on a whim, we decided to go to the bay area the last week of december. i actually called jen to ask her for advice on places to stay in big bear and she said that we could stay at her place in oakland if we wanted to visit the bay area. done deal! we picked up the key the next morning at four and we were off! here is a picture of the boys when we got to jen and vinh's place. they were very happy to get out of the car!

here is tyler in front of their place. he wanted me to take a picture in front of their door. sorry about the picture. we got a new computer and i don't know how to turn it right side up.

of course, the first thing we did was go eat in chinatown! it was very yummy and cheap! yay!

berkeley. so many horrible memories in barrows "HL." nutri science, anyone?

in front of some sculpture. man, it was very cold the days we were there. i'm not complaining....at least it didn't rain!

im front of sather gate...that's what it's called, right?

with daddy.

with mommy.

mommy ate many lunches at bear's lair. or should i say, got many drinks from there...haha..only jen would understand that one.

thought i would try to take an artistic shot of the boys eating noah's bagel on telegraph. i think it came out cute!

cal beanie. it was SOO cold, i had to buy one on telegraph. i had the EXACT beanie in college, and i bought it from the EXACT store like 15 years ago...man, i'm old.

walking.

our old place was being remodeled. had to take pic for jen.

jelly belly factory... they have a great tour there! we weren't allowed to take pictures on the tour though.

surrounded by candy. we bought some "jelly flops" for people...irregular jelly beans...cute, huh?

a pic of ronald reagan made from jelly beans.

here is a closer look.

jason and i wanted to go on the budweiser tour. it was so interesting! i learned so much! did you know they put rice in your beer? and i learned all about hops!

as you can see, tyler wasn't too happy to be on this tour!  this was his face for pretty much the whole time! hehe..

tyler was a little happier to be at the train museum in sacramento though! he still loves trains.

in front of auntie jess and uncle rich's place in alameda.

yay... we always get presents from them!

looking for uncle rich's office in sf....which one is it? notice the starbucks polar bear cookie in chase's hands...see, jason just thought it was the cutest cookie for some reason!

streets of sf....

the boys thought the were on a roller coaster ride.

exploritorium.

it was freezing! thanks to uncle rich and auntie jess for showing us around!

some delish, warm mini donuts.

sausalito

winchester house in san jose. pretty creepy. the didn't allow pics on the tour so i just took a pic of the boys in their museum of winchester riffles.

on our ride back. sometimes, when i ask the boys to take a picture, one will tell the other to close his eyes and this is what i get. they think they are so funny!