End of Summer Stay-Cation

We spent a lot of our summer adjusting to being small business owners, and Cristina was also putting on the Natural Parenting Fair, so we were all needing some family time with just us. So I booked a night at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress for a getaway.

We had stayed here a few years ago, but Matteo was pretty little, and we remember having a fabulous time. We had also heard they had just renovated the pool, and I found an amazing online rate, so we went for it. It definitely didn't disappoint. We had a great time reconnecting and getting away for the night. The boys loved the pool, and we even got to rent kayaks and cruise around the lake. 

Below are some pictures:

Lounging in a hammock with my Luca.

Matteo checking out the ducks.

Matteo decided to play in the splash pad with his clothes on that night.

San Francisco - Day 10

Today was our travel day back home. We spent the morning, cleaning and packing our rental and then made our way via the BART back to SFO to catch our flight back to Fort Lauderdale. We got to the airport a little early, so we took our time at the airport.

 It was a long flight, but direct, which was nice.  Matteo and Luca slept a good part of it, so when we landed at 11pm local time, they were only feeling like it was 8pm.  One of the funny things about the flight was on the decent into Ft. Lauderdale, Luca was over it and screaming 'OUT, GET OUT!', so I leaned over and tried to find something to calm him down, and when I did, he just gripped his seat and yelled 'GET. ME. OUT!' It gave a bunch of people a good laugh, but thankfully he calmed down a bit too as we landed.

They were happy campers dancing around the airport at almost midnight.

We found a 24 hour McDonald's on the way back to Melbourne, and made it home right around 3am.  Yotee was dropped off the day before and waiting for us on the porch.  He was VERY excited to see all of us. The kids slept until about 10am on Father's Day, and enjoyed a somewhat lazy day playing with the dog.

For Father's Day they really wanted me  wash the van with them :-/ So I obliged, it needed it, and then we went to church Sunday evening.

It was such a great trip for our family. Cristina got trained in running a successful business, and I got to spend quality time with the kids exploring a new city.

San Francisco - Day 9

Today is our last full day here in the city. Cristina graduates from training this afternoon and then it's back home tomorrow.

Since we are going to Cristina and Jill's 'graduation' I needed to make sure we were home early from our morning adventure so we could have early lunches and naps.

This morning we went out to the Embarcadero station via the 'N' line to catch the California Street Trolley, for one last trolley trip. I also wanted to make sure I got my money's worth on the 7 day unlimited MUNI passes I bought for Sebastian and me (kids under 5 are free).

Luca had to have his own seat like a big boy.

After we took the line there and back, we made our way back on the MUNI and stopped at a gluten free grocery store to try to find a cupcake for Matteo since the graduation party is going to have cake. 

After lunch, we laid down for naps. Luca still gives me a few minutes of a hard time while missing Mami, but he is getting better about it. He likes to lay right on top of me 'ontopyou' he says, and he fell asleep almost exactly like the picture below.

He's such a snuggler.

An here is Sebastian. He is such a restless sleeper! He started out as normal in his bed, and ended up like this:

After naps we are heading off to the Gymboree headquarters to see Mami and Ms. Jill, then try to have some fun in the city!

I had to wake up Matteo to head over to meet Cristina. Luca had just woken up and was so tired still. We made our way to the office to meet the people Cristina had been spending her training with. Below is a picture of the official Franchisee Graduates for Melbourne franchise 849!

As well as Mami with her boys her missed her while she was at work.

After the party, we took Mami and Ms. Jill to Golden Gate Park (one if the favorites of the kids), to play. Unfortunately we had just missed being able to ride the carousel again by about 30 minutes :( I felt so bad because I had promised them we could go back and ride it.

They had fun anyway on the playground.

I had such a great time on this trip spending quality time with my boys! It was a great lead in to Father's Day. I am so blessed with these guys, and getting away for this time was such a great experience.

I am also so proud of Cristina for her hard work and passion into this new venture.

San Francisco - Day 8

Today was our last full day of being on our own. Tomorrow Cristina is done around 3 from training, and we plan on having some family time in the afternoon.

Today I will start with a little 'behind the  scenes' tour of what our morning was like. Luca caught me sneaking chocolate cake for breakfast, and since he is our ONLY child interested in chocolate, I couldn't resist (and yes, that is a potato chip in his hand. Don't judge ;-)

After 'breakfast' we headed out to ride the trolley again. When we rode it last Saturday it was SO crowded it wasn't very fun. I was hoping a weekday would be better. It was a little, but not much.

My littlest guy.

All aboard!

We took the California line to the Powell-Hyde line, and then got off at the famous Lombard, the most crooked street.

Our hike down. Matteo was on my back and not very in to the experience and Luca was in the stroller until we got to the bottom.

 

I finally convinced Matteo to be in a picture.

Once we went down Lombard, we headed up to the Fisherman's Wharf area and then Pier 39 to see the seals again.

Then we caught the F streetcar back to Embarcadero to catch the N line back to Ballpark. Only problem was the F line took about 40 minutes to arrive!! Then of course it finally arrived and I go to pick up Luca and he's stinky :-( well I wasn't waiting another 40 minutes, so we hopped on, and of course it is packed because it hadn't been running. Luca starts screaming/shrieking because he wants a seat, and some nice couple obliged.

Cruising down the Embarcadero on the street car. The poor people around us, because he was so stinky!

We got off at our stop and I made a beeline for the Hyatt, thinking I could easily change him there. Well the restroom didn't have a changing table (grrr, they hardly ever put them in men's rooms!!!) so I had to change him on the sink :-( poor little trooper, but we managed. We got 'home' and he was zonked!

Then this afternoon before Mami came home we had some fun time at the playground.

San Francisco - Day 7

Today is Cristina and my 9th wedding anniversary! Unfortunately she had to leave the house before 7am this morning, but I was blessed to spend this special day with the fruits of our love over the last 9 years. 

Today's adventure was to the San Francisco Zoo! What a day! The zoo is on the complete opposite side of where we are staying, so it was a long ride on MUNI for the little guys. They did great though. 

We left the house at about 9:30am and arrived back just after 4pm. The zoo was a lot bigger than I expected.

We weren't even through the front gates yet when of course we had to stop for a snack.

Once we were in, they had a lot of the same animals we have at the Brevard Zoo, but some of the different ones were penguins, grizzly bears, polar bears, lions and tigers.

I am just going to dump some of the pics I have on my phone. Most of the good pics I took are on the real camera, because Cristina would kill me if I didn't take 'real' pictures, as she calls them.

They had a great nature trail with volunteers set up in various stations around the loop with an animal they could touch and learn about.

Plus a fun insect building with all sorts of insects, and this cool climbing web outside.

Luca brushing the goat.

I never usually buy food for the kids to feed the animals, but the petting area was so cool, and they had the opportunity to feed goats, so I splurged the $0.50 and let them do it.

Then I had to feed the other animals :)

Group shot with my crew! Matteo was almost out by this point, but he held on about 5 more minutes after this pic.

We made the trip back to the MUNI station. Sebastian and I were running at the end because we didn't want to wait for the next one.

Her's photos of my crew on the trip back.

What a fun day! I am glad we decided to do the zoo. I almost didn't do it since we have a zoo at home, but it was different enough to be a great experience.