Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
1) The twins, Amara and Quess, were celebrating their 4th birthday and Amara had gotten a kid's nail polish kit as a birthday present. Amara was excited to give Auntie Jonna and manicure and pedicure. Her enthusiasm carried through to her polish technique which meant a generous amount of nail paint was applied to Jonna's nails and fingers.
2) Quess was also interested in showing off his skills on Alan. Quess's cautious and methodical personality showed in his painting skills as paint was very carefully and evenly applied just to the nail. Amara finished with Jonna's fingers and toes while Quess was still working on Alan's nails so, wanting to move things along, Amara helped out with Alan's pedicure.
3) We had gotten a room at a Holiday Inn Express just outside Sacramento and the hotel had a pool so Bri brought the kids over for some swim time. The kids are signed up to keep swimming lessons this summer but they are already very comfortable in the water and can paddle around quite well. The summer temperatures in the valley was pushing 100 degrees so having a cool pool to play in was a welcome relief for us all!
4) For the twin's third birthday Jonna had purchased them an annual membership to Fairytale Town in Sacramento. For their fourth birthday Jonna renewed the membership and we all got to go together which gave the kids a chance to show us their favorite things. One of the oddest playsets was a Jack and the Beanstalk structure with a tunnel right through the middle of Giant Jack's foot. However, the kids enjoyed crawling around on it oblivious to the slightly morbid scene of a disembodied and mutilated foot.
5) Both kids have amazing smiles and we got to enjoy those most of the time we were in Fairytale Town. The best was playing on a long set of balancing logs that had the twins giggling the most adorable laughs while we shook and bounced the logs and the kids tried to stay on rodeo-style. Amara showed off her amazing balance by walking the whole length of the longs while we were shaking them.
6) The kids favorite activity in the park is The Crooked Mile, a windy raised path that snakes through trees and bushes. We all ran through it as fast as we could trying to catch the twins. Then did it again and again.
7) The park's nod to Winnie-The-Pooh was a slide structure called Owl's House. Since Uncle Alan was wearing a Winnie-The-Pooh T-shirt this was obviously my favorite! The twins do love a fast slide!
8) Back in Oakland, Jamie brought us over to the coast at Ocean Beach for a walk and then we did the short loop hike at Land's End. There was a low-lying fog layer which covered the top half of the Golden Gate bridge and engulfed all the tall buildings in downtown San Francisco. However, that cloud layer also meant it was nice and cool for our hike. We followed up the hike with a yummy Dim Sum lunch at our favorite restaurant Yang Sing.
9) In the evening we drove up the hill from Jamie's house in Oakland to do a hike in the Oakland Hills. We go for a hike in Joaquin Miller park nearly everytime we are in the area and it never ceases to amaze us how quickly you are in the midst of a beautiful nature preserve while being just a few minutes from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area.
10) Our friend Krista invited us to join her for a hike in the south Bay so we all drove down to Saratoga to meet her and then headed to nearby Sanborn County Park for a lovely hike in the redwoods along Skyline Drive. Afterwards we drove to Los Gatos for lunch (and ice cream!) Hard to beat a day like that!
11) One of the highlights of our hike in Sanborn County Park was seeing a gigantic eagle's nest up in one of the redwoods. The diameter of the nest was at least 10 feet and it was probably 4 feet deep. Massive!
12) A new activity was us was sea-kayaking with Jamie and Kelly. We love to sea-kayak but had never been out on the water with Jamie and Kelly. They have their own kayaks and we were able to rent a double from California Canoe & Kayak in Brooklyn Basin.
13) We spent an hour and a half paddling around the Island Alameda Coast Guard station and along the shore of Jack London Estuary Park. There was a sailboat regatta going on as well so in addition to weaving through the pier pilings we were also dodging sail boats.
14) Jamie brought us out for another hike but this time in a very different landscape. After two hikes in the coastal redwood forests we moved down to the Marin headlands for a hike along the coast. The trail from Muir Beach to Tennessee Beach is a good one climbing the hills and dropping down to the secluded little beach of Pirate's Cove then going back up into the hills to connect with Tennessee Valley and the beach there.
15) We returned via a slightly more inland route which dropped us down into Green Gulch and past the Green Gulch Zen Center. We grabbed lunch in Mill Valley afterwards.
16) Jamie and Kelly's dog Bella is now a very old girl and even short walks around the block are tough for her. This may be the last time we get to see Bella so we tried to spend some quality time with her on this visit, including a few walks to her favorite spots in the neighborhood.
17) We decided to squeeze in one more hike in the morning before our flight out in the afternoon. Jamie again brought us up the hill from his house but this time to Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. We were going to do a short loop but we were enjoying our time amongst the redwoods so much we did a long loop instead. It was a gorgeous hike and definitely allowed us to stretch our legs some before sitting on an airplane for the flight back to Colorado.
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