Family Reunion

The kids all came home this summer, overlapping their stays during the week of July 1-7.  Some brought kids, some brought dogs, some brought both, and some enjoyed playing with dogs and kids.

At the end of June, the festivities began when Mark and I met Sarah, Joel, and their kids up at Tahoe as they made the trek from Colorado to California.  Mark and I went up a couple of days before they were to arrive, and I had a chance to take pictures of the 'super moon.'

We continued our unfortunate luck with weather at Tahoe (see June 2011) by having rain for two of the three days we were going to be there.  We made pretty good use of that time to take the kids to see a movie and even did a short hike down to Vikingsholm in the rain.  We had one day of good weather and we packed it all in:  a bike ride to Tahoe City for breakfast (9 miles for Ainsleigh and Dono -- they were champs!):

and a hike up to Eagle Lake with Albus in tow:

There were a few mishaps, but we had a great time:

And the scenery was beautiful:

We returned to the Bay Area and awaited the onslaught of the rest of the fam.  The county fair was going on during this time and had fireworks on the Fridays that the fair was open:

I did a really lousy job of taking pictures while they were here.  I really wanted a picture of all of us together and I totally blew that one.  But I did manage to take some pictures of the kids:

 Ainsleigh

 Dono

 Gemma (actually looking at the camera sort of)

 Annabelle

 Emaline

William

Laura had a chance to pose for me before returning to NYC (that is a whole different story because she was waiting in the airport to board her flight when a plane crashed onto the runway.)

Rebecca and Austin were here for a wedding in May, so I'll throw this picture in that I took of them:

Allison, Dave, and their kids stayed for two more weeks after the week that all of the kids were here.  They come from so far, it's so stinkin' humid where they live, and Dave can work from anywhere, so it was fun to have them for so long.  We really had a chance to bond with William.  He went from just crawling to cruising along the couch to pushing the little wooden chair around and using it like a walker.  The chair has special meaning since it belonged to my mother and many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have learned to walk with it.

Because the Whitleys were here longer and it cooled down a bit, we were able to spend some time at a nearby park:

It was really fun to have everyone here.  We had 16 people sleeping at our house along with 2 dogs.  It was crazy!

Unusual Gifts

It becomes increasingly harder for adult children to find gifts for Mother's and Father's Day for parents who have everything they need.  Our children get pretty creative with the gifts they come up with and we really appreciate their inventiveness and the time and thought they put into their gifts to us.  This year for Father's Day was no exception.

The girls sent Mark many pounds (can't remember how many, and we've eaten some of it!) of gourmet bacon along with a book entitled "Dad Is Fat" by Jim Gaffigan.  Which, of course, he is not, but it is a funny book.  Our family has a love affair with all things bacon, so this was a fun treat to receive and enjoy.

Jeff and Jess invited us to join them on an architectural walking tour in San Francisco.  It was very fun and we learned some really interesting things.  One of the most interesting is that "popos" or Privately-Owned Public Open Spaces exist in downtown San Francisco.  Sixty-eight of them!  Many are somewhat hidden, but we had a chance to visit a few of them.  This one is near the Crocker Galleria:

From this vantage point we had a nice view of the Hallidie Building.  Built in 1918, it had the world's first glass curtain wall.  The front of the building had been shrouded in scaffolding and sheet metal for something like 30 years, but had undergone renovation in the last 3 years:

Our next stop was 111 Sutter.  Built in 1926, at 24 stories it was one of the city's tallest buildings.  It had a lovely entrance:

Closeup of the front stonework:

Staircase:

Painted ceiling:

and mailbox:

On another rooftop terrace (popos) we had a lovely view of this building which I can't remember the name of:

We also had view of the Hobart Building (1914).  This building always seemed a little odd to me: lovely on top but a solid wall below.  We learned that the building next to it was actually much higher originally, but had been torn down to just a few stories high, exposing a solid wall.  

Next we saw the Crown Zellerbach (1959) building, here with the Shell Building (1929) reflected in it:

And the Shell Building full on:

Lastly, this is "The Narrow Building" on Bush Street built in 1910.  It was the tallest building on the block when built and originally housed a garment manufacturing business.  It measures 20 feet wide, 80 feet deep, and is 10 stories high:

It was a very fun and informative day.  I'm just sorry that I didn't get a picture of Jeff and Jess!