Go Pro Video!

So I know I have been raving about the Go Pro camera for a while now and have been saying what awesome videos that Travis has been getting with it on flights around the Bay Area but yet I haven't been posting any and that's for a very good reason--they had to be approved with whoever is in charge of media for the Coast Guard--and we had a lot of videos to go through. With that being said, they have been approved and I can post them now! This is one of my favorites since it has a lot all in one video--it has views of the Bay, they fly under Golden Gate Bridge, there's 2 dolphins and 1 seal swimming (look for the 2 dolphins swimming side by side when the camera looks down on the water and then the seal following shortly after), circles Alcatraz, has views of the piers and of downtown AND all on a clear, non foggy day!!! Will be posting more of these soon as they take quite a lot of time to upload since they are such huge HD files--will also look into how to edit these to take out some of the filler non interesting stuff--ENJOY!!

 

Daddy's Commendation Medal

Last week Travis received a Commendation Medal for saving 6 people back in July. The 6 people had apparently been hiking on the beach and when they started headed back they hadn't planned on the tide coming up as far as it did and they found themselves stuck between the cliffs and rocky waters. It was not a good night for this to happen since it was terribly foggy that night (I mean, it's always foggy here in the evenings but this night in particular was especially bad). The pilot (on the very left) said it was like flying in a closet of darkness--they couldn't even see anything around them and had to fly under the Golden Gate bridge (instead of over) 6 times. There was communication errors with the rescue swimmer (second to right) since they had to get so close to the cliffs and everything was echoing off of the bluffs. Travis also accidently kicked the trail line by accident out of the aircraft which would could have hurt the people and swimmer below so he quickly grabbed it and in doing so, fractured his finger and had to eventually have surgery on it. They also nearly backed into a cliff which scares me to even talk about. Just so many things that they did amazingly well proved to be heroes that day. I am not sure what would have happened to those people if they had not been saved that day. The cove was small and remote, no boats could have reached them as it was very rocky at the shore, and the tide was still coming up. Swimming in the water here without wetsuits or anything is definitely a big no-no and you will only last about 20 minutes without suffering from hypothermia. The water is freezing here. The cliffs too high to climb and no boat able to reach you, along with a tide still coming up is not a good situation to find yourself in and I am glad that they saved them that day. What would have happened if they had backed into that cliff? Or missed the Golden Gate bridge when flying under it? So scary to even think about. If you've ever been to San Francisco you would know just how thick the fog can get here, especially on the water and by the ocean. Travis and the swimmer and co-pilot all received a Commendation Medal (3 points) and the pilot received an air medal for their work. They had the ceremony last Friday (Dec 20th) and it was awesome seeing him up there being recognized for something so amazing. Kourtney wouldn't let Daddy get his medal alone though and insisted that she run up there by his feet when he received it. It was either that or have her scream and throw a tantrum so I think I made the right call. The Admiral had said it was ok beforehand too as he has kids too and knows how fidgety they can be. After that we joined everybody for a huge Christmas feast that was nothing short of delicious. After that we did some press pictures and even got them to take a family picture which I was super excited about and turned out pretty good--especially with two toddlers that LOVE to play in "Daddy's helicopter". Anyway, here are some pictures!

 

 

Happy 31st Birthday Daddy!

Sunday was Travis' 31st birthday and although we didn't do much we still had a lot of fun! We started the day with going to Toys R Us to see about what kind of tricycles or bicycles to get the girls for Christmas. Well, this is what Travis said we went there for, I beg to differ. I think he just wanted to play with all the toys which we both did and had a blast doing. The girls rode around on all different types of bikes but I think they liked the scooters more. We plan to get them bicycles this Christmas since we are going to be transferring soon and our plan is to load them up in the back of the truck as we move cross country (all of the places we put on our dream sheet are cross country so that's where we are assuming we are going) and them unload them when we see a park or somewhere the girls can ride them at to blow off some energy and stretch their little legs from the long trip. We also have been looking into getting them those little battery powered cars like a mini cooper or something but that will have to wait until we get to our new station since San Francisco living doesn't really allow for that type of stuff with all the hills and no backyards and such. After Toys R Us, we picked up some BBQ from the place next door and brought it home to eat and rested for a while. Then we had cake--Daddy said he wanted chocolate on chocolate so I got him a triple chocolate brownie cake. The girls loved this cake more than they liked mine. I guess they are chocolate lovers like their Daddy. The girls actually blew out all of his candles for him--all 31 of them--and they had so much fun doing so that I actually relit them a second time just so that they could blow them out again. So fun. I actually got Travis his birthday present 2 weeks ago which was a GoPro camera. I will make a separate post so that you can see these. It is awesome and he has been enjoying taking videos of San Francisco with it when he flies around in the helicopter. Here are some pictures from our day.

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Halloween this year was so much fun this year--even more than last year! The girls are the perfect age now to really "get" Halloween and what it is about. Travis insisted that they be pirates this year and so pirates they were! Next year I think they'll be something a little cuter--maybe a kitty cat perhaps? Haven't gotten that far yet. We took them to McDonald's for a Happy Meal before Trick or Treating down Taylor Street which is downtown in our little old town of Millbrae. Taylor Street is so beautiful and is lined with these beautiful, huge houses and the street has these trees that line it and cover it and it looks so so beautiful during the day--so beautiful that I often go up the hill to our house down this street since it is much prettier than any other way. Anyway, nearly every house on this street participates on Halloween and they deck their houses out and pass out candy and everyone that lives in Millbrae (probably other areas too) come out to go Trick or Treating here. Kind of made me sad that this will be our last Halloween to go Trick or Treating here.

The girls had a blast though and Kourtney would run up to each house and say "Yo Ho Ho! Trick or Treat!" and as she would put the candy in her bucket, would say "Thank yooooooou!" in the sweetest little voice. It was the cutest thing! They also enjoyed seeing all of their favorite characters running around and would yell when they saw a Minnie Mouse. There was only one Doc McStuffins and Kourtney wouldn't quit tugging at me until I let her run back after her so that she could say hi. Hehe. The girls made off pretty good with some very full buckets at the end of the night and we all had so much fun.

After the girls went to bed, I decided that since it had een such a long night for me two days in a row (sewing their costumes and then Trick or Treating) that I would take a nice long bath. I peeked my head into the girls' room and saw that Kourtney was asleep so I took my bath. When I got out though, Kourtney was sitting on the sofa, Halloween bucket beside her, empty wrapper of a Milky Way candy, and 3 different lollipops open and taking turns trying out each one. I couldn't possibly be mad but she sure tricked me didn't she? Hehe.

 

 

 

 

Renaissance Fair

Last weekend we ventured out to Hollister, CA which is about an hour and a half away south of us to the Renaissance Fair for some fun. It was a beautiful, hot day and although crowded, we had a good time. Here are some quick, cell phone pictures from our trip. The girls of course got lots of attention as always....I don't know if it is the fact that they are twins and dressed alike or what but we always get stopped as everyone wants to talk to them. Kourtney is of course super friendly all the time while Presley is a little bit more on the shy side. These nice ladies let the girls play with their bass and sung songs to them and they loved it. Some knight gave them treasure from his knapsack and we bought them some singing birdie whistles where you dip them in water and blow into them. I will have to post a video of them later, Kourtney also made a friend--a little girl that was almost 2 and she was dressed all up in her long dress and hair piece. Kourtney of course told her: "I likey your shoes!" and "I likey your dress!" and they quickly become friends in the basket room haha! They all played on drums for a bit and then she gave her a hug as we went our separate ways. So cute. She is just a little social butterfly that loves everyone and makes friends everywhere. She also made friends later on in the day with a little special needs boy that was in a wheelchair. She went up to him and patted him on his leg and told him: "Hi!" with just the biggest smile. The mom turned to me and explained that he is special needs and that he will never be in a mindset other than a baby with babbling and blowing raspberries and such and that she might be confused by his behavior. I told her I didn't think that it would and Kourtney quickly showed her that she didn't care--she just wanted to be his friend. She's so sweet and has the sweetest little heart ever. Other than that we ate some good food, watched some jousting and fencing, and walked around and took it all in. Although it wasn't nearly as good as the Dicken's Fair which we definitely will be going back to, we all had a great time! 



 

 

 

 Here are some videos I managed to take-- one is of the ladies showing the girls how to play their bass, the girls playing on the drums in the basket room, and some fencing that I thought was cool. And the last one is the ruckus everyone made as the Queen walked around. Haha!

 

Hello Fall!

We had an AMAZING summer. We took trips, enjoyed the hot summer sun, discovered some new places around San Francisco, had family and friends visit, and just enjoyed the summer. Which is good--since it will be our last one here in San Francisco (more about that later). The girls have grown SO much during the summer and while I loved my little summer blogging hiatus, I probably won't take another hiatus again. I missed it and there is such a huge gap now that I have to fill and the girls grow so fast that I would rather keep it up to date. I will be posting about our amazing summer vacations and trips in upcoming posts and probably in parts as there are just so.many.pictures to go through!

We welcomed fall by taking the girls to the pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay. It is actually the Pumpkin Capitol of the World. Yup, hard to believe that little old Half Moon Bay, a sleepy beach town, holds the most pumpkins than any other place in the world. Every year Half Moon Bay has their Annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival and World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off and people from all over bring their HUGE pumpkins for weighing to see who wins. Last years winner was a farmer that brought a 1,500 lb pumpkin! They also do pumpkin catapults and other festivities. Mimi was here visiting and we took the girls to one of the pumpkin patches and let them run around and pick their pumpkins. They were so excited running up and down the hundreds of pumpkins and I managed to get some great pictures. Kourtney loved to challenge herself to see what the heaviest pumpkin she could pick up was. After we played in the pumpkins a bit, I let the girls jump in bounce house that was also there. This was their first time ever in one of these things as there are usually lots of kids jumping in them or it is RSV season. But, since it was a Monday and we were the only people there, I let them in and they loved it of course! I can't wait to see them carve out their pumpkins this year and go trick or treating. I feel like they'll enjoy it a lot more than last year because I think they are at that age where they understand a lot more about what is going on. This age is so fun! Here are some pictures from our pumpkin patch adventures: