daisy fields forever

^^ Does the grass here ever not look like a Shakespeare sonnet? Everywhere we go there are endless fields of flowers. It's every child's dream for picking posies, and every hipster's dream for making flower crowns. ^^

^^ I love this photo because it is the perfect moment: sunshine, flowers, and playing under the blanket while listening to a little Joao Gilberto. I've decided movie scenes are cooler than real life because 1. They are fake; but 2. There's a soundtrack, which is why I try to take my music speakers everywhere we go so we can have our own soundtrack to life. That might be lame. Okay, it is lame. But we like it. ^^

^^ Birthday surprise to the symphony! If you are a classical music fan, go download Maurice Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite." I had never heard of it and now I can't stop listening. ^^

^^ And birthday cake for breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper, of course. ^^

heeeey brothers

I was lucky enough to have both of my brothers visit during April, and at different times so we could spread out the love!

^^ When you're 16 maybe it's not the coolest thing when your sister says "twinnsies!" and takes a pic. ^^

^^ Tide pools down south ^^

^^ This Star Wars fan was in nerd-vana at the Lucas Film building. ^^

^^ Compliment of my year: Someone thought I was this guy's younger sister, despite my brother's shock when learning I turned the old age of 29 last weekend (whoa, you're twenty-NINE?!).^^

girls weekend!

I have the best group of gal pals. We have been the best of friends since junior high and are now arranging the marriages of our children so we can all be related. During one of our group texts I asked them to come to SF and seriously ten minutes later plane tickets were bought!!! We really missed Allie, who just had an adorable baby and couldn't come, but I'm totally down with doing this again...hint, hint! We stayed up until 5 am every morning talking like we were 16 again and it was awesome, until my kids woke up at 7 am. I'm in my late 20s but I still think I'm 21, that is until I hang out with 21-year-olds (or act like I'm 21) and then I'm like, "Oh yeah, I'm almost 30." 

what's a mummsie to do

^^ When your husband goes out of town for a week, you beg your mom to come stay with you, even though she was just here a month ago. And what does she do? She flies all the way out to San Francisco to play and keep you company because she's the best mom in the world. Thank you, Mummsie, for the Japanese Tea Garden, Zazie's, walks to the Bridge, and for staying up all night with me watching Netflix. We miss you already! ^^

bermuda buttercups

^^ I do love these Bermuda Buttercups that are making the city happy, and Munchkin loved making a ladybug friend. I feel like we're living in Primavera or some setting of a Grimm fairy tale. ^^

so many things to do!

Every day I try to take the girls on an outing because there are so many things to do in this city I don't think we've even scratched the surface. I need to narrow down a bucket list--any suggestions?

free city tours

^^ I feel like there's a huge untapped resource of entertainment called SF City Guides. These are free walking tours of all the hidden and not-so-hidden gems of the city. I recently went on one called Public Spaces of the Financial District, which was a tour of rooftop gardens and "secret" atriums downtown. Very cool. ^^

^^ We also went on a tour of the Ferry Building, which was then followed by walking around in circles trying to decide which overpriced sandwich we were going to buy from the farmer's market. The answer was none of them. My kids would never appreciate a $14 piece of bread and cheese. ^^

^^ Johnny's made a new tradition of taking me on a surprise adventure to somewhere new every week after church. I loved our little trip to the Moraga--or the Mosaic--Stairs. And just in case you were wondering, there are 163 steps (I have a weird habit of counting stairs. There are 32 up to my apartment, 186 on the "stairs of death" at BYU...) ^^

^^ This photo makes my blood boil. Munchkin took a dance class for nine weeks that parents were not allowed to watch. The very last week we were able to go inside the dance room and watch the girls perform for an hour. And this little turd sat on the floor and pouted (no smiles like above) before she was escorted off the floor by her instructor for "being rude to the other dancers." I went straight to the car and cried "woe-is-me tears"--not our finest moment. ^^