Valentines trip to San Fransisco

Kirk and I went to San Fransisco for Valentines Day weekend. Kirk had to meet with some Clients on Friday and Monday, so we got to spend 4 days in the Bay City. I have always wanted to go back there and really have time to explore. It was a great trip. We forgot our real camera, so all the pictures were taken with the iphone. Not great pictures, but I'm glad to have some documentation of the fun trip. Here are the highlights:

*The first thing I saw as we came out of the gate at the airport was the beautiful bay.
*We got to stay in a very old hotel (you know how I LOVE old buildings) that had been renovated with a very modern look.
*We stayed just a block from Market street, and the Westfield shopping center. Seriously only 2 blocks from Anthropologie.
*Sourdough Bread bowls and chowder from Boudins
*Romantic walks in the rain (sometimes a run in the rain.)
*Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.

a>strong>*Getting the last 2 tickets to Alcatraz. I have been totally intrigued by the history of this place since I was a kid, and was dying to go. Besides what is more romantic than spending your first Valentines Day together on the ROCK!

We are going to be posting a copy of this in our house. Do you think these foo foo vinyl companys print prison regulations?

*Walked around the city and Union Square at 10:00 pm to find a good Valentines Dinner restaurant.
*Just getting to be with my new husband in a beautiful city without any of the kids. I really loved spending so much time with him. I hope we always enjoy eachother this much.

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The cable car museam - it was actually really fascinating.

Kirk and I on Alcatraz Island. What a great guy! I am a very lucky girl!

The Andrus Elementary Ninja Club

Ok, I know that everyone is going to think this blog is all about Finn, and honestly this little guy is so entertaining to me, that I should probably just make a blog exclusively to document the funny things he does. Until then, I hope everyone will forgive some more Finn-isms.

Finn told me recently, during another bedtime conversation, that he started a ninja club at his school. He invited nearly all of the kids from his Kindergarten class, and some of the kids from the other class to be in it. This really surprised me because Finn hasn't really been obsessed with ninjas or anything, and has in the past been somewhat shy. Anyway he was telling me about asking some of the kids, and he told me that he asked Travis, (Travis is a kid who called Finn ugly during the first few weeks of school. Finn asked me to confront him on the playground, and they have been friends ever since.) if he wanted to be a helper in the ninja club. Travis said he would need to ask his mom. So Finn said he could just be in the club and not be a helper, but Travis said he would need to ask his mom about that as well. When Finn told me this I laughed. (Perhaps its not funny when you read about it, but if you know Finn and have heard him tell a tale with his eyes popping and eybrows shooting up, you know why I think its funny.) Anyway, I laughed and then said (joking) what a sissy! Yikes, I hope Finn doesn't tell Travis that I think he is a sissy.

Also the ninja club has a meeting every Wednesday before school, and practices ninja soccer and other ninja sports during the recesses. Yesterday Finn told me that he had told the 4 members of the ninja club that there would be no more ninja activities until next Thursday because it was just taking up to much of his time and he didn't have time to just play with his friends and do the monkey bars.

Today he disbanded the ninja club altogether because he was really hurt that he had invited so many kids to participate and only 4 of them kept showing up. He said it was just to much pressure for him to train everybody.

Amazing!

One Occupation Finn Can Just Forget About

Last night while lying in bed with Finn I asked him about his day at school and if he played with his friend Katelyn S. (who he is going to marry unless she wants to marry him first.) His eyes got huge and his eyebrows shot up "Guess what happened to Katelyn on the playground today?"

"What????"

"She got stuck at the top of the rock climbing wall."

Now I had previously thought it was really cool that he has several rock climbing walls on his playground, and probably because my child is part monkey, I had never considered that other children could possibly fall to their death (or twisted ankle) or, as was the case with Katelyn S., get stuck at the top. I said, trying to match Finn's level of shock about the event, "What did you do? Did you help her get down?"

"Well I tried but I couldn't, and even the duty"(a woman who walks around the playground with an earpiece in her ear and a receiver strapped to her belt like a secret service person) "wouldn't help her down, she said Katelyn needed to get down by herself."

I said, "Oh no, how did she finally get down."

"Finally the duty realized that she couldn't do it herself and she helped her down."

Wow, "So Finn," I said "What were you doing to try and help her get down?"

"Oh, I was just yelling things to help her!"

"Like what?"

" Like JUMP!!!"

That's it Finn can just forget about being a crisis negotiator. I definitely don't want him next to me if I'm on a ledge somewhere.

Did you know that bad words have a monarchy?

Tonight Finn said to me, "Mom do you know that the A word is the king of bad words.? It is???? Yes, and Poop and Pee are the guards. Toot is the gate, and do you know what the queen is mom? How could I not say what? Its Butt mom, and that is really confusing because butt isn't even really that bad of a word.

How did you think of all this Finn. "I didn't," he said, "I sat with a new boy on the bus, and he told it to me."

I am grateful that he doesn't always sit by that boy, and that they both think those are the worst words, but I may start driving them to school a lot more.

(I have to apologize here for the excess of potty words in this post, but I can't say it will never happen again. I do have 5 boys after all.)

Finally Living the Dream

While we were in Southern California a few weeks ago Porter, Finn and I went to Disneyland. The boys have been wanting to go there for years, and I have been trying to make it happen. Finally the day came and the boys could barely contain their excitment. They were giddy, and amazed by everything they saw. They were so grateful to be there, and before we could even get down Main St. they had thanked me many times for bringing them. As we were standing in line for Space Mountian Porter looked up at me, his smile splitting his face, and said, "I can't believe we're finally living the dream!"

It was a wonderful day. Magical even. No one fought or complained. Nobody cried or begged for stuff. The boys were full of wonder, and gratitude and couldn't help expressing it. The happiest place on earth was made even happier because Aunt Wendy, everybody's favorite Aunt, came to meet us there. It was so fun to go on rides and have lunch with her. She was a great sport, and didn't even mind getting wet on splash mountain. (There is a reason the line for that ride is so short in December. BRRRRRRR!)

Our magical day was made complete by an amazing fire works show over Sleeping Beauty's castle in the evening. The fireworks were synchronized with beautiful Chrstmas music. When the fire works were over I looked over at Porter and both of our eyes were filled with tears. We just stood in the streets and hugged eachother. Just then the song I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas started playing, and it started snowing little puffs of bubbles. The air was filled with the beautiful white fluff, and people all around were ooohing and aaahing. Seriously that Walt Disney guy really knows how to direct a happy ending!

A New Holiday Classic

Don't you just love the beautiful Christmas music this time of year. For weeks our house has been filled with the joyous strains of familiar Christmas carols, as well as some new favorites. This morning however, there is a new song filling the air. It seems to have gotten stuck in Finn's head, and he just keeps repeating this one line.

"I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus...It was very gross for me!"

There is no use trying to correct him, and tell him the real lyrics. As usual Finn knows he is right. I asked him why he thought that would be gross, and he said well guess what? I DO think its gross when you kiss daddy, so it would be even grosser if you kissed Santa. Hmmmm, I disagree!

Some People Are Just Afriad of Santa

Last night as we were putting our kids to bed, I was lying with Finn who shares a room with Brandon. Finn was talking about when he went to see Santa in California. He said that he didn't sit on Santa's lap, but just stood next to him. Brandon asked, "why didn't you sit on his lap, were you afraid of him?"

Finn, acting a little offended quickly replied with an emphatic 'NO!"
Brandon said, "well some people are just afraid of Santa."
Finn agreed, "yeah, like theives."
I said, "really, thieves are afraid of santa? Why?"
Finn explained, "its because he has all of those umbrellas, and the theives know that he could just whack them."
I said, "what umbrellas?"
Finn said, "well you know how it snows all the time in the North Pole. Santa has to always carry an umbrella, and since they break easily he probably has a lot of them."

I am telling you he says these things with a straight face, and is completely convinced that he is correct. I think he has a great career in politics!