No chocolate for mamma

Here's one you Seinfield fans will appreciate.
So a couple month's ago Ron found a chocolate factory that's about 30 minutes away from home. He took me their and we both agreed that the kids would enjoy coming as well. It's really neat. They have the store section with yummy chocolates and then you can go and tour the factory and see how they make their chocolate treats. They also had a history of chocolate wall and you could read all the neat facts about chocolate. Since Ron was able to take a couple weeks off over the holidays, we decided this was a great time to take the kids. It started out with a good laugh. You all know the seinfield episode where the soup man shouts "No soup for you!" That is one of our favorites. Anyway, when we pulled up to the chocolate factory Tristan had asked if we were going to get them some of the chocolate. Of course we were but Ron and I teased and said "No chocolate for you" to Tristan. He knew we were teasing and knew that meant he was going to get some chocolate treats. Everyone had gotten out of the car except for Jaxen because he had spilled his drink all over his clothes and had his breakfast all over his face. So I was cleaning him up and changing his clothes while he was still in his car seat. Jaxen of course wasn't to thrilled about all that and wanted to get down but I wouldn't let him until I was finished. So Jaxen, like two year olds do, was wiggling and squirming and crying telling me to stop and then as serious as he could be in his little upset voice he said " No chocolate for you mamma!" It was so funny. Ron and I couldn't stop laughing. Of course Jaxen was serious about it until he saw us laughing then he started laughing and saying it to be funny. He's such a cute boy. We love him so much.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

We had a fun new years eve party. We stayed home and played games and popped pop corn with Ron's new pop corn popper. Yummy!!!! Ron got the game Cranium for christmas so we played that as a family. It was fun. It was daddy and Tristan vs Kaeryn and mamma. Daddy and Tristan won. We watched the disney channel specials and then switched over to watch the Dick Clarks celebration in New York. When the clock struck midnight we blew our horns and went outside to pop our party poppers. Jaxen did one and it scared him so we went in while Kaeryn and Tristan and Ron finished. When they came back inside we drank sparkling cider. The kids love new years eve because it's the one night each year they know they don't have to ask to stay up late. They were all so excited it took them a little bit to settle down enough to go to bed. It was a fun night as a family. We look forward to this new year and the many adventures we will have.

Our Naciamento for 2008

This is our naciamento for this year. I love putting it together. Ron has told me that in Venezuela, some people make their naciamento's huge. I really love this tradition and hope to make it bigger each year. Ron's mom had sent us some of the pieces they had used when Ron was growing up. They are a treasure to us. This year I set the naciamento near to the tree. I love being able to sit and watch both of them at night. I love the lights.

This holiday season we hope everyone is filled with happiness and makes memories that will last forever.

Christmas day 2008!

Christmas day was a wonderful day for our family. Of course we celebrated my birthday first thing. The kids got me a horse statue that I can paint. Ron surprised me and got me my very own classical guitar. He also put together a book of music for me. Some christmas songs and some songs from different video games and movies and other things we have done together. He arranged them into two parts, one for beginner and one for teacher. I have no idea how long he had been working on that project, but it is something I will always treasure. Next year we plan on playing together. I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar and what better way than to have a classical guitarist for a husband to teach me. I'm very excited! After we finished opening my birthday gifts we went into the family room to see what Santa had brought us. The kids were very excited and it was so fun to see their eyes light up and their smiles on thier faces. I loved every minute of it. Kaeryn had asked Santa for a scooter and was so happy to see that he brought her one.

Tristan had asked for more Thomas the tank engine trains and was so excited to see that Santa not only brought him a train but a track set he wanted to go with it. Jaxen still loves trucks and cars and trains too. Every time we went through the toy isle at the store he would go crazy over this garbage truck. Jaxen was so excited to see the truck from Santa. He loved it so much that he kept it close to him while opening his gifts from the family. It was so cute. It really was a perfect day for us. We laughed and played. We ate lots of treats. We gave each other lots of hugs and just really enjoyed being together as a family.

Pier 39

The next day we decided to check out pier 39. Wow! What a fun place to visit. It reminded me a little of Pike's place market in Seattle. Once again we were lucky enough to have someone offer to take a picture of all of us together. Yeah! If you look closely you can see alcatraz in the background.

We love San Fransisco just like we love Seattle. There is so much to see. The kids loved to see the trolley's and cable cars. That was what Jaxen choose as his souvenier that day. Of course it's some kind of car. Anything on wheels for Jaxen. Tristan found some post cards he liked and again I can't remember what kaeryn choose. But we loved going in and out of all the shops. We got sourdough bread and of course cotton candy.

You can't go to Pier 39 and not stop to see the sea lions. I had heard that you could see sea lions but I didn't realize it would be this many. There were so many. they have their own section of the harbor that they have claimed. It was so fun to watch them play in the water. Again I was loving it. I've seen seals and sea lions in aquariums and books and on tv. Now I can say that i've seen them in the wild. Even though the sea lions were on the pier. It was so fun!

This is definitly a place we will visit again. Hopefully, the carosel will be working that time. We had a wonderful adventure and are so thankful for all the beautiful things in our world. We are so thankful that we are able to experience and see the neat treasures. Happy thanksgiving everyone!

The Academy of Science

After our fun little detor we found our way back to the bridge and San Fransisco where we went to the newly opened Academy of Science. It was so cool! That is another love our family shares, we love science. they had so much information in there. There is even an aquarium. they had many different kinds of fish, salt and fresh water. The albino alligater is there. that was neat to see. There were skeletons of all kinds and sculptures. One of my favorites to see were the penguins that are in the african room. The sting rays and sharks were pretty cool also. Jaxen loved the coral reef because he could see nemo and dori.

The academy of science was so full of information. The only things we weren't able to see that day was the planetarium because it was sold out and the living roof. We were just to tired and the place also closed. Kaeryn and Tristan both saved their allowances so they could get some souveniers. Tristan choose to get a dinosaur exavation kit. You get to dig and find dinosaur bones and then put the skeleton together. Kaeryn choose a fossil rock and a few other things that I can't remember. Jaxen of course found a little safari truck and that was all he wanted. It was such an amazing day for us. We loved our adventure that day but we were happy to go to the hotel and settle down for the night.

Rodeo Beach

When we got back to the parking lot, an ambulence was passing by. They saw how excited Jaxen was and stopped, came up to him and gave him some stickers. I thought that was so cool of them to do that. Kaeryn and Tristan came running up and they gave them some stickers and tatoos also. It was so cute. I was also happy to see them because we weren't sure how to get out of the area we were in because the road we took ended up being a one way road. They showed us which turn to take that would actually take us back to the golden gate bridge. Yeah! We knew how to get back home. We weren't sure if we were going to find the way anytime soon. So we made our way back down the hill side to the road the we were shown and when we got there we saw a sign for a beach called Rodeo beach. We decided to go and check that out since we were there and not to mention we knew how to get back out. To get there we drove by more of the baraks. They were right along the lagoon area and beach.

Ron and I loved these big rocks that were off the beach. Especially the hole in the rock made from the waves of the ocean.

There were some pretty big waves which were fun to see. They were bigger than ones we had seen before.

It was great that there were a few people on the beach as well who agreed to take a photo for us. yeah! we have a family picture. Our hair may be a mess in the wind and our clothes stained with dirt from the wet sand, but hurray, we have a family pic!