Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What a nice weekend!

Hi everyone. Well last weekend was pretty fun. While we had the inversion in Salt Lake and it was freezing cold. Stacey was in sunny San Francisco for a 24 hour layover. So I hopped on a flight to San Francisco to enjoy the sun with her. The weather was great and the crew that she was flying with were pretty fun. We Road the B.A.R.T. (Bay Area Rail Transit) like a subway or Traxx into San Fran. From there we walked and walked and walked. Yes pioneer children we walked. We went up to China Town so they could see how crowded it could be. It was a mess. Tons of people and cars on one-way streets. T-Shirts for sale everywhere. We even saw a corner market where they had chicken feet for sale.We walked down to the pier where we saw the dinner fleets and the harbour cruises leaving. The ocean is great! I could be on Fisherman's Wharf all day. Most of the people we were with could not stand the smell of the fish and seafood. We saw Sea Lions and Alcatraz (see picture). They are way cool. We walked over to the battleship Jeremiah O'Brien and the old submarine that are in the harbour. We even walked up to Ghirardelli Square for Stacey's sweet tooth. The chocolate was very good. We ate on the wharf , but to tell the truth the food was not that great. I was a little disappointed. We looked at a lot of things but one of the best and funniest was a black man at the pier called the "Bushman." The Bushman sits behind some branches (That he drags everywhere with him) and when unsuspecting people walk by he jumps out at them or growls at them. The people loose their mind screaming and jumping out of the way. It was fun to watch him do that. I know it does not take much to amuse me. The day was a great day away. Stacey and I really enjoyed it. Everyone needs a weekend like that once in a while. I hope your weekend was as much fun.



Friday, January 9, 2009

Reflections of Christmas


Thinking back...what a strange Christmas season this one was. The day after Thanksgiving we did not get up early to fight the crowds to buy presents we could not live without. But we still made it to IHOP for breakfast! On December 2nd Courtney had "Preston" our 2nd grandson. He was very small. Only a whopping 10lbs 11 oz. What a great looking kid! I (Todd) was able to go to Iowa for Preston's birth (and to play with Drew), so the Christmas lights did not get put up on the house. (I don't need to take them down either) We built a snowman that after a while was leaning so far back it looked like he was doing the limbo. Drew also built a ginger bread house covered in candy. Most of the candy never made it to the house. I had a great time with Courtney, Doug, Drew and Preston. Stacey was able to go to Iowa the next week and be with the Giles clan and help with the new baby. She had a good time but said she almost froze to death. One of the days it was -8 degrees without the wind chill factor.
Christmas Miracle: We sent a Christmas package to Iowa for the Giles clan and it actually got there before Christmas. "Yahoo! Postal Service."
Stacey had to work on Christmas. The weather was so bad that instead of being home at 8:00 p.m. she got home around 2:00 a.m. We were glad she made it home safe.
Brooke and Braden had to work a lot of the season. It was great to have them around. Brooke and I went shopping together a couple of times. Braden had most of his shopping done fairly early. I of course did not.
Like I said "What a strange Christmas season.
Oh yeah, the picture is at Temple Square. Also, I hope I am doing this right. If not, bear with me. Courtney is teaching me to blog. Have a great 2009!