Back HomeOur Year In Summary 2011 – Happy Holidays!
December 22nd, 2011 by keithandkinseyI (Keith) always enjoy reading Christmas letters from friends and family this time of year. I realize how much we miss in other people’s lives when we just rely on the reading their occasional Facebook updates. Personally I am terrible at getting Christmas cards out. If you got one from me, it’s because my amazing wife sent out a few, but I don’t think she made it through our entire list either. So, I decided rather than send a Christmas card and/or letter, I’d just write a blog summarizing our year.
It’s been a great year and a busy year. We’ve spent a lot of time this year building and refining our real estate business and we had an awesome year in business. Although, I’ll try to stick to more of the fun personal stuff in this post.
Last winter we decided we were going to get fit and train for a marathon. Well, plans changed a bit when Kinsey ended up with a stress fracture in her leg. I lost a lot of motivation with her not being able to run for awhile, but kept up with a less rigorous exercise schedule. We’ll aim for a smaller more realistic goal of a half marathon in May 2012.
In February Kinsey did the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics. For those unfamiliar, this is where people jump in frozen Lake Monona for charity. Yikes! Yes, I was a wimp and chose not to do it. It was a great event and her team raised well over $1,500 the charity. It’s in the plans for 2012 again if you’re interested in joining the team or donating.
In March, I ran my first 10k with the Shamrock Shuffle. Kinsey was feeling that her leg was healed and against doctor’s orders ran the 5k event. This year it will be 10k events for the both of us.
In April we went took a long weekend trip to Texas for our good friends, Kristen and Jordan’s, engagement party. Then in June we went to St Thomas for their 
wedding, which Kinsey was a bridesmaid in. This trip was amazing and a much needed get away! In addition to the wedding we enjoyed some hiking on St John and lots of snorkeling in the Caribbean. Kinsey saw a (nurse) Shark and speedily swam back to shore while I tried to get a closer look. Note to all, if you head to St. John and want to hike, take bug spray – or you’ll pay for it with a $10 can of Off! or a TON of mosquito bites!! Make sure you hit Little Trunk Bay and snorkel!
Also in June, we made a big business move switching our real estate sales business to Keller Williams Realty. I can say it has been a good move because we’ve had a great year. Our rental property business also had a reasonably good year as well. In the rental world, that means no nightmare tenants or major repairs.
In July I put some of my attempted marathon training to use doing the Tough Mudder. For those that don’t know, this is a 10 mile obstacle course up and down ski slopes. It was definitely the most physically challenging thing I’ve ever done, but it was a blast.
In October, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary with a trip to Minocqua. It’s hard to believe October was a year already. Again this was a much needed get away, since we spend far too much time working. I’m making it a goal for the coming year to spend more quality time with my wife. I’m thankful to have had a great first year of marriage.
Now here we are approaching the end of December 2011 already. The snow this morning finally made it feel a little bit like December, but it still feels like it should be October to me. A couple weeks ago we put my old house on the market (it’s been rented the last two years). We got an early Christmas present of an accepted offer within a week of listing it. I’m not too excited yet, as we still have some contingencies to get through. If all goes well we will get the house sold and we’ll put our condo on the market this coming spring. We are in search of a home in Verona that we can call home for the long term.
Lastly, the dogs say hi. **woof-woof**. Harley has slowed down a lot. She’s approaching 12 years old and has extremely bad joints and arthritis now. Although, Dyna is doing her best to keep 
Harley young and playful, and she’s doing a good job at it. Dyna is 2 and a half and still full of energy. I’ll be honest though, I never thought a small dog could have so much personality. She’s definitely entertaining.
All in all, it’s been an awesome year. I hope you all had a great year too!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Keith and Kinsey!
[…] we are a week away from Christmas and approaching the end of 2012 already. Last year I posted a summary of our year for the first time rather than sending out a Christmas letter like many people do. So, we’ll try […]