I'll be on your side forever more....cause that's what friends are for

Presidents Day weekend for the last few years has meant Julia and Laci time. This year we didn't really have anything planned and thought perhaps the summer time might be a funner time to meet up. It isn't easy to get together two gals who live across the country from each other. I have been having a particularly difficult time lately with some personal things and because my BFF aka THE MOST AMAZING FRIEND EVER, decided she would fly out to see me and have some much needed BFF time. We had the BEST three day whirlwind weekend. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful gal pal.

When she arrived we had a lovely 60 degree day; we took full advantage and walked around downtown and visited the aquarium thanks to the FREE tickets my co-worker gave me. Berkeley was so happy to be out of hibernation; he ran around the entire place rejoicing his new found freedom. He would stop and say' "Oooo, what's that Mommy?" His new things is grabbing our fingers to touch things he wants to touch, not sure why.

The highlight for me was seeing a clam spit water at me, it gave me a pretty good scare.

We also enjoyed the 80 penguins at the Aquarium, I never seen a penguin poop before, but now I have. We had a great time looking at all the sea creatures, a 70 year old tortoise, sharks, jellyfish, starfish, huge crabs, otters, etc.
Afterward, we sent the boys home so we could have a grown up night out on the town. We relished our dinner at a fine dining establishment without entertaining a two year old which was simply marvelous! We had grown up talk, girly talk and giggled a whole lot. We left the restaurant to find wind and rain; winds so strong at times that we either could not move forward no matter how hard we tried or we had near "run-ins" with cars as the wind was making us run with its strong forces. We enjoyed a movie....in a movie theater. I was able to use a gift card that I got for the theater Valentines 2010; yep that is how often I go to movies. We saw The King's Speech and it was SUPERB!

There is a few things that Julia loves: Dr. Pepper, me, Jed, and Chick-Fil-A. They do not have Chick-Fil-A in Seattle; and the closest one to me is 30 minutes away. But don't you know that we drove there (even though I am morally opposed) to get that darn food, cause that is what you do for your friend who flew across the country to see you.

After lunch we embarked on a SHOPPING SPREE~! We went to a few stores at the Burlington Mall and then headed to the outlets, another hour drive, but that is just how we roll to find the most amazing deals ever. Let's just say we found some deals that were so good that it would have been criminal to leave them behind. My #1 steal of the day were the hot black leather boots, you know, the ones that are the rage these days, that were originally $109 and I got them for $27! Did I mention that I look like a total diva in them? I also found some cute sweaters for $7-10 and some other fabulous shirts nothing over $10. Julia found a pair of $80 pants for work for the lovely price of $12. Man I sure do love shopping, but more than that, I love finding amazing deals. No wait, I think what I love the most is shopping without a kid.
We really did SHOP till you DROP!

We ended the evening with take out Thai and the movie Date Night which was so funny.
During the visit we also managed to squeeze in a Sunday Brunch and mani-pedis.

Berkeley was a little shy around his God Mother but he enjoyed having her around. Julia instantly won his love by bringing him a Tickle Me Elmo and teaching him how to do "Wolverine Knuckles."

The visit was short but surely sweet. We had an amazing time together. I stayed up way too late and got up way too early, but it was totally worth it. I feel so lucky to have a friend that I can just let loose, talk about exactly how I feel and just be listened to and can always have fun with.

Love you Ju!

Seattle

.day.one.day.two.

This year for our family vacation we decided to visit my BFF, Julia and fly out to Seattle. Christian and Berkeley had never been so we decided to go. As you can see Julia is so EXCITED to see us, but really who wouldn't be?
I was super nervous about the flight with a 9 month old (I want to be moving all the time) baby, but Berke came through like a champion, he was a very good boy. We received no dirty looks, at least none that I saw. It is pretty hard work to try to keep a little one busy, entertained, laughing, happy for that long.

When we arrived we did some eating, shopping, unloading and then headed to the beautiful
SNOQUALMIE FALLS. We didn't really have much energy after that and headed back to the house to get rest and to re-energize for the rest of our adventures throughout the week.

On Day Two, we headed to see the Troll under the bridge. What a perfect piece of art to go under a bridge right?

Our next stop: ARCHIE McPHEE "Seattle's Best Weird Tourist Attraction." It is a gift, costume, toy store. All I know, is we had a lot of fun there. We dressed up a bit. Whoa! Who is that hot She devil?

We even saw lil' baby Helga, isn't she darling? Why do I love this picture so much? As you can imagine, laughs were had, wigs were worn, and smiles were displayed.

Up next, some pipe park with a cool view of the city. They filmed a scene from "10 Things I Hate About You" there, the one were Heath and the blond chick were on their first date throwing paint ball balloons at each other. Remember?

Sexy ladies much?

Busy day, but just one more stop,
PIKE's PLACE MARKET
I love Pike's place, everyone sells their home-made crafts, and there are cheap flowers to buy, fresh produce and fish for purchase. We happened to purchase ourselves a salmon for our dinner that night and for real, I have never had such delicious tasting fish. It was so fresh and amazingly yummy.

Seattle

.day.three.
.christian's.b-day.

This happened to be the ONLY rainy day during our stay in Seattle, and it only rained 1/2 the day. Julia and I surprised Christian on his birthday by taking him on a private tour of his FAVORITE radio station that is based out of Seattle, KEXP. He loved it! We had planned it so it was during his fav DJ would be there, but she ended up being sick that day...BUMMER!

We then went for some delicious breakfast and on to the Seattle Aquarium. They had some really fun exhibits and we enjoyed it quite a bit. We got to see Sea Urchins eat their dinner, as well as the sea otters and sea lions. I heart sea creatures.

Once we finished at the Aquarium, the rain was done and the sunshine had arrived. So we headed to the Space Needle while the weather was cooperating.

Seattle is such a beautiful city!! We really love it.

Christian really wanted Indian food for his big 31st birthday bash, so we went. I am not a huge fan of Indian food, but it was actually tolerable. Dinner was quite a hodge-podge of people; I met up with my friend Jessica Jones and her hubby (I haven't seen them in like 12 years, but this is why Facebook is so awesome), Julia and her boy toy Jed, Julia's sister and niece, and Julia's sister's assistant. So pretty much all of Christian's closest friends. We had a wonderful time nonetheless. Christian could not have been more happy with his food and that is all that matters.

Of course, every birthday boy has to end his day with his favorite cake, carrot cake.

Happy 31st Birthday Babe!

Seattle

.day.four.

We happened to luck out while the Salmon Days Festival was going on. Hundreds of salmon head upstream to lay their eggs and then die. It is kinda sad that all these salmon are gonna die, but apparently they have lived a good 5-6 year life. It was neat to visit the fishery where they block the salmon from going all the way upstream, that way they can capture their eggs and make sure salmon don't die out. Apparently Salmon don't taste so good once they leave the ocean because they start surviving on their fat, so it is best to eat salmon caught in the ocean. Just an FYI.

Next stop Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum, this stop was more for Jed and Christian, but hey I can be a good sport. See? don't we look like we are having fun?

The best part of the SFM was seeing THE Donatello that was in the movie. I love Ninja Turtles!

That evening, Julia's sister, who is awesome, watched Berkeley while the four of us went out for dinner to celebrate C and I's 7th year anniversary. We went to the restaurant, Salty's which sits on the Puget Sound and across the sound is the entire city of Seattle. It is the most amazing view ever! We had such a wonderful double date with Julia and Jed.

Happy 7 years baby!

Julia and Jed, aren't they adorable. These two are a perfect match and are so hilarious together.

Seattle

.day.five.

The last day of our adventure we did Julia and I's favorite Washington activity EVER, headed to the Olympic Game Farm. We took the ferry and drove to our location.

Julia got a new car since we went to the Farm last, she went from SUV, to not SUV. I feel much safer feeding these animals in an SUV is all I am going to say!

We fed the lamas.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!
This is a huge elk thinking Berkeley is a yummy piece of white bread, Berkeley thinks it is hysterical!

Of coarse we fed the BISON! These creatures are soooo scary. They had babies this time and they use them as bate. We love feeding the babies, so we stop and feed the babies and then the momma bison would come and ram the baby out the way and try to eat our hands off.

We screamed, got majorly slobbered on, and laughed amazingly hard. Too much fun.

In honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Julia and I just want you to know:

We had an amazing vacation! I can always have a good time when Julia is around! Seattle is a real cool city; we are forever fans.