California Girls

Alexis and I just spent the most wonderful week in California.  We were so fortunate to be able to visit some family and dear friends.  The first half of our trip was spent in Palo Alto and San Francisco.  My sister Kelsey picked us up at the airport and then we headed to Palo Alto to meet up with her husband Brad, and my sister Christina for dinner.  Alexis had fun running down the sidewalks with Kelsey on our way to dinner.  It felt good to stretch our legs after our flight.

While in Palo Alto, we stayed with my friend Shersti and her family.  Shersti and her husband Jared have four adorable kids and another one on the way.  Alexis and Annie are nine months apart and had so much fun playing together.  Here they are at the park:

One of Alexis' new found loves is jumping on the big trampoline.  At first she was scared and only wanted to jump by herself, but after a few goes, she was jumping like a pro and loved playing with the big kids.

(From L to R: Brooke, Zachary, Jacob, Alexis & Annie)

One of our days was spent in downtown San Francisco with Kelsey, Brad and Christina.  We lucked out with great weather.  It was mostly sunny, and just a big windy.  Alexis was such a good girl and even took an hour and a half nap in her stroller (a nap in her stroller is a very rare thing)!

We first headed down to the waterfront to walk around.  We had an absolutely delicious lunch of clam chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl at Boudin.  And of course, we got some yummy desserts at Ghiradelli Square.

One of the highlights for Alexis was the carousel.

 

We also stopped by Golden Gate Park to let Alexis run around after her nap.

 

 

 

The second half of our trip was spent in Fresno with my dear friend Tiffany and her family.  Tiff had just had her third baby and first daughter on my birthday!  Alexis had so much fun playing with Avi and Jai, but especially loved holding baby Zaidee.

While we were there it was 110 degrees!  So both days we were in Fresno were pretty much spent playing inside in the air conditioning, or at the splash park.  We ended up going to all three splash parks in the Fresno area, two in just one day.  It was that hot!

 

 

 

It was such a fun week.  I feel so grateful that Alexis and I were able to make this trip.  On our last day, Alexis kept telling me that she wanted to stay and play with her new friends, and that she didn't want to go home.  But I think she changed her tune once she saw her Daddy:

I love that you can see in this picture how hard she is squeezing John.  The only thing that would have made this trip better was if John could have come.  Oh well, hopefully next time.