CLIPS FROM THE CLARKS: Family

I am a little behind on blogging but it is because we have been busy, busy, busy with my mom and grandma in town. We hadn't seen my mom since July and Bella had never met her great-grandmother so this was such a special visit. I knew it was going to be a fabulous 10 days when Bella didn't even cry when she met either of them (she is huge into stranger anxiety right now). My arms have appreciated someone else carrying her!!!

They flew in on a Saturday and since David is off on the weekends we decided to make the most of the Sunday. My mom really wanted to see the Redwoods so we made a trip to Big Basin State Park. It was a gorgeous park with plenty of massive Redwoods to see. We also took a little guided tour to learn a few things.

A quick family shot before our tour:

The underneath/inside of a big Redwood that had fallen over:

Several of the Redwoods at this forest had remnants of fire damage. Interestingly, the trees are actually fire resistant so they don't completely burn down or die if caught in a fire. The tree on the left was completely hollowed out by fire and is appropriately called the chimney tree!

Bella thought it was funny to lean back and look up at all the trees!

After a few hours at the park we headed to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for some lunch. How great that we got to experience the forest and the ocean in one day!!

During the week we relaxed in the mornings......

...and then we shopped, and shopped, and shopped. My grandmother is from a small town in New Mexico and when there is shopping to be done, she gets after it!!

Normally I wouldn't let my child destroy the store but this Kohl's literally looked like it had been struck by a hurricane....Bella's little mess (which I cleaned up) was nothing compared to the rest of the place! She's such a happy little shopper. She diligently checks the tags which makes this mama happy :)

We also spotted a great pumpkin display at a local grocery store and stuck Bella in it for some pictures:

The following weekend we went to the San Jose Flea Market (as if we hadn't shopped enough during the week!!). It was a lot of kitchen items, clothing, children's toys and a farmer's market. The place was HUGE and took us almost all day!

That evening we had David take some family photos for us....that's 4 generations!!!

Sunday there was an air show going on in San Francisco so that was our last big adventure. We went to Pier 39 to see the seals early in the morning to avoid the crowds. We then headed north to a cute town called Saucelito and then took a ferry over to Angel Island to watch the air show from there. It was great because we didn't have to battle crowds and it wasn't that loud.

San Francisco with Alcatraz in the background: It's usually so foggy you can't see it so we were lucky to have such a clear day.