Our Bay Area Bucket List

1. Visit Alcatraz (I went when I was 8ish, but Kurt's never been)
   
2. Hike Mission Peak on a low fog day with my camera (when the hills are green ) - Kurt
3. Stay at a Fancy Hotel in the City for a night
4. Take a ferry to Angel Island
5. Go to Point Arena
6. Take Mom to Carmel
7. Visit the Winchester Mystery House
8. Camp in the Northern Coastal Redwoods
9. Bonfire on the beach with the Tu'itavuki/Grow clan
10. Go to a yummy French restaurant without the kids
11. Eat at the Crab Pot in SF (Kurt)
12. Go to Union Square at Christmas time and see the displays in Macys, etc
    
13. See another play/musical in the City (Wicked was AWESOME!)
14. Take Logan to Six Flags again (specifically Thomas Town)
15. Take the kids to the Jelly Belly Factory
16. Eat at Chinese restaurant Devin recommended in Chinatown (House of Nanking)
17. Yosemite (even though its not Bay Area)

FYI - We'll probably be moving in the next year or so...but have no idea where or exactly when, so we thought we might as well get started on our list!

Busy Busy Busy

So I really didn't post anything since Wednesday? I failed the whole blog everyday for 30 days thing. My I can repent or backdate a few posts. ;) To give myself credit or at least feel better I have been very busy!

Thursday - Birthday breakfast for my friend Andrea. I had to drag Logan out of Cherisse's house kicking and screaming. Then we decided to go to the library and check out some Thanksgiving books for preschool. I found one I REALLY liked -"Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' ". It was hilarious! I definitely recommend it. Anyways, that evening was filled with wonderful Thursday night TV. Does anyone else watch Private Practice? It has been so great this season!

Friday - It was another crazy preschool day. Fun, but a little crazy as usual. Then I had to help out at our Stake Priesthood Preview.

Saturday - Relief Society craft day! Kurt took care of the kids from 9am-2:30pm, even after waking up at 4:30am to get ready to take the YM in our ward to the Oakland Temple at 6am. Do I have a great husband or what?!? I made a FHE chart (which I need to finish) and a flannel board nativity. I was in charge of helping people make Christmas cards. I copied some samples of my favorite stamping website - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com .





And tonight we just got home from Lisa & Kevin's 6th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner...and boy am I stuffed!

Kelsie Walks

Kelsie walked tonight and I pretty much missed it. At least Kurt and the YM were there to verify it. :(

Trick or Treat

Saturday night we wheeled our big green dinosaur and little ladybug around the neighborhood. Kelsie loved the wagon and wanted to stand the whole time which was a little dangerous. Our neighbor Barbara really wanted to give Kelsie candy even after we said she didn't need any (we didn't take a trick-or-treat bag for her), so she went back inside her house and brought out a Jello cup instead. :) Logan loved ringing the doorbells and saying trick-or-treat, although he was complaining about how hungry he was the whole time....hungry for candy that is!

See, Hear, Smell

See:
Piles of projects...
1.) LOTS of cardstock, ribbon, and glue for Saturday's Relief Society Christmas card project I am in charge of.
2.) Bags of "stuff" I bought on today's shopping trip (5 stores in 2 1/2 hours!). My friend Sunshine watched my kids for me and they didn't want to leave.
3.) Halloween decorations that need to be taken down.
AND my Freshly mopped hardwood floor. So I actually cleaned it yesterday...but its still shiny so it makes me happy.

Hear:
1.) Logan, Kelsie, and Kurt laughing. :) They are upstairs wrestling on the bed....Kurt already bathed them and put their jammies on. Do I have the best husband or what?
2.) The Dishwasher. My kitchen is clean for tomorrow...and hopefully will stay that way!

Smell:
1.) Korean Beef Bowl I made for dinner. Yes the dishes are done, but the marinade includes a lot of garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
2.) My Dog and his skunk smell. He was sprayed a few weeks back, but the smell still lingers. :(

Busy Month for Blogging

Just found out about this...and thought I'd give it a try! I figure it shouldn't be too hard with the holidays coming up. In fact, I have pictures from this weekend that I still need to post. :) Last month my reunion and Stake Primary Leadership Training were stressing me out -- This month is forecasted to be a busy one as well, but it should be a lot of fun!

Posts to look forward to this month:

• Relief Society craft day (I'm in charge of making homemade Christmas cards)
• Lisa & Kevin's Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner.
• Kelsie's 1st Birthday and doctor visit!
• Logan's preschool Thanksgiving feast
• Trim to Morro Bay & central coast WITHOUT kids!
• Family Pictures
• Thanksgiving in Cameron Park & Family birthday party
  
• Davis' Baptism
  

GREAT BLOG ALERT!

http://giverslog.com/

This blog is written by Amberlee - my brother's college roommate's wife....there's a connection for you! I've fallen in love with her Guide to a Stress Free Christmas. For those of you Facebook people she even has a Facebook group and emails you every week with that weeks task.

Preschool Halloween Party!

My little ladybug and big green dinosaur had a lot of fun this morning at our preschool Halloween party. We read Halloween stories, sang, danced, and decorated some yummy sugar cookies.

Future Plans - Part Two

OK, thanks for the help, but we're putting a few qualifiers on this post: http://keyserfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/future-plans.html

Our future home has to include the following:

1. Several different tech related companies. If Kurt ends up losing or hating his job he needs a different company he can work for without picking up and moving far away.
2. We don't like EXTREMES in temperature...especially the heat. Let's just say we'd rather have snow than use our A/C everyday. We've been spoiled by the Bay Area weather for the past 3+ years. I'm sorry it just doesn't get better than this.
   
3. Decent to Excellent Schools - Part homeschooling isn't totally out of the question with the way our public school system is going...but I've found parents are more involved, etc. in areas that have good schools. (btw I don't really WANT to homeschool, but if its necessary I would)
4. Kurt would also like to live on one of the coasts...this isn't a deal breaker for me, but I like the beach.
5. I told Kurt that I would move anywhere in the US if he made enough $ to fly me home when I wanted. :)
6. Affordable housing would be nice, but we do have a sizeable downpayment...so if the salary matches the market we're good (i.e. we actually could afford to buy something in the bay area right now...that's not why we're moving).
   

If I had my choice we'd stay here or move up the northern CA/southern OR coastline...but we can't. Kurt would do the same or pick up and move to Hawaii. Kurt was allergic to Denver last time we visited and we don't plan to raise our family in Utah...sorry guys!

Realisticly, in the past week we've looked into Massachusetts, Raleigh (talk about extremes in temp!), Enumclaw/Buckley (outside Seattle), and San Diego. Enumclaw/Buckley is winning as of now.

College Savings: The Utah Plan

A friend of mine at work who had baby 2.0 this Spring told me he had done a LOT of work researching different college savings plans for kids and that the best one he found happened to be called, "The Utah Plan". He's not LDS but is Libertarian and thought it pretty funny that the Mormons know how best to manage money for kids. :)

Anyway, I did some research myself and called our long-term financial advisor about it. Northwestern Mutual doesn't sell it, but he did highly recommend it and said it's definitely the best out there.

The sign-up was incredibly easy - completely Web 2.0 and the management tools feel more like GMail or Netflix than a bank account. Very slick.

So, we've just invested the money from Cheryl for Kelsie - decent timing. I could probably have waited until Jan to get a better deal, but eh. 18 years from now, it won't really matter much.

Give it a look over - just passing on the info that I found valuable. YMMV
http://www.uesp.org/