San Francisco Trip 2010

"The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." - This quote by Mark Twain describes the San Fran weather well.

We flew to CA on Thursday morning and spent the day settling in with Jennifer's Aunt Christina. Also to specify, we stayed North of San Fran in the Oakland area, more specifically Burkeley. Aunt Christina has two sons Cole and Kai which entertained Thomas immensely with their toy cars, and Christina and Linda was very hospitable hostesses.

Friday morning was great because we took Kai to space camp and got to act like astronauts. Then we all piled into the mini-van and drove to Napa Valley! Although I'm not a wine drinker I was interested in seeing the sights and learning about wine. We all had a fun day looking at grapes and of course tasting a lot of wine- don't worry, me and Thomas didn't drink.

Saturday was fun and exciting because we ventured downtown to San Francisco, and as you can see from my quote at the beginning, it was windy and pretty chilly. Arizona in the summer is triple digits hot and so yes, it was nice to cool down, but wearing a jacket? Seriously, that might have been too cool. I was able to see a high school friend of mine, Chrissie who lives in San Fran and works for a wonderful company, Google (they run this blog site). The big attraction on Saturday was Alcatraz. I think we spent at least a couple hours over on the island checking out the cells and the grounds and all the seagulls. Saturday turned out to be a busy and tiring day, which turned out to be nothing compared to Sunday.

Sunday started very early, because we drove back to San Fran (Pier 39). The reason we came to San Francisco is because Uncle Tony decided to run the full San Francisco marathon, and because the rest of us were going to run the 5k. I don't go into details about how everyone finished because this blog is focused on the Ash Family and not exercising and running (sorry Ernesto). Around midday everyone finished they race and we returned to Berkeley to pack our suitcases and start saying our good byes. Jenn, Thomas and I really enjoyed the entire trip because we were able to see a lot of Jenn's family and spend time exploring a great city with Jenn's siblings and Aunts and cousins.

Here is a picture of me at the very end of the 5k. I'll be honest and say that I had zero training and was feeling very out of shape.

These pictures here are from the entire trip and I do believe they are pretty much in chronological order, so you should be able to tell which pictures are Napa and which ones are Alcatraz, enjoy!

San Fran Trip

Have We Left Yet?

Here in the Ash house we've been pulling out the suitcases and getting ready for a vacation. This upcoming Thursday we will fly out to San Fransisco to visit some of Jenn's family (her Aunts and cousins). Once the suitcases had been pulled out, Thomas realized they had wheels and he started pulling and pushing them around the house. Jenn was laughing and taking these pictures of Thomas with the suitcase. And don't worry, because next week I'll post tons of pictures from our exciting San Fran trip, so be sure to be back next week!





This short video is from Sunday night. Arizona is in the monsoon season which means we get wind rain and storms. Last night after our softball game we ate dinner and heard some thunder. Thomas wasn't too sure if he should cry or just say that it was a cah (car). Jenn and Thomas stood outside to see if they could see any lightning and this is the video from that exploration.

Talented Boys

This past Tuesday night we went to a talent show at Thomas' daycare. The plan was that Thomas and some of his classmates would do a little act and then I would get up on stage and do a little comedy. The evening began on a sour note because Thomas wanted nothing to do with the stage and only wanted to sit with me. The act was a cute idea because they had a little pool filled with balloons and a bubble machine and of course a bunch of little 1 year olds sitting in the pool. This first video is some of that act as well as some Thomas moments from later in the evening.

I hope the second video makes you laugh or at least smile because my stand up routine is pretty rusty and so hopefully here in the next year or two I can start performing more regularly and maybe start booking some bigger gigs.





This past week marked Thomas' 18th month and so we had a routine doctor's visit. The doctor was very happy with Thomas' growth and number of words being said and all that good developmental stuff. If you are interested in Thomas' stats, here they are:
Weight = 28lbs 8oz (75th-90th percentile)
Height = 36.5 inches (above 95th percentile)
Head Circ. = 19.5 inches (75th-90th percentile)

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

This is a little video of Thomas on Sunday night. We think being a little boy is great, and being a 'clean' little boy is even better. Thomas really enjoys bath time which I assume most little kids do, and it's always fun for Jenn or I to pour water on him and get his hair all soapy and stuff.



In case some of you care for more information from this past weekend, I'm sorry to report that this was a quiet and relaxing weekend. We hung out with Steve and Leia, we went to church and we played some softball. Other than that, this was just another relaxed and easy weekend.

Independence Day

We hope everyone had an excellent 4th of July! This is always a fun time of year here in Arizona because it's so hellishly hot that you have to swim in pools or stay indoors with AC blasting. We mostly did the swimming thing this past weekend, which is fun because Thomas is becoming more and more comfortable with the water and even going underwater.

Our 4th of July celebration started on Saturday the 3rd because Uncle Steve and Auntie Leia invited us and other friends over for a pool party. The below pictures are from our 'crazy-fun' Saturday. We ate burgers, dogs, swam in the pool and played Minute to Win It. For those that have seen the show, you know that it's an exciting show filled with some silly games. The premise, for those who haven't seen or heard of the show is that a contestant is offered a chance at winning money if they complete a certain task in 1 minute. The tasks or games are little things that can be created just by looking around the house. I won't go into specific details about all the games we had, but I will tell you that it was great fun and really made the party memorable.

3rd of July

The following day, or Independence Day was spent hanging out with some friends who have a pool and live near a mountain. The reason I mention this mountain (South Mt.) is because we all hiked up the mountain at 8:30 and were able to see 7 or 8 different fireworks displays across the valley. It was pretty incredible and we're already excited for next year's 4th of July.

We hope all you readers had terrific 4th's and hopefully nobody lost any digits from fire crackers.

Jump Into Summer

Although today is July 1st, and 4th of July is this Sunday, this pool video is from yesterday- June 30th. After work Jenn, Thomas and I went over to swim with Uncle Steve and Tia Leia (good thing they have a pool). Jenn has been wanting to get Thomas as much pool exposure as possible since we don't have a pool and kids that know how to swim makes parents more at ease.

You will notice in the pictures that we also had Gramma Katie, Uncle Mundo, Eddie and Melynda in attendance during our evening pool swim. This time of year is nice because the pool water temperature is still enjoyable and in another month or two it will become too hot to enjoy. As we all know, swimming is like Goldie Locks, too hot and too cold are no bueno.

As for the 4th of July, we will be at a couple different pools and we'll try and take lots of pictures and video to show everyone how the weekend turned out. Until then, enjoy these pictures and video!