Happy Chinese New Year!!

    This year our family was excited to learn the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade did not fall on the same weekend that we traditionally have our family ski trip.  Since we had never attended before, we decided to take the safe route and pay for bleacher seating before hand rather than try to get a good seat on the street.  Friday and Friday night we had torential rain.  Serious rain for most of the day and night.  Both boys and I had to change out of our clothes after picking them up at school because we were just soaked.  That kind of rain.  I stopped in Target and bought rain ponchos and umbrellas since I knew we were headed to the city for an evening/night parade and wanted to be prepared.

Apparently, that's all you have to do to ensure perfect weather.  Just shell out $58 in rain gear and you will pretty much safeguard yourself against even one drop.  At least that was my experience.  It was beautiful in San Francisco yesterday.  Just lovely and not even frigidly cold like it can be. 

We took BART into the city because Jeff and I both really don't enjoy driving in San Francisco and especially when streets are blocked off.  As Jeff always says, "You take one wrong turn in the city and that's it.  You won't get back to where you want to be for atleast an hour."  I'm sure that's not true if you live in the city and know it well.  But it seems to be true for us just about every time we venture to visit. 

I'm not sure what the kids enjoyed most.  Definitely a toss up between the parade and their first Bart ride.  Nate and Lizzie actually screamed when we went through a tunnel like we were on a roller coaster, which caused Cooper to immediately groan, "So embarassing."  They got a huge kick out of riding on Bart.  I need to take these kids on more train rides.

The parade was fun to watch.  We didn't make it to the 8:00 p.m.end as we had been in Chinatown since 2:00 p.m. and sitting in our front row bleacher seats since 4:30 p.m.  By 7:30 p.m. all three of our kids were asking what time it was going to be over.  That's usually a sign that a negative end is heading our way.  We took our clue and jumped back on Bart for home before all the crowds.  It worked out perfectly.  Lizzie's favorite part was the lion dancers.  She loved when they ran up close to us and pretended to eat her.  She is pretty delicous.  Nate liked the firecrackers.  Cooper liked the politicians who threw candy and gifts.  He did manage two pieces of candy and two pens.  Not a bad haul. 

All in all, a great experience.  One we will try to hit again!

First moments on Bart

Five Little Monkeys Sitting on a Bench....

Chinatown

Best Bleacher Shot

This is our second attempt at a family picture only to have Lizzie explain to me that she wasn't going to smile for anymore pictures because the woman taking the picture for us was scary. Awesome.  Not at all embarassing.

Lots of fun!