandered around Chinatown for a few hours. We did stop and get some Chinese Food, too. We got pork and shrimp dim sum, cashew chicken, and tried some sesame chicken.

In our wandering around Chinatown we randomly came across the meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Here it is across the street. That was interesting:

It was quite cool in San Francisco. The high was mid to low 60s the whole time we were there. We definitely needed out jackets most of the trip. The cool thing about the trolley is they let you hold on and ride on the bars on the outside of the trolley. Aaron and I rode the 30 minutes back to our stop doing this. It was pretty fun.

The wooden trolley car was built in 1853 so it was rickety and creaky and rocked a lot during the ride. Watching the trolley operator was interesting because he had gears and levers he had to use to control the trolley. There were some pretty steep hills that he had to navigate. It cool to watch him work:

Then we wandered around Fisherman’s Wharf. We did stop by Pier 39 to see, but we also got to smell (ewww) the sea lions:

Then we wandered around Fisherman’s Wharf and came across a Lefty Store that specialized in products just for left handed people. I texted Sarah and Josh who are our lefties in our family to show them the different things including a left handed can opener. They thought it was funny and awesome:

After that we headed back to our hotel because Daniel was going to call us since it was his P-Day. Crazy enough we had someone from our family in every time zone throughout the US during this call. Josh was in Indiana which was Eastern time zone (10pm), Daniel was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota which was Central Time Zone (9pm), Sarah (Noah wasn’t able to join) was at BYU in Mountain Time Zone (8pm), and we were in California which was the Pacific Time Zone (7pm). Technology is awesome! Here’s everyone on the call at the same time:

The next morning we got up bright and early to pick up a rental car so spend the day driving around. We were hoping to get a convertible, but we weren’t able to get one. However, it was raining that day so it was probably for the best. We started out by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. Here’s the view on the way with the infamous fog:

We got to drive across. It had pretty narrow lanes and we were in an SUV so good thing it wasn’t too crowded when we went across.

They tried to give us a tiny car at the car rental place when Aaron said he is a tall guy so they gave us this BMW to drive. Wahoo! We felt fancy for the day--haha!

We drove over and spent 5 hours at Muir Woods National Monument. It was humid there and my hair, well ended up having a mind of its own-haha!

It was cool walking around the tall redwood trees. 

This place was one of our favorites during this whole trip. It was beautiful, quiet and peaceful. We got there early enough that there weren’t too many people there, yet. It was great.

We even got to see some deer along the trail:

The trees were really tall. The pictures don’t even do them justice!

When we left as we drove out of the park it was pretty foggy and not necessarily raining, but more ‘misting’ instead of actual rain drops.

We then drove over to Oakland to make an unscheduled stop. In all my planning and making sure everyone was packed with everything they needed for the week since we wouldn’t be around to help if they had forgotten anything, I neglected giving myself the same treatment. That morning as I got up to shower and get ready for the day I realized I had forgotten to pack underwear for me--DOH!!! So we decided to stop by the Oakland temple and distribution center so I could pick me up some garments. I will call them my souvenir garments--haha! The temple was beautiful so we didn’t mind the unscheduled stop.  We got to walk around the grounds:

The view of the San Francisco Bay from the temple rooftop was amazing:

This plant/tree had the prettiest purple flowers:

The next stop was the Sarah Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.  Sarah Winchester was the heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company fortune and is best known for building the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Shewas haunted by the deaths of her husband and infant daughter, and believing she was cursed by the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles, she began construction on the house in 1886 and continued until her death in 1922. The house, with its bizarre features like doors to nowhere and staircases to ceilings, is a popular tourist attraction today. Here’s a picture of the huge mansion from above:

I had thought this story was interesting and wanted to stop by to visit when we were planning this trip.

We did go on the tour, but it was quite underwhelming. There were some beautiful stained glass windows all throughout, but the tour was pretty boring.

Sarah Winchester had severe arthritis so most of the stairs throughout the house were only two inches high. There were also stairways that lead to no where. It was a weird place. If I had it to do over I would have skipped this stop.

After the Winchester House visit we drove over to Santa Cruz and walked along the beach. It was a bit crowded, but fun to people watch.

We then drove down Highway 1 along the ocean and numerous beaches. We stopped by a small place to try some fresh fish and chips. They were yummy.

We just drove along Highway 1 and stopped if we saw anything interesting. There was this beach that was basically deserted. It was called Scott Creak Beach It was chilly, but nice to just walk around not surrounded by a million people.

At the edge of the beach there was a pretty cool area where a small stream went into the ocean. A lot of birds were around this area. I wanted to go and look at it. Aaron saw all the birds there and told me I was on my own.  They were fun to see. 

Someone had build a sand couch. We sat on the sand couch for a bit just enjoying the ocean and beach. Here’s the sand couch:

Then we drove down Highway 1 some more and saw this cool light house. We stopped to check it out. It was being refurbished, but still cool to see. It was called Pigeon Point Lighthouse:

They had on overlook that you could see. At the top of the rock was a sea lion just laying there.

After that we ended up getting back into San Francisco city. We decided to drive by the Painted Ladies which are historic old Victorian homes and also the houses featured on the Full House opening credits.

We then drove over to Lombard Street. It is famous for its steep one block section with eight hairpin turns. We wanted to say we drove down Lombard street so we did. Here’s a view from the top I grabbed off the internet:

Here’s what it actually looks like while you are driving down it:

After that we dropped off the car and walked back to our hotel.

The next morning we got early because we had tickets to go out to see Alcatraz.  We checked in and then rode the boat ferry out to the island.

We did an audio tour. At one point they let you go out and see the courtyard. Here’s the courtyard:

 Off the courtyard there was a huge staircase down to the shore that was COVERED with birds. It was nesting season for seagulls. It smelled terrible and Aaron HATES birds so we didn’t spend too much time here.

Here’s some baby seagulls:

We continued on our audio tour. We even got to go inside an actual cell. They were tiny!

I had been to Alcatraz when I was around 8 years old so I didn’t remember too much. But I did remember from my visit listening to them open and close the cell doors. I made Aaron stay and listen to a ranger talk about ’Sounds of the Slammer’ where they talked about the unique gears that opened the cell doors.  It was interesting and sounded just like I remembered it did from way back when.

After the tour we got back on the ferry boat and got to see a small glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge on our way back to shore:

We then went to Boudin restaurant to get some authentic clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. This place was recommended to us by Aaron’s wound care provider during one of his visits while he got his wound assessed and dressed. It was a good place to eat! I love clam chowder so it was yummy! I am glad she made the recommendation. 

After lunch we took an Uber out to a place right next to Golden Gate Park that offered Segway rentals. I have wanted to ride a Segway for YEARS. It has been on my bucket list so I was excited to finally get a chance to try it out.  Aaron was a bit more hesitant at the beginning, but we figured things out. We looked like HUGE nerds, but it was fun riding around the park and along the beach for a few hours.

There is an old movie call Mall Cop where the main character rode around on a Segway. It reminded me of what we looked like riding around so I made this meme. Who rode the Segway better? Aaron was not amused.

There was a cool windmill in Golden Gate park that we stopped by to check out. Also it gave our feet some time to rest since riding the Segway used all kinds of muscles in your feet and legs to help you balance and got tired after a bit.

We then rode over to ride along the beach on the bike path:

I looked just as nerdy if not more than Aaron, but it was a lot of fun!!

Afterward we caught an Uber and rode over to Ghirardelli Square to walk around. There was a path that went along the shore. I got to see a few crab scuttle away as we walked by:

Ghirardelli is known for it’s chocolate so we stopped to try a mint sundae and a hot chocolate. They were good. The highs only got up into the low 60s while we were there so we had to wear sweatshirts and jackets during our whole visit. The hot chocolate was a nice addition.

After that we walked back to our hotel and then played some Sky Jo. 

The next morning we decided to catch a Waymo out to Golden Gate Bridge. Waymo is a driverless totally automated car. That was a bit trippy. It picked us up and just drove on the actual roads amongst all the other crazy drivers throughout the city.  It was a bit disconcerting, but cool. Here’s a short clip of it just driving us around without a driver:

Once we got to the Golden Gate Bridge we got out and decided to walk across it. It is 1.7 miles one way. Here’s a few pictures along the way and back:

When we got to the other side we hiked a trail up to Fort Baker and Battery Spencer. Battery Spencer was originally a gun battery designed to defend San Francisco Bay from naval attacks. Built in the late 1890s, it was part of a larger system of coastal defenses aimed at protecting the entrance to the bay, primarily the Golden Gate. Today, it is a popular overlook offering cool views of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

After hiking down from Battery Spencer we started our way back across the bridge. Going back across we saw some pods of dolphins swimming around as well as sea lions. It was fun to stop and watch them. Here’s a sea lion. You’ll have to take my word for it since the picture makes it look like a blob.

After getting done with walking the bridge back and forth we then went down and walked along the beaches under the bridge. We took our time and stopped to enjoy the views.

After that it was time to pick up our luggage from the hotel and Uber over to the airport to fly home. It was a short, but really fun trip. We didn’t get home until around midnight so the next day at work was a bit rough, but we handled it. Amazingly enough Aaron has some status with Delta so we did get upgraded for our flight home and didn’t have to try to redneck first class our seats for this flight--haha!