vanslootens.fam: 2008

in front of the Pantages theater.

Sammy took her friends Dylan and Marie to see

"Wicked"for her birthday

Jolie's winter program at school

We headed up to Northern California early the last day before winter break started. The kids didn't mind being pulled out of school early (a real sacrifice? not!!) so we can beat the traffic rush. Living in Southern California doesn't give us plenty of opportunity to play in the snow (unless we go to the mountains to ski, which we dont) so when presented with the chance we took it. A quick stop to throw a few snowballs and then we were on our way. It was great staying with my aunt and uncle who didn't mind that we used their house as a hotel (they have plenty), feeding us breakfast before we left for the city and dinner when we got home. We brought along our Christmas beach cruisers and rode around the marina. Two nights in San Francisco then we were on our way.....to Santa Cruz. Our motel was great, smack dab in the middle of downtown. We can walk to the shopping district on Pacific Ave., our favorite Indian restaurant, Sitar, and bike rode up and down the coast from the famous Santa Cruz boardwalk, (where the girls spent an hour at the arcade while the boys skateboarded at the local skatepark) to the surf spots the boys surfed the two days we were there. We were blessed with great bike riding weather and a fun long weekend in the two best places we love to visit.

snow on the 5 up the grapevine

Fort Point in San Francisco and

oh yeah, the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

beautiful day in San Francisco

every major city must have a store dedicated to just
cupcakes. this is San Francisco's version (we forgot the name)

Sam swears Sprinkles in Beverly Hills is the best

looking for lunch

Palace of Fine Arts

downtown San Francisco skyline

that cold weather really makes you want to cuddle, right?

with aunt and uncle in Fairfield

at the Exploratorium

we enjoyed clam chowder and creme brulee at the Cliff House in

San Francisco on a cold and rainy day while watching surfers freeze their

_______off at Ocean Beach. nice!!!!

Santa Cruz surf spot

beautiful day in Santa Cruz

sweeeet bike

our sweeet sam on her sweeet bike

faint sliver of a rainbow

the famous Santa Cruz boardwalk in the background

rogue biker gang terrorizes Nocal

Henry at the Santa Cruz skatepark

Jolie walking the line in Capitola(quaint little town just south of Santa Cruz)

Christmas morning back home

We headed down to San Quintin for a quick weekend trip with the Tippetts and Feinbergs. Mark and Ryan decided to finish packing the trucks the night before we left which meant strapping on the surfboards and boats and hitching on the trailer, which also meant the trucks would not now fit in the garages, which meant the surfboards and boats and whatnot might not be there in the morning, so the guys decided not to leave anything to chance and to a man laid out their sleeping bags on the driveway and toughed it out. Since we left at 4 in the morning they only had to be there for a few hours and really, this is Southern California in the middle of summer, how bad could it be.

Relaxing after fish tacos