San Francisco...A Trip Back Home...

Todd and I were able to travel from Utah to San Francisco and spend five days there while I attended a surgical conference. I absolutely loved the year that I was able to spend living there while doing my internship at UCSF. For me, this was truly a visit back home. My dear husband on the other hand, does not have such "fuzzy" feelings regarding the quick trips he would make to SF while completing his last year of medical school in SLC.



We flew out of SLC early Sunday morning during a wicked blizzard and arrived to beautiful weather in SF....October is the best time of the year there! We drove straight from the airport to Candlestick Park for the 49ers vs Eagles game. We had a blast! Our tickets were on the 5th row up from the 49ers home endzone. We were surrounded by crazy fans who have had those tickets for years! The game was awesome and exciting, however the Eagles ended up victorious...hard to be sad when you like both teams!

A view of the field from our seats!


Nice behind McNabb...I love him!!!

Coach Andy Reid...a fellow mormon and good guy

O'Sullivan back to pass...

Just enjoying the game and our surroundings!

A view of the final score...high scoring and very entertaining!

The dejected team after a tough loss...

A view of Steve Young's retired jersey...man is he a hottie!!!

A view of the field from just below our seats right after the game...

Following the game, Todd and I drove around the baseball park and the financial district...our old stomping grounds!

Our old apartment. We lived on the 10th floor and had a

perfect view of the Bay Bridge and water from our living room!

While living in San Francisco, I was obsessed with Nob Hill....the view, the cable cars... Todd and I were able to stay at the Fairmont atop Nob Hill during our trip.

Monday was spent at the conference, but that night Todd and I walked down to Union Square for some shopping and sight-seeing. As most of you can imagine, Union Square was a place I spent much of my free time enjoying!!! On our walk from Nob Hill down, many begging homeless people were passed. One was even holding a sign, "Need a Hooker, please give money!" I was dying to take a picture, however couldn't justify contributing to his cause.

Right in front of Nordstrom on Market Street, an elderly man holds this sign and yells.

A similar aged man next to him has a sign about "sinful sex".

They have been there since we lived there...

The following pictures were all taken from the same street corner. Man I miss this city!!!

After our time shopping, Todd and I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant near our old apartment overlooking the Embarcadero and the Bay Bridge. I had my camera, but didn't stop to take any pictures.

Tuesday again was spent at meetings during the day. That night Todd and I met up with some of the other residents from Harbor-UCLA for a great steak dinner at Mortons in Union Square.

I became a true "city" gal on the trip down from Nob Hill.

I wore flip flops and carried my heels. Here I am in front of Saks...

We took advantage of the cable car to spare my footsies even with my

flip flops. I had always wanted to ride them and never did

the entire year we lived there!

The only "heart" that Todd leaves in San Francisco...

Being serenaded while waiting from the cable car after dinner.

Wednesday after the meetings finished, Todd and I drove out near the SF VA Hospital and to the beach. We ate dinner at a fantastic restaurant we found literally the night before we moved to LA...

A view of Golden Gate Bridge from the VA parking lot.

Quite the scenery to enjoy during the few spare moments you had to eat lunch!

The Cliff House restaurant and it's spectacular surroundings!

Thursday we spent time sight-seeing before heading to the airport.

The Golden Gate Bridge...

Coit Tower with Bay Bridge in the background from the top of Lombard Street.

Lombard Street...one of my favorite places in the city!

No trip to SF is complete without stopping at Ghiradelli Square for sundays!

One of our favorite parts about SF was our ward.

Who can forget the homeless people coming into sacrament, leaving multiple times within the hour to go out for a smoke in front of the building...

How about the man dressed as a woman who was never lacking comments to contribute to the Relief Society lesson...

The journey to get to church was also never without excitement.

One Sunday while Laurel was visiting, we had to brave the Gay Rights Parade...

Every Sunday we had to pass through the sinful city's perception of Eden to get to ours...

Now to our Garden of Eden in the wicked city...

The church sits on the corner of a neighborhood surrounded by apartment buildings.

The parking lot can only hold ~12 cars so it was always an adventure trying to

find street parking and get into church on time!

And of course, we had to drive by UCSF and SF General Hospitals.



On the little terrace you can see with the trees, the homeless people would sit and wait for you to through your lunch tray away and then go and eat whatever you had left on it. It only took me a short time to realize it was better to just hand off my unfinished plate than to make them dig through the trash for it. You also quickly learned not to eat from the salad bar after seeing the homeless people eating out of it with their bare hands...I didn't eat much when I rotated there!

The Bay Bridge and Embarcadero just a block away from our apartment...

No vacation is complete without documenting Todd managing our luggage...

Hey, I was gone for 2 weeks....what's a girl to do....wear something twice???

I truly have such fond memories of our year living in SF. I am one who leaves a small piece of their heart in the city. It was so fun to be back as a tourist and do some of the things I never got to do while living there. I can't wait for the next visit back!!!

Vacation to Utah...Continued

The remainder of our time in Utah was met with much mixed emotion after the sudden passing of my Aunt Susan. My mom, Laurel, Judy, Bart and myself were able to spend some time grieving with her dear family as well as my immediate family on Wednesday, the day following her death.

That Thursday was a day of appointments....dentist and hair salon....both must-stops every trip home. What would we do without our dear Aunt Emily who keeps us all looking so good! Thursday night was a great dinner at Union Station with Todd's mom, dad, sister Jennifer and her darling little boy Ashton, as well as my mommy and daddy, Jocelyn, Laurel and Brady. So sad that I don't have any pictures, especially since I had my camera with me!



Friday was a fun day spent with great families! We lunched that afternoon at a place my family kept raving about right along the Ogden River with Mom, Grammy, Todd, me, Jocelyn, as well as with Jennifer and Ashton. The food and atmosphere, especially the company, was great...too bad it was too cold to eat outside and really enjoy the scenery.

How I do so love and absolutely adore these two fantastic, beautiful ladies!!!

On our way home from lunch we had to drive along Fruitland Drive and admire the handiwork of Laurel and Mom as well as a few men from the ward. One of the ward-members husband's has been deployed in Iraq for 18 months and arrived home to a welcoming flag-lined street!

18 flags in the yard, one for each month Brent was gone.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture the flags along the road....

Friday evening we had a nice dinner at my favorite place, Maddox, with Todd's family.

The Grunander clan...minus me

Saturday Todd and I were able to sleep in and then watch the BYU--New Mexico game with my mom and dad. We all had tickets to go, however Dad was on call and couldn't leave Ogden so we decided to not brave the cold, snowing weather and all watch it on tv. That night we had a great game of cards...too bad my husband has to cheat and win every time!!!

Mom and Laurel enjoying their good hands!

This picture isn't too far off from the truth...CHEATER!

While we played cards, Brady took the following poll:

"Who would you rather break their leg: Max Hall (BYU quaterback) or me???"

I think his feelings and ego were a little bruised when it was a unanimous vote for Brady to break his leg....and without question a very easy choice! Although, that was before this last BYU-TCU game. Maybe you should redo that poll, the answer my be different...

Sad but True...fell asleep at the table after the last hand of cards.

Thanks Wolthuis and Grunander families for all the great memories!!! Already counting down to the next vacation....December 26 isn't that far away!!!

Susan Wolthuis Williams

My dear aunt passed away unexpectedly on October 7, 2008. She will truly be missed by her family and friends. She was a beautiful woman inside and out. She was a wonderful and loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend. She was a shining example of Christ-like love. She knew what was right and always stood up for her beliefs. She was a peacemaker. She was kind, thoughtful and generous. My love and prayers go out to Richard, Richie and Julie and Ruby, Whitney and Steven, Micah and Chelsea.

Vacation to Utah...The Return to Sanity...

After the past 3 weeks straight with no fewer than 4 calls/pages every night leading to an extremely tired and very cranky SICU fellow, combined with not having spent no more than 3 hours total with Todd in the past month, we are off on a week of vacation in Utah and it could not have come at a better time!

Todd and I left LA for home on Friday, October 3. No excitement on this flight unlike my last...Danny Glover sat in front of me last month from LA to SLC and was causing a scene fighting with the flight attendant about turning his phone off and taking out his earbud in order to listen to the rules about sitting in the exit row. Todd and I actually had a row to ourselves and within minutes I was asleep not to awaken until we landed.

Todd's dad picked us up at the airport and we headed to South Salt Lake for a visit with Ed and Ila, Todd's grandparents.

Three generations of Grunander men...

Saturday we enjoyed a nice day of conference. Greg, Emily and the boys were down from Idaho Falls and it is always so fun to be with their family.

Cannon and Crew were both sporting black eyes. Crew had pulled himself up to a chair and then fell hitting the corner of the chair. Cannon's story however is much more interesting. He was playing catch with two other little boys at Colton's last football games. One of the boys became angry when Cannon didn't throw him the ball, walked right up to him and socked him in the eye.

Although hard to see in this picture, the entire area under

Cannon's right eye is black, blue and an awful color of green.

The shiner Crew has looks more like bad purple

eyeshadow gone wrong all over his right eyelid.

We were able to give Laurel a baby shower on Saturday night while all of the men were at priesthood session of General Conference. We spent most of the afternoon preparing with all of the girls...it made me very grateful for my sisters and the fun we are able to have together. We quickly learned that any Martha Stewart recipe that Emily has shouldn't be used unless she has personally made the item at least once before. However, two cupcake and icing recipes later, all of the salads and desserts were delicious!

Emily never fails to be the life of the party.

Could little Laurel just try to look pregnant...she is 6 months along after all!

The shower was fantastic. It was fun to be with so many family members and visit. Laurel got some great presents....we all can't wait for little Paisley to make her appearance!!! Once all of the guests were gone, the stress of the day led Mom to hit the bottle!!! An intervention is currently underway, however with little success...

Now Jocelyn wasn't dressed this fancy for our party. She went to Fremont High's Homecoming Dance that night with her boyfriend Cameron.

Sunday was completely relaxing and peaceful again enjoying all of the General Conference talks. Todd traveled to Idaho Falls with his family to visit his Grandmother and Aunt.

We spent Sunday evening eating a wonderful meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy thanks to my dear mom. Todd's friend from medical school and his wife were able to join us for dinner and our favorite past-time....playing cards with Grammy Char.

Monday my mom and I spent part of the afternoon in the DMV so that I could renew my license. I am proud to say that I have yet to get nor will I claim myself as a California resident by getting a drivers license there. The time at the DMV was quite entertaining as we joined the ranks of all of the finest in white trash that Ogden has to offer. You will be glad to know that Mom and I were the only ones in nice clothes, with a full set of teeth...our own of fake...and who didn't smell like smoke and alcohol. The best show was the illegal Mexican girl that spoke no English trying to obtain a license. She approached the desk and rattled off something in Spanish only to have the worker respond, "I don't speak Spanish." The same dialogue occurred a few more times before the Mexican girl finally called her friend up to the counter who spoke only a few broken words of English. Unfortunately for the girl, No VISA = NO LICENSE!

We then met up with the family for dinner at Texas Roadhouse and an evening of shopping with the girls. When we first ventured into the Newgate Mall...aka Ogden's only shopping area...I commented on how difficult it would be to leave LA shopping. However, I then discovered the shoe store with great high heels and flat, as well as the the deal of $17.99 for one pair and get the second for FREE. Two pair of shoes later, as well as a great purse and fishnet tights and I was reconsidering...

"Don't even think about eating a peanut.

These are mine, all mine!"

No trip to Utah is complete without a day of card-playing. Tuesday was spent eating junk food and playing cards until we dropped. Unfortunately, Todd killed us every game!

Emily was able to join in the fun from Idaho Falls via I-Chat.

Grammy, Aunt Emily, me, Aunt Jeanene and Mindy, Mom

We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the initial days of our vacation...more posts and pictures to come!