It was a full day!

Yesterday was nuts from the get go....We literally were running from 8 am until 11 something at night.

My mom called at 8 am and woke us up. My step-brother and his brood were in town from Montana to play soccer games, so there was a shin dig at their house and she was giving the details. We needed to get up anyways because we had to go get Rachel at nine. Louis hopped in the shower, I got the girls up and got them in the shower and then started dying my hair. My hair is such a super intense red that I have to dye it every two weeks or so to keep it up. Kinda a pain, but I love it, so it's totally worth it.

Anyways, we got Rachel home and then it was time for breakfast. Homemade chocolate chip Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream and strawberry syrup. yummy!!

After breakfast we loaded into the car and headed to the farmers market. Of course, we HAD to stop for some icees....what day is complete without an icee before noon, especially when you're 7 and 5. :) We grabbed our icees and cruised down to the farmers market. It was the first time we had been for the year and it was a blast. The girls of course had an agenda of their own so we weren't able to really just meander around, but it was still fun. We had to go to the balloon lady first thing. It was SERIOUS! She has so many more choices this year than she did last year. Rachel got a kitten, Bella got a spider man and Zoe got a puppy on a leash. Awesome. We went over to the game store and bought some pic up stics. None of the had ever played or even heard of them, so we had to remedy that situation. While  the girls and I were in the game store, Louis was over getting an obscene amount of mini doughnuts. We scarfed those down and went over to the fountains. By this time it was almost noon and getting warm. What else is there to do at that point but to run through those bad boys, and of course- the girls were game! They had a blast. They sprayed each other (and maybe a few others... ) After the fountains, it was time to head out- we had all sorts of other things to do.

We went up to Taco Time and grabbed some lunch. We didn't have a ton of time, but did manage to feed them something besides sugar... :) After lunch we ran frantically over to Bella's soccer game. Fortunately the game before hers was running late so it didn't matter that we were a few minutes late. She did really well, but we had an incident. She was goalie and was rockin' it. She caught a ball that some kid kicked- she blocked the goal, but ended up messing her little hand up. Unfortunately it resulted in her at the doctors office getting and x-ray and a splint. She is fine, just swollen ,but fortunately no fractures. My mom took her home after the doctors office so the rest of us could continue on with the activities of the day.

Zoe had a birthday party at Camels Back park. We hurried over there as fast as we could. Zoe was about an hour late, but made it just in time for the pinata and presents. Louis, Rachel and I just kinda played and messed around a little bit while she was doing her party thing, and then we all went and climbed the hills and walked around for a bit.

When the party was over it was over to nana and papa's house for a BBQ. The had about 15 people there so it was a good time. All the girls were in and out, playing, riding bikes, just being kids. It was fun. We enjoyed ourselves- good food and good company, what's not to like? :)

Finally, at about 9, it was time to head to the casa. The girls were all exhausted- ya know that hyped up, laughing at everything, out of control exhausted.....yea that was it- x3. WOW!  We had to stop at the gas station to get them each a bag of that Smart Pop white cheddar popcorn because they were gonna watch a movie when they got home, and they wanted a "movie theatre". We got home and you know what happened....I GOT DITCHED.....with three little girls. Just joking, but really, Louis had to run over to a friends house for a second but it was an hour long trip, so what did we do?? The girls and I headed over to the park....at 11 pm at night to play. It was fun. There was a badminton net someone had setup so Rachel and Bella played with that and Zoe and I swung. It only lasted about 15 minutes before they decided they were ready to go home. They were getting themselves all worked up and scared about wolves.... :) By that time, Louis got home shortly after and it was time to go to bed...it was midnight for all intents and purposes.

Once they were in bed, the antics continued. The girls all love each other and have a blast. So they were up talking and laughing for who knows how long. It was so much fun. We love when we can have the girls all together.

Little Artists

Seattle: Day IV

Time to head home. It was a blast, but we both have to work on Monday and we miss the girls like crazy. Of course, what kind of trip would be complete without some sort of present from us when we got back? I think thats the main reason they want us to come back so much. Oh well....I guess its good to be missed for whatever reason. :)



Our breakfast as we headed out of town. Nutritious I'm sure...they were good though....



Snowqualmie Pass



Killing time waiting at some random train tracks.

Seattle: Day III

My birthday!!! The last year before I cross the dark side and officially enter adult hood, and my thirties. :)

We woke up and had breakfast and got ready for the day. We decided we were going to go exploring. We got in the car and headed to the ferry docks. We wanted to ride the ferry from Mukilteo over to Whidbey Island. That was nuts. These boats are huge, and you can just drive your car right on to them. I had no clue these things really existed, as absurd as that sounds. Anyways, we drove the car on and decided to head up to the main deck. There was a small snack bar, tables, and that kind of thing. It's only about a 20 minute boat ride so we didn't have a ton of time to explore, but it was awesome.



Driving to get on the ferry...at least he is way more confident about this than I am...



Herrrrrre we gooooo



Mukilteo fading away behind us.

Once we got over to Whidbey Island we went to the beach. We walked all around and collected seashells. We found some really awesome ones. Some that you would expect to find in a store. Of all the beaches I've been to, I have never found shells quite that awesome.

We got in the car and drove all the way up the island. You can get back to the main land by going via ferry, or if you go all the way to the north there is a bridge that will connect you back. We decided we were going to drive up and over the bridge. Little did I know what this bridge consisted of. It is called Deception Pass and it is crazy. I have issues with bridges over water. I don't mind regular bridges, but ones over water are no bueno. This bridge, while beautiful,  was my worst nightmare. When we got there I tried to get out and walk over it so we could get some pics. I made it about 3 feet before I went flip mode and had to turn back around. It was breath taking...in multiple ways... eek!!

After we got over Deception Pass we drove down through Anacortes and such. We made our over to Le Connor, which is where all the tulips are. We ate lunch and went to check out the fields. They were amazing. Row after row of tulips, different colors, packed in as tight as they could. It was cool. I haven't seen that many tulips like that since I was in Amsterdam forever ago.

Once we were done in Le Connor we went back towards the Seattle area. We went into Kirkland and went down to the waterfront for a little while. There isn't a whole lot to do in Kirkland so we decided it was time to make a break for it.

I wanted to go to Ikea since I had never been to one before. I was super excited. It was exactly what I expected and I was in hog heaven. It was hard to practice any self control, but I did since we only had limited space to get things home. We did manage to make out with 2 bowls, 1 platter, a robe for Louis, 2 vases, sheet set for our bed and a set of pot holders. It was awesome. All that shopping made us hungry, plus it was late so we decided to eat and then call it a night.

We ate dinner at a little Italian place called Angellos. It was phenomenal. Huge servings. Exactly what I was craving.

After dinner we went and got a room in Issaquah. It is basically the last town outside of Seattle before you really start to get out towards Snowqualmie Pass. We were leaving in the morning and didn't want to have to waste time navigating the Seattle traffic.

Seattle: Day II

We woke up super early on Friday morning...like 6'ish. To our credit, it was at least around 7 our time. It was good, we had a lot to do. While we were getting ready there was a family of seals playing right outside our doors. A little spotted baby was cruising around just checking things out, floating around on his back...basically just being cute. You could see two other bigger ones- we like to think mom and dad- were keeping guard at the border of this inlet we were in. It was fun to watch them, just doing their thing while we were doing our thing- being humans, doing our hair and stuff. :)



The view from our room. It was so nice to sit on the couch with the doors open- the sound of the rain and  the ocean, all with the fireplace cracklin' beside it. It was great. 

We went to the Maltby Cafe for breakfast. Out of this world. I had cinnamon roll french toast, four HUGE slices that filled the plate, three tablespoons butter, seriously like a cup of syrup.....my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Louis had chicken fried steak, red potatoes, 2 eggs and a huge thick slice of their homemade bread. His was just as good as mine. Seriously amazing. If you're ever in the Seattle area head over there for breakfast.


The food at the Maltby Cafe was out of this world.

It was time to get beautified after we stuffed our selves. Louis needed to get his hair cut and I wanted to get my nails done. We went to Mukilteo to get that done and then we headed off to downtown Seattle. We hit up the Pike Place Marketplace and the Waterfront. We had lunch at the Waterfront and walked around a little bit.



The infamous fish stand at the Pike Place Market. Super cool.



Tulips for sale at the Market.



me and my handsome lover



Lunch down at the water front. There is a sourdough place, and they had clam chowder in a  sourdough bread bowl. Yumm- especially on a cold rainy day.

After lunch we went down to a pottery store that Louis used to always buy stuff from. As you all probably know, he sculpts, and unfortunately here in Boise the supply availability is limited. He could always buy stuff online, but this was more fun. He stocked up on all his molding supplies and such, and is ready to get things on and poppin'. :)



Then it was off to West Seattle. We've all seen the posters for Sleepless in Seattle, well that view is from West Seattle. We went down to the waterfront there, walked around a little bit, and hung out.

When we were done at the beach we decided it was some time for a little bit of shopping. We went into Bellevue and headed towards the Bell Square Mall. It was pouring so our windshield wipers were going full force and, and of course, one falls off. Yup. Awesome- middle of the road, traffic and all, the flippin' wiper falls off. Lucky for us we were about a block from probably the only Jiffy Lube in Bellevue. We pull in around back and there is some dude sitting there, probably on his break, smoking a cigarette. Louis gets out, explains the situation and asks if they have wiper blades. He goes and grabs one and then ya know what happens- he give it to us. He said "God Bless," and that was it. What a nice guy huh?? So, we get that fixed and head over to the mall. It was huge and had everything you could imagine in it, but the crazy thing was- we didn't even buy anything. It had basically all the stores the Boise mall had plus some, but nothing that either one of us thought we had to have that we couldn't get back in Boise. After b-boppin' around  for a while we went over to the Parlour. Louis used to always play pool here and it was right at the mall, so we decided to just hang back and relax a bit. He played a few games and I watched and fed my face....yea. :) It was fun.

After we left there we ran over to a costume shop that has some of Louis' work in it that his friend Kyra owns. She just happened to be there so I got a chance to meet her. It was nice. I had heard a lot about her. I also got to see some of the old costumes that Louis had made.

We ran some last errands and headed back to the hotel. It was getting late and we were exhausted.