san fran | exploratorium

We have a bit of whirlwind trip coming up which made it certainly difficult to pack. We are excited for the time with family though so here we go…

First stop San Francisco! The girls were thrilled when we arrived, after our very early morning flight. They took to the hills and had a ball running down them. Now, running up them is quite a different story…

We walked from our hotel down to the pier to meet with up with my sister’s family. We got a sneak peak at China Town.

So much happening. So many distractions.

We enjoyed beautiful views on that little walk.

We arrived at the Wharf and spent a few hours at the Exploratorium.

I snuck this beauty from the balcony of the cafe. Not a bad view at all.

The drinking fountain was a big hit for all the kids.

Cousins reunited. They sure were happy to see each other!

We took the street car back to the hotel. The girls were pretty pumped about that too.

Back at the hotel the girl posed and then acted supremely goofy for a few photos before we headed off to dinner at Bix. The food and company were fabulous. We had a delightful first day in the city by the bay.

merry christmas eve

Merry, merry Christmas Eve!

Our morning started with a paint class at Whimsy while B was home watching the Bronco game. This was our first adventure at canvas painting all together. I’ve been, the girls have been, but we’ve never been the three of us together. I’m not holding my breath that we’ll ever get a family day together here. I think painting pottery is more our style as a family (luckily!).

Girls morning!

We painted fun snowmen

little goofball

In serious artist mode…

Love our fun winter paintings!

Here’s my dilemma…I love to paint (obviously, I own a PYO Pottery studio). I just don’t know what to do with 3 of the exact same picture. With the pottery we make mugs and plates and gifts, but not sure what to do with all the canvases. Ideas?

Back at home we opened family gifts. This may have been the highlight of the day for these little ladies. They only asked about 9 million times..

I love watching them exchange gifts with each other. They pick the gifts out themselves and they know each other so well.

Gwyneth may be more excited about the giving of the gifts than the receiving which makes my heart happy.

I think she likes it!

Christmas for the win!

Each year they receive new pajamas from us

They received sweet stuffies and Barnes and Noble gift cards from their Aunt Chriss.

And then they tried on those goofy pajamas and had us rolling with laughter.

We grabbed dinner at Stout Street Social. We enjoyed a few sushi rolls and Annabelle had a great bowl of Clam Chowder. (I’d recommend the California roll and a Manhattan- yum!).

Afterwards we went to see Waitress at the Buell Theater. I was a little conflicted for this because it wasn’t rated a family show. It had some language and some adult content (marriage, adultery, bad husbands…). It was wonderfully funny and entertaining and I think the girls enjoyed it. B and I loved it!

We arrived home late that night with only enough time to set out milk and cookies for Santa, throw on pjs and climb in bed. The girls say they like it best like that so they don’t have as much time to sit around waiting for Santa’s arrival.

Happy Christmas Eve!

breakfast with santa

We opted for a new breakfast with Santa this year. We usually head to the aquarium, but gave the Hard Rock Cafe a try this season. It seemed a bit more mature, at least from the advertisements.

There were still lots of little kids there and since it was their first attempt the event wasn’t super crowded. Annabelle was a little weary, or perhaps it was just visiting Santa for a 10 year old. Gwyneth was as giddy as ever.

Santa and Mrs. Claus stopped by our table before story time.

Our table was upstairs but we had a great view of story time from the balcony. The girls headed downstairs, but B and I took in the views from above.

I love that these girls humored me and sat on Santa’s lap.

Annabelle asked for a laptop. Gwyneth asked for money. Oh my! When asked how much money, she replied “it doesn’t matter. I just like to save”. What a character.

It was really quite cold this morning, a stark contrast to our previous adventure downtown. The carousel was right outside the restaurant entrance and they gave us a hand full of passes when we left.

Looking a little chilly on their ride.

Those faces had me cracking up

A pretty, but cold Colorado morning.

We made our way down South and filled our commute with many stops meetings friends and having lots of fun along the way. We were able to meet Don and Lisa at Parkway for a quick snack.(the food wasn’t fab at the Hard Rock Cafe and everyone was a bit hungry. Let’s be honest though, we are high maintenance when it comes to buffets.)

Don is the photographer but I never seem to get any pictures of the adults when we are together. It was so great to see the Hales’ before the holidays and of course we managed to make a little plan for Lisa’s birthday which is in just a few short weeks. I can hardly wait!

Next stop was the Boondocks in Parker. We met up with Gus’ crew and the kids bowled and played games while the adults had a brew and caught up.

We finally arrived in Highlands Ranch to celebrate Christmas with the Meyer family. B’s sister, Jen hosted and the kids were all happy to be together. We had dinner and opened gifts and had a lovely time.

Phew what a day! It was a whirlwind of celebrations.

beauty and the beast

We woke up early and refreshed from our adventure at the Nutcracker. We had a feast of a breakfast at the Ritz. It’s no secret that Gwyneth can eat her money’s worth in breakfast. I believe it is her one true love. Perhaps only a close second is sleep.

After a hearty breakfast, we stepped out to explore the city. We didn’t really have a plan which is very unlike me and I only had mild anxiety of allowing the day to simple take us.

Our first stop was the Brown Palace. Their holiday decoration are spectacular.

The chandelier is phenomenal and we couldn’t help just standing and gawking for a bit.

They had some openings for tea, but neither of the girls was interested. Maybe next time? They were both eager to get back out on the town and explore.

We walked all around downtown and popped into shops. The weather was gorgeous. I didn’t even wear a jacket. In December! In Colorado!

My favorite stop downtown is Union Station, but I do believe the girls prefer the Pavilions. They like to shop so I understand the appeal.

We bought a few tubes of lip gloss to share at Sephora and with our purchase came free tickets to ride the carousel. I gave my ticket to a little boy and gladly watched as my girls laughed it up on the ride. They were all blurry giggles as they would twirl by on their horses.

We grabbed lunch back at the hotel and finally checked out of our room. They gave us a late check out and we certainly made the most of our club level access. They sent us off with boxes of cookies, drinks, and were begging the girls to take candy. It felt mighty indulgent yet relaxing and wonderful! It was such a rare treat to have this guilty pleasure in the middle of the holiday chaos.

Again, we had no plan and Gwyneth requested a trip to the Art Museum. The feature exhibit was Her Paris which could not have been more perfect for our girls day.

The look of mischief

The Denver Art Museum has an amazing area where kids of all ages can make craft projects. It’s hands on and the current theme was texture. These ladies delighted in making projects with wires, wire cutters and pliers.

Annabelle’s wire teddy bear

Gwyneth’s wire dolphin

And then there was the collaborative creation with paper….

Scissors…and paper…and tape…oh my! Is this heaven???

It was hard to call it a day, but all grand adventures must come in to an end. Off we headed back to our ‘hood just a bit sad to be saying goodbye to it all.

Ok, the fun wasn’t quite over yet. When we got home we quickly cleaned up and headed out the door again. We went up North for dinner and the live Beauty and the Beast. I was concerned we would be too tired from the overload of the day, but we all held it together. The show was lovely and the girls both stayed awake singing Christmas carols in the car the entire ride home.

Now that’s a day for the books! I couldn’t ask for a better time with these girls.

christmas symphony

I naively purchased tickets for the symphony the day after drink the tree. I must be a glutton for punishment. We were all up bright and early and I was concerned because of the lack of sleep (we didn’t get home until almost 1 am). I thought for sure I would be feeling like this… (which is honestly how our girls found their elves this morning!)

But I really did feel fine. Maybe just a bit tired. We were full of happy memories and laughs from the party the night before so it was worth a few missed hours of sleep.

That afternoon the girls and I scooted downtown to see the Christmas concert at the symphony. We had a great seats right up front. The music was beautiful and the conductor is such a kick to watch!

After the show, on our drive home, the weather was nice and the sun was shining and I had my good camera with me. I asked the girls if we could snap a few pictures. They happily agreed and then went about acting absolutely loony. They were cracking themselves up and showing their true colors. The photos I snapped are priceless because this is real life with these wackadoos.

build a bear

We have a special tradition of going to Build a Bear for Christmas. The girls each get a new stuffed animal or some new clothes for an old stuffed animal and that stuffy is loved on through the entire holiday season…and beyond.

A great way of making this happen at a discount is getting the gift cards each year. You can purchase $10 gift cards for $5 during your visit. I buy them and put them away for the next year. I also buy gift cards at Costco which are discounted 20%. They are practically giving the bears away to us at this point…(the sarcasm is obvious right?).

This year the girls invited their sweet from school to join us. She gave them each a sweet holiday gift and they wanted to pool their funds together for her. They were pretty excited to have her share in our tradition.

After our build a bear adventure we went to the movies and saw Coco. What a wonderful movie! I didn’t really know what to expect but I was pretty impressed.

winter program

We had some very anxious little ladies this evening. Their school winter program was tonight and they were so excited. They have been practicing for weeks. B had to race over straight from work, but he made it just in time. The girls were thrilled to see him.

The girls did great — all the kiddos did. They had a great time and loved being with friends.

Silly girls!

white fence farm

We have White Fence Farm on our summer bucket list each year and sadly this year we didn’t make it. The first year I was just trying to find unique things to do with the kids around Colorado and the Tyler’s joined us. (Photos from our first visit back in 2014 here.) Each year I add it to our summer bucket list and the parents ask “why the heck are we still doing this?”.

When we missed it this year the parents didn’t seem to mind, but the kids were pretty disappointed. They have made several comments about it so we surprised them with a holiday visit. It really is a silly thing, but we all have such a good time when we end up there together.

We’ve never been when it is decorated for Christmas and it was really pretty. Christmas trees everywhere! The kid were all laughs and silly and it was a great excuse to meet up with the Tyler’s. We’re lucky to have these friends in our lives (we met in California 18 years ago!) and so fun to watch our kids growing up together.

Rhys always keeps our girls laughing…

They real did have fun. They are just annoyed by my incessant picture taking.

Tell me how you really feel?

The weather was warm enough for us to feed the goats after dinner. Annabelle was not having it but Gwyneth gave it a try.

winter purge

The girls have been working on their lists for Santa, B has just been working, working, working and I had a few minutes of peace on Saturday. I couldn’t just sit around so we decided to make room for Christmas gifts and did some winter cleaning.

We tackled Gwyneth’s room and it started like this…

…and she was so flippin’ happy. She’s not a pack rat so she was thrilled.

That girl can sure make some silly faces.

Annabelle was tackling her room and I found this:

She has been sick for a few days so I didn’t give her a hard time. When she woke up she asked if I would help and we did this:

She is my little hoarder so I was pretty surprised when she asked me to help her. She knows I like to clean and by clean I mean toss.

Her room looks great and she can actually find things now!

She even cleaned out her closet and dresser. I love her tween meets emoji style.

She can finally sit and work at her desk. It’s a Christmas miracle!

The Tendler’s joined us for a mini-holiday celebration this evening. We used our beloved new instant pot and made some delicious steak tacos. That thing is pretty darn fabulous and you just can’t beat the speed of meal prep with it. We ended the night with the yummy cookie they brought. Gwyneth stayed up with Sarah until about 12:15 which has to be a new personal record! Luckily she slept in the next day because our girl needs her sleep.

nuggets vs lakers

We took advantage of a brief break from B’s busy holiday schedule this evening and whisked him off for a little fun downtown. We snagged a great family fun pack deal for Nuggets tickets.We decided to get a room downtown since the parade of lights was the same night, Lyft prices were elevated, and we didn’t want to mess with parking. We had an entertaining and festive evening downtown and I’m glad we got to steal B away from his kitchen for a bit.

We grabbed a late lunch at Maggianos and it was decorated beautifully for the holidays.