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Category Archives: Out and about
Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you.
Once open a time… Staci worked for Lucasfilm. It was awesome.
Just so we’re perfectly clear about our intentions, our child will be introduced to Star Wars with Episode IV: The New Hope.
Hello Seattle!
We love the Pacific Northwest, particularly Seattle. This year, we had the chance to come up to Seattle for the 360 Intersect Conference. We visited with old friends, made some new friends, drank delicious coffee and ate tasty seafood! The weather was fabulous and we really enjoyed exploring the city.
Hanging out with Staci’s sister, Sheri and her boyfriend, Yi in Capitol Hill.
Enjoying dinner with our dear friends Gayle and Jim in downtown Seattle.
Cheesy posed souvenir photo from the Space Needle. Taken with our friends Bob and Margaret.
New hobby!
We’ve added a new hobby to our list of reasons why we LOVE living in Northern California!
Jay and Staci at the bottom of the mountain after a fun day of skiing/snowboarding in Tahoe.
We drove up to Tahoe and spent the weekend with Jay’s sister, brother-in-law and our two nieces skiing and snowboarding our butts off.
Jay hadn’t been skiing since high school and I (Staci) had never been snowboarding before. So we spent half of our first day in class learning how to control our speed and turn. Staci spent a lot of time on her rear end, but it was totally worth it.
The second day we were both able to ride the lift and tackle the green slopes. It helped build our confidence and we both felt pretty cool being able to make it all the way down.
On the drive back we talked about how much fun it will be to bring our child up to see the beautiful mountains and enjoy a day at ski school (or snowboarding school).
We can’t wait till next ski season! Hopefully, we’ll be a family of three and we’ll get to use the “parent predicament pass” and spend time with both our new baby and the mountains.
San Francisco has the best parks!
Alta Vista Park, located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, is probably the most amazing park we’ve ever seen. It features a kids’ playground with three different play structures, a sand lot, benches, slides and seven swings.
Jay and niece Ellerie spin on the merry-go-round.
Our nieces frequently play at the park after school and on the weekends. It even has a zip line that we big kids can play on, after we’ve stopped taking photos of the amazing views.
We love taking the nieces here so we can give their parents a break. The hard part is trying not to get in line with the other kids for your turn on the slide! We really look forward to spending more time at this park with our child.
Nieces Mia and Ellerie take advantage of the steep stairs and slide down the bannisters.
A quick trip to Kansas and some DQ, Oh my!
Nieces Ellerie and Mia enjoy a special ice cream treat from Dairy Queen with Uncle Jay!
Dairy Queens are few and far between in the Bay Area so stopping to get a chocolate-covered ice cream cone during a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Baird’s in Kansas is a real treat!
We’re great big science nerds
We’re great big science nerds and we aren’t afraid to admit it! We’re members of the Cal Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and love to visit often.
Doing science stuff at the Cal Academy of Sciences.
We believe in learning through exploration and experience. The Cal Academy is a wonderful place to explore whether you’re a kid or an adult. Our nieces love going with us to check out all the hands-on exhibits.
Last night was an event called “NightLife” where the academy stays open late, has live DJs, delicious food and drinks.
We checked out the new earthquake exhibit which included LIVE baby ostriches. Isn’t he (she?) cute?
A baby ostrich, only eight days old came over to say, “Hi!”
We also made sure to visit some of our favorites including the albino alligator, the jelly fish, the starfish (you can actually touch them), and the penguins. We can’t wait to share this awesome stuff with our child!
Getting into the game
For awhile, we were really into the game “Draw Something.” All the adults (Jay, Staci, Jay’s sister Kim, and Kim’s husband, Robert) were playing it on their phones. We were recently at our favorite sushi restaurant trying to guess one of the drawings, even our nieces were getting into the game! We were really stumped! In this picture, niece Ellerie, Staci, Robert, Jay and niece Mia.
Just another beautiful Saturday in California
This weekend we celebrated Jay’s sister’s birthday with a little trip up to wine country. The weather was beautiful, and we took advantage of it by having a picnic and soaking up a little sun. We also discovered that one of our favourite wineries, Ram’s Gate, is totally kid-friendly! Can’t wait to introduce Ian (the assistant hospitality manager) to our child someday soon.
Assistant Hospitality Manager Ian Burrows gets a little help from our nieces, Mia and Ellerie during a trip to Ram’s Gate winery in Sonoma, CA.
Visiting the Jelly Belly Factory
Robert, Kim, Ellerie, Mia, Staci and Jay visiting the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, Calif.
We took a day trip to Fairfield, Calif. to tour the Jelly Belly Factory. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a production day, but we did get to see some robots dance!
Tall trees!
During Christmas break in 2011 we visited the Armstrong Redwood State Park to check out the tall trees. It was beautiful; peaceful, refreshing and oh so quiet. We can’t wait to go back during the summer and picnic in the forrest.
Jay and Cody Monster enjoy the fresh air in the Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve aka The Redwood Forrest.
