Idaho Photos

Here are the aforementioned photos of Hidden Springs, Idaho. As an update, we have now tried to buy, and have lost out on, five separate houses in this development. They just keep selling out from under us. This is the most sought after development in the Boise area (mostly by expat Californians it turns out) so we are having a hell of a time trying to make decisions via email, looking at floorplans, site plans etc.

We are now trying to put an offer on a house that is being re-sold up by the entrance to the development that we looked at on our trip there. We'll let you know how it goes......

Happy 3rd Birthday Jake!

Right before all of the stuff with moving and buying and selling houses and looking for new jobs happened, it was Jake's 3rd Birthday.

Marisa did a great job planning everything right down to the Lion King themed underwear that each child was given to wear so that everything was coordinated (just kidding, but not by much!). But she found a great place in Dublin for the festivities. A new party place that has a really cool playroom with blow up giant slide and everything. They take all the pictures, the ones here included, coordinate the event and here's the big kicker for the parents, CLEAN UP EVERYTHING AFTERWARDS. A GENIUS idea and worth every cent.

Jake had a great time playing with his friends and opening his Midas-sized haul of birthday gifts. You can tell when your child had a good time by the amount of the fit that they throw when it is time to go to bed, so he had a REALLY good time, and was exhausted after all was said and done.

It's so hard to believe that he is three already! He is getting to be such a big boy. He is a crack up on a minute by minute basis, a character of mythic proportions and just the love of his Daddy's life. Happy Birthday Buddy, Daddy Loves You (hang loose dude!).

Nobody really likes this but......

....we are moving to Boise. Yes, Idaho, that Boise. I don't really even know where to start. Moving out of state has always been a topic of discussion anytime that we have come to a new stage in our lives since we've gotten married....can we afford to move to Livermore, or should we look at moving out of state; can we afford to have a baby here, or should we look at moving out of state; can I afford to take a cut in pay to lower my commute and stress level, or should we look at moving out of state, so while this may seem like a snap decison, it's been a long time coming.

It's too easy to say that we can't afford to live here anymore, and I think that is a problem that we have had. We have been trying to distill our reasoning down to what is logical and black and white. Both to make the decison easier to explain to our family and friends, as well as make the decision easier on us to make. Without going onto all of the reasons (which we would be happy to do, if you would like, just call us and ask), we have made a very hard decision to move from the Golden State to the Potato State.

In trying to keep this post upbeat, I'll just concentrate on what we found when we visited this last weekend. A disclaimer up front...these are just opinions, not condemnation of anybody else's likes, dislikes, lifestyle etc. My website, my opinions, no offense should be inferred.

We really loved Boise. We flew in Friday night, it was dark so we couldn't really see anything of the area, but the airport seemed nice enough. What really struck me was that, when we went outside to get our rental car, it just smelled clean. It was crisp, but not really cold. Once we found our POS Kia rental, it was a very quick and easy drive to downtown. We got to the hotel about 10:00 PM. At which point Marisa wanted to go back out and drive around and begin exploring the city. I tried to explain that it was dark and that most things would be closed, but she would hear none of it, so out into the night we went.

We drove around downtown, which was easy because there was no traffic. We found the dark spot where the Boise River is during the daylight, found a couple of areas that we were quickly able to rule out as possible relocation spots (I am NOT living there!), but mainly just drove around lost for a couple of hours. We got back to the room and to sleep @ midnight.

We got up early on Saturday and drove around to several of the surrounding areas just to see if we could get a feel for the towns and see if there was anything that we could rule out. We met with the realtor and spent all of Saturday looking at houses in various areas. We really liked an area called Hidden Springs in the foothills of Boise, www.hiddensprings.com is the link if you want to check it out. We are trying to get a house up there right now.

We met with a guy who is the moderator of a Yahoo! chat group for Californians who have moved to Idaho. Marisa found the group before we went to visit and we made arrangements to sit down with Mark and talk to him about the area and his experiences. There are so many Californians moving there, it's a whole underground community. Everybody moving for more or less the same reasons; money, commute, traffic, the rat races, the outdoors etc.. It is nice to have a group of people with a shared experience and knowledge to bounce things off of.

But we had a very nice time and really loved the place. We arrived home Sunday late afternoon, exhausted and missing our boys. We will update with what happens next and will post some photos as soon as I get them downloaded from the camera.

The Happiest Place on Earth?

Hi Everyone,
Well, we embarked on our first official road trip in the BBV (Big Blue Van) on Thursday, February 24th. We set Jake up with many a movie and even more snacks and set out to San Diego to meet with the owners of Brian's company to talk about the much anticipated "buy in". The trip down was uneventful until LA at which point TJ started screaming bloody murder, Jake was overtired and overhungry and there was no food or rest stop to be found. We traveled at approx. 2 mph for several hours until we reached Orange County. I tell ya... that little Tanner is one smart guy: He already has an aversion to Los Angeles! We spent Friday and Saturday at John and Liz' house discussing the financials/particulars of us buying in to the company and interspersed our serious conversations with playtime with the four boys. Jake loved swimming with Nick and Joey and really enjoyed playing in their gigantic backyard. On Sunday, with business concluded early, we went to Legoland. It was gorgeous and sunny and perfect for a three year old. I don't know who had more fun: Jake or Brian. We decided to spend the night in OC to get part of the drive out of the way and upon waking in the morning couldn't resist the lure of Disneyland. Despite having been told by numerous people that Jake was really too young to enjoy it, Brian and I decided to give it a go. Hmmmm. Let's just say that at one point Brian turned to me and said, "This is the happiest place on earth, damn it!" At which point we both burst out laughing. Jake was scared of many of the rides, the lines were way too long for a Monday in February, and the weather was "iffy". It started to rain about noon and began a torential downpour at 2- hence, we made the disney folk a bit richer by rushing into the nearest souvenier store and purchasing mickey mouse ponchos. Jake was a tropper, Tanner was blissfully unaware as he was sleeping under my poncho (see picture above), and we quickly ran for the nearest exit ( a good ten minute walk through the pouring rain!). All in all it was quite funny and we are glad we had the adventure and now have learned from experience. I will surely pass my two cents worth on to any other families with children under the age of 6 and say, "Don't do it!" but many will probably not heed the advice and have to learn for themselves that Disneyland is HIGHLY overrated! We drove home that evening. Being highly intelligent people, Brian and I came up with a great plan... we left Anaheim at 5:00 on Monday night, heading through LA. Yes, it took us many, many hours to get over the grapevine and we arrived home at 2:00 in the morning. Luckily both boys slept almost the entire way and we had the IPOD to keep us entertained. I know, it sounds like a nightmare, but in an odd way it was a great time.