Busy Day!

On saturday December 15th we had a busy day. The kids were in a
Taekwondo tournament. Raven placed 3rd in sparring, Nathan placed 2nd
in sparring and London placed 3rd in weapons, 2nd in forms and 1st in
sparring. The final sparring match was Nathan and London and they
came down to a one point match.

That afternoon Raven had her Christmas dance show. She had two
performances. This picture is of her after her shows. She did a great
job!

We went straight from there to our Christmas party with our book
group, which was lots of fun!

Fisherman's Wharf

Today is Saturday, so David was able to join us today, at least in
body. We rode the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf for the day. We
had lunch at Boudin's and then walked around the wharf. Raven helped
out a juggler doing a show on Pier 39. She arm wrestled the same
scary machine that Julie Andrews did in "The Princess Diaries". We
saw the sea lions and rode the street cars back. We walked through a
really nice arts & crafts fair and managed to get out without buying
anything. I think Raven had enjoyed being an only child this week,
but she has been thinking of her brothers and has used her own money
to buy them gifts.
We met friends for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. We had a great
time. We have a long drive tomorrow.

Exploratorium

Raven and I spent most of the day at the Exploratorium today. It is a
big hands on science museum in the Presidio. There were some people
in there filming something, a documentary I think, and Raven got to be
in it. She was in a background shot playing in the black sand exhibit,
which is still our favorite exhibit.
This picture is of Raven by the Palace of Fine Arts which is right
next to the exploratorium.
We had a relaxing evening of room service and movies!

Lake Tahoe

We spent two more days in the Reno area. Wednesday we drove up to
Lake Tahoe. It was gorgeous and sunny. There was no snow yet. It
was very cloudy and gloomy in Reno. We played at a playground right
by the lake. Raven made at least 3 friends while we were there. This
picture was taken near the lake. We had lunch at Rosie's Cafe and
then drove around the lake. We met up with Jon and David for dinner
after we got back and then spent some time playing games and watching
the shows at Circus Circus. Raven won lots of games and came home
with several stuffed animals.
Friday was pretty boring. After we checked out of our hotel we went to
a laundromat to do laundry. We had lunch at Mimi's Cafe and then it
was time to drop Erin and Izzy off with Jon so they could head home.
David got done about an hour and a half later and then we started
driving. Even as we were heading to I-80 we weren't sure if we were
heading east or west, but at the last minute we decided to head west,
so that David could be to a meeting in San Franciso tomorrow.

Reno, Nevada

David had a conference this week in Reno. Raven and I decided to go
with him while the boys stayed with my mom. Jon Flynn works for
Fusion IO now, so Jon, Erin and Isolde are here as well.
We had a fun day in Reno. We had lunch at Applebee's and then went
shopping and had pedicures. I was able to go in to the show to see
their booth. The stunt bikes had drawn a large crowd.

We went to Ichiban's Japanese Restaurant with several of the Fusion
employees. Unfortunately David couldn't come because he had a
separate business dinner. This was Raven's first time at a restaurant
like this and she really enjoyed it.
This picture is of Erin and Raven in downtown Reno on a walk we went on.
Izzy is in the stroller.

Happy Birthday London

We celebrated London's 10th birthday today with a party at Dimple Dell
Recreation Center. We went swimming, had pizza and cake and went
rockclimbing. This is a picture of Raven and London near the top of a
35' wall. It was a really fun party with lots of excercise!

Day 26-Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I know that this is the day that everybody is going to wish they got
to do with us. It is currently 4am Utah time and we have been up for 6
1/2 hours already. We left our apartment at 5:30 am in London. We
walked to Victoria station, caught a bus to Paddington Station, took a
train to Heathrow airport where the lady checking us in told me that
there was a problem with 3 of us and then walked off with our
passports for a 1/2 hour.
She did finally come back with our passports and all of our boarding
passes, so I guess she solved the problem. Next we went through
security, and I must say they are much more secure than in Salt Lake.
Then we got to wait for 1 1/2 hours for a plane to Paris.
We were on the ground during this flight longer than we were in the
air. Once at Charles DeGaulle, we got to take a shuttle bus to our
next terminal where we got to go through security again. This time I
was even treated to a pat down!
We had a 2 hour wait for our 9 hour flight to Atlanta.
Our flight went without complications. In Atlanta we had to go through
Customs and security again, but at least we had 4 hours to do it in.
We finally arrived into Salt Lake at 11:30 pm, or 6:30am London time!