Happy Birthday . . .

Today marks the birthday of my husband, my best friend, my "happy quiet place".  Thanks for letting me share the past 21 birthdays with you, Utah Man.

Weekend in Seattle

Every once in a while, Geoff has to travel for meetings.  And every once in a while, I get to go with him.  Our kids hate it when we leave them, but we LOVE it.

Last weekend, it was Seattle.  After passing my kids off to my niece Lindsey and her husband Trevor, I flew to Seattle and Geoff found me after his meetings.  I enjoyed looking at one of my favorite gift shops, Fireworks, before Geoff tracked me down.  I talked myself out of buying anything (pat on the back), but I was seriously tempted by:

                                

It's really quite a pretty store . . . 

We enjoyed our first visit to the Seattle Temple.  With the Boise Temple closed for renovation, we knew we had to take any opportunity to do temple work.  It was worth the effort, and we finished in time to visit IKEA, ponder a kitchen remodel, and eat some Swedish meatballs for dinner.  Mmmmm.

Saturday morning, we strolled around the Pike Street Market, which was strangely un-busy, and found some great vintage photos that Geoff bought for an early birthday present.  There was no rain in Seattle that day, and the sun even broke out.  How lucky are we?

We always visit Ivar’s House of Clams when we are in Seattle, but this time we decided to shake things up a little.  We found Ivar’s Salmon House, tucked under the I-5 bridge. 

The view of Lake Union and downtown from our table was as yummy as the salmon.

We then checked in to our hotel, (which brings to mind another temptation from Fireworks) . . .

. . . and got dressed in our Blue and Green Sounders gear.  Living almost in the middle of Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders makes it reasonable to support BOTH teams : )

We can't take a good picture to save our life : )

Of course, we were all dressed up with no where to go (way too early for the game), so we shopped in the team store, strolled around Pioneer Square, and joined the "March to the Match."  I've been to a lot of soccer games, and the Sounders fans are most definitely well organized.  It felt much like a Paris-Saint-Germain or PSV Eindhoven game, but these fans didn't scare me!  What other MLS team has their very own marching band??  While walking around, we found a store selling Utilikilts, but I couldn't talk Geoff into buying one.  Can you imagine?

Seattle Sounders vs. San Jose Earthquakes was also the last regular season home game and Goal Keeper Kasey Keller's last regular season home game before retirement.  Over 64,000 other soccer fans joined us for the occasion, and most stayed through the Kasey Keller Retirement festivities after the game (no BYU fans here).  The Sounders came from behind to win, which always makes for a good night.

Sunday morning, as always, we checked out mormon.org and found an LDS chapel nearby.  We drove around the beautiful Magnolia area for a while, then attended Sacrament Meeting with the Seattle First Ward.  While attending church on vacation is sometimes hard, we are always blessed for our efforts  This time (quite randomly), we ended up sitting next to the son of some good friends, met his wife, and heard a great talk by a High Councilman, both of whom grew up within two blocks of where we live.  What are the odds?  The influence of the old Boise Third Ward is EVERYwhere.


We skipped the rain in Seattle, and just missed the rain in Boise.  Back to the world of bedtimes, alarm clocks, constant interruptions, and laundry.  I'm already looking forward to our next getaway, whenever that is.

Sophie made it to TWELVE!!

To celebrate the girl who begs to be celebrated, I give you TWELVE reasons that I love my daughter:

1.  The wonderful thing about Sophie is that she's the only one -- the one daughter, the one sister.

2.  She can do anything she sets her mind to.  Write and perform a play at the school Halloween party?  Check.  Win the hoola hoop contest at the school EVERY year?  Check.

3.  She has a sharp wit.  If you have met her father, you know what I'm talkin' about.  She may look like me, but she thinks like him.

4.  She looks like me!  

5.  She has high aspirations (see #2).  At age three she asked, "Didn't you ever want to be anything besides a mommy?"

6.  She is both cute (see #4) AND smart!

7.  She has a style, a certain je ne sais quoi,  that I could never ever pull off.

8.  She is good.  Last year, her classmates told her that if a group was called back to speak with the teacher, everyone thought they were in trouble unless Sophie was in the group.  If she was called back, they all breathed a sigh of relief because Sophie is NEVER in trouble.

9.  She has taught me how to roll my eyes again.  I'd almost forgotten how.

10.  She is a wonderful sister and babysitter -- just ask her little brother.

11.  She has fantastic curly hair, just the opposite of mine.  People pay good money for hair like her's.  

12.  She is a dichotomy of sweet and sour, kind and sarcastic, serious and funny -- to know her is to love her.

  

 

SOPHIE, I LOVE YOU!!!

Ode to Andrew on his 15th Birthday!

15 things I love about Andrew:

1)    He makes me laugh.

2)    He is REALLY REALLY becoming quite useful.

3)    He mows the lawn (see #2).

4)    He takes out the garbage (see #2).

5)    He is smart and his grades show it.

6)    He is a hard worker (see #3, #4, #5).

7)    His favorite way of stalling bedtime is chatting with me : )  I pretend it’s annoying,     
       but secretly I love the time together.  Shhhh, don’t tell.

8)    When he is Captain Obvious, it makes me feel smart (see #1).

9)    He is a mini version of his dad, and I sure love his dad.

10)  He's fun to hang out with.

11)  He asks questions and listens (generally) to my explanations.

12)  He reads and watches Harry Potter with me.

13)  He respects the boundaries that I’ve set.

14)  He likes riding roller coasters!!!  (FINALLY!!)

15)  He’s really starting to get it.

In short, I really love this kid!  Happy Birthday Thing 1!

Happy Birthday to Me!

If I leave my daughter alone long enough (and fail to take her shopping), this is what she makes for my birthday.  I LOVE HER!!!

If you would like the REAL captions of the pictures, I'd be happy to share.  However, I think I might like Sophie's better.  She's so clever (and sarcastic).  Must come from her Dad.


And I'm not THAT old . . . yet.