24 Hour Drive, 48 Hour Visit

My parents were kind enough to come down and visit us for a weekend. They drove 12 hours on Wednesday (Nov. 10th), stayed and visited for Thursday and Friday, and then drove the 12 hours home on Saturday. It was a quick trip but we were so grateful they made it!! And, my handy-man Dad got quite a few of our apartments weird quirks figured out/fixed.

On Thursday we didn't stray too far from home. We went and somewhat toured Mare Island, where Keith's school is. We stopped at the Mare Island Museum and learned more about the history of the area and took a few pictures.

Outside the Museum

We spent the rest of the day driving around. We stopped by Lake Herman (accidentally--I was navigating and I'm not very good) and then went up through Napa Valley and drove through the vineyards.

Friday we went into San Francisco and spent the morning there before I had to go to work in the afternoon.
AT&T Park, where the Giants play. (Ya know, the world series champions?) As much as we love this area, it was some crazy times during the world series. I would have to leave an hour before work started just to make sure I got there on time.

We also stopped at Candlestick Park, obviously the home of the 49ers. As you can guess, these stops were more for my Dad than my Mom.

We also saw Lombard street, which was kind of fun. I don't get what the big fuss is, but the little strip of the street that is so steep and windy was kept really neat and pretty.

Pier 39 was also visited. I love watching the Sea Lions, they crack me up. They interact with each other quite a bit and when one of them gets annoyed with another, they shove each other off of the dock.

View of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate behind us.
We got to see the Pier 39 tree being decorated, it didn't look like a fun or fast process.

We then drove back to Oakland and went to the Oakland Temple and visitor center. They have an amazing photography display at the visitor center through the end of the year, Reflections of Christ. Seriously, AmAzInG! (click to learn more about LDS Temples or the Oakland Temple Visitor Center Events)

The view from the temple, overlooking Oakland

Thanks Mom and Dad for the visit, you are the best!

Captain Jack

The Friday before Halloween Keith volunteered/was forced to come with me to work, dressed in his pirate costume. One of the other staff members was kind enough to take my kids at recess while I hid the clues for our treasure hunt. I went out and got my kindergartners, pretending to go about our day as normal. Keith and I had it all arranged and he "ran" into us in the hallway.

He asked the first child in line if he was "brave enough to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?" (Line from Pirates of the Caribbean)

Slightly terrified, he looked at me and then back at Keith and slowly shook his head no. Ya..... wasn't expecting that one. Finally I said I was brave enough and one of the girls, while pushing me towards Keith, said "She's brave enough, TAKE HER!! TAKE HER!!" Didn't even think twice about sacrificing me!! Awesome.

Finally Keith asked if they could help him look for his lost treasure. He passed out eye patches (that the school conveniently already had) and read us his first clue.

We went in and out of the school a few times

Looking for clues

Jack reading a clue

When they went looking for their last clue, I made up an excuse to run an errand. I literally ran in and got the treasure chest, ran outside and hid it, and then ran back in, just as they had found the last clue. We then turned the clues over and put them together and it made a treasure map on the back.
It led us all over the back playground and through the school, then back to the front play ground. **Side Note: I originally got the idea to do a treasure hunt from the kids. They are always digging in the wood chips and finding "treasure." I thought it would be fun to actually find treasure in there one time.

They found the treasure!

(Keith helped me make this treasure chest-he was seriously awesome during this whole thing!)

In the treasure box was ring pops, gummy pirate teeth, and pretzels. <---to get something in their systems other than sugar The two blonde boys on the end aren't actually in my group, they were just hanging around and wanted to join us.
One of the kids ask to hug Jack Sparrow and so a few of them did. One kid went up, acting like he was going to hug him and then tried to grab his treasure chest. Little Rascal!!
Keith was even kind enough to come back for story time.

We all had a blast and the kids still talk about Captain Jack. What a trooper of a husband I have!

29

It's true. Today we are celebrating the completion of Keith's 29th year on this earth!!!













Happy Birthday to the most patient, kind, and understanding man! You are the best Keith!

2010 Pumpkins

Since Keith has evening classes during the week, we decided to carve our pumpkins a whole week early, hoping they would last until Halloween.

We thought they would be okay, since it's not nearly as cold here as in Idaho.

On Thursday Keith went to light them and informed me it was not possible. Mine was sealed shut with mold.

It has been raining and therefore humid lately. A few days of not lighting the candles to keep our pumpkins warm and dry turned things really gross. Neither of our pumpkins survived the week. : (

They were fun while they lasted though.

(Sorry for sharing the gross moldy pictures)

All for the Cause

In full anticipation and excitement for Halloween this year, Keith has grown out his facial hair. As in years past (every single one) his pirate costume has emerged from the depths of the closet and been added to.

This year he not only decided to grow his facial hair, but to also dye it black.

What he didn't know: The dye's coloring ability doesn't stop at hair.

When he walked out of the bathroom, I could not stop laughing. The pictures don't show just how funny and dark it actually was.

I did help him scrub it off with some rubbing alcohol eventually, but the whole situation was rather funny.

Our Back Yard (ish)

We live in a cozy little 1 bedroom duplex. While I don't know the exact size of it, I did do a rough measurement with my sewing measuring tape (all 3 ft of it) and our apartment is less than 520 sq. feet.

We were considering our options for while we are down here and luckily, we had a 5 minute creepy neighbor episode and we spied on our neighbors back yard. Keith peeked over, while I peeked through and the 6-foot fence didn't offer as much privacy as I'm sure our neighbor now would like. Something on her back patio gave me an idea. I got on craigslist and I'm sure my story is similar to any one else who has ever shopped on Craigslist. I e-mailed multiple people and finally, after days, got my hands on what I wanted: A Rubbermaid plastic storage shed.

I wish we would have taken a picture of how we got it home. Some of the pieces were too big to fit in our car, so we strapped them on top. We had ropes and tie-downs going through the windows and all around the top as well as from under the front and back of our car. We looked ridiculous. Anyway, there were piles of trash in our back yard along with tons of bricks, stones, and broken up tiles. We spent the rest of our Saturday finishing a completely unplanned project. (And because it was unplanned, I didn't take pictures at first, because it wasn't going to be a whole big project)

We cleaned up the trash, swept the dirt (it was packed down so hard it was sweep-able) and borrowed a pick and a shovel from the neighbor. We used what brick was left in the yard and bought a few bags of bark (we wanted grass but didn't want to get a mower) and some potting soil. Here's the pictures
The view from our car port with the gate open, obviously looking into our back yard. The door that is open is where our water heater and washer/dryer are. The sliding glass doors to the right go into our bedroom.
(don't mind the random suitcase hanging out on the patio)

We also got the bark idea from the neighbors yard.

I know.

Shameful.

I was pleased to find that a gigantic bag of bark cost a whole 4 dollars and 37 cents though.

Anyway, part of the time I was working on our "yard"-- is it called a yard if it doesn't have grass? I call it our yard-ish, because it wants to be a yard, but I don't know if it qualifies Anyway, while I was working, Keith hung shelves in our laundry room-ish. Kind of a large closet, but there's not access from inside the house. Laundry shed? Anyway, we now have crazy amounts of storage and it has been amazing. I also don't have as much dirt and garbage blowing in the back door now!