I Left My Heart...

In San Fransisco....

The Golden Gate.

Isn't it pretty??

Wow. What a trip! I have hundreds of pics that I can share. They loved the plane ride. There was a 3 hour delay, but once we got on board, it was SO cute to see how much everything about the plane excited them.

This is them before we left. We had to board the plane in the freezing cold snow.

We left in a blizzard and came home to the aftermath of a couple storms. Ricky and I both are SICK of shovelling. It accumulated pretty high. :(

We LOVED California. Sacramento was gorgeous, and it was my speed of town. Not too quick, but hip enough that I didn't look like a pierced up freak. :)

Here are some highlights: I have LOTS I will share:

This was in Old Sacramento at the train museum. WAY FUN! We learned a lot about trains and had some fun while we were there:

This is the whole crew: Aunt Debbie, Ricky, Taylor, Tori, Tyler, Andie and Justin.

They were posing in front of trains.

Then, we drove into San Fransisco from Sacramento and went to the Exploratorium. That has to be the coolest place I think I have ever been! It's a totally interactive science and art place.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Check it out. Everyone needs to go at least once. We had a blast learning!

Here we are drinking from the toilet:

Some bratty teenage kid gave me a dollar to do it...

The whole point was to prove that people's perception would lead them to certain decisions.

Justin, Ricky and Tyler playing with the mirrored water.

This is the kids' Aunt Debbie. She is the COOLEST lady in the whole world.

She was showing us how to sneak through the rocks in this display. This one actually shows you your score of how quietly (or loudly) you sneak through the loose rocks.

I posted her pic, because she BLEW everyone away. I scored somewhere near 30, and that was considered good.

Debbie's score?

2.28

Virtually silent. She is a sneaky sneaky....lol!

This is the "Holiday" season.

WHY, oh WHY do we stress ourselves out to show people how much we "love them?"

Is that iPod Nano really going to show my beautiful son Ricky how much I love him?

My beautiful, complicated son. I love that kid more than anything.

Tonight, I was in the kitchen when he asked me to help him on the computer. I dropped the bench to my kitchen table on my foot, and it took everything I had not to cuss or cry! BUT: I didn't!

Next thing I know, Ricky is standing there. He put his arms around my waist, hugged me tight and asked if I was ok.

Open the flood gates...

Now, had this been last night, he probably would have laughed. Last night, the sweet, sassy twin terrors were bathing their favorite fur-babies. Then, the handle on the Cold water broke, and the water was on almost full blast. OOPS!

The landlord was awesome. He came out and made it so I can use it until he gets it fixed perfect. Anyway, the boys were on their best behavior...until he was out of the driveway.

Then, the chasing ensued and Tyler ended up running into the doorframe. We were all laughing, but he was really crying!

DANG!

Well, today his foot is black and blue all over the top, all over the last 2 toes AND down the side. His 2 end toes are broken for sure... LOL!

Poor, beautiful Ricky. He felt so bad. Now, this is neat because Ricky has not felt remorse for ANYthing over the last 3 years. So, somewhere, somehow, something clicked.

I am the happiest Mom ever. Not that I wanted Tyler to run into the doorframe or me drop a bench on my foot to find out my oldest had a heart...

But, point of all this is:

I didn't have to buy Ricky an iPod Nano for him to be a good person. I love him and he knows it. He loves us and I know it!

My Grinch-ette heart is swelling....