San Francisco

John and I took a trip to San Francisco to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary! We had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Marriott in Downtown San Francisco. The downtown area was a lot of fun and always busy. Our first full day there we took the ferry over to Napa. We hired a driver/tour guide to drive us around to different wineries. The day went by way too fast and I think we would like to take another trip there are spend 3 or 4 days in wine country. We ended up visiting 4 wineries and came home with 10 new bottles of wine. On day 2 we hung around San Francisco downtown area and went shopping, that evening we walked down to the pier area and ate at a brewery that had fabulous drinks and food. The 3rd day we were there was our actual anniversary. What better way to spend it then to go to jail! No, we did not get arrested, we went to tour Alcatraz. I knew John would love this tour but I was not expecting to be too impressed. Was I wrong, it was so interesting and the audio tour through the actual jail was very cool! We both loved it! That evening, we went out to dinner to celebrate at a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean called the Cliff House. It was a beautiful place and very romantic! It was a fast trip but it definitely gave us some ideas for our next trip to California!

More Houston Photos

Here are a few more pictures that Lisa took at the shuttle simulator...


John sitting in the pilot seat
My face is so serious here...I think I was nervous as I was getting strapped in!Lisa and Amanda sitting in the shuttle

Houston!

John and I went down to Houston last Thursday and stayed through the weekend. We had so much fun. We stayed with Julie and Robert and got to spend a lot of time with baby Silas. He is such a happy baby and very sweet! On Friday night, John's dad got us special access to the astronaut flight simulator. This is not something you get to do on the regular NASA tour. John's dad knows the man who runs the simulator for the astronauts so he was able to get us in. It was a blast (excuse the pun) I even got to sit in the pilot seat and land the shuttle. It was neat to hear about some of the same people who had flown the simulator, Bill Clinton, Aerosmith, Tom Hanks, John Glenn and many more I can't remember. John got to land the simulator about 3 times and he did much better then me! On Saturday, Julie, Amanda, Silas and I went to the Houston Galleria and shopped all afternoon. That night we met up with the guys and went to a restaurant called Outriggers under the Kemah Bridge. We ate on the water and had oysters, shrimp and margaritas! Oh, why can't it be summer year round?? We headed back to Dallas on Sunday afternoon. It went by so fast! Now John and I are gettting ready to head out again on Friday for our San Francisco trip. I am so excited about all we have planned for there!
The pictures from NASA are a little blurry because we could not use the flash inside.Me and John at KemahJohn's brother Phil and Amanda. You can't really tell here, but Amanda is 9 months pregnant!Oysters, I can usually only handle about 1 of these.Here is my one oyster! I hate to not try something!John, on the other hand, ate enough oysters for the two of us!
Here we are holding Silas. I love him!

The Summer of Aunt DeAnna and Tristan!

I have had the pleasure of keeping Tristan this summer on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have loved the time we have spent together and I am so sad that next Thursday is one of my last days to keep him. I am going to be out of town the next few weeks and then Tristan is starting daycare in late July. It has gone by so fast, but then summers always do. Erica and Shannon, thank you for letting me spend so much time with my precious nephew. I am totally in love with your little man!

Solar Screens

John and I have wanted solar screens on our windows for a while now. The sun just heats up the whole house in the summer. We finally had them installed a few weeks ago and we are loving them!! It has made the house so much cooler and the sunlight that does come in is much softer.
Here is a before picture (this was actually taken when we first bought the house, notice the yucky winter grass!)

And here are the after shots. We decided to get the screens that have the grid work to match the house.



These are the back windows. We just did the top windows because they do not have blinds on them and this was the room that got the hottest.