San Francisco

I have no "still pictures" from Christmas day due entirely to the fact that we had an outbound flight scheduled for Dec. 26 @ 7AM, and the camera was packed, along with everything else we needed for the trip, on Dec. 24th. We do have video, but I won't bore people with that. It will be just for the Scheurer family home video library.

Rest assured, our Christmas was wonderful. Reagan received a "play kitchen" from Santa. She was in love with it! Nick started putting it together days before Christmas. All said and done, the thing probably had a good 4 hours of assembly time put in to it!

So, San Francisco. Whose idea was it to take a vacation the day after Christmas, to a non-tropic locale? Oh yeah, mine. I can't claim that all of my ideas are genius. I'm still being reminded of the fact that it was my awful idea to move back to UT. Again, sorry- Nick.

My parents went to Cancun on Dec. 27th. That would have been ideal, but we didn't have the $$$ for something like that.

So, off to San Francisco it was.

Things weren't all bad. We can laugh at the mishaps now.

To start things off... (we should have seen this as a bad omen) our GPS malfunctioned and changed the address to Chinatown that we had input. Literally, we were driving aimlessly around downtown S.F. for 10 minutes before we checked the address in the unit, only to find that it had somehow changed itself to another address. We had dinner reservations at a restaurant in Ghiradelli Square. In order to make the reservation we decided to "bag" Chinatown (for that day, anyway) and we headed to dinner.

McCormick and Schmick has to be one of our favorite restaurants. Yes, it is a chain, but they know how to do seafood. We ate there all of the time in Seattle, and even had a magnificent meal there recently, in Las Vegas. The meal in S.F. wasn't bad, the service, however.... Our server was inept and slow. Those qualities are the worst in a waiter.

By the time our meal was done we weren't up for much else so we went back to the hotel.

Day 2: We were "up and at em'" early. And on our way to Muir Woods to see the giant Redwoods. When I was making the itinerary for the trip I copied and pasted the Longitude and Latitude for the location of the front gate of the national park, so that we could input it in our GPS. Well, rather than using my instructions Nick simply input Muir Woods National Monument in to the GPS. We arrived at the destination, and I didn't think we were in the right place.

(Reagan thought this drinking fountain in the parking lot was the greatest thing, EVER!)

So, Nick input the degrees of Long. & Lat. in to the GPS to make sure we were where we needed to be. It took an awful long time calculating; and then gave us directions to a destination a hour away.

We packed up in to the car again, and headed down the coastal highway 1. At one point our GPS lead us to a dead end. Someone had posted a sign that said: "This is not the way to --- Rd. Even if your GPS says so! Go back down the street, turn right, blah, blah, blah". That added 20 minutes to our trip.

The drive was beautiful. Very scenic.

As we arrived closer to our destination, I started feeling like something wasn't right. There weren't a lot of huge trees on the horizon like I would have expected. I said to Nick: "Remember a little while ago when I didn't get mad at you for taking us to the wrong place?". I wanted the same courtesy for the same mistake.

Our destination turned out to be a beach. By this time we had been in the car for 2+ hours. The only things that saved us on this trip was #1. the fact that we talked Nick's parent's in to accompanying us #2. The portable DVD player and the several Elmo DVD's that we brought with us too. Reagan never would have been as manageable without them! When we stopped in the parking lot at the beach Nick checked the P.O.S. GPS only to discover that the numbers for the Long. & Lat. had been changed?! We still have no explanation.

The beach turned out to be a fun expedition. Nick was (as always) a great Dad, and braved the cold so that he and Reagan could run in the ocean sans footwear.

Reagan's first trip to the ocean was a success!

On the trip back we ate at a quaint cafe. It was so nice to be able to eat outdoors in December! The food and the beach were enough for us to be able to say that the entire trip wasn't a total bust. At that point, though, I couldn't tell whether Nick wanted to throw the GPS, or himself, in the ocean more!

The day wasn't over, so we decided to take one more stab at finding Muir Woods. Glutton for punishment, I know.

And guess what? The place we had originally driven to that morning was the right place. How was I supposed to know? It has been 15 years since I was last there.

It is impossible to describe the grandeur the Redwood trees posses. Try as I might, I could never fit an entire redwood tree in to the viewfinder of my camera.

Day 3: With Nick's Dad driving :) we found Chinatown.

We had a good time Shopping. We grabbed some treats at a Chinese bakery. I SO should have not eaten that HomBow (more on that later).

In the afternoon we went to Pier 39. Reagan loved the Carousel! She talked her "soft-touch" Daddy in to paying for two rides!

We were disappointed that there were only 3 sea lions to see. The last time I was there I remember that the sea lions covered the dozen floating platforms available to them, and they were so NOISY! This time, however, the floating platforms were completely vacant. There were 3 of them sitting on a pier across the water from us, but that was it. The next morning at breakfast the news did a story on the the vanishing sea lions at pier 39, but the volume on the TV wasn't turned on (of course); so we couldn't get the full-story? From what we could gather there was a guy in custody for shooting at the sea lions. Sad.

After Pier 39 I was really starting to feel under the weather. I begged the crew to take me back to the hotel (Reagan also needed a nap). It was either food poisoning (think, Hom Bow); or 24 hour flu that lead to my "worshipping of the porcelain god" that evening. We missed our dinner reservation at the Stinking Rose, and Breakfast the next morning at Mama's.

Nick's parents were able to go see a movie that night, so that lessened my guilt for ruining the night.

Nick is the most wonderful, considerate husband imaginable. He took care of everything from that point on, and made sure I was as comfortable as I could possibly be.

In the end... we have had better vacations. But S.F. wasn't miserable. We got to see all of the sights, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, we were able to dine on fresh seafood.

Quick Post. No Pic's.

As of this week Reagan has really gotten in to the "spirit of Christmas" by adding a new word to her vocabulary:
"MINE!"
Isn't it fitting? Sigh.

And if we hadn't realized that winter is here, already... we are being heavily reminded by the different "bugs" that are infecting each one of our family members. Nick was sick a few weeks ago, then Reagan, then me. Now, it's Reagan's turn again. She has "the croup". We took her to the ER in the middle of the night. She woke up coughing and it sounded like she could hardly breathe. After 4 hours... we were discharged with a mini-lecture from the nurse about which symptoms in children truly warrant a trip to the ER. Well, excuse me for being a first-time Mom! If I hadn't honestly thought my daughter was very ill I wouldn't have brought her in. Live and Learn and then pay the hospital bills, I guess.

I know I alluded to the "not so great" situation with Nick's job in a prior post. Well, Nick's employment took a positive turn. He just finished his first official week as a pharmacist at Walgreen's. It was a hard decision to make, especially because Nick really liked his co-workers at Albertson's. But in the end when we made a list there were more "pro's" with Walgreen's. If you want to hear the entire story, I'd be happy to share it in person. It's way too long for a post. And if you do want to get the "nitty gritty", be ready for an earful (because really, can I ever refrain from keeping my opinion concise?!).

It's beginning to look a little bit like Christmas.

This is the first year of my married life that I have been able to decorate our home for Christmas. In years past there was really no reason to, because we were always going to be somewhere other than our own house for Christmas.

Also, apparently the reason we didn't decorate is because I had no decorations. I hauled the rubbermaid tubs that contain my Christmas decorations upstairs, and after putting up every single, solitary item the tubs contained; all I could think was: "is that it?!". Yes, my decor was pretty sparse.

Nick will be happy to know that I refrained from going on a Christmas Decoration Spending Spree. I will just "make do" this year, with what I have, and I'll be sure to hit up the after Christmas sales, to get stuff at killer prices for next year.

We do have stockings. Can you guess which stocking belongs to each member of our family?

I received this Christmas ornament as a gift (10 years ago, at least). It wasn't until last year that Nick took a good look at it and pointed the inappropriateness of it out. Prior to that, I had never noticed that... yes indeed, the mouse inside the clock is sitting on the toilet with his pants pulled down. Who makes a Christmas ornament like that?! Oh well, it fits Nick's personality really well, so it will be a permanent fixture on our Christmas tree.

Reagan got one of the "countdown til' Christmas calendars". She has no idea what Christmas is, but she knows there is a little piece of chocolate inside each square, and she makes sure to tell me that she wants a piece every morning after we get her dressed for the day.

I have been playing my John Denver and the Muppets, a Christmas Together CD nonstop! The music from that album reminds me of Christmases past more than anything else. When I was really little we would listen to the vinyl record while we were putting up the Christmas ornaments. A little later we got it on cassette tape. Finally, we upgraded to a CD. I took that CD with me, my first Christmas season away from home as a freshman in college at SUU. When we weren't busy stealing Christmas trees..... I was subjecting Ruthann and Tierney to the vocal stylings of John Denver and the Muppets. I know they both HATED it, but I don't think they will ever forget it (I know I won't)!

Figgy Pudding.... It's made with figs...... And Bacon.

Oates', Newton's & West's in the Shire.

Last night we had a very last-minute Christmas dinner party. It started out as get together for dinner with the West's, since we haven't seen them in FOREVER. Neither of us wanted to get sitters for the kids and it is so hard to have a conversation with other adults if you go out to dinner with the kids, because you are constantly trying to keep a rodeo under control.

In the end, we decided to have them over to our house for dinner.

This lead to the invitation of the Newton's and the Oates' as well (literally, the day of).

It turned out well. The dinner was a little "well-done", because we were trying to keep it warm while every one of the other families struggled to navigate through our neighborhood to find our house. But it wasn't really about the food anyway (except for the dessert that Jon's wife made that was "out of this world" delicious!). It was all about the company and catching up with old friends. One of the funniest parts of the conversation was when we started talking about all of the funny first names that we could give our children. All of us have unique-ish last names. Newton's talked about how they loved the first name: Isaac, but thought it would be setting the bar a little high for that kid. West's mentioned the name: Easton. Hilarious! Nick still thinks it would be great to give one of our potential children the middle name: Del, because that means "of the"- in Spanish. So our kid would be: Joe "of the" Shire. I'm still laughing from all of the good conversation. And just like in High School the guys started pulling out the "one liners" from popular sitcoms of our "era"- ie- Seinfeld, and The Simpson's. It was a great night.

Santa made a surprise visit. That Santa Claus looks an awful lot like my little brother, Brian! Maybe that is why Jenny was so fond of him. Ha Ha.

This little guy didn't know what to make of Santa? What a handsome boy.

Reagan surprised me. This is the girl who will walk up to total strangers in the grocery store and want them to pick her up. But with Santa was not as social. Once again it proves what a mean Mom I am because I got a kick out of the fact that I now have a picture of Reagan sitting on Santa's lap crying!

She was happy to see Santa go. This picture is blurry, but it is because Reagan was so animated about waiving goodbye to Santa.

Reagan was the only one of the kids who didn't like Santa. It was a real treat to have him come, Brian was such a good sport about it.

The night was a success. It was sad to see it end. We can't let another 4 years pass before we do it again!

Now I remember.

It has been snowing all day, and usually I would be cursing the awful driving conditions and freezing cold. Wishing that I were in a warmer climate (like: Seattle). But today I am grateful to be in UT.
I have been suffering from a sinus infection since Wednesday. I would love to have gone straight to bed. But with a toddler in the house that does not happen. Instead, I spent a good part of the day, yesterday; sitting on the couch watching Reagan create mess after mess. I had no energy to do anything about it.
Of course, all I could muster for dinner was a BP&J sandwich. One of the pieces I gave Reagan must have been too big because she started to choke on it. She coughed it up but also threw up. Just what I needed (eye roll). My Mom came over and put Reagan in the tub. Then, Jenny (my most-amazing sister-in-law) came to the house and entertained Reagan for 2+ hours so that I could rest.
This morning, Heather came and picked up Reagan and took care of her all day so that I could go to the doctor and have some down-time.
Living in UT isn't so bad. My family is here.
Happy Birthday, Mom!