Lizzy comes to Seattle!

After I was diagnosed with MS, one of my best friends came to visit me up in Seattle.  She arrived right after my dad left and I swear, b/w those two visits I was in heaven.  They were just the sort of pick-me-up I needed.  

One of mine and Lizzy's objectives for this trip was to get a picture of us together because the last ones of us are from high school.  I know.  And somehow, we still ended up with very little pictures of us together!  Weird, right?

Anyway, We mostly just hung around but our big outing for one of the days was going to see Pike's Place.  Below is a pic of my beloved fruit stand.  I seriously LOOOOOOOVE this place and if we ever move back, I will be making a trip here at least once a month.  Mark my words.  Their cherries, peaches and mangoes are simply mouth watering. Best I've had of each of those fruits.  Anyhoo...

I'm salivating just looking at this fruit!

Best mangoes ever!

Two huge bags of fruit and some beautiful flowers later, we headed over to a yummy restaurant for some lunch.

And then we came home and ate some fruit, of course.

And those are all our pictures.  But this doesn't even include the best parts.  I had a little bit of a freak out since we had just decided to leave Seattle early and I needed to start packing things up.  Lizzy was awesome and helped me pack up all the stuff we were going to ship home.  We had some awesome late night chats/bonding time.  And one of my favorite parts of her visit was when we danced AND recorded ourselves doing the Double Dream Hands dance (totally takes me back to when we used to make tampon commercials, haha!).  If you haven't seen this (Double Dream Hands, not tampons), look it up on YouTube and look for the guy in the yellow shirt.  Classic.

I am so grateful for Lizzy.  We have been besties since the 7th grade.  We actually used to not like each other.  I thought she was mean and she thought I didn't brush my hair (can you tell who was the nerdy one? :) ).  But our math teacher made us sit next to each other in class and once we realized we both walked the same route home, we were instant friends!  We have seen each other through some really hard times and some really great ones.  I don't know if I have laughed harder with anyone else than I have with her.  We have had so many fun and funny memories and were the biggest dorks together.  And now she is getting married to a really great guy and I am so excited to be a part of her special day in just a few short weeks!

Love you Lizzy!

Papa Brian visits Seattle

Time to play catch up people!

Back in late June, my dad and his fiance, Christy, came to visit us in Seattle.  We had SO MUCH FUN!  I absolutely love it when my dad visits me where I live.  I love being able to show him around.  I don't know what it is but I feel all proud to show him my home and what we do, how much we love it here and how cool the place where we live is. And he loves to spoil us silly because we don't really get to do that ourselves. 

One of the first things we did was go to the Ballard Locks.  I knew my dad would love this place because he's the kind of guy that loves to learn different things.  Plus, he's a boat owner, so I knew he'd be interested to see how the Locks work.  

Ly, Dad, Rube, Christy at Ballard Locks.

The cool looking boat that we saw go from the ocean to the lake. 

 We saw a sea otter in the ocean but it was hard to get a pic of it since he kept going under the water.  So I got one of these two LOOKING at the sea otter.  :)

Lyla was "balancing" on the center drain, thing (I sound really intelligent, huh?) and wanted Papa Brian to follow her.

Our apartment and their hotel was right along the waterfront.  About 1/2 mile down the road was the aquarium and a bunch of delicious restaurants.  At first we just walked it, but my poor dad was recovering from surgery on his Achilles tendon, and the walking + walking boot were a bit much.  So we got to ride these fun little pedi-cab's.  There wasn't enough room for me this time so my dad had him come back and pick me up.  He got a very generous tip :)

Dinner each day and night was awesome.  My dad would order King Crab and let Lyla try some.  She LOVED it!  She was often caught sneaking crab off Papa Brian's plate.  He thought it was hilarious and she loved that he thought it was funny, so she just kept picking food off his plate, even the asparagus!

On one morning, we met up with Christy's aunt (who lives in Seattle) and ate breakfast at this place at Pikes Place Market.  Christy and her aunt had to eat at a separate table since they didn't have one to accommodate our size group, so that stunk.  But Nate and I really enjoyed talking with my dad, so it all worked out.

I seriously LOVE Pikes Place.  If we move there, I am going to make it a goal to go there at least once a month for their fruit.  Once you have their fruit, you can never go back. :)

Hubster and me.

They're cute.

 One day we decided to ride the Duck in Seattle.  It's one of those land/water tours.  It's a pretty touristy thing to do, but that's kind of what we were!  Our tour guide was really funny and it was fun hearing stories about Seattle.

Cute pic of these two!

Nooooot our best picture... I look like death.

 On the water part of our tour, we rode by Gasworks Park, saw the view from the city, and looked at a ton of the houseboats.  The cool thing about houseboat's is that you don't have to pay property tax on them.  But they are pretty pricy and small.  I think some crazy politicians are trying to change the property tax thing.

Gasworks Park.

There were probably about 5 or 6 seaplanes that landed on the water in the short 10-15 minutes we were on the water.  

Houseboats

 And here it is... the Sleepless In Seattle houseboat (the one with the dark green trim)!  Pardon the crappy picture, it was starting to rain a lot when I took it.


Lyla got bored and started making faces for the camera.

The girls each had these duck necklaces where you blow in it and it sounds like a duck.  They looooooved these necklaces!  We all thought they were pretty annoying after a while, but we sucked it up so the girls wouldn't get too fussy.

This was my favorite houseboat.  I love the look of it (at least compared to the rest).

Later we went to my dad's hotel so the girls could get in some good swimming.  Lyla even tried swimming without floaties.  She is still working on it but she did pretty well!

On my dad's last day, we went to breakfast at a delicious restaurant (can't think of the name of it), and said our goodbyes.

We had SO much fun with my dad and Christy.  I truly love that man and he is so good to me and my family.  Papa Brian, feel free to visit us again soon so we can show you Durham!  

Last Beach Trip of Summer

Yes, I just blog dumped all over your face.  And yes, I realize that sounds pretty wrong, nasty and disturbing, but it's late and I can't think of a better way to put it.  Oh, well.  I hope you enjoy the next FOUR blog posts I just did.  Wooooo!!!!  What can I say, I was in the mood and I have lots of catching up to do.  :)  So, here we go...

At the end of the summer we returned home to Durham from being in Seattle, Utah, and California.  I was really ready to be home and back into our routine, but I was definitely going to miss the summer.  So, when my friend Haley suggested a last trip to the beach for the summer, we jumped all over the opportunity.  It was so worth the 2.5 hour drive :)

Our little set-up... 

Ruby

Abby

 The girls enjoyed being buried...

Beautiful Haley with Abby.  I might be a little jealous of Haley's beautiful brown skin.

The kiddo's loved playing together...

Ruby was a good sport and waited patiently while buried under the heavy sand so I could get my camera.

Lyla became very comfortable with the water this summer.  She had a blast going out on the boogie board with Nate!

Love this pic of these two... 

Belize and Dane.

 Matt and Eve had a good time in the water...

And so did Izzy and Tyrus...

Lots of time for some chit-chat...

Ruby gave herself a 20 minute break from all the fun...

This is a yawn, not a cry or yell or anything unpleasant. :)

 More chit-chat...

The girls and babies...

We are so glad we were able to squeeze in one last beach trip before the school year officially started.  And now that we're into Fall, we're kind of wishing for Summer to come back.