Happy 1st Birthday, Charlotte!

Poor little Charlotte had a rather unspectacular first birthday. It's a good thing she's too little to care. Neil had to come home early to take care of the kids so I could spend the afternoon at the elementary school. He and Madoc just laid on the couch and made sure that everyone stayed alive. I got home late with a pizza that only Sadie and I ate and then we had to rush through cake and presents so everyone could go to bed.

 She didn't really understand the unwrapping part but she got lots of goodies and looked cute in her pictures.

 I made a tiny little cake just for Charlotte but I wasn't home and it never got taken out of the fridge. So it was cold and hard to eat. I ended up having to cut into the cake anyway just so she could attempt to eat it. So much for a smash cake. I'm pretty sure that only Sadie and Charlotte ended up eating any of it. Chocolate cake doesn't sit well in sick tummies.

December turned out to be a very rough month for the Crapo family. I was one of the co-chairs for our elementary school's annual Holiday House. All of the kids come to "shop" for their immediate family for free. The kids love it but it's a big undertaking. There was a small amount of stress involved. Of course, Charlotte's birthday coincided with the day of Holiday House set-up. It also coincided with Neil and then Madoc getting the stomach flu. Poor Madoc threw up ten times before the day was over. Then I got it two days later and had to bail on the Holiday House, leaving one poor co-chair to handle it all. It took a full two weeks apiece to get over it. Needless to say that most of my Christmas plans went out the window, including my Christmas cards. But if they had made it into the mail, this is the picture I would have put in.

My cute little munchkins in all of their Christmas finery. Don't  you love the green grass in December? That's the desert! (And a lot of irrigation)

Just a few ornaments

 Every year we have our annual tree decorating party. The kids enjoy hot chocolate and putting all of the ornaments in the same spot while I stress over whether or not they're about to step on something and break it. Charlotte was asleep for this but the big kids enjoyed it.

Thanksgiving

Oh, my goodness. Thanksgiving was so long ago I hardly remember it. I do however remember this beautiful pie that Neil made. I think it's one of his most elaborate steam vents yet (it's a cornucopia and a little turkey).  Dinner at my in-laws was delicious and as usual there were too many pies. My kids didn't mind though. Sadie found out that she likes lemon.

 After Thanksgiving we went to Big  Basin to see the redwood trees. The road to the park is in the mountains and about the windiest road I've been on. I won't be going on that road ever again.

 Charlotte enjoyed the trees from Neil's back.

 All four of my rowdy people on a giant stump

the two big kids and me inside of a burned out tree

Seeing Some Sea Life

Grandma and Grandpa Crapo took us to the aquarium in Monterrey before Thanksgiving. The kids loved it. There were so many different kinds of sea life to see. Some favorites were the jellyfish, sharks, and sea horses. We also got to watch a diver feed the fish during an afternoon presentation. The pictures below are from the touching pools where the kids looked at starfish and such.

 Charlotte had the best time in the little play area.

The kids loved having their cousin Lucas there. We don't see him often. Here the kids are in a glass tunnel under a waterfall. They loved this part.

Afterwards we had an ice cream sundae from Ghiradelli's. Probably not the best idea right before dinner but they were delicious anyway.

The Beach at Thanksgiving Time

We always seem to have to go to the beach whenever we head to California. Madoc and Sadie had a good time exploring, looking for seashells, sea anemones, crabs and starfish. Sadie also liked to run from waves with Grandma. Madoc thought staying away from the water was a better idea. Sadly there are no pictures of him on our camera. Charlotte rode on Dad's back the whole time. She didn't like that much when everyone was stopped looking at the tide pools. We tried to let her down but she kept almost walking into the water.

San Francisco

After we visited the North Pole, we drove to San Jose, CA to be with Neil's family for Thanksgiving. We got there Saturday night and went to church the next day. Madoc ended up with a fever and laid on my lap the whole three hours of church. 

After dinner that night Neil and I left our sick children with Grandma and Grandpa and went to San Francisco by ourselves! We stayed for two nights and had a great time. We stayed at the Drake Hotel in downtown. It was really nice and pretty but it's an old hotel so our upgraded room was just really big and didn't really have anything special in it. We won't stay there again.

For breakfast we went to Boulette's Larder in the Ferry Building. Best. Breakfast. Ever. I don't remember what any of it was called but I had an almond tart and Neil had a fruit cake/bread. His was way better. But I had a European hot chocolate that Neil tried to recreate for the rest of the week. He couldn't quite do it but he got close once.

Then we did the usual. Walked through Chinatown. Walked along the piers. Ate clam chowder and fish and chips. 

 Then we went to Alcatraz which was by far the coolest thing we did all day. So fascinating. I've been to San Francisco before but never took the Alcatraz tour. I'm so glad we did this time.

The Golden Gate Bridge behind us as seen from Alcatraz.

After we got back to land we headed to Ghiradellis and split a brownie sundae. At this point it was getting cold and dark and I was really tired. The line for the trolley was ridiculous so we started climbing the hills. We made it to Lombardi street and went down and then back up that crazy twisty street. Then we managed to squeeze onto an already packed trolley and headed back to the hotel where we were really boring and watched tv until 10pm. At this point we were finally hungry for dinner so I sent Neil out into the dark and cold to find take out. Isn't he great?
The next day we checked out and went to pick up the car just to find out that the battery was dead. What an adventure. We finally made it out of the city a couple of hours later and home to our kiddos!