San Francisco Part 3

"You need to go to church for two reasons." Abe informed us as he and Klarissa were giving us our instructions before leaving, "First, we have a friend who I think you would love and I want you to meet her, and second, you guys are already on the program to say the opening and closing prayers."

Laugh, laugh. Oh Abe, you're so funny. And then we found out he wasn't joking.

Sunday morning was an inner battle. I wanted to go to Abe and Klarissa's ward to check it out, meet their friends, give my obligatory prayer. Buuuuuuuuuuuut it was our last day in San Francisco, and we felt like we had just gotten there (because we had), and we still had a few things we wanted to do in the city.

I spent the morning sighing over what to do until I went to get Newland dressed. Now, as I told my mom, I was dressing him in clothes that weren't suitable for church, so I guess I had already made up my mind about what we would be doing (or not doing) for the day, but when he puked straight into my hands as I was dressing him, that really sealed the deal for us.

To the beach!

When you take into account that the weather was perfect, it was a Sunday, and a holiday weekend, the streets of San Fran were especially buzzing.

Carson was sure to inform us of every boat within sight.

Don't you hate it when your husband is right? Like, for example, as we were packing for this trip, Jeff kept warning me with every pair of shorts I packed for the boys,  "Sarah, you know, San Francisco is pretty cold. People go to San Francisco thinking, 'Oh! California! The weather is going to be so nice!' but it's actually pretty chilly. Like the kids need jackets and long pants."

I rolled my eyes. Oh Jeff. We're going to CALIFORNIA. It's going to be warm. I checked the weather and it was high 60's - low 70's. That sounded like shorts weather for this Utahn.

Then we got to San Francisco. And it was freezing. And we all only had one pair of pants. Which we wore every single day. Including beach day. We had finally wised up by Sunday and I had learned my lesson I need to dress the kids warm. Then we get to the beach in our jeans, and the sun was shining, not a lick of wind to be found, and the weather was perfect. We just couldn't get it right.

Our lack of trust in California's notorious sunshine led Eli to splash around in his jeans...and eventually in just his underwear. But I will note that there were other kids not related to us running around in their underwear as well, so it gave us the impression it was almost socially acceptable to flounce around in your undies in San Francisco.

The trooper who held back any further spewing to plow through a day at the beach with his cousins. Thatta boy Newland!

A (maybe slightly intoxicated) man offered to take our picture. When he said, "Do you want me to get the kids in it?" I quickly said, "No! No no no no!"

Part of me was like, heck no are we going to have success getting all three of the kids to stand still, look at the camera, and be looking cute for this picture. And the other half of me was like, maybe I can fool instagram into thinking our vacation had a hint of romance to it despite the three children we were chasing around. This one moment is as romantic as it got in Cali for me and Jeffery. Captured by a partially drunken sun bather. While the children ran in opposite directions all around us.

The boys did prove me wrong and all managed to sit still, look at the camera and look cute at the same time! Favorite picture of the whole trip right here:

And then they all laid down in the sand? Newland started it off. Looking back, I'm realizing he probably collapsed in exhaustion from being sick, but at the time I thought it was just his favorite way to spend his time at the beach.

Newland fell asleep as soon as we were back in the car, and my crew had a little rest time before we continued our adventures.

This is how you keep two wanderers safe until the strollers are unloaded from the car.

We went to a super fun park that evening. The best part -- it was all fenced in!

Though it was fenced in, it was huge, and we lost track of one kid for about 5 minutes. As I watched the gates leading to the outside world open and close with each person entering or leaving, I began getting more and more nervous Eli had slipped out with another group. Then I looked around at the cars whizzing by, and all the people around, and all the places he could be, and the terror struck. 

Jeff and I circled the park about 5 times each before Carson proudly announced, "There Eli!" Eli had been climbing on the water fountain thing that didn't have any water in it, I don't know how we missed him, but he was thankfully there all along. Whew!

How else would we end the night? Popsicles, movie and popcorn of course!

Newland was climbing all over me and being a little goofball right before bed. I felt like we had a breakthrough and he finally liked me. It was really cute.

It was already our last night and then we were off to meet up with Abe and Klarissa the next day...