Home!

We are home safe from Alaska!  It was amazing!  I haven't had time to upload all my pictures yet, but I'm working on it.  Check back soon!

Here are a couple teasers to wet your beak:

Stay tuned for the rest!

Some news from Seattle!

I've been in Seattle since Wednesday, visiting family and having an all-around fabulous time.  I didn't bring my laptop, so I'll post pictures when I get home.  However, it'll be longer than I originally planned because Aaron just found out he'll be done with work on Tuesday, so I'm flying from here straight to Alaska to meet him.  I've always wanted to go to Alaska, and while it won't be a long trip (we'll probably fly home Saturday to relieve my parents of dog-sitting duties), it will be all my dreams come true!!  Aaron has a whole itinerary planned, so I'm sure it'll be super fun!  Don't worry, I'll take a million pictures, as usual!  See you next week!!!

Mom's Birthday Surprise!

So, my mom's birthday is today (May 17th) and every other year my Auntie Teresa and I plan a surprise.  One year, we blindfolded her and took her to Napa.  Another time, we told her my friend from Japan was visiting and when she found out it was a lie to get her to San Francisco for foot massages, she was so mad.  Hint: never let the lie be better than the real surprise.  We learned that one the hard way.  This year we decided to bring her into San Francisco and take her on a walk around Crissy Field (she had mentioned wanting to walk around the area someday) and then to lunch.  Nothing major, but the surprise part is always stressful.  If you've ever thrown anyone a surprise party (I've done my fair share) you know the hardest part is preventing the person from finding out before the surprise and ruining everything.  

Funny story time: Once I threw Aaron a surprise party for graduating from his apprenticeship at work (it was a pretty big deal, he'd been in the apprenticeship for over 4 years).  I planned for everyone to meet at La Tapatia in Concord (Aaron likes Mexican food) and then come over for a party afterwards.  

The day of the party, Aaron didn't want to go to the restaurant.  He wanted to go somewhere else and I basically told him no and he was super irritated.  I told him it would just be the two of us having dinner to celebrate his graduation and he didn't understand why he couldn't pick the restaurant.  Someone shoot me in the face!  Then, we arrive at the restaurant (everyone should already be waiting in the special party room) and we run into one of the guests (running late), who quickly pretended she just happened to be there for dinner ALONE!  Aaron didn't think anything of it and we invited her to join us (I think my heart stopped beating).  Then we go inside and the hostess has sudden amnesia and doesn't remember seeing me 2 HOURS AGO WHEN I EXPLAINED EVERYTHING and seats us in the normal dining section.  I'm frantically mouthing to her that we're with the party and she's not getting it AT ALL!  She seats us, and Diane and I look at each other like "Umm, what do we do??!"  Finally I had to get up and tell them and have them lead us to the other room like idiots, where he actually was really surprised, but I could've died it was so stressful!!!  Why do I keep doing this to myself?!  Anyway, here's a few pictures of that surprise party:

I was pretty proud of my graduation cap cupcakes:

Yay!  Good times!

Anyway, back to my mom's surprise.  The night before I told her I had an appointment with a dermatologist in the city and was wondering if she could come with me because I didn't want to go by myself.  Now, this is already weird because I haven't asked my mom to go to the doctor with me since I could drive myself, but she didn't think anything of it (other than being kind of annoyed).  So, it's 9am the next morning and I'm telling her we need to go and she's barely dressed and stressed out already because she's getting a bunch of calls about a house she's selling (she's a real estate agent) and it's just perfect.  Stressed=not thinking clearly because if she put her thinking cap on for even a second, she would see this whole thing is strange and it would unravel before my eyes.  I'm texting my aunt we're on our way (she lives in the Marina District in the city) and she even gives me the name and address of a dermatologist near her house, so my mom wouldn't get too suspicious.  I mean, that's pretty good.  

The only part that backfired was that she ended up telling a bunch of people where she was going that day (to take me to the dermatologist, to which everyone responded "oh no, is she ok?").  Just what I need, for everyone to think I had a boil so huge I couldn't even drive myself to the skin doctor.  I mean, seriously?  Thanks a lot, mom.

So, we're on our way and as soon as we get over the Golden Gate Bridge, she's telling me we need to go right to get to the doctor's office, but I play dumb and go left (towards my aunt's house).  I kept pretending the GPS was making me do it and I was telling her I was going to turn around, but never did.  Even when we were in front of my aunt's apartment building, she didn't put together what was happening (to be fair, she was yelling at me for not listening to her and making a bunch of wrong turns like a crazy person).  I tell her we're not going to the doctor DUH! and she gets so irritated!  It was hilarious!!  All I remember is: "You had me all stressed out for nothing!  I didn't have time to shower or get dressed!  You guys are awful!"  My aunt gets in the car and we're just loving every second of it!  Yes!!  We got her good!

We drove to Crissy Field, about 3 minutes from my aunt's house, parked and took a nice, long stroll.

Twinsies:

Alcatraz:

City:

Palace of Fine Arts:

The Robin Williams Tunnel (YAY!):

Zoomed out:

Zoomed out more:

There were a bunch of these rock stacking things:

I'm not sure who decided this was a thing, but I've seen it on beaches all over the world.  I hope they copyrighted it.

Keep going:

Lots of people were painting landscapes of the bridge and water:

This had something to do with global warming and Al Gore:

This guy has to be freezing:

These were on Fort Point, but what the heck are they?

They look ancient.

So did these, lining the entire path:

Walking back to the car:

Egret?

Phone check:

Bye Crissy Field!

We drove about 5 minutes to The Presidio to go to lunch.  Close to The Palace of Fine Arts:

We ate at Sessions:

I let the ladies have their fun and order drinks (I was the DD):

This is what they got:

Mmmmmm!

We got an app (and a zert!  Parks and Rec anyone?):

It was very unique and delicious.  It kind of tasted like gnocchi, but the pesto was incredible and the pepitas (some kind of pumpkin seed) were a perfect touch.

Entrees:

We each picked one, but shared all of them.  The standout was the chicken sandwich.  Wow, just perfect.  The other two were good, but nothing amazing.

My aunt's hat was just the best:

Time for the zert!  We wanted to try something weird, so we got the basil cake.

We told the waiter it was my mom's birthday and here's what they did:

Isn't it beautiful?  It looks like a little garden!

It was the strangest dessert I've ever had, but it was really good.  The way it was deconstructed was so creative, it really is gorgeous.  The cake was soooo yummy!  I need to get a basil cake recipe.

Then we dropped Auntie Teresa off and drove back home.  Surprise success!

Happy Birthday to my momma!

In other news, her TV came in and she's loving it:

It took us hours to switch every TV in the house, so everyone got a bit of an upgrade.  This picture was taken before the switch and I forgot to take one after, oops!  The new TV is in that box there.  Yup, really good picture of a box.

In other super exciting news, Kane discovered the hot tub:

Okay, this looks totally creepy because I had to use my flash.  Usually we have the cover on the hot tub, but my dad likes to go in sometimes in the evenings and this was the first time he went up the stairs and saw it.  Man, oh man was he intrigued.  Kane loves the water and this looks like a giant pool (well, bigger than his kiddie pool anyway) and he's so temped!

Aaron's still in Alaska:

This was at 9:30pm:

Sun's still up!

That about does it on my end, go out and thrown someone a surprise party!  There isn't a more fun way to stress out everyone you know!