San Francisco

The next day, New Years Eve, we traveled an hour to San Francisco.  We rented bikes and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, into Sausalito and rode the ferry back to San Fran.  What an exciting bike ride!  The boys were a little concerned with all of the loud traffic on the other side of the bridge.  I thought the views were amazing!

Riding along the beach to the bridge was pretty fun as well!  

  

We drove down Lombard Street, a very crooked street!  So fun!

And ended the night down on the pier of Fisherman's Wharf for dinner and  a little souvenir shopping.

The following morning we headed back home.  This was such a fun, spontaneous, quick trip.  The kids got a good taste of San Francisco.  We plan to be back this summer for another visit! 

Goodbye 2019.

Let's go Illinois!

We're off to cheer on the Illini football team at the Red Box Bowl game in San Jose!

It was so much fun to have a secret surprise trip planned for the boys. 

Unfortunately Illinois lost to Cal, we still had a blast.  We even tailgated with our orange Illinois flag.  

 2019. 

The Horn family Christmas

We hosted the Horn family for our Christmas together, which also happened to be on Eric's birthday, December 28th.

Eric prepared a prime rib roast on the egg grill.  It was delicious! 

It was a fun day, although Grandma Bonnie was missed as she was under the weather. 

Car Show

We always like going to see the new cars on the market at the Auto Show!  Nick and Sam went off on their own to explore, while Ben got all of the camera attention from Eric and I! 

Looking pretty cool!

and grown up!

Christmas 2019

Our tradition is to spend Christmas Eve with our friends the Basile's.  We open the first gifts, Christmas pajamas at our home.  Then we head to meet the Basile's at their church for the children's mass and go back to their home afterwards for delicious appetizers, Christmas cheer and more gifts.  It's a night that we all look forward to!

It looks like Santa has come bearing gifts!

A pause before the chaos of the morning begins.

Nick is in agreement over a big gift this year, tickets to see the Fightin' Illini play in the Red Box Bowl in San Jose, CA!

It was a beautiful day outside, warm enough to play with some new toys!

Ruby and Louise also received presents.  We celebrated their 6th birthdays, too!