Us crazy kids did some indoor skydiving at iFly in Union City. Conor bought this last month for our family to do and I thought it would be boring or not that great. I was totally wrong! It was such a rush and so much fun! Everyone was all smiles even the spectators. We spent one minute in the wind tunnel at a time and each of us adults had two gos. The first time around, the instructor flipped me at the end and the second time we all got to spin up to the top of the wind tunnel and back down again a few times. That was insane! I screamed and closed my eyes on the down. 

And the very best part, was Holly flew (like a pink fairy). She looked so cute in all the gear. Getting into that wind tunnel freaked her out but I was able to stand in there with her and hold her arms. Somehow I managed to wiggle out of her grasp for a couple seconds. She didn't last long, and I'm not sure that she loved it. We did our best to sing her praises and tell her how proud we were of how brave she was. The praise sunk in because she spent the next hour or so telling us all how proud she was of our bravery. Holly cracks me up! 

Before we did our flights, four of the instructors hopped in the wind tunnel and did all these crazy tricks including synchronized flying. It's insane what those guys can do!

Such a fun acitivity! Even for those fearful of height (me).

We used to pull the tripod out fairly frequently and take a few family photos here and there, but it's been a while. So last week (on Thanksgiving), we pulled out the tripod and did our best to capture our family. I love my little family. I don't know why I'm so blessed, but I'll take it. My girls are amazing. I love being their momma.

Greta has started to play with toys more and more. At church she was feeding her horses cheese nips and had them all laid out just so and we were not allowed to touch anything! Greta continues to be more and more demanding, strong-willed, exhausting and wonderful all at once. She loves to sing and dance and can do somersaults. We'll be potty training her in the next month or so.

Holly's imagination has completely taken off, every single day she is imagining more and more. She introduces herself as "Snow White" and calls Conor "Beast" more than anything else, even in the middle of the night. She sometimes refers to him as a creature as well. She's taken to calling me Belle and planning my wardrobe (dress, gloves and glass slippers) and my marriage to the Beast. I think watching her dance as a bad fairy is one of the funniest things she's done recently. If she could do a craft with breakfast, lunch and dinner, she would be quite happy. Next month we're starting a monthly craft subscription. Plus, there's so many fun Christmas crafts. I think she's going to love December. 

And Conor. Let's just leave it at I love that man/beast/creature more than anyone or anything. 

I love it when Conor has a long weekend. I never want it to end. On Black Friday, we went to Half Moon Bay and were kicking ourselves for not bringing swim suits and towels. It was a gorgeous day! The girls love the beach more than anything else. We don't visit Half Moon Bay very much. It doesn't get very warm and it's really overcast. But I love it. It has such a great vibe and it's the first beach we ever went to here in California. It's my first taste of the Pacific Ocean. I'm always grateful to visit. Friday couldn't have been much better. It was a lovely day! I'm so grateful to live where we do. 

Thanksgiving is kind of a tricky holiday for me because I'm Canadian. I always do something for Canadian Thanksgiving in October. But American Thanksgiving just doesn't hold the same weight for me. Our families aren't doing anything for that holiday, it's unlikely that we'd ever go spend that holiday with them. But, since this is where we live, I do want to be better at making it more of a "thing" for our family. I'm all for making family memories and making holidays special. I also really believe in the power of good food to unite people. There's something about families sitting down to eat food specially prepared for them on a holiday. So this is my first attempt and I hope that subsequent years see improvement. I kept our menu simple. I roasted a chicken, made mashed potatoes and homemade rolls and I roasted sweet potatoes and green beans. Conor made sure the girls came to the table in nice clothing and not in just a diaper (Greta) or in dress-up clothing (Holly). 

We did a couple crafts (Holly's favorite thing in the whole world is crafts). The first was we made gratitude feather necklaces. I wrote down one thing we're thankful for about each member of our family. We all ended up with 3 feathers to string on a necklace with beads. The idea came from this blog, but I used paint chips for the feathers. This will be a yearly tradition for sure! And then after baths, but before dessert (messed up order?), I read a story about the pilgrims and where Thanksgiving comes from. While the story was read, the girls strung a bracelet as the story prompts different bead colors (blue - ocean, gren - land, brown - turkey, etc). That was a nice "bring it all home" activity. And then apple crisp and ice cream for dessert! 

The best part about doing a chill Thanksgiving is that I really enjoyed the day with my family. I never felt stressed about food. We went and played at the park in the morning. It was a win-win. However, one day I want to put on a stellar Thanksgiving dinner. I'll just do my best to be super planned and prepared and then I'll never stress. Haha. Ya right! 

Whew! Life is busy! Not sure quite what with - just regular life stuff.

While my Mom was here, we took the girls to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. It was the second time we've been and we really like it. It's so fun for the girls - definitely a happy place. Plus the view from it is amazing!

After that, we walked out onto a pier and watched some crab fishers (is that a techinal term?). The pier we went on was right below the Golden Gate and the view of the city was amazing. It was a gorgeous day.

Then we headed in town to go to Boudin. My mom recently took an artisan bread baking course and she wanted to go to Boudin. I don't typically like sourdough but Boudin sourdough is a whole 'nother story! I loved it! There was a museum that we walked through and we could see the happenings of the bakery through glass walls. And it was surprisingly family friendly. Everyone seemed happy that we had my girls there and they were given three sourdough turtles between the two of them. Obviously, I would've loved to have spent more time in the museum reading all the the fun facts (that's kind of my thing), but it wasn't possible. I enjoyed what I did gleam. 

A seriously great day!