SF: Miscellaneous

We were all ready to be done with vacation by the time Sunday rolled around. I'm glad we went on the trip (our first trip out of state with all four of us), but traveling is hard and it's nice to come home to familiar routines and our own space that has everything we need. 

Two more photos from the trip that I wanted to share:

Bjorn & Amy at Crepevine (stopped for lunch on the way to Ocean Beach)

Bjorn's last SF hurrah: lamppost climbing in front of the Ferry Building

SF: Ocean Beach

The highlight of the trip was meeting up with Annie's family at Ocean Beach (west of Golden Gate Park) on Saturday afternoon. We had been envisioning sunny and 70, and it turned out to be foggy, windy, and maybe 60; nevertheless, the kids had a great time running around and digging their toes -- or as the case may be, their brothers -- into the sand. It was Leif and Bjorn's first time seeing the ocean, and it was our first time meeting Annie and Jeff's younger daughter, Josephine (Jojo), who was born right at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic.

SF: Exploratorium

On Saturday we went to the Exploratorium, which is now in a different location than the last time I was there (during college, circa 1995). The previous location was in a nifty historic building, which was nice, but the current location is right on the bay at Pier 15, meaning that the back end of the museum offers spectacular views of the water. Bjorn seemed pretty interested in the exhibits; Leif, less so. Leif and I enjoyed the rocking chairs with the expansive view of San Francisco Bay and got a snack in the museum cafe while Aaron and Bjorn finished getting their science fix.

SF: Pier 39

Bjorn and I spent quite a bit of time at Pier 39, first on Thursday after Ghirardelli Square and then again on Friday. Bjorn had told me with great confidence that they had "rides" there, and I thought he must be confusing it with some other location, but it turned out he was mainly referring to virtual reality rides, which did indeed exist. Bjorn also really liked the Houdini magic shop, which we went back to multiple times to see various tricks performed. After much deliberation, he did finally decide to purchase one of the beginner magic tricks. Time to start working on his sleight of hand skills!

SF: Ghirardelli Square

Our first destination after checking into the hotel in San Francisco was Ghirardelli Square, which was the only tourist attraction on our list that all four family members were enthusiastically looking forward to visiting. We splurged on three ridiculously large ice cream concoctions and passed them around the table until they were gone. Leif declared himself full; Bjorn, on the other hand, walked right up to the counter as soon as the ice cream was gone and asked if he could have a chocolate sample (they obliged)!

SF: Hotel Nikko

In San Francisco, we stayed at the Hotel Nikko, which we had chosen for the location (near Union Square) plus the fact that they have a swimming pool (which is apparently not super common for hotels right in the city). We were pleasantly surprised to find when we got there that it also marketed itself as a very pet friendly hotel, meaning that there were plenty of cute doggie photos on signs inside and outside the hotel, not to mention a doggie balcony equipped with fake grass and a mini cable car for pups to play in.

(Number of actual dogs we saw in the hotel while staying there: 0.)

San Francisco trip -- Day 1 (August 17, 2022)

I am adding a post to our family blog for the first time in 8 years! I took more photos on our San Francisco trip than I cared to share on Facebook, but I thought it would be nice to have them stored electronically somewhere where I can add captions explaining where the photos were taken before our memories fade. 

Day 1: Stayed at a hotel in Millbrae near SFO. We took Caltrain down to Stanford to walk around campus for a couple of hours (although apparently I did not take any photos while we were there). We were all tired from getting up at about 2:30 a.m. Pacific time/4:30 a.m. Central to head to the airport, so we did not have much stamina for exploring. The kids' favorite part of the Stanford visit seemed to be playing with the computers in the electronics section of the bookstore ;-) . Not too surprising! 

Nifty fountain in lobby of Westin Hotel in Millbrae

Aaron, Leif & Bjorn enjoyed a swim in the morning before we left for SF

View from our room

 

Knife River (cont.)

Some more photos from Knife River! These would not upload when I wrote the original Knife River post because the file sizes were too large, but now that I've resized them I'll try again....

Knife River

I could blame my failure to keep up on blog posting this year on many things, but I think the main culprit is the fact that I finally joined the 21st century this year and got a smart phone. Now that I actually have Internet connectivity and a decent camera built into my phone, my old digital camera has started to gather dust and my main mode of sharing photos and information about what's going on in our lives has become Facebook. But that said, I should still try to get a few more posts up here for posterity before the end of the year!

We spent an enjoyable long weekend in late July up in Knife River (10 miles north of Duluth) with Grandma and Grandpa B., Erik, Tami, and Vivian. We found a cabin on the Vacation Rentals by Owner website (vrbo.com), and while it was a bit cozier than we had expected from the photos and the description, a good time was had by all, and none of the children fell down the steep rocky hillside that lurked just over the edge of the cabin's expansive front lawn overlooking Lake Superior. Other trip highlights: Sammy's Pizza in Duluth, the Great Lakes Aquarium, Bjorn actually napping in his Pack 'n' Play every day of the trip (but then learning how to climb out of it on the last day...), the kids all being super interested in the collection of Garfield comic books Vivian had checked out from the library, playing with fly swatters on the deck, watching and listening to the trains speeding by on the train track immediately behind the cabin, seeing a double rainbow over Lake Superior, having time for pleasure reading, and a good share of napping by the adults as well. It was much easier traveling with Bjorn this year now that we only had to worry about getting in one nap per day instead of two, and Aaron and I both felt like this was the first family trip that felt remotely relaxing for either of us. Next year, better still (fingers crossed)!

Some photos from the trip....

Bjorn's 2nd birthday

I recently remembered that we have a family blog. A bit of research revealed that although it is currently August, there was not yet any record on said blog of a significant event from back in mid-May: Bjornie Bjornstein's second birthday! Here are a few pics to commemorate that fine day.

 Above: The birthday boy (Bjorn means bear, so of course I had to spring for the cute bear-themed birthday shirt when I ran across it at Gymboree some months before the big day)

Below: Some back yard water table fun with big brother Leif and cousin Vivian -- working up an appetite for cake!

Bjorn received numerous wonderful birthday gifts from his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins (thank you again, everyone!). The biggest hit of the day was probably the toy vacuum cleaner, identical to one that he was obsessed with in our Toddlers ECFE class that semester. After opening that present, it was hard to get him to pay attention to any of the other gifts -- he wanted to vacuum the entire house first!

As with Leif's birthday, I'll try to upload some videos from Bjorn's party sometime soon in a separate post.

Spring at last!

After slogging through some snowy, slushy, sleety days well into April, we are finally feeling securely enough into springtime to pack away the winter coats, boots, hats, and mittens. We've been enjoying some warmer weather outdoor activities, too -- lots of bubble blowing, sidewalk chalk drawing, and bike/trike riding. Leif is getting to be quite the whiz on his balance bike, zooming around the large, open asphalt play area at the school across the street from our house. Bjorn sort of has the hang of pedaling a tricycle, although at not quite two years old, his legs are too short to reach the pedals on many of the trikes he encounters (much to his chagrin). He's also not a fan of having to work too hard while pedaling, so he prefers to have a grown-up push the trike unless he's going slightly downhill. We're humoring him with the trike assistance for now, assuming that soon enough he'll be insisting (like he does already with many other things), "Do it SELF!"

Leif and Bjorn aren't very adept at blowing bubbles the old-fashioned way yet (they do try, but get frustrated with their limited success), so I picked up a couple of hand-held, battery-operated bubble blowers that work like a charm -- quite the hit!

Another popular outdoor activity at our house: scaling the back yard fence. Fortunately, Aaron built it to be sturdy enough to withstand such treatment.

Leif's 4th birthday - VIDEOS

As promised, here are a few videos from Leif's birthday back in February. Well, technically the last one dates from March -- we had the traditional family birthday gathering at our house the weekend following Leif's birthday, and given the short month, the calendar page had already been turned. No worries, it still felt like winter!

Leif's 4th birthday

Hard to believe that Leify Leifster turned FOUR in February! The biggest surprise of this birthday for us was probably how little (relatively speaking) he had grown and changed since his third birthday. Of course he *did* grow and change, but after the whirlwind pace of growth of any baby or toddler, preschoolers seem to be downright stable in the growth department. (Not in the mood department....)

To illustrate, here are photos of Leif on his third and fourth birthdays:

Opening presents on his third birthday

(He still wears these size 3T "Dirt Dog" pajamas! Granted, they 

are getting a little bit short in the cuffs for him at this point.)

Showing four fingers at preschool on his fourth birthday

I have a few videos related to Leif's birthday that I want to post, as well, but given the late hour and how long it takes videos to upload to Blogger, I think I'll wait and post them another day. More to come soon!

Winter pastimes

We have been slogging through a VERY long, cold, and snowy winter here in Minnesota, and the boys and I have had to get a bit creative in order to stay sane through our many, many hours spent cooped up playing inside the house. Here are a few of the indoor winter pastimes the boys have enjoyed:

(1) Pillow Blanket Mountain

Procedure: Procure six large cushions from sofa on back porch, plus two to three throw pillows, plus three bed pillows from upstairs, along with several blankets and/or sheets. Create a large, fluffy mound in the middle of the living room floor. Alternate jumping/diving/sliding off the couch onto the Pillow Blanket Mountain, lolling around on top of it reading books, and running across the length of the dining room to leap or belly flop onto the pile of pillows.

(2) Repurposing the play mat

I don't think this is exactly what the makers of our alphabet play mat had in mind when they decided to make the letters removable....

(3) Taking over the toy bins

We have not had much luck so far convincing Leif and Bjorn that our various toy storage boxes are actually for toys, not for boys.

Trip to South Carolina

We kicked off 2014 by taking a six-day family trip down to Aiken, South Carolina to visit Leif and Bjorn's Aunt Jessica, Uncle Mitch, and cousins Rachel and Libby. With four children under the age of five to be entertained, our itinerary was heavy on kid-friendly venues. We revisited a couple of the places we had taken Leif and Rachel back in November 2011 on our first trip to SC, as well as adding a few new destinations to the mix:

[Wednesday - travel day]
Thursday - lunch at the Mellow Mushroom & EdVenture Children's Museum in Columbia (about an hour's drive from Aiken)
Friday - library story hour & dinner at Mitch and Jessica's favorite barbecue place
Saturday - Riverbanks Zoo (also in Columbia)
Sunday - Monkey Joe's "inflatable play center" in Augusta (which, although across the Georgia state line, is actually closer to Aiken than Columbia is)
[Monday - travel day]

I note the travel days because they were a memorable odyssey in and of themselves. We had opted to fly nonstop to Atlanta and drive from there, both to limit plane/airport time for the boys and to give them a chance to nap in the car. Given how much time it takes to navigate the gigantic Atlanta airport and the three-hour drive to Aiken, we really did manage to consume nearly a whole day each way just with transportation. Still, far easier and faster than driving all the way from MN to SC!

It was really fun catching up with Mitch and Jessica and seeing the four cousins interact with each other -- after all, our last trip down to South Carolina was in the pre-Bjorn and Libby era. I think I have at least one good video of the four of them playing together at Jessica's house, which I'll post at a later date. For now, here are a few photo highlights from the trip.

Leif, Rachel, and Libby enjoying some tractor time at EdVenture

For comparison, here is Leif riding the same tractor in November 2011!
 

Bjorn found a dalmatian doggie at EdVenture

Aaron, Leif, and Bjorn at Riverbanks Zoo

Leif and Rachel did a GREAT job of posing for pictures together at the zoo, now that they are a (relatively) mature almost-4 and almost-5 years old!

And here they were at the same zoo back in November 2011 :-) 

(On that visit, when Leif was just 1 1/2 and Rachel 2 1/2, trying to get the two of them to sit on anything together was NOT happening, no matter how hard we tried to coax them!)

Aaron, Jessica, and I all got a good workout helping Bjorn and Libby to climb up the bouncy structures at Monkey Joe's -- particularly this huge, inflated double slide