November 28, 2011

Rex has returned...

i'm pretty sure everyone and their second cousin has heard of the Elf on the Shelf. well, ours is named Rex, and he returns in some magical fashion every year after Thanksgiving (rules of returning in our house are whenever the tree goes up in the house). Rex is quite the little pesky elf. he manages to get himself in little bits of trouble every night. when he showed up on the doorstep the other day (yes, in the middle of the day...and he even rang the doorbell) i was not quite prepared for the next few weeks of cleaning up after his silly antics. the first night he got into the bag of Oreos and made a terrible mess, crumbs everywhere. last night he strung a zip line back and forth from the kitchen cabinets and left candy canes all over the house. we're hoping that the kids see this as the not so favorable behavior and act in the complete opposite fashion...


12 years ago...

12 years ago i said, "I DO", and sealed it with a kiss...and in that 12 years we've moved 7 times, bought 4 houses (and thankfully have sold 3 of them), and had 3 kids. it's been a pretty busy 12 years. after having such a great time on vacation this past summer, we decided to start planning our "anniversary trip" way in advance. so, some time in June or July we decided that we should return to the city where it all started. back in May of 1999, just a few weeks after graduating from college, i went on a little vacation with my family out to San Francisco, California. one afternoon my mom insisted on stopping for lunch at this cute little place on the wharf. i was extremely reluctant on going in (seeing as i was an extremely broke college graduate) but with a persistent Mom, Nana, and younger sister, i shuffled my way in and proceeded to sit and pout in the booth. probably about 10 minutes late a "waiter" arrived with a tray of waters, cocktails, and sparkly diamond ring! that handsome waiter just happened to be my then very sneaky boyfriend (who flew all the way out there without me knowing it!). lodi dodi...a few months later we got hitched and here we are.
back to the point of the story...we decided to go back to San Francisco for our 12th anniversary. IT WAS FABULOUS! this time around it was so much more enjoyable. probably because we could actually afford to buy the wine we tasted in Napa. since we took this trip alone, we thought it only fair to bring along our Flat Boys to see the sights. i must say the "boys" had a great time visiting Napa, Muir Woods, Golden Gate, and riding the trolley cars. just let me say that taking a vacation with Flat Kids is so much cheaper and it's okay to leave them in your purse when you feel like having dinner alone. 

back up, back up...i almost forgot...the trip was not 100% fabulous. on the day we went to the Cliff House we had a little bit of a traveler's heartache. when we finished up a most delicious lunch, we walked back to the car to find the back window smashed in and my brand new camera bag snatched right out! luckily for us, i had the camera around my neck and my driver's license was in The Husband's pocket. it was easy enough to cancel all the credit cards, but i still lost my big lens, wallet, and cute camera bag.  thieves are just plain stupid, that's all i have to say.

anyway, we made it home just fine and here's a couple shots from out trip...