Concert Time!

My wonderful friend, Corina, invited the girls and me out to a free concert at the Tukwila Community Center.  The singer was called, "Caspar Babypants."  I remembered seeing him on a flier at the Renton Rec. Center at some point last year, and I thought, "Why not?"  We loaded up a comfy blanket and went.  The music was catchy and he sang the song, "Stompy the Bear," which Bronwen found on Youtube, so that was fun to be able to sing to something live!  Little did I know that "Caspar" is actually Chris Ballew, two-time Grammy nominated lead singer for the band, "The Presidents of the United States of America."  What a treat!  We had a great time, bought two of his CDs and a children's book he coauthored with his wife and ended the afternoon playing at a nearby park.  Loved today! :-)

Our New Boat~

When we first moved to WA, Conrad said, "We'll get a boat, so we can take it out on the weekends."  Meet "Challenger," our new boat! :-)  It makes me so happy for the girls to see their parents go after their dreams, no matter how big or small.  We had a beautiful time out on the water!  We packed sack lunches, swam in the open water and successfully launched and docked the boat.  Hooray!!!

A Great Day to be Alive!

I woke up this morning filled with JOY!!!  I don't know why, but I was so thankful to be alive!  I was thankful for Conrad and thinking about how much of a good time we have.  No one is perfect, but we get each other's quirks (many are the same LOL!), we go on trips with our kids, we love to shop, we work out together and stay fit, we have great conversations, we've been together for a long time, growing up and changing in the process.  That's one of the most beautiful things about marriage is that you can grow old gracefully and in peace.  And then my girls...  They are so beautiful, smart, kind, helpful and amazing.  We get to look at all the cool new toys because of them.  We get to see the latest cartoon movie (saw Despicable Me 2 on Tuesday and it was great).  We get to discover the world again!  We have Charlie, so we go on long walks, whether it's in the neighborhood (saw two majestic bunnies today) or going to Lincoln Park along a whale-watching trail (orcas there in the fall/winter).  We have our home, health, jobs, family.  I just felt so lucky to be alive!  This feeling intensified when I took the girls to swimming lessons this morning and it was raining.  I felt so refreshed, restored and invigorated!

I may have taken this gratefulness to an extra level when I went to Target though.  The goal was to get school supplies.  Of course that's when everything they had for women was completely adorable.  That brings up another thing -why is it that when you can spend, you don't want anything, but when you're supposed to be good, everything is super cute????  Anyway, I was bad  still in the mood to celebrate life!   I just got paid for a wedding I'm doing Sunday and Conrad got paid (Bills were taken care of, so why not?).  I went crazy and you know what, I didn't even care!  I always want the kind of life where when I die, I will feel like I lived!!!  I try to base all my decisions with this attitude.  Will I really regret spending money on that trip that created awesome memories?  It's so important to me to have fun and to enjoy life and the people in it!  So, even though my bill at Target was horrendous, I was thankful for being with my girls having a great time and headed to Taco Time! :-)  

Thank you, God, for the many, many blessings your have given me!  Thank you for letting me be alive!

Our 12th Anniversary, Lincoln City, OR

When I just started thinking about how to start this post, the song, "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," popped into my head LOL!  Why? Out of all the fun we had, I'm still traumatized from the 4.5 hr drive that turned into a 7 hr road trip to get there (yay, traffic in Tacoma, Olympia, Vancouver, Portland, Salem -yes, basically the whole way).  Thank God Conrad packed us a cooler filled with yummy goodies to distract us! :-)

 

Conrad and I have promised that each year for our anniversary we'll go somewhere.  Our last was spent in Hawaii, the year before was Lake Chelan.  I definitely wanted to make sure this one was just as special.  I chose Lincoln City because of all the fun memories I have of going up there when I was in high-school/college.  I thought it'd be a great trip filled with enough to do, but still let us relax and enjoy each other. 

 

We left at 1130 and got to the resort at 630.  We decided that we'd had enough of the car, so we walked down to a cute Thai restaurant for dinner.  After that was the beach, then sitting in front of a little fire pit, eating cookies.  The girls got their own room (had to get a rollaway bed since they are too big to share one bed now) and Conrad and I got to sleep in our bed facing the ocean.  The sleep was wonderful! 

 

On Saturday, we woke up early, took showers, ate and headed down to the outlets for school shopping.  We got there with half an hour to spare, so we decided to get my oil change (Conrad's idea LOL!).  With new oil and Starbucks in hand, we hit the outlets.  The girls got some great clothes and Conrad and I got a few things as well.  Lunch was at a deli -delish! :-)

 

Cate ended up falling asleep on the way back to the resort, so Conrad took Bronwen and Ava sleeping while she napped.  When she woke up, we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Kyllo's, then spent the rest of the evening on the beach flying kits, exploring the tide pools (it's so cool to see hermit crabs, anemones and fish in a natural setting) and playing in the sand.  The best part of me is that when we were out there I told Conrad that I really wish someone could take a picture of us walking along the beach (but I was too scared of handing my camera over to someone and have them run away with it).  Just then, a family came by and the dad just happened to be an amateur photographer.  I treasure the photos he took of us. :-)

 

We came home on Sunday, it only took 5 hrs, including gas/food.  It was wonderful!

 

Here's to 12 years with my amazing husband.  Happy anniversary, my love.  I love you!