Rose and Ginger were in fine form; bouncing off the walls, squealing like little pigs, totally not listening, and growling like the little monsters they were being:-) Oh my goodness, they switched seats like 1000 times during our 30 minute ride into the city. 
Thank goodness the boys didn't decide to join them. And that the train was empty! I could just kiss those two angel boys. 
Of course that was just the tip of the iceberg, or should I say the Thunderstorm. When we got into the city it was drizzling rain, the kind of rain you expect with foggy San Francisco weather. Then we totally couldn't figure out the right bus stop to take and walked along so much, crossing street after street, that we were only five more blocks away from the Museum of Modern Art (the destination for the day). Of course while we were well on our way to the museum it started pouring. Like raining cats and dogs pouring! It was a Texas Thunderstorm.
We ducked into the Container Store because Ginger needed to use the restroom. We were totally drenched and understandably the girls were super whiny. I decided to buy us umbrellas since we were hoofing it around the city. Seriously, I nearly had a heart-attack, they were charging $14.99 for the same exact umbrella that I buy at home from the Dollar Store. If you remember, I had us on a strict $20 budget for all miscellaneous expenses each day--that is until that idea got rained on. But, I bit the bullet and purchased two of them. We had another week left on vacation and it was supposed to rain for most of it.
We needed to walk another 3 blocks to the museum, and guess what, it totally stopped raining after the first block. Of course it did! Not like we put the umbrellas up or anything since the girls were fighting over who got to hold the one with polka dots or crying because they smacked themselves in the face. Seriously, I think we actually made a homeless man cross the street when he saw us coming his way--it was that bad.
When we got to the museum the girls were actually very well-behaved. I was extremely proud of them since they totally listened to me about being quiet and not touching things. Too bad the museum was pretty much inappropriate for children. There were about three areas that we liked.
The one the children loved the most you don't even need to buy a ticket to see: it's in the Lobby. It's some kind of motion detector sensor or something. It will shine spotlights on random people standing in the Lobby and then follow you around for a little bit. The kids totally loved it and trying to steal the spotlight away from their sibling. (Notice Ginger is still holding that umbrella:-)
There was also a little discovery area filled with books, puzzles, and computer games. My children LOVED that! 
We stayed in that area for about an hour. Mainly because we had given up on seeing much of the museum. There was another very cool area that was a sound exhibit with moving speakers. 
But other then that we were extremely frustrated; this is not an appropriate museum for children really. I had checked the website and they made it seem like there were crafts areas and all sorts of great things for families to see. But apparantly that is only on certain weekends. The exhibits we totally skipped were: The Timeline of Wine and another one on Voyeurism. You can imagine how happy I was when my boys asked me what Voyeurism means. I was very happy with my boys though. There was an awesome display of the US. It was made up on shiny little one inch pictures on little pins, so when you are far away it looks like the US. However when the boys got a closer look they immediately turned away and said, "Mom, we need to leave. They aren't dressed modestly." So we high-tailed it out of there. I'm just thankful all of the "avoiding pornography" talks are paying off.
We were a little worn out and completely bummed out. So I decided to blow our budget sky high and took them out to dessert. They deserved it and it was such a hard day for all of us. We stopped at the closest restaurant and ordered a bunch of brownie sundaes and caramel sundaes, played some cards, let off some steam, and had fun with each other.
The girls were still totally silly and crazy on the ride home on BART. But, I really didn't mind it much this time. Darin was sitting in the front seat as we drove to pick up Ken from his work and I told him I knew a sure-fire way to calm the girls down since they were still so loud and bouncing off the walls. I put on a primary song, Nephi's Courage, that they love singing in the car. After the first verse Darin looked at me and said, "This is soooooo not working!" But, halfway through the second verse it finally touched those rambunctious little girls and they started singing. And guess what, by the time we picked up Ken from work (even though it is only 3 exits away) both of the girls had fallen asleep! After we picked up Ken, we got In-N-Out for dinner and drove to the Oakland Temple for FHE. I love that after a disappointing day like this, that we can pick up Ken and our mood instantly brightens. The children had fun re-counting their miserable, dreary day to Ken and we were able to laugh it off. This is the temple that we were sealed in, so it has a special meaning for us.
After walking around the grounds and talking for quite awhile, we went inside the Visitor's Center. I was very impressed with all of the new displays they had. It was particularly fitting that they had a display of Jeruselum and different lights would be highlighted as it spoke about the final days of Christ's life. My children were more interested then normal I think because Easter is coming up soon. Also, it was beautiful, hand-on, reverant, and simply done. 
The kids especially loved the area that played all the family commercials that encouraged parents to spend more time with their children; playing basketball, going to movies, fixing bikes, going rollerblading, etc:-) They were really cute! 
On our drive back to the Peninsula the boys were pretty chatty again and were saying how this was the best day! We all loved being at the temple. It just really hit home to me that this is why we have families: Hard things are easier to bear when you are surrounded by your family. I'll admit in the scheme of things our trials that day were pretty insignificant, but it felt very rewarding to have gone through them and come out closer as a family!
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