Giving Thanks

 So the week of Thanksgiving arrived and we were heading out.  We packed up and headed up to Northern California to be with the Trotter side of the family this year.

 It was a long drive and B quickly made her way into the snacks.

 We got there late, slept and woke the next day (my b-day) and Chad decided we should go into San Fran for the day.  So we took the Bay Bridge in.

 We kind of got lost in the city, but at the same time had the good fortune of running to some fun places like Lombard street!

 How cool is this:  we are driving down the hill when a trolley is coming up and Alcatraz is in the background. 

 We ran into a maritime museum near Hyde Pier.  This is what is inside of a lighthouse.

 Big boat.

 Out to the pier we went.  I loved seeing the waves rolling up.

 The view.

 Cool place to look around.

 B is pointing to the ship in case you didn't see it.

 I had Chad take this picture.  I guess I wasn't looking too good, so he didn't want to zoom in.  Ha ha

 The kids running around holding hands.

 Playing with pulleys. 

 This trolley is ready for Christmas!

 Off to Ghirardelli Square.  You can't go without getting my fave, ice cream!

 I thought the kids would be more into my hot fudge sundae, but daddy's plain vanilla got all the attention!

 Sorry daddy, you don't get any!

 Yum!

 Seeing the machines doing what they do best, make chocolate!

 Then we ventured around the city.  The Trans America building.

 Awesome architecture!

 Thanksgiving rolled around and all the family gathered.

 Tory put on the whole shebang and did an awesome job.  Here she is checking the turkey.

 The kids loved playing with cousins or cousins once removed or twice...I'm really not sure.

 We got to visit with our newest members of the family!

 The kids throwing up gang signs.  What do they teach these Nor Cal kids?  Ha ha

 The big boys huddled around computers pretty much all day.  I don't know if they knew anyone else was around!

 Dinner is up and running.

 There are a lot of us!

 The next day we went to the Jelly Belly factory.

 They were ready for Christmas!

 We watched them make lots of treats.

 Then we took a tour of the factory.

 ...and we looked really cool in our tour hats!

 Or super duper cute!  That was the end of our trip and we headed home that afternoon.

 When we got home we found Charlie (our Elf on the Shelf) sitting in the hall waiting for us with new Christmas pajamas!

 Brooklyn got pink giraffe.

 Micah got Super Mario.

Then daddy read the Elf on the Shelf book to the kids and we were off to bed!

We had a great trip!  My niece Tory welcomed us into her home and put on the whole dinner.  She was awesome.  Sorry to the friends and family that we didn't see while we were up there.  Wish we could have dropped by, but in the midst of this trip, Brooklyn got the stomach flu.  Maybe next time?  Now onto Christmas!