Seattle Vacation

The night before our trip we went on a family date to the creamery and got a Graham Canyon/Peppermint Sundae

Thursday November 6th we dropped Kelsey off at Dianas house and headed to Seattle for a tour of Amazon. Not only was this our first time away from Kelsey but it was an all expenses paid vacation with some of our best friends in the program. How could we go wrong! 

We got into Seattle around 7, dumped our stuff off at the Grand Hyatt, and met up with Shellee and Dallin Salmon for dinner at the Cheesecake factory where Ethan and I proceeded to spend 110 dollars on dinner! We had to spend 135 dollars everyday on food so basically it was 3 days of indulgence and bliss. We ate so much that I am still full a week later!  No part of my felt bad either. I know once we start working there we will never be treated this good, so we took full advantage of the pampering. We stayed at the Cheesecake Factory until like 10 o'clock because none of us had kids and we just kept talking. It was just so relaxing and just  fun. 

Friday November 7th

Here's where I'd like to say that we slept in, but we didn't.  Ethan can't sleep in hotels apparently and was up at like 4:30!! He went to the gym and that woke me up so we were both up and going before 7. Luckily the gym at the hotel was nice, but still. A morning to sleep in would have been nice. 

I had a funny experience at the gym. I walked in, and there was a group of about 4 35-45 year old women there, clearly all together as one group. After a while on the treadmill they asked me if I would mind if they changed the overhead music to their ipod so that they could do their Insanity workout. They even invited me to join them. I said thanks but no thanks. I love Insanity and did it a lot in Chicago but I would have gotten more out of running than doing a modified Insanity workout. Before I could say any of this, one of the ladies was like "Well you may not want to do it with us because.. well you know" as she pointed to my whole body specifically my belly. Now I know you never ever ever ask if someone is pregnant. I know that. But you also never ever point to someones belly and look at them awkwardly and un-invite them to do exercise because "you know." She point to my belly like 3 times while explaining to me what  Insanity was. The exercise pride fulness in me just burst. I know a lot about exercise my friend! A LOT! As politely as I could  (and yes it was politely) I was like "Yes I am pregnant, but no I will not be doing Insanity even though I teach it at home." This was a lie or course and I feel kind of bad for lying but she was just too much for my pride. Man as I type this I realize how awful I am!  I've never taught and probably never will, but I just couldn't handle the way she was looking at me like a sick puppy. I mean for heavens sake! Clearly I like exercising if, while pregnant I go to a hotel gym at 6:30 in morning! Clearly this isn't my first rodeo! 

Anyway, her friends all called her out for being rude, but she was like "I didn't want to say she was pregnant" Either way she kind of failed in my opinion, but that is too much pride talking and I need to be nicer.

 Ethan spent all day at Amazon on Friday getting the tour and I spent all Friday with the girls! 

We went to breakfast at Serious Biscuit which quite possibly could be the best biscuit I have ever had in my entire life!

All the wives: Stacey Morris, Shellee Salmon, and Blaire Wantanabe. If we had to hand pick who got to come with us on this trip, I don't think we could have picked a better group. These are all some of our closest friends.

After breakfast we just walked around downtown and went in and out of shops. Eventually we made it to Pike Place Market where we walked around some more and grabbed a lunch that we were not hungry for but felt like it was necessary to have. (I think I got a carmel stuffed apple, a chocolate shake, and a muffin. CLEARLY things I couldn't live without)

From the market we rode the light rail to Chinatown which was terrible and a huge waste of time, but the light rail was fun so whateve.

And then obviously we hit up Starbucks for Hot Chocolate because we were in Seattle!

 

At 4:30 we literally ran over to Amazon to meet the men for a tour of the buildings, but the running part was kind of a joke. We thought we were late and so we started to run the .6 of a mile but a long the way we got to a street that was impossible to cross, stopped so quickly that poor Shellee tripped on our feet and BROKE HER FOOT!!! It was  so unnecessary  to be running (we later learned) that we all felt terrible. In our defense there were no bus routes to Amazon and every taxi we flagged wouldn't stop because we had too many people. Poor Shellee though. This is where I also yelled at Blaire because she didn't want to cross Terry St. but we were already standing in the middle with traffic all around us, and she kept pulling on my arm to go back. "NO BLAIRE!" I felt terrible! Luckily we got there and it all ended in laughter but it was a crazy ride that could have been avoided. 

We met up with the spouses and took a tour of Amazon followed by a cocktail party. My first cocktail party, but to call it that would be lying. It was appetizers with alcohol. I just feel cooler saying a cocktail party. There were actually several BYU students there so our momon-water-only table had like 10 people at it.

From there, the Salmons, Morris, and Ethan and I  went to the Space Needle and walked around that park. The weather had been perfect all day, but the Space Needle was where we started to get chilly. It had been like 55/60 all day but definitely dropped at night.

The best part of the whole trip was the amount of times we laughed! Jake and Shellee and Ethan have these laughs that just make you laugh. They all have wonderfully contagious laughs. We had so much fun with our friends. We were laughing all the time! At everything! For example, I don't know why but this got dubbed the Pinocchio picture and it makes me laugh every time. I love it so much now because of that.

I told Ethan to smile. I kept getting goofy pics! Serves me right for trying to do a weird selfie at night

That night we ate a place called Dainel's Broiler which is the nicest, fanciest, longest meal I have ever had. We were there like 2.5/3 hours, Ethan kept getting called Mr. Wing, and the bill came to like 115!!! We felt so out of place!

Ethan and I ordered the cold and hot appetizer plate to share along with lobster mashed potatoes. Between our two plates we had, crab, shrimp, oyster, lobster, steak, artichokes, and something else I can't remember. It was amazing! It helps when you know you aren't paying for it though right. That always makes dinner way more fun.

And then we did the responsible thing and crammed 9 adults and one baby into this bad boy to get back to the hotel! The most irresponsible, funniest 2 miles I have ever traveled. I thought everyone was a cop, Shellee had to hold Dallin in the front, Jake laughed at everything, and Dave just drove on.

Another up and early morning (thanks Ethan) but to compensate we ate cheesecake for our first breakfast so it still felt like a vacation. After check out, we meet everyone at Portage Bay for maybe my favorite meal of the break. Its like a glorified Kneaders. Any order of pancakes or french toast you got to go to the berries and cream bar and get all you can eat berries and cream. I don't think I ate any of the french toast that I ordered but I definitely ate  two servings of fresh strawberries and raspberries off of my french toast. The berries were so fresh and the whipped cream was perfect! The meal also came with great eggs and potatoes, but I was too focused on the berries that I let Ethan eat most of mine. Another fun thing about no one really spending money was that we all shared like it family style every meal. We got to try lots of different foods while we were there.

We spent the rest of the day exploring downtown but this time with the spouses. We did the Harbor Tour which we like to call the booze cruise.

Still can't believe that we are going to be living here!

 Then we spent some time in the aquarium, which was kind of lame without kids. The octopus was awesome though and it was fun watching Dallin push Shellee around in her wheelchair so it wasn't a total bust.

We headed over to Pike Place after that and wandered around some more which eventually took us to the gum wall and thats a totally disgusting touristy thing to do. I loved it.

And then unfortunately we had to head back to the hotel to grab our stuff so we could catch our flight. While we were grabbing our luggage the New York Giants wandered through our lobby and so that was cool I guess. I saw Eli Manning but I know (and care) so little about the NFL that I sat pretty much the whole time.

We shared a taxi with the Salmons, got all our stuff checked and then sat at our gate and at dinner. I have to say dinner tasted delicious. It was the first time in my whole life that I have ever had airport food, but again when you know you don't have to cover the bill, food just tastes better. We helped the Salmons get Shellee on the plane and then headed back to home. What a fun weekend. I could not state that enough. We had a blast. It was care free in every way possible.

The sunset at 4:30. It was beautiful but I am definitely going to have to get used to dark winters again. I kind of forgot how depressing they can be! Utah is lovely and always has sun. Washington, not so much.

Kelsey as asleep when we got home, but we were told of all the fun she did while we were gone. Talk about a great weekend for her too. Diana took her to the park and the library, and lunch, and the Mannings came over, and they played at the church, and had treats, and got pizza, and watched movies,  and so many more of Kelsey's favorite things. I am so grateful to Diana and Robert for watching Kels. I know being her parents means all the responsibility of being a parent and that you kind of give up your privilege of going on relaxing vacations, but since we did get to do it this time, I am so grateful for willing an capable people to help us. It made all the difference knowing she was in better hands than when she is with us.

We surprised Kelsey Sunday morning which was so cute. She woke up kind of sad and really early, so I went to her in her crib, grabbed her face and said" Kesley. Its mommy." She immediately stopped crying, got the biggest smile on her face and literally jumped into my arms. She wouldn't let me go for seriously like a half an hour. She kept saying over and over how much she missed us and it was the cutest thing in the world. It was really hard to come back from such a short trip, but that was really rewarding.

Random Picture Dump

I don't want to lose these~

When quiet time goes wrong!

When nap time happens on errands

Love these two

Ethan just being a great dad again.

This was the Sunday after our Seattle trip. Kelsey told Ethan and I each like 10 times that she missed us. She also has discovered boogers. She picks her nose all the times and gets sad when there is nothing there. One night she even prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for her boogers. Its a super gross habit that I am trying to break

Everything Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We had a party, carved pumpkins, went to the MBASA Halloween party and then went to like 3 different forms of trick or treating.  I'm not huge into dressing up but I do love all the parties that come with Halloween.

October 27th we had the Harrisons over for pumpkin carving and treats. I found out the hard way that I am one of the few in the group who can't carve a cool pumpkin.  I guess I need to step up my pumpkin carving game, but we all know I won't.

After pumpkins we all admired Andrea's new boots

October 30th was the MBASA Halloween party which was a huge hit this year for so many reasons, the chief amongst  them being that we have friends in the program and the other being that Kelsey actually got Halloween which made it so fun for mom and dad.
Also I loved the party because I had to bring cupcakes and chili and I love making both! It was a great cooking day.

It was a very similar to last year:  a chili dinner where the front of the line took way too much food so the back of the line had to eat at home after the party (we made spaghetti), a chili contest where Ethan was a judge because apparently he is known for his amazing culinary taste buds (I laughed so hard at this), trick or treating where Kelsey went up to 8 people standing in the hall who proceeded to give her fist fulls of candy, followed by simple games like fishing and a cake walk, and then a tractor ride around the parking lot. Ralphie was also there so naturally Kelsey told me over and over that it was the best day ever. Life pretty much can't get better when Ralphie and candy are involved.

She wouldn't put on her dress at first but with a candy bribe she finally got into it. Luckily a friend gave us this adorable Dorothoy costume otherwise Kelsey would have dressed up like Kelsey for the party.  I'm still a little burnt out from her first Halloween lobster costume.
 Brace yourself kids. Your costumes will probably always be pretty lame unless people give us some. I'm not even very sorry

This was the best we could get of the two trick or treating

October 31st was AWESOME! We met Ethan and Hannah on campus and walked around looking at costumes. Kelsey literally thought we were at Disneyland. When she would see a girl dressed up as a princess, she would run up to them and just stare or give them a big hug, or ask them all sorts of questions. My favorite was the girl dressed up as Rapunzel. I totally think that she has worked at Disney before just by the way she interacted with Kelsey. She was like too perfect.Kelsey ran right up to her gave her a big hug and immediately asked where Flynn was. She asked for Flynn so much that I think it made the girl sad but she played it off pretty well. Kelsey just loves the men in her life.
We also saw Anna, Aurora, Alice, Belle, Cinderella, and like 5 Elsas obviously. The year of Elsa right.
BYU always had people dress up for Halloween while I was there but never like this. This year there were tons of people and some of them even handed out candy. There was a mini carnival at the WILK too. It just was such a fun way to kill an afternoon.

That evening we went trick or treating at Roberts office where Kelsey got another bucket full of candy. We were on the later end of trick of treating so once again people were giving her fist fulls of candy. We don't complain.

After Roberts office we went to the Nellys for our official Halloween celebration. We LOVE having them so close to us again. I wish we could see them everyday. We had a true party complete with pizza, punch, candy, and some form of time out for both of the girls. A true family gathering. 

And then it was time for trick or treating in Robert and Diana's neighborhood, just down the street from the Nellys.  I was as excited as the girls! Not only was it a BEAUTIFUL night, like high 60s, but Kelsey and Norah actually understood what to do. Now I know why some parents want to go trick or treat with their kids. Its like super fun to watch how happy they get. I wanted to go all night long.

The whole experience was awesome but here are my favorite highlights from the evening:

1) Kelsey and Norah knocking on the doors for like 9 knocks and then Kelsey yelling "HELLLOOOOO?!"
2) Kelsey knocking on the door like 9 times and Norah telling her to stop and wait. Norah was clearly a little more polite in this setting. We have some manners to work on
3) Getting money instead of candy and like 4 jumbo sized candy bars (ALWAYS trick or treat in Bountiful!)
4)Getting a bag of chips and bottled water at one house
5) Watching a 40+ mom and dad ring a doorbell and say trick or treat. WHAT?! Go home!
6) Watching Norah carry her skirt up the stairs of every house without being prompted to do so
7) The girls were really goo about only taking one piece of candy but near the end of the night, a house thought they were cute and let them go at the candy bowl. The next house we went to the man bent down to give them candy and they both stated double fisting the bowl. All the parents ran up to stop them but they definitely got a ton in their bowl.

8)And then my personal favorite
                     There was a house around the corner from the Wings were clearly Utah fans. They had a U pumpkin, and a Ute flag. As we were walking up to the steps all the adults were joking about how we should skip this house, and were saying  Go Cougars, but naturally we rang the door bell anyway. After Kelsey took a piece of candy I go "Kelsey what do you say" and Kelsey goes " GO COUGARS!" I started laughing and the lady was like "What did she say" Ethan quickly was like "oh she said thank you" but I'm pretty sure the lady heard her loud and clear. It was awesome! Good girl Kels!

The night ended by putting Kelsey to bed at the Wings and then going to the Nelly's for popcorn and some ESPN until like 10:30. Talk about party animals right!  A perfect Halloween night! 

 I'm not even embarrassed to admit this, but my favorite part of Halloween is sorting all the candy after. I did it as a kid and still do it now. I LOVE IT!!!! This picture makes me laugh because it kind of shows how intense I am about my sorting. I get stressed when there are no duplicates to create a pile. I have serious issues.

On November 1st was decided to use a gift card and celebrate several things that we hadn't yet celebrated:

-Finishing the bible in only 2.5 YEARS!!! 

-Not eating out once in the months of September and October

- Accepting a job offer at Amazon in Seattle for after school

We were so excited about the new ipads that are on the tables at Chili's that we totally forgot about our gift card! AGH!!! I mean we can always go back right, but that was why we choose Chili's. If we were going to go non-gift card status we would have gone to like Texas Road House or something. In their defense the new ipad things are super cool. You can order, play games, and pay.

Halloween Party 2014

I can't believe its that time of year again, but our annual Halloween party has come and gone. It was a major hit with us so I hope everyone else had a great time. This year we decided to invite a bunch of school friends to get to know them outside of school and oh boy did we!

We had the Apkers and the Palmers

The Blacks and the Salmons

And the Morriss and the Johnsons

It was super fun to decorate as always and this year Hannah took Kelsey to her house so we didn't have to have her around. It truly was a party for us!

 

 

 

The games were a hit! We played wrecking ball,

the newly wed game,

the card cathing game,

Clearly and I were terrible at this game

and the candy bar game. Ethan and I lost all the games but it was so much fun! It was such a fun night. I'm so glad we are in the position to have lots of friends so close and from so many different outlets of life.