Our Day in Seattle!

On Monday Jordon and I had a date day all day and evening long in Seattle. Grammy watched Ethan and we took off running to enjoy a day alone together. YAY! It was so fun. We had no plans other than to do whatever we felt like doing. So we went and found Kerry Park in Seattle in the Queen Anne district. Along the way, we enjoyed seeing beautiful old homes and old brick streets. The park is small, but the view is spectacular of the skyline, puget sound, and space needle. We had a picnic lunch in the park and got chased away by bees. Those of you who know me well know I am deathly afraid of bees. I was also wearing a very colorful "flowery" shirt that day and it seemed to attract them even more. So needless to say, my cheetos went flying everywhere as I tried to run away from bees and we ended up eating the rest of our lunch in the car.

We headed over to Pike Place Market and looked around for a few hours. Jordon bought me a beautiful boquet of flowers from the market and they were only $5! You can't beat that! While we were there, we searched for the infamous Wall of Gum in Post Alley near the market. We finally found it! HA! Living here all my life, I'd never heard of this wall till recently and I thought it'd be funny to go see such a gross thing and add my gum to the artwork. So we did just that! It was so disgusting, but probably the funniest part of our date. Being a medic, I am always carrying latex gloves around in my purse and so of course I threw on a glove to put my gum on the wall. Jordon thought I was weird, but I think I was just being quite sanitary and keeping my hands clean. The wall is right next to an old theatre where it all started when Patrons in the early 1990's would stick their gum to the wall right outside the theatre and the idea literally just stuck.

We walked along the pier and looked a few shops there and then headed over to Alki beach. This is a beach I've always wanted to go to, but had never seen. It's so beautiful! Alki feels so much like a smaller beach town than a big city area of seattle.
It's really a fun place to be. After we played at the beach, we went to Salty's for dinner. It's a restaurant on Alki that overlooks Elliott Bay. The restaurant is surrounded by windows so you can watch as the sun goes down and the city lights up the sky with a beautiful view of the skyline, space needle, and ferries crossing the bay. We had a great dinner and such a gorgeous view. It was so nice for us to have that time together to reconnect and be able to just relax and be just us.

Our trip here has gone by too fast. We are not quite ready to head back to school. But it has also given us time to reflect the things we enjoy about both Washington and Idaho. I have come to realize more and more that Idaho is more home now for us and it's really not as bad as I'd thought it was so long ago. We love the beauty and naturalness of Washington. People here love the outdoors and take good care of their surroundings. There's so many places to go hiking, camping, fishing, biking, walking, swimming, etc. We love the variety of this area and so many different cultures. We have come to love the simplicity of Idaho, the conservative view and people who live there, along with the freedom of being able to do what we like to do (hunting, owning firearms, etc) without so many restrictions and laws that are found in more liberal areas such as Seattle. Jordon and I laugh whenever we are driving around Issaquah, Bellevue, Seattle, etc in our 87' bronco and we are one of the oldest cars on the road anywhere we go. We definetely feel more accepted in our "ghetto" vehicle driving the streets and highways of Idaho where you have to watch out for slow moving tractors driving down the highway.

We have about 1 1/2 more weeks here and are trying to enjoy every minute of it. The weather has been beautiful and Jordon and I still have plans to go camping and fishing, hiking, and out on a few more dates. The temple here has been closed for most of our trip for cleaning, but will reopen next week. We haven't been back to the Seattle temple since we were married there in 06'. I can't wait to go back and enjoy the beauty.

Jordon and I are turning 24 here in the next few weeks. It's crazy to think we are getting so old... haha, well old for us anyway. I have had fun shopping and revamping my wardrobe as a birthday gift from my mother in-law and grandmother in-law. I have four new pairs of shoes... two brown (one of which are very cute animal print ones) and the other two pairs (one is fuschia, one is blue)came all the way from Dallas, Tx from my sister. It's been so fun to have new clothes and shoes to feel like a whole new woman. My size has flucuated so much in the last year, it's nice to have clothes that finally fit again. Saturday is my birthday and we will be heading to a country fair that the Stake is hosting in North Bend right across the street from my old house where I grew up! I'm excited to run into old friends from the old wards and visit and have fun.

Ethan is walking better and better every day. He's got at least 4 teeth now (two upper and two lowers) which has made eating a little easier for him. He's still as picky as ever, but we are slowly making progress with food. We had family photos taken yesterday and I can't wait to see how they turn out! It will take at least a few weeks before we see the prints. But the scenery was gorgeous and the photographer was a friend of the family and she takes spectacular pictures. I can't wait to see them! We were sitting on some rocks in the river for some of our photos and Ethan wanted down to play in the water so bad that he finally wiggled free and got soaked. But he absolutely loved it. He loves being outside, it's probably his favorite place to be.

The Pier



Alki Beach



Dinner at Salty's


Our view from dinner