Thanksgiving Trip 2023 - San Francisco - Day 3

Friday morning Trek & I woke up early, but not at 5:30!  Yaya!  The 2 of us were going to go pick up Lorien at the San Francisco airport an hour from Tylee’s house.  She flew in at 9:30 so we left at 8:45 & let the rest of the kiddos sleep in. As we were leaving, Olive was on the couch throwing up like Phoenix had the day before.  Those poor girls just couldn’t catch a break.

Lorien’s flight left an hour later than scheduled, but still arrived on time which totally made me laugh.  We grabbed her from the airport around 10:10 & then we headed into the city to go ice skating.  We parked in a huge parking garage & walked to Union Square where we waited for Opa, Tuhk, & the rest of my kiddos to join us for our 11:00 ice skating session.

Poor Canyon was terrified of ice skating.  This was his first time & you would have thought he was skating to his death.  The tears, the whaling & knashing of teeth!  Poor kid.  I felt so bad for him.  I tried so hard to hold onto him to make him feel comfortable, but he wanted to cling to the side of the rink for dear life the entire time.  I was able to get him around the rink ONE TIME & that was it.  He was DONE.  He hung out with Opa on the sidelines while the rest of us skated.  I was terrible too, but I still loved it & had fun.  By the end I could somewhat skate without holding onto anything.  Bladen was like me. . .he was nervous & off balance a lot, but he did well.  Trek, Lorien, Taya, & Craiger were speed demons.  They were amazing & I think they really really enjoyed it.

After ice skating, we walked 30 minutes down Market Street to the theater district where we watched The Lion King.  Tylee met us there with Jeff, Phoenix, & Olive who were feeling a little better.  The tickets were split up into 3 different areas (buying 15 tickets is hard to get in one single row), but all 3 areas were great.  Lorien & Taya were down on the first floor by the orchestra.  They got to see the cast sing & dance in the aisles up close & personal.  Tylee & her family were near the front of the 2nd floor & the rest of us were near the back of the 2nd floor which were amazing views of the show.  I was very impressed.  The show was incredible.  Honestly, young simba & young nala stole the show. They were SO SO SO GOOD.  The whole thing was just amazing. . . the sets & costumes were incredible.  We loved it so much.

After the play we had to walk back to our van. . . & as we did so we happened upon a HUGE protest regarding the situation in Palastine/Israel.  I don’t know why every time we go to San Francisco, we wind up in some weird political situation, but we do.  It was the only way back to our van & we had to walk alongside the protest to get there so it was strange.  It was a peaceful protest, but with a lot of yelling which made the kids VERY uncomfortable.  But we made it safe & sound to our car.  Tuhk was with us & it wasn’t until we got into the van that we realized that we didn’t have enough seats for Tuhk!  We had 7 seats in the van & once we picked up Lorien, all 7 seats were filled.  So we crammed him into the back with the boys & somehow made it home to Tylee’s.

Tylee & her family & Opa went to a park for a little while so instead of going straight home, we went to Tylee’s friend’s house to let Lorien visit with Grandma Kinsfather a little bit.  That was SO nice.  We love grandma so much & never get much time with her.  Once Tylee’s crew got home, we headed home as well. 

We hung out & told stories for a bit, then made our way to Il Davide Restaurant for dinner.  It was a really really nice Italian restaurant & it was delicious.  I got chicken Parmesan & it was incredible.  The kids got sausage pasta, ravioli, cheesy spaghetti, & all sorts of things.  We had calamari & all sorts of fun appetizers & just had a blast.  Everything was delicious.

After dinner we came back home & watched Christmas Every Day with the family then went to bed.  It was a perfect day.