The coldest winter I ever spent was the week in June I spent in San Francisco


We rode a cable car to church.

Steve and I are pretty bad at photographing and documenting our collective life. Well, I take that back: he keeps a fairly faithful journal, so I'm pretty bad at it. We're both bad at taking pictures and his stress level rises whenever I suggest he should be good at that, because who has time to take on one more hobby?

Point is, though, we have a good life together. We love each other. Our kids are pretty cute and, in spite of all their wild monkeyness, they're good kids and good people.

We spent all of last week in San Francisco, which is such a magical city. I mean, it totally looks like a magical, fairy tale city when you come in across the Bay Bridge, with its hilly, tree-y skyline. People there are really good at parallel parking and they have charming neighborhoods, awesome food, and everyone is nice, even though there are cheap souvenirs and double-decker tour buses every which way. I probably wouldn't be very nice if I lived in a city with double-decker tour buses.

My parents came with us and were super great. They're maybe the most accommodating and flexible people you could ever hope to travel with, even my dad who pretends to be curt. I love that my children will have memories with all of their grandparents.

Isaac and Aaron have dark brown eyes.

We rode a cable car to church.

Comments

Neil and Diana said…
Emily, thank you for posting the best post ever. Bye.
July 10, 2011 4:54 PM
Anonymous said…
i think that it's safe to say that of all the cities i have been to thus far, san francisco is my favorite. i wouldn't recommend experiencing it on a bike if your behind isn't used to a bike. it might ruin parts of the rest of your trip. but not the beautiful views, delicious food, and amazing weather. and hooray for dark brown eyes. and your beautiful babies, photographed frequently, or not.
July 10, 2011 11:54 PM
Sarah said…
we looked through all of papa's s.f. photos last night and it looks like so much fun. i'm glad you got to go.
July 11, 2011 9:29 AM
amyegodfrey said…
That WAS a terrific post. I loved that week with you in the magical city. Thank you for taking us along. There will be memories to talk about forever.
July 11, 2011 6:10 PM
Jennifer said…
Great post. Don't ever take up photography b/c it might deter you from writing, which is your obvious gift. And I'm lousy at taking pictures, too--it makes me enjoy the moment less, even though I know I'll be glad for the photos in the long run. I guess I'm all about immediate gratification on trips. Glad I have company! Let's promise each other never to scrapbook...
July 16, 2011 11:51 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Another taboo topic: money

I don't have a lot of real visible or artistic talents, but one talent that has served me well is an ability to manage and organize money well. A few of my sisters-in-law have asked me how I do the family budget, so this is a straight up accounting of how I do the accounting. When we get a paycheck: 10% tithing right off the top Then, with the remainder (net minus tithing), I divy it up into percentages and put money into different "funds" -- that I keep track of in the back of my paycheck because I'm old school like that. Mortgage: I figure out the percentage it will take to cover my mortgage. Usually 29-30%. I think this percentage needs to stay under 35% of take-home after tithing. Baby steps: 20% goes to meeting financial goals a la Dave Ramsey's baby steps. This means that you focus on one thing at a time, leaving the rest so that your money is not so thinly spread and you can make visible progress. This presupposes that one has abandoned using credit, and i...
Read more

Two things

Image
First and foremost, happy birthday to my wonderful mom! I honestly don't know anyone more generous, giving or good with people. I like to think of myself as being generous, giving and good with people, but I've got nothing on her . She schools me, bigtime. Some of the unique things that make my mom my mom: She loves my children absolutely, which is a joy and a comfort to me. When she is around, they prefer her to me. She would rather be with her grandchildren than out with the adults, but does not relax when they are around. It's constant counting heads, making snowcones, taking off too-warm clothing, changing diapers, getting drinks. It's exhausting, and she's good at it. And she loves it. (I'm pretty sure.) She hates flying, but flies all over the place, because travel and culture and enriching experiences and seeing family trump her fears every time. She also hates bridges. And swimming. And confrontation. And cooking. And bad grammar. And dopey people. And a...
Read more