San Francisco Trip

Last week I attended a conference in San Francisco for work and Brian joined me for a long weekend getaway! Unfortunately the weather was cold (well, not compared to MN!) and rainy but we still took advantage of it. On Friday we literally walked all around the city from 11-6 (with a short lunch break). We essentially did the same thing on Saturday! Considering we only had two days to sight see, I would say we did pretty well...Downtown, Union Square, China Town, Fisherman's Wharf, walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghiradelli Square, Embarcadero, Lombard Street, cable car ride, and a night tour of Alcatraz! We also had some great food including In-N-Out Burger (first time for both of us), Stinky Rose (everything on the menu had garlic), a fun modern Mexican bar/restaurant, a dive-bar in an alley with amazing food, and a wonderful little Italian Cafe. Oh, and I can't forget the clam chowder on the wharf! One of the other highlights included seeing the "Bush Man". A homeless man that sat on a sidewalk at the Wharf with two tree branches in front of him and would yell "Boo" at people. He had a HUGE crowd watching him and attracting attention yet he still managed to scare people. It truly was hilarious and he definitely made some cash doing it! Check out the slide show to the right for more pics of the trip!

Overall, Brian and I had a great little much needed getaway (despite the weather and the high cost of everything)! My dad and step-mom were nice enough to watch the girls for us while we were gone. Unfortunately Katelin got the flu Annie had earlier in the week and vomited on the couch on our last day gone! She is still running a fever and battling a nasty virus. Some of the things coming out of their mouths they must have picked up from Dad and Nancy...1) Annie pointed to a beer bottle and said "juice". Apparently my dad told them beer is his juice! 2) Katelin told us that Grandma Nancy drives like a maniac!, 3) Grandpa David is the boss according to Kate, and 4) I asked Katelin a question and she answered "Indeed it is" (something we have never said!). God love Grandparents and their Grandchildren! :) Thanks again Dad and Nanc!

Horsing Around!

Kate found a new way to use her Barbie horse tonight...apparently it's a pretty durable horse! Annie didn't want to miss out on the fun so since she doesn't have a Barbie horse yet she thought she'd ride her teddy which didn't work out too well....so she moved on to a plastic DVD case that was much easier to slide across the floor. It was pretty hilarious to watch!

Night Rider Pinball Is Back

In early December I found out that I worked with a few people who were pinball machine collectors - between them they have over 17 machines (I'm so jealous). So after an enlightening conversation one day I found out how to really assess what it would take to fix my family's old pinball machine - a sweet 1977 Bally Night Rider. It would light up but that was it - it was pretty much a massively oversized mood light... Fortunately, most of what I needed was really cheap and the repairs didn't require a ton of skill so I thought I'd give it a shot. A few new bridge rectifiers, fuses, light bulbs, some 60/40 solder, and some burns on my fingers later I flipped the power switch and it finally cycled through its full start up routine and the Night Rider was riding again. My family has so many fun memories on this game and while I haven't hit over 130000 points yet, I'm not giving up on hitting the record of something like 257000, if memory serves me, held by my dad. Let the games begin!

-B

Sesame Street Live!

Yesterday we took the girls to see Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and all the other characters in Sesame Street Live. The outing started out by finding the perfect parking spot right next to the skyway entrance and if we didn't hop outside and make the short walk to Pizza Luce for some pepperoni pizza (yummy!) we probably could have left our coats in the car we were so close. We're never that lucky with parking! After pizza, we took the girls back up in the skyway and made our way to the show - Kate LOVED the skyway and wanted to walk... er, run the whole way to the show which of course meant it would be near impossible to carry Annie.....so lets just say we took our time getting to the show because Annie wasn't always focused on moving forward.... The girls had a great time; Kate was an angel and danced, sang, and sat nicely the entire show and if we didn't know any better we would have thought Annie was on something because she was just sooo excited and could barely stop dancing while we were waiting for the show to start! This was her first outing to a large venue and once the show got going Annie settled right down and sat great too. If it wasn't for that unnecessary intermission she might have made it through the whole show without starting to get a little fussy. All in all, it was a great night!

Annie's Big Night!

Last night confirmed that Annie is growing up too fast! When we picked Annie up from daycare her teacher told us that they think she is ready to start potty training! I guess she has recently been going to the toilet and taking her pants down! So last night before bath we asked Annie if she wanted to go potty on the toilet. She said "yeah" and ran to the toilet. I got out her little potty and Annie sat down all proud for about 5 minutes...and nothing happened. Katelin then comes in and sits on the big toilet and says "Annie, this is how you go potty". Just then we heard the sound of Annie's first tinkle in the toilet! Needless to say there were lots of high fives, hugs and smiles from the whole family and Kate felt pretty cool that she "taught" Annie how to go potty!

Unfortunately there is a downside to this all though...Annie did not want to get off the toilet! I had quite the struggle to get her diaper back on her and this morning she had to sit back down on it after she was dressed! Kate also thinks that she now needs to go in the little potty again and get M&Ms too! Kate was fully trained at around 27 months so I thought I still had some time before we had to worry about this as Annie is only 19 months! We will continue to update you on the progress of this latest adventure as I am sure there will be some funny stories to come.

Dance Walking?!

We wanted to customize the look of our blog a little - hope you like it! - and found a few clips in the process that brought a summer smile to our faces. These are of the girls "dancing" in warmer weather this summer at the Como Zoo.

-B

The First Post

We decided it would be a good (and fun!) idea to start a blog to keep you all updated on the happenings at the Clemens' home. Part of Brian's new year's resolution was to get us online and make it easier for our family and friends to see some snapshots of our life. (He is more on track with this resolution than I am with my 2009 diet!)

Now with the holidays over, we are finding more time to relax and not worry so much about what needs to get done. So this weekend we had our first sledding experience of the year. Katelin had a blast which was to be expected since she takes after Dad and likes anything that resembles a ride and is fast! Annie on the other hand preferred to play it safe and just stand at the top of the hill... her "No, No, No" all the way down the hill was a clue that she wasn't exactly enjoying herself, yet!

Other than sledding, the weekend was spent catching up on sleep...for me and Brian too! :)