Natural Bridges

Since I am still trying to catch up from the Christmas vacation, here are even more photos from our time as a family. Just after Christmas we went to Natural Bridges beach to soak up the sun while it lasted. It was actually quite a nice day and we were not too cold while we were there. The sun was shinning and it made a pretty shade of pink and yellow in the clouds.

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Callie was so excited to be at the beach! She tore off her shoes as soon as we hit the sand and grabbed a stick to start drawing. This was her first masterpiece, A Hat. It kind of resembles the Yellow Man's hat from Curious George books.

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Tess is more timid and was not quite sure of the water. She would scream and run away from the waves and was more than happy to just sit and play in the sand.

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Jon came walking up with a giant kelp strand and Callie decided that she had to carry it all over the beach! Of course what Callie did, Tess had to do too, so they carried that thing around for a little while, up and down the sand hills.

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Piggie Pie!

I had to dedicate a post to the book of the vacation. This was Tessa's favorite book after the second day that they were here and she would ask for it all the time. Since I was the one who pulled it out and read it to her the first time, Tess would only let me read it to her at first. Then when I was getting to tired, she would turn to her mom or any other willing adult.

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I first heard of 'Piggie Pie' from a friend in my teaching credential program. She had read the book to her children when they were young and she shared it with us. I loved it and had been looking for it ever since. I found it the week that Kelly and her girls got into town, at the recycled book store in downtown Campbell and I couldn't wait to share it with the girls. I am glad that they loved it so much!

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San Francisco- Cable Car Ride

December brought family but also the annual Walton family cable car ride in San Francisco! I must admit that I had never participated in this tradition before, even though I have been a Walton for over 3 years now, so I was just as excited as our nieces and nephews to get there and get riding!

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Fist stop though, was Ghirardelli Square where we broke every diet rule we may have had before and dug in to rich chocolate shakes and triple scoop ice cream sundaes.... It makes my mouth water just thinking about these yummy treats!

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Tessa truly enjoyed this tradition and almost drank the entire chocolate shake, had Kelly not stollen a few sips now and then.

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Becky, Ryan and their family waiting for their yummy shakes to arrive! These kids don't look the least bit excited... :)

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Kevin Harrington was nice enough to use his super nice SLR and capture a picture of Matt and me while we waited to board the cable car.

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Is this girl excited or what?! She was looking out the window and singing along with all of the Christmas Carols that we were singing to the full streets of SF. At least on the way there. The ride home was a different story...

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Me and my Grandma Karren and Peterson! I had no idea that they would both be there but I was glad to see them!

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The tired group after a long night of ice cream, caroling and the SF lights. And even though we were tired, we had a great time. Hopefully we repeat this tradition again some time:)

With everyone in town for Christmas and a wonderful cousin by the name of Mike, the kids got to go to a real fire station and ride in a real fire truck and shoot water from a real fire hose! They were so excited about it and talked about their trip to the fire station for days afterwards!

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Since I can't include all of the 100 sum-odd photos that I took during our trip to the fire station, I am posting some of my favorites below. I hope that you enjoy them too!

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Molly and Callie inside the cab of the fire truck. These smiles were plastered on their faces all day!

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Can you tell that Seth was excited to be there? :)

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This picture shows just how beautiful Callie is!

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Seth waving as the fire truck came back into the station after taking the first load of kids around the block.

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Callie wanted to be the first to shoot water from the hose. Look at that smile! She was SO excited!

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Tessa was the same. She loved getting to ride in the fire truck and spray water from the hose. She was the second kid to step forward and spray water from the hose with Firefighter Mike. And afterwards, she yelled, "I did it! I really did it!"

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I just had to put this one up. Sorry Kelly:) Doesn't she look tough shooting the fire hose with her purse and all?

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And lastly, I got all of the kids to pose for a shot in the front of the firetruck. They had a blast. Thank you again Mike!