Where in the WORLD have we been??

Living the Seattle city life, that's where!! Mark needed to go to Seattle to attend a conference for work and I had the wonderful opportunity to tag along - sans kids. WAHOO!! It was a little tricky at first, figuring out where our kids would go and if it would be worth it or not to even try. We are SO blessed with wonderful friends that willingly took our boys in pairs of two. The bigs went to our neighbors, the Perillo's and had an ABSOLUTE BLAST, they didn't want to come home and said they didn't even miss us (sniff). The littles went to the Pahl's, and they are who I was worried about the most. They did great, thanks to Becky's AMAZING mothering skills. We are so so lucky to have such wonderful friends!

Once the cab pulled up to our hotel, one quick look around me told me I was in the right place. I practically squealed with delight as my eyes feasted upon a LUSH store, Macy's, Nordstrom, Gap and Old Navy all (with the exception of Lush) 3-4 stories high! I told Mark not to worry about me, I'd be JUST fine. Around a corner, there was a Nordstrom Rack, around another corner a Ross. YAY! Yes, I know most of these stores are available in my hometown but in my hometown I have 4 additional shadows that stick to me like glue and going to even ONE of these places would take me almost all day. I was in shopping heaven.

The first day there we got to the hotel to check in but our room wasn't ready so we dumped our bags and headed out to see the town. We walked to Pike Place Market. A famous marketplace located within walking distance of our hotel. It was SOOO much fun! We didn't get to see them throw the fish, but we heard all about it and it sounds like it would have been fun to watch. It was really neat to see all the fun handmade things for sale, and the fresh produce looked DELISH! We REALLY wanted to find some yummy fried fish or calamari to eat but by the time we chose one (for fish..we never found calamari) they were closing down so we had to settle for clam chowder. We had a great time pointing out things the boys would have loved here and there and holding hands and just being together! There was a reception for those attending the conference and their spouses so we had to get back to get ready for that. They had a great dinner prepared for us where we got to chat and get to know some of the other attendees. It ended early so Mark and I walked a few blocks to catch a movie. We watched "21" and stopped for ice cream from "ColdStone" on the way home. SO FUN!!

On Monday Mark awoke and went to "work" and I slept in, took a bath and headed out for some shopping. I've been DYING to try the products from LUSH ever since Sheriece and Tib have mentioned them on their blogs. The solid shampoo and conditioner sounded SO COOL and Tib mentions the bath bombs a lot so I knew this store HAD to be my first stop. It was SO NEAT! I ended up going back there 3 times during my stay and wish wish WISH they had one here. Sigh. It was a little hard admitting to Mark that I just dropped 50 bucks on toiletries. oops.

I also found Joshua some GREAT deals on some shirts at the Gap. This poor kids' wardrobe looks pretty shabby compared to all of his little brothers so it was nice to catch him up a bit. When Mark got back we walked over to Nordstrom Rack to look at their shoes and ended up finding a pair of Lucky Jeans for $40! Even on the half-yearly sale at Nordstrom they are NEVER EVEN CLOSE to that cheap. I told Mark whether he wanted them or not he was getting them. His jeans are all SO OLD and the one nice pair he owns I accidentally spilled bleach on a few years ago so I felt it was my duty to make him get a new pair. I couldn't talk him into getting the shoes though. He NEVER spends money on himself and I get SO TIRED of begging him so I gave in and we put them back. We went to dinner with everyone at a place called Gordon Biersch Brewery. It was pretty good and we got stuffed! I tried to save room for ice cream again but we just couldn't do it, we were WAY too full!

Tuesday Mark went to work again and I started off early knowing this was my last full day. I stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and was entertained by a local looney yelling at some imaginary people in the restaurant. It was pretty funny, but I felt kind of sorry for him. I went back to Nordstrom Rack to look for some jeans for me because SERIOUSLY 40 BUCKS!!! Then I went to Ross and looked around but it was CRAZY. I guess it is senior day on Tuesdays and everyone 50 and over saves 10%. The line was FOREVER LONG, but I did find some great deals there and got two dresses for $12.50 EACH! HOORAY! I rushed home to get ready as my brother Mike was picking us up for dinner. He has a job site in Seattle right now among other places and happened to be in town the same time we were! He took us to an AMAZING place called The Crab Pot. It was SO MUCH FUN! You place your order and they come out with butcher paper to lay on the table then they dump all your food in the middle of the table and give you a hammer. It was SO SO SO YUMMY and we ate and ate and ate and ate. Here are a few pictures of our food, my brother holding up the poor little shrimp in it's shell (I will admit, it was a little harder eating the shrimp this way, it made it more "real" that they used to be alive or something) and the table after most of the damage was done. I can't believe all that food went into our bodies, but MAN was it GOOD! We walked around and looked at the boats and the ocean for awhile, then he drove us back to our hotel and we walked around there for a bit, we went to the Pike Place Market again but it was empty so we stopped for ice cream again. FUN FUN! --Thank you brother, we had SUCH a great time!!

Wednesday was my "souvenir" day and I spent the morning getting the boys their Webkins and finding something for the Pahl's and Perillo's. We got Josh a snake, Sam a frog and Gabe a puppy. By the time I was done Mark was done with the conference and it was time to head to the airport. Whew. It went SOO fast and was SOOOO fun. I was so excited to see my boys again and once Wednesday came, I couldn't get home fast enough. By the time we waited for each other's flights - Mark flew Delta and I flew Southwest (THANKS MOM!) it was 6:30 before we could head home. I was SOO anxious to pick up the babies and I just KNEW Will would be SO EXCITED to see me. Um. Yeah. I was WAY OFF. I walked in and squealed and grabbed him out of Becky's arms and he FREAKED OUT. He started SCREAMING and couldn't be consoled. Mark finally grabbed him and threw him in the air a few times and got him laughing and I felt like chopped liver. Lucky for me, he grinned at me the whole way home so hopefully I just came at him too fast and his little 8 month old brain couldn't process what was happening. That, or he wants Becky to be his full time mommy which I'm not about to allow so I have to just hope it is the first one. :)

We had SUCH a great time and I've decided Seattle is ABSOLUTELY one of my very favorite cities ever. I want to take the boys back there SOOOOOOOO bad. Hopefully someday we can ALL go back and do more sightseeing!

My FAVORITE things about this trip were:

*Rediscovering Escalators. I've been doing the stroller/elevator thing for so long I almost forgot they still existed!! How fun it was to go up and down and up and down and up and down all the live long day!

*Realizing how seriously funny my husband is. My favorite had to be watching him whisper into his McDonald's cup "systems GO" and "all systems ABORT....ABORT, ABORT" at Nordstrom Rack. Apparently they "hired" him into their "loss management team" and he was watching a potential shoplifter...that I never actually saw (and just between us, I don't think he did either) and was about to call in the authorities. Maybe you had to be there but it was FUNNY!

*Sleeping in, showering, blow-drying and CURLING my hair EVERY DAY! I felt like a girl again...if only for a few days. :)

*Not worrying about a thing I ate because I walked it off the minute I stopped eating it! How fun to walk everywhere and not have to worry about driving around in traffic!

*Falling MORE in love with my husband all over again. Spending time with him just talking with absolutely no interruptions was so so so priceless.

*Mark letting me spend $100 or more a day. I'm pretty sure this wasn't in our budget, but I didn't complain. He totally spoiled me and it was SO FUN. I really don't deserve this wonderful man!

Viva Las Vegas!

We are home from a wonderful and very relaxing trip to Las Vegas! Mark had to go there for work so we tagged along. We were fortunate enough to stay at the very luxurious Wynn hotel and truly felt spoiled during our entire stay! It is definitely not a place geared toward kids so our boys were among the only children there and soaked up lots of smiles and compliments from the other guests. We played at the pool almost the entire time we were there and Gabe quickly became accustomed to the poolside life. Every day we would go someone would ask him to poor water from his water bottle on their feet or allow him to just dump water on top of their head. We dubbed him the "Wynn's personal Cabana boy" as he got more attention than all of us put together and performed his "tasks" with oodles of charm. By the time we left Joshua was swimming the entire length of the pool and back and Sam even went under water with Mark! This is HUGE for Sam as he is pretty water phobic, but was a lot more comfortable by the end of the trip. I was even dunking Gabe in the water without holding his nose and he would come up laughing. I wish I could have gotten that on video! We figured we had to try the famous buffet while we were there, even though we cringed a little when the bill for our little family came to $109! We cringed even more when all Sam requested from the tables was a roll. Mark quickly explained that he would not just be eating a roll when we'd just dropped $18 on his meal alone. Everything looked up quickly though when Sam discovered that you could dip the crab leg meat in melted BUTTER! This kid LOVES butter and would probably eat it with a spoon if I would let him! So they pigged out on King Crab legs, shrimp and prime rib, we couldn't have been more proud of them! Gabe ate an entire piece of Salmon and various other things and by the time Mark offered him a chocolate chip cookie he actually looked at it with disgust! It was so funny, it was a look like "get that out of my face before I PUKE" - I told Mark he'd probably never refuse a cookie again so we better remember the moment! We also took a night to see the pirate show in front of the Treasure Island hotel, the fountains in front of the Bellagio and walked the strip to visit M&M World and the Coca-Cola store. It was a great trip but was also nice to get home and back in the swing of things. This baby is coming soon and is not the greatest traveling companion when lots of driving or walking need to be done. :)