Our Day in San Francisco

The Hultgrens

Belinda & Ellen

Pier 39 - Snowman The Boys - Bubba Gumps Saks Fifth Ave Christmas Windows

Thanksgiving pictures

Happy Thanksgiving

Bruce and the Bird

The Thanksgiving Table Smile and be Thankful Conner & his Turkey Leg

Jamieson & his Turkey Leg Our First Thanksgiving Miss Belinda & Miss Paula

From November 18th, 2006

Saturday Well, we were all up at around 7.00 starting our busy weekend. Jamieson was up and straight into his basketball uniform. I have to say, it’s kind of a relief, and we are all a bit over ‘it’s my first game with the Spurs’. We were all up and around knowing what the day had in store. I was in the car and at the store getting presents and groceries, then back to the house by 9.00, unloading having a very quick tidy and we were all out the door for Jamieson’s game at 10.00am. The game went as expected, they dominated, to say the least. Jamieson surprised all of us, Bruce just looked at me at one stage with the “DAMN” face, very impressed with his son’s game and athleticism. The great thing is that most of the kids scored which was great for them all, and most of them now have a pretty good idea the game. They are going to dominate again…. help me lord, Jamieson spent the rest of the day talking about it. We got into the car and came home to change and get some lunch, then the boys went off to Jackari’s birthday party, Bruce went to my office to do some more copying for Billy Bounce and Mum cleaned for me & I started on dinner. I made up all of dinner and had a shower, all ready for our dinner guests. The boys all arrived home at around 4.45pm and Mum and I jumped into the car and went to Conner’s game. Not as much joy, poor Conner lucked out again. The team was ok, they got pumped but on the up side Conner’s game is getting really great. He has improved as well, which is so great for him. The team improved as the game went on, but they are not going get a lot of wins. Bruce had a chat to Conner after the game about his improvement and he seems ok with it now. We got home around 7.00 (late) and the Charles’ were waiting for us. They came in and the kids went off to play while I put dinner together. We all caught up on the week in the kitchen (cause it’s big enough) and the kids say at the kid’s table and the adults at the adult’s table (YEAY!!) We all finished our dinner and the kids went off to play & the adults chatted. The Charles’ left around 10.00pm and we went off to bed after tidying up. It was a nice end to a busy day. Sunday We all woke up and Bruce off to Wackford to do the coach the coaches for Billy Bounce. We potted around in the morning and got ready for our day out in San Francisco. We had some lunch and when Bruce got home and changed we were on the road at 1.00pm. It wasn’t a very picturesque day, lots of clouds in the sky and we were driving in the car I was really worried about whether we would actually see the bridge or not. San Francisco is known for its fog. We got there and it was a perfect day for it, the sun was out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We arrived at the bridge and did the usual photo’s etc although there was still a little fog over the water so seeing Alcatraz was a little bit difficult. Anyway, we got some nice pictures and went for a walk on the bridge then jumped into the car and made our way to Pier 39. We parked the car and walked down along the street, mum got some REAL clam chowder from the stinky, fishy smelling vendors and it was beautiful. We walked around Pier 39, all the Christmas decorations were up and a huge tree, it was really gorgeous. We checked out the stores and some buskers then made our way to Bubba Gump’s for dinner. Unfortunately it was disappointing, but it didn’t dampen the great afternoon that we’d had. Most importantly, Mum had a fantastic time. We were back in the car and driving through downtown looking for trolley cars and just the city in general. We drove through the middle of town and saw the Macys and Saks Fifth Ave Christmas windows, which were magnificent in Union Square, to say the least. We were all just sitting in the car going WOW!!! We stopped at some traffic lights and managed to get a couple of shots, which turned out really nice. I will post them for you all. By the time we got home it was after 10.00, but we all had a great time and were EXHAUSTED!!! Fell straight into bed and out for the count. The end of another long but adventurous day for the Hultgren’s and one Korostin. Monday Bruce went off to work early in the morning as per usual. I didn’t go into work; I realized that I had bought my entire work home with me so there would be no point in going in. I didn’t get any done, instead I tidied up the house and did a few minor things that I would have done if I wasn’t working every day, like hanging posters and cleaning up the office a little. There are things in the house that I’m not sure where they are, and you can imagine how well that would sit with me. I’m still getting there, the kids being off track with me being home hopefully I will get all that done. Bruce got home from work around lunchtime and mum and I went out to get some groceries. Bruce picked the kids up from school and we got home not long after. I started on dinner, lasagna. Jamieson had basketball practice at 5.00, so they all left for that and left me alone to do dinner in the peace and quiet. It was heaven!!! They arrived home from basketball did showers etc and we sat down to dinner. Paula arrived later; Bruce couldn’t stay up any longer (tired) and went off to bed around 9.00pm. Paula stayed for a little while longer and we chatted for a while. She left, I went off to bed and mum stayed up to chat to home and watched some TV. Tuesday Went into work for a couple of hours to organize computer, came home late morning. The kids had a minimum day today, last day of school. Mum, Bruce and I walked over to pick them up and we all walked home with Millie and Lexie who came over for a visit. They stayed for a little while, and then we just chilled out for the rest of the day. The boys just played around the house and I got onto he computer and did some work and sent some emails. The usual things, I did manage to reply to some, which was good because the guilt was starting to get to me for not emailing back. Spent a quiet night in, Bruce was at a meeting on the other side of town and got back around 8.30. We chilled out then off to bed around 10.30. Wednesday Another nice day, all just lounged out of bed around 7.30. Bruce went off to work, I started cleaning the house, and we all just chilled out for the most part of the day. Paula called and came to get me and we went grocery shopping for tomorrow. Mum took the kids to the park for a couple of hours, they had a really nice time, the kids did their running for running club and mum did some walking. Paula came over for dinner, and then we just chilled out and made up the Cranberry jelly fruit salad. Let the new tastes begin. Poor Paula was going through some of the dishes and Mum and I were sitting there with funny looks on our faces. Like pumpkin/ sweet potato thing with marshmallows on the top. I think we made her very nervous, we will see. Thursday Happy Thanksgiving – (or Gobble Gobble Day, as Paula calls it.) Bruce and I woke up at 7.00 (as per usual) caught up on the last couple of weeks, not a lot of time to ourselves to do that, so that was nice. I walked over to Paula’s to do turkey and stuffing at 9.00, the turkey was still frozen in the middle so we had a good time trying to defrost, it all makes for a good Thanksgiving story. We got the turkey in the oven at around 10.30 then it had to cook for at least 4 hours. We chatted for a while and I left to come home to get some of the other stuff ready. Bruce & mum took the boys over to the park and I stayed and did up the table and tidied up a little. They got back an hour or so later and the kids went out to play, Bruce went into the office to do some work and I fluffed around the way we all do when company is coming over, cleaning etc. Paula arrived with the bird around 3.00 and it smelled YUMMY!!! I had all the vegetables ready to go and then we just had to heat up or brown all the other stuff. We all sat down to Thanksgiving at around 4.00pm. We sat at the table with the following in front of us. Turkey, Turkey gravy, hot bread rolls, cranberry sauce, cranberry fruit salad, sweet potato with pecans and marshmallows on the top, stuffing, mashed potatoes, honey carrots, and garlic beans. Apart from the beans (which Paula agreed) were yuk, it was all beautiful!!! I said to Paula,” I take back all the faces I made last night, she was very relieved.” Mum did too; she has even bought the recipes for most of the dishes home, so the Korostin’s should expect a couple on the table with the turkey Christmas day I would imagine. We sat around chatting while we ate, apart from the boys playing with their VERY LARGE legs, which they thought was hysterical, it was really a great meal. Bruce was sitting there making all the YUMMY noises and said, “Now I understand Thanksgiving”, all day he’d been saying he didn’t get it it’s just a meal. But sitting there with family and friends over a beautiful meal and lots of it, you could really understand why it is such a family day. We heated up the pies (Pumpkin and Apple) and sat down to our dessert at around 6.00. They were beautiful, even the pumpkin one, pumpkin over here is sweeter than at home, so I can understand why they can use it for a sweet. I did have the displeasure of tasting Cool Whip. I told Paula I would try everything. It tasted like whipped sugar but worse. Paula laughed and made the comment of the day. She looked my straight in the eye with a straight face, for a second and said, “You can eat it but it tastes like shit”. Well, we were all just about on the floor in stitches. She usually quotes Bruce but Paul Hogan we didn’t see coming. We finished dinner and rounded onto the couches. Paula got to choose the movie, we got out the projector and watched What Women Want on the wall, the room is perfect for it, it was like we were at the movies, and I even did popcorn. It was the perfect end to the night. Paula left around 11.30; they also watched Pricilla Queen of the Desert, Mum’s choice. Another, Australian learning experience for Miss Paula from Texas. Friday We are really living in America – are you ready for this? We were up at 4.30 (the stores open for the thanksgiving sales at 5.00am) When I said sales I’m not kidding though. There were a couple of things that were on sale for the kids for Christmas, and Bruce wanted to have another experience. So the alarm went off at 4.30 and Bruce and mum were off to go shopping in the dark. He called 10 mins later laughing his butt off, they were walking to the end of the line at the other end of the shopping car park. They got home around 5.30 with goodies in hand. The boys got portable DVD players from mum for Xmas ($70 off) and she also got a fantabulous new digital camera and 2gb memory card. Very flash, she is in picture taking heaven. We went back to bed and woke up around 9.00, the boys were up none the wiser. I woke up mum and we were dressed and out of the house to get some Thanksgiving Day shopping in by 9.30am. You should have seen the people, they were everywhere, boxing day shopping everywhere, we did manage to get some good bargains, we went back to Best Buy to see if there were some things that they saw in the catalogue when they got home, NOT!! All the huge bargains were gone. We did manage to get some other bargain, I bought mum a 1GB MP3 player for her birthday and we got some CD’s for $6.00 each. I then took her to Wal-Mart for that experience, and she got some really great stuff for herself, which was really nice to see. She is loving the whole ladies shoes go up to a size 11 here and making the most of it. Then we went to Target and had some more shopping fun, got a few more Christmas presents. Before we knew it, it was 3.00pm; we looked through another couple of stores, got a couple more pressies and then got home around 4.30. Got back to the house… looking like I hadn’t been home since the early morning, no beds made, food all over the kitchen as usual. The boys were running around, cause their father let them have their Halloween candy and wasn’t watching how much they had, so of course they had HEAPS!! Bruce was sitting at the desk and hadn’t really moved all day, but did get a lot of work done so that was a bonus. Paula arrived with her boys at around 5.00 for leftovers. We made up dinner and all sat down around 6.00; it was still as yummy as the night before. After dinner everyone jumped onto the couches for a movie. Bruce put Will Smith on so we all had a bit of a dance before settling down to watch Shark Tales on the big screen. I chatted with Elise on messenger, which was nice, it’s been a few days so it was good to get all the gossip. Paula and the kids left at around 10.00 and the kids went to bed and we followed not long after. Another big weekend is coming up, lots of plans. I hope everyone is well.

From 11th November

Saturday Got up at the usual time, no later even though it was the weekend. It was raining all day. Paula picked me up at around 7.30 and I dropped them off at the airport. I came home and everyone was up, they were all having their breakfast. Around 11.00am Mum and I went out to do some shopping. We checked out some of the stores, not as many as we thought, we spent more time in each store than we thought. We got home around 6.00pm. Bruce and I went to the office to do some printing for the Billy Bounce presentations in New York. We were gone longer than we thought. We finally got home around 8.00 and had some dinner. We chatted to Trudy and the kids on Skype and just chilled out for the evening. Bruce packed for his trip to New York. Sunday Got up far to early, I dropped Bruce off at the airport at 5am. I got back to the house and we spent the rest of the day just chilling out around the house. We went out to get some stuff at the supermarket and dropped into a store and Mum got the kids some runners. It was a very uneventful day really; I was exhausted and was in bed at 8.30. I’m a real party animal hey! Monday We woke to the start of another week, and did the usual. I dropped the boys off at school and went off to work. I spent the first couple of hours of the morning trying to figure out some work forms, dealing with government agencies is just a hoot!! They girls and I had a good day, I worked until later in the afternoon, mum went and picked the boys up from school and they all went home and did homework. I spoke to Bruce and he had a really good day in New York, it sounds like it was a very successful trip. He was making his way from different meetings and was very upbeat. I got home from work told Jamieson to get changed and we went off to basketball practice. They had a good practice. I think they will do ok as a team, and the parents are really nice too, so it should be a good season for all. I made the mistake of telling Conner that I would check his homework in the morning, then we sat down to some dinner. The boys went off to bed and mum and I just chilled out until bedtime around 10.30. Tuesday Another typical Tuesday, woke up too early, Conner and I checked through his homework and he had to try and fix it before school. So of course we were running late. We went off to school to do parent helping. I had to stay for 2.5 hours, which would happen when I wanted to get to work. I couldn’t find the car keys and I got to work around 10.30 and started the day. The rest of the day was fairly typical, I spoke to Bruce and he was making his way to the next part of his trip, next stop, North Carolina. I got home from work around 6.00, having has to stop off and grab a couple of things for dinner, and naturally (sarcastic) I had to go to more than one supermarket to find the stuff that I needed. I arrived home to find that there was no Internet or phone, oh what a day. Bruce was on the phone and I was yelling, Comcast couldn’t help until the next day. You can imagine my mood. For everyone’s safety I ended up going to bed around 9.30, exhausted and not happy. What a day!!! Wednesday Happy Birthday Grandma!!! We woke up and the kids jumped into bed with me. We wrapped the little present that I bought her and started the day. We were all ready to go when she woke up and so we did the school thing. I came back from school and fixed up the internet phone situation and we got organized and jumped into Paula’s car and went to pick them up. It turned out to be a nice sunny morning so I drove mum around Sacramento for a look; we went to Old Sac, Government House and the beautiful old houses. She got some nice pics so she was happy. We picked them up at the airport and were back in Elk Grove at around midday. I took mum out for lunch to Pete’s, had the best tomato bisque soup and could only eat half the turkey sandwiches, so we bought them home. After that we hit a couple of shops for a quick look and to get a couple of things that he needed for a project. We got back and picked the kids up from school, they did their homework and went out for a play. Then around 6.00 we went out for dinner to celebrate the birth of Ellen. Back to Pete’s we went, and had another beautiful meal; the kids had some yummy stuff too. Again, we went home with doggy bags, which mum still can’t believe. We got home and mum got online and birthday chatted with everyone, dad even rang which was a great surprise. I think she had a nice birthday. I went to bed around 10.00 and left her up checking emails etc. Thursday I woke up to lots of fog; it’s getting that way every morning now. We walked to school and I did parent helping in Conner’s class. It was only for an hour cause they had a substitute teacher, which was good for me. I got back to the house at around 9.15 and we got ready and took off for the outlet mall. It’s about a 35 min drive, and mum got to some more of Sacramento on the way. It was raining when we arrived but we made out way through the stores. It turns out we are slow shoppers or thorough shoppers, so we had to get picky about which ones we hit. We had to leave to pick the kids up just after 1.30. We got back to the car with lots of bags, so I guess it was a successful trip. I think everyone got a little something. We got home and had out lunch, the boys had running club so mum went across about 3.00, it was fine and sunny by now so running club was on. They got home; with an extra (Jackari) his mum was on her way back from a funeral in San Francisco. She arrived around 4.00 and they left not long after. We checked over homework and the kids went off to play, then we all piled into the car and went to Ikea. Mum bought us some stuff for the house and the boy’s new doona covers. We were there for a couple of hours but were still home by 7.00pm. All the Christmas decorations are out here and there are some gorgeous ones. It’s going to be hard to restrain myself. We got home and the kids showered while we organized dinner. We all had leftovers from the week, to the kids delight. Go Figure!!! I was off to bed at a reasonable hour, which is nice. Friday The end of another week here, and it started out as usual. Except that, I woke up at 5.00am, which I put down to Bruce doing something. Usually if I wake up at a certain time, it usually means something unusual is happening. Not sure why, but more often than not when I remember to ask him, it’s true. Pretty weird, but it’s nice. The boys went off to school and Paula and the boys came over and she drove me to work. We had a pretty constructive day, I’m trying to organize some stuff for while I’m not in. (The boys are going off track, so no work) I spoke to Bruce throughout the day, he was trying to make his way home, airports, planes etc, etc. Mum picked the boys up from school and they just played, there is no homework on Friday’s or the weekend, which is a nice rest for them. They are just packing up the room and all their stuff anyway. I got home around 4.30 and I started to put together the furniture that we got the night before. We had some dinner and the boys watched a movie and I got onto the computer and chatted with Elise then later Rhys came online. Bruce’s flight from Vegas was delayed so was now not getting home until around 2.00am. I was planning to surprise him at the airport so he didn’t have to catch a cab. I spoke to him in Vegas at 12.00 and he still had a wait so I decided to get at least an hour of sleep. I woke up and was out of the house at 1.20, drove in the fog, hoping that the plane wasn’t diverted due to the fog. He arrived at 2.28, helping a girl on crutches with her son and their carry on bags. We waited around for what seemed like forever, what made it longer was finding her bags, cause they were the last ones. We got home and rolled into bed at 4.00am. What an end to the week. For those who are waiting for my emails, I’m really sorry. I will catch up with all of you over the next week, I promise!!!!! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, although I think it will be just another day for us, just a big meal. No huge plans. The Charles’ are off to Hawaii for a few days and Paula is coming over but the boys are with their dad. EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!