LOL I think I've noticed a theme to my picture-y posts lately. With the amount of time & gas we spend on the beach ... really, we should just pitch a tent and call it done.

Seems like every chance we get we're outta this house and on our way to the coast. Mind you, it's not like the next town over or anything. It takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get to a good spot. It's funny though, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Some people might read this and think "WHY, my God WHY would you travel so much or so far?" I guess they are just not beach bums. And honestly, I thank God everyday that my husband is as much of one as I am!

So last weekend we decided that we should do ... something. Tossed out ideas like fishing, lake-ing, gold panning (yeaaaaaah, not MY suggestion) ... but none of those ideas really made ya feel like jumpin outta your jammies, dumpin the coffee on the floor and sayin "OH YEAH BABY LET'S HIT THE ROAD!!!!"

So a few HOURS later, at like 11 (!) we gave in to the itch we love to scratch and headed out.

We decided to try and see a few spots in San Fran that we hadn't yet gotten to ... I know! You're saying "ARE there any? and HOW BIG is this San Fran?!" Well, it's big. We got out the maps, and by that I mean mapQUEST, and found a spot we had yet to see.

We packed a lunch and headed out. It took awhile to actually FIND this beach since appearently just because we have mapQUEST that in no way means we should actually PRINT OUT it's useful information and take it with us ;-) So we were winging it.

Which according to DH is half the fun. Yeaaaaah I think that's what my grampa said when he told us "We're not LOST! This is the scenic route!"

Eventually we got to a VERY cute, slightly cold & windy, beach on the outter side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty cool though, the kids had a GREAT time.

Right behind our table was a little area of trees and the kids decided it would a CRIME if they did not climb every single one. Lil Miss would not be out done, she was on that Boy like white on rice.

As it started to get cooler on the beach we decided to head inward a bit to Golden Gate Park which is one of my favorite parts of the city. There is just so much to do there! Everytime we go I see something else and say "NEXT TIME we are SO doing that!" There will be many next times.
We decided to go ahead and walk around the lake and get in a little exercise (read: wear the kids the hell out). DH and I took a row boat around this lake once, it's so pretty.
So the kids ran amok, chased ducks, did their best to fall in the lake and run people down with the stroller and we walked happily behind them.
The kids LOVED the waterfall, the Boy, Lil Miss and I climbed to the top and DH almost fell in the lake taking this lovely shot.
We continued walking around the hill in the middle until we came full circle decided to find a spot to sit and let the kids run the hell around since appearently they had a side crack with their lunch and were just plum FULL of energy!
We found a perfect spot on the side of the lake that was away from the wind. The children acted like caged monkies while we took the few moments of quiet we had to have a tiny bit of couple time.


Lil Miss and Boy played hide and seek, football with pine cones, ram each other with the stroller, and all manner of other crack-induced fun.

Then I foolishly said "Come here beloved and wonderful family and we will take a beautiful picture because the is the BEST DAY EVER!"
And proceeded to curse the rule of 3 (no more than 3 people in a picture will look right/good at any given time), and my self-picture taking abilities
until we got to picture eleventy-hundred and it came out ... ok ... ish ;-)

It started to get chilly-er, so it was time to head home. At first we were just going to stop at a little place closer to home for dinner ... until the BOY requested that we "go to that one place with the music and people and that awesome food!"
Weeeeeell, whadya know! he was talking about none other than the Rogue Brewery! And really, who were WE to say no to his ONLY request of the day?! ;-)
So we ended our 'BEST DAY EVER!' at our fav little place ever with most of our best family ever! And it was worth all the wind and lostness and gas and time in the world :D