Spring Break 2012

The Kalls Spring Break...a tour via cell phone picture

We visited Yvette, Anders and the kids in San Francisco. It was a great time!

They live on the other side of the Golden Gate Bride. The boys loved driving over this bridge.

Our first day we watched Alexander play basketball (he won, and came in 2nd place for the whole tournament.Way to go Alexander!!) Then we headed over to Stinson Beach. First we took a hike near the beach.

It was a beautiful, (uphill) walk with lots of really interesting trees as we got deeper into the forest. 

Annelie and Charles checking out a hollow, fallen log

A few miles later, we headed to the beach. The fog had rolled in and it was chilly, and misty and kind of miserable. But (most of) the kids still had fun playing in the sand. Yvette and I went to get a coffee.

Stinson Beach

They were filthy and wet and sandy. They cleaned up and had a hot dog break.

The next day, it was off to Tahoe for some skiing. But first we stopped at Trader Joe's for snacks. I was very excited about this (we are getting one in Dallas, but don't have one yet).



About 4 hours later we got to Squaw Valley. We checked out the amenities (kids room here)...

Then the kids had a snowball fight in the "village". There wasn't much snow on the ground, but enough around for a fight.

This is the base of the slopes. We stayed right here in the village. Everything was walking distance. We loved that!!

The next day we skied. The kids did ski school and the adults went up the mountain. The weather was great and so was the snow.  My favorite part, this ski-thru Starbucks at the top of the mountain!

Lunch Break, Yvette and I



View from the Gondola

Steve and Anders checking out the map of the mountain at lunch

 Here is the only picture I have of anyone actually skiing on this trip (and it is of me!!)

Yvette took it. The view was gorgeous!

After skiing the first day we took the kids to get hot chocolate.

That night it snowed and the wind howled ALL NIGHT. We woke up to tons of snow.

They loved playing in it!

We thought skiing would be out because most of the lifts were closed. But a few were open and my boys REALLY wanted to go. So Anders, Steve and the boys braved the wind, snow and cold and went up for a few hours.  See between those two buildings below? That is the ski lift. Oh wait, you can't even see it because of the snow and wind.  Yvette, Annelie and I stayed down to check out, load up the car, drink coffee and play in the snow. I won't lie, I was a nervous wreck. I was really afraid someone would get lost because the visibility was so low.  They returned safe and sound and COLD. The only one who really enjoyed it that day was Joshua. BRRRR.

 Steve and Charles came down before the others and he had some hot chocolate and warmed up.

Annelie built some excellent snowmen while the crazies skied.

Around 3 everyone was back. We had lunch. put chains on the tires and drove home. Whew!

Snow in the Sierras means rain in the San Francisco area.  The next three days it rained, Alot.

After Tahoe, the Kamperins had to go back to work and school, so we were on our own.  We hit the city and ate some Thai Food at a place we found online called King of Thai Noodle House, then we drove over to Ghiradelli.

 It was raining too hard to enjoy Fisherman's, so the boys got ice cream instead.  Yes, 4 Huge Ice Creams, right after lunch. They each ate about 1/4 of it (except Steve)

From there we drove to Morgan Hill (south of San Jose) to visit our good friends, the Rashids, from Flower Mound.  We had a great time eating and drinking with them (thanks Bob and Cheryl!!).  We stayed the night there, then made plans to see Fisherman's and Alcatraz the next day. It was the only day that was not supposed to rain very hard.

Fisherman's with the Sea Lions



Alcatraz Audio tour

The view of San Francisco from Alcatraz

It was windy, but no rain!

 Alcatraz was great! We got off and walked around Fisherman's and then took a drive down Lombard street so the the boys could see it before crossing back over the bridge to the Kamperin's house.

Lombard

Our last full day in California was pouring down rain. We decided to check out the Jelly Belly Factory because the Rashids said it was Fun, Free and they give out free samples. Perfect!

Charles had no shame, he visited the "free sample bar" about 14 times.

Jelly Belly Art

Getting ready for the tour

This was a great activity for a rainy day! 

It was a really fun trip.  Anders and Yvette put up with us for 8 days, fed us (thanks Anders!) and showed us a great time.  Because of the rain, we didn't get to see Muir Woods, go to Napa or ride Bikes across the Golden Gate.  We will have to come back soon!!

Basketball

The boys all played Basketball this year.  Joshua played with the Middle School, Thomas played on the Legends with all his baseball buddies, and Charles played with the YMCA.  It was his first time.  Although basketball is not my favorite sport by far, everyone had a fun season!! 

Joshua made the "C" team at school, and was a starter. He really enjoyed playing and was pretty bummed when the season ended. The team started off rough, but really improved by the end.  I unfortunately have no picture of him playing (way to go mom!)

Thomas played on the Legends, which is coached by one of Steve's assistant baseball coaches. They played in a very competitive league in Grapevine against mostly 5th graders. They only won one game all season (yikes). It has been hard finding the right place to play for these kids. They are too good to play at the YMCA (they beat everyone by a huge margin) but aren't quite at the "select" level.  They did play some tournaments too..and even came in 2nd place at a couple of those.

We ended Thomas's season with a moms vs sons game. The moms "won" but only because we had 8 against 5 and our baskets counted as 3 points whereas the boys baskets counted as one point. Ha ha.  They were killing us the first quarter so Jason had to implement these rules so we had a fighting chance.  Let's just say, we moms were very sore the next day!



Moms Vs Sons Pregame Photo Op

Charles played with a team that had been played together for a few years and had lots of really good players.  It was his first time to play, and although his skills still need quite a bit of work (dribbling, shooting) after a few games he caught on and really got aggressive. He would steal the ball and get rebounds the whole time he was in.  We were really proud of how far he came.  His team ended the season undefeated, which he loved of course!

Now it's onto Baseball!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines day is actually one of my favorite holidays. Yes, it is cheesy and commecial, and the kids get WAY too much candy this day. But, it is a day to just say "I love you".  And, it isn't a holiday where my kids epect anything. Sometimes I get the boys  a box of chocolates, and sometimes (like this year) they get presents. Just Becasuse!

They woke us this morning to littlie gift and a love note from me to each boy

Thomas got chocolates, under armor shirt, adidas slides and speakers for his ipod

Joshua got chocolates, Jordan slides and a slushie maker (a new shirt too, not here)

Charles got a black cat (in honor of Tori who has disappeaed), a skylander, shirt and crocs..chocolate too

Charles was thrilled with his goodies

Thomas was too. Today is their "swimming" field trip at school, so he is taking his slides out for a test run!

The boys brought tulips to their teachers...

And I walked into my office to find chocolates waiting for me.

What a fun way to start the day.

Hugs and kisses!

Dog Gone Fun

Charles came downstairs with "Shaggy" Last night. He proceeded to wrestle him to the ground. He is such a nut...it was quite funny though.

This one cracked us up...it looks like Shaggy is really having a rough time with his tongue sticking out

Victorious.

(Photos taken on my phone...not the best)

Happy 42nd to Steve

Steve turned 42 this year....seems like we just celebrated his 40th.

We had cake and presents at home after work/school. 

Steve got a FUNGO bat. What is that you ask? Its a special bat for Coaches. It's light and extra long for easily hitting thousands of grounders to the team.

He really liked it!

He got this Longhorns zip-up jacket too.  Both the teams he coaches (Thomas and Charles) are the Longhorns. And you can never have too much Longhorn gear really.

Brownies were his cake.

They were yummy.

A little while later the boys went for a sleepover at Grammy and Papa's house and we went out with friends. We ate at Pappacitos and then went dancing at Cowboys, Red River.  Steve LOVES to dance and has been wanting to go two-stepping for, oh, 15 years.  We went with a few other couples and had a lot of fun.  Steve even rode the mechanical bull..for a few seconds. ha ha.

Happy Birthday Steve!!