Presidents' Day

It's not very often that we all, as a family, get a holiday like this one off of work.

The kids get off school, and with working at the bank, I get all the Federal holidays off too.

But my poor hubby only gets the big ones, like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This Presidents' Day...every single one of us had the day, or at least most of it, to be together.

 

So we decided to go hiking...a new place this time...at Briones.

It was so beautiful, and close...I don't know why we don't go here more often.

Emma Kate was a rockstar!

Her little legs carried her an hour and a half up hill and down.

Narrow paths, along streams.

The girl even peed in the brush!

Most of our hikes consist of my following a little behind with my camera, occasionally

making everyone stop and pose for me.

This hike was no different! 

Libby got to run off-leash.

We even saw horses.

But eventually Emmers had had enough...

Dominic was trying to lead us to "The Lagoon."

"It's just around this bend."

"Or maybe this one..."

Finally we had to turn around and head back without finding the lagoon.

EK almost made it but Daddy had to carry her on

his shoulders toward the end.

It was a close one...we almost had complete melt down.

 

After lunch and a nap we headed out to Tilden Park.

If you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you know that Tilden is AWESOME!

We usually frequent the Steam Trains.

But this time we decided to check out the Little Farm.

(P.S. Dom had track practice in the afternoon, so this was a perfect outing to do without him.)

The kids loved it!

We could get really close to the animals and pet them too.

I am not particularly into petting the animals, myself, but the kids like it!

(I'll just take pictures of them.)

Here's another little animal we found...! 

After the farm we headed over to The Carousel.

My poor Coco wanted nothing to do with it!

He is so weird about things like this...

and to think we drug him to Disneyland!

After a little trepidation, Emmy hopped on and enjoyed a couple of rides... 

Even though Connor had finally mustered up the courage to enter the building, he just couldn't bring himself to ride. He was crying as we left, saying he wanted to ride really badly, but was just too scared.

Poor guy...I wish I knew where he got his fear from or how we could help him overcome it.

 

The day ended with some photos back at home.

I wanted to play with the afternoon light in my bedroom,

which is the only room in the house that gets good natural lighting.

 

It wasn't very successful but I had fun playing with my camera and my kiddos.

And got a couple cute close-ups in the process. 

What do you think?

Black & White?

Or Color? 

 

Overall it was just a really great day spent with the family.