SF Sweethearts

I found visual documentation! Taken from a photo booth on Pier 39!

Celebrating in San Fran

Chris had a conference to attend in San Francisco on Thursday. We decided to use it as an excuse to celebrate his birthday. Actually, he was invited to be the keynote speaker for the CALSPRA conference. Chris throws around a lot of acronyms - but I believe this one stands for California School Public Relations Administrators. In case you didn't know, he is in high demand as a conference speaker. He has lots of fans! Since it's his birthday, I'll toot his horn a little by directing you to his firm's website. He started the firm about 2 1/2 years ago with 7 other partners. They are now employing 50 attorneys and have offices in San Marcos, Santa Monica and Oakland. It's pretty impressive to see how far they have come. Of course, I have witnessed (and maybe complained about) the hard work and long hours it has taken to make their vision real. But I am proud of him and all he has accomplished! Check it out!http://fagenfriedman.com/

Anyway, we literally ate our way through San Francisco and had a great time doing it. I forgot to recharge the camera batteries, so unfortunately we have no visual documentation of this trip and all the fun and beautiful sites. We were on the 25th floor of our hotel - so one of the best parts was our amazing view of the city, the bay, Alcatraz island and Coit Tower (the picture isn't quite as good as our view but pretty close). There are so many amazing restaurants in SF. Our first night we ran around the corner to a restaurant recommended by the concierge and found ourselves in this little alleyway filled with tables and people all crammed in together having dinner. It reminded us so much of Europe. We literally sat right next to Jerry Brown who was on a double date. We tried to eavesdrop - and we did hear Prop 8 mentioned but we didn't want to be too obvious! We made some new friends due to our tables actually being the same table - a retired Stanford professor and his wife and a couple from New Zealand who were in the US to run the NY marathon. She had just come from a photo shoot with Harvey Keitel. She asked what I did - "I'm just a mom of three kids from Temecula". It still felt good to say that!

We walked all over creation this weekend! We would just start in a direction and walk and walk. And stop here for a snack and there for a little "pick me up". Our hotel was between the Financial District and Chinatown - perfect place for cheap souveniers. In fact, Lindsay was a little put out when I accidentally left the price tag on her I {heart} SF t-shirt and she saw it was only $2.99. You gotta love that! We had some authentic chinese food at the place where shark fin soup originated - it was $60 a bowl, so we declined that one. We also ate at El Faro - home of the first burrito in California. We're just history buffs I guess. We went up Coit Tower, rode the cable cars - visited the Fungi Festival at the Ferry Building, ate clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls at Fisherman's wharf, visited our favorite restrooms at the St. Francis hotel in Union Square, had dinner with our friends the Hyders, and did a little shopping - how can you avoid that? It was the perfect combination for a weekend - and to celebrate another year of life with the love of my life! Happy Birthday Chris!

Goodbye Halloween

On Friday morning Owen woke up and said,"Is it the last day of Halloween?" I explained that it is actually the ONLY day of Halloween. But since we have been celebrating it going on two weeks now, I could understand his confusion. I was so thankful to say, "yes, hooray no more parties after today!" You can only dress your kids up so many times and have it still be fun, right? Well, here are some pictures from the last day of Halloween (and the night before the last day of Halloween). Don't get me wrong, it was fun. I'm just glad it's over!

Politics and Pumpkins

Here's what we've been up to this week...

Who knew political activism was so much fun!?! After being obsessed with the signs and bumper stickers for the last few weeks, Owen finally asked "What IS Prop 8?"

Our experiment - much better than carving, lasts longer, costs a lot more...

Happy Halloween!

Bikers, Zombies and a Cat Lady - oh my!

We had our annual Keeler Family Halloween costume party this weekend.

I love this tradition! Everyone dresses up - even Mimi and Grandad (check them out this year!)

You may not know what Chris and I are dressed up as unless you watch a certain tv show which comes on Thursday nigths. Some people got it right away, others needed a little explanation.

We have had some really creative costumes over the years. This year I think the awards go to Crazy cat lady and renegade girl scout.

We usually eat dinner and play some games and it always includes a spooky story told by Mimi. Chris was entranced by his mom's storytelling.

Indiana Jones taking down a Bad Guy.

Jenni made adorable owl cupcakes!

We love belonging to such a fun family! Thanks to the Burnetts for hosting another great one!

My first bus ride, and oh yeah, I went to the Pumpkin Patch

Owen had his first official field trip last week to the Peltzer Farms Pumpkin Patch. What was he most excited about? Riding the bus...go figure.

I got to go with him as a chaperone. We had fun finding our way through the corn maze, visiting the farm animals, and picking out a pumpkin to take home.

By the end we were hot and tired but it was a fun day!

Our scary Halloween house

I love all holidays and feel an intense need to decorate for every changing season. The kids love it too and get so excited on decorating day. I pulled out 4 boxes of Halloween stuff this year. And if you know me at all - you know it's the cutesy smiling pumpkins type of stuff - no skeleton hand candy bowls here! Our kids are far too wimpy for that kind. Shortly after decoration day - Shelby had a hard time falling asleep one night. Chris immediately blamed me and my "scary" decorations. "How do you expect someone to sleep when the house is full of skulls?" I guess he doesn't appreciate them as much as the kids do.

Another thing I love about fall is baking. We've already had pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, apple strudel, apple crostada, apple cake ... it's just the beginning of the 3 month long holiday eating frenzy! Now, if the weather would just cooperate we can begin to celebrate properly. I would like to be able to wear a sweater some day soon.