defying gravity

wicked came to seattle last month. i've seen that play twice already, once with my whole family in LA in 2005 and again with b in NYC in 2006. that second time, we got lottery tickets and sat in the 2nd row -- and it was also the weekend he proposed to me, so yeah...that was a pretty good day. i was pretty obsessive about the soundtrack in college and still pop it in every once in a while, i know every word. i just love that show!

anyway, i knew it was coming to town and i had exactly zero plans of seeing it again. until, that is, a friend was on a local morning show on a day they also happened to feature the two stars of wicked. i tuned in to support my friend but stuck around to watch the girls sing. bad choice. by the end of the song i was completely choked up, realizing my undying love for that play. my friend rachel had just been telling me she'd never seen wicked but wanted to, so i called her that day and told her i'd go with her.

we nabbed tickets and went on a wednesday night. i felt silly about being there, all the way up until we were in our seats (at the amazing paramount theater in seattle, i love that place!). and then the curtain went up and the music started and i didn't feel like a crazy freak anymore. holy cow. not only is wicked AMAZING, but live theater in general is so incredible. nothing can compare. i can't wait to take my kids to a show one day and share that magic with them. it was such a fun night and i'm glad i went. although i still feel a little silly ;)

grandpa wells comes to town

my grandmother emailed me last week (hi grammie!) to inform me i hadn't updated since halloween. whoops. i guess now that i'm down to one or two readers, i should avoid alienating them further ;) so, here we go.

in november, grandpa wells (b's dad) came to visit us for a weekend! the main point of the trip was to attend the UW - utah game here in seattle, since b & his dad have a lovely & expensive tradition of traveling to a utah away game every year (notre dame, washington state, etc.). i wasn't so sure i wanted to go...rivalries, you know. but our BFFs wanted to get tickets too so that talked me into it. i'll watch ANY football game if i can sit and talk about food & fashion with alex ;)

we went to the official utah tailgate party right before the game, which was in the bullpen at safeco field. so cool to see the empty baseball field all lit up!

and then it was game time. utah lost...wah wah.

BUT -- another perk of attending the game -- my good friend & former co-worker in LA, jolee, texted me that day to say she & her husband were randomly in town for the game. hooray! we had a quick halftime rendezvous and it was so, SO good to see her face. (past adventures with jolee include a rousing two weeks in rural georgia & an awesome trip to NYC. i miss her.)

also while grandpa was in town, we checked out the museum of flight. how had i never been there before?? it was awesome & i plan to take all my visitors there from now on. from the giant airplane hangar to the space shuttle display to the original boeing factory, it was super cool.

jack even got to drive a jet.

this kid's faces crack me up. i mean seriously. can you handle the cuteness? "cheese!"

in addition to football & airplanes, jack spent the rest of the weekend playing with grandpa and loved every minute of it. come again soon!

captain jack

we had a GREAT halloween this year. i would argue it was our best married halloween yet, even. i looove halloween and every year i get really excited, but for one reason or another it seems like i end up feeling let down once 10/31 rolls around. but anyway. this year was awesome.

jack dressed up as captain jack sparrow from pirates of the caribbean. i am holding onto the jack-related costumes (see also: jack-o-lantern and jack skellington) as long as i possibly can. we decided on that one because he got really into pirates over the past few months and says the cutest like "arrghh!" when he sees one, so it was pretty much a no-brainer. i bought a cheap pirate costume at target and covered his rain boots in black duct tape. the hat was the real deal -- an authentic pirates of the caribbean hat, which i bought at disney world last month, with dreadlocks i added just for the day. (i didn't buy the actual dreadlocked hat because i figured he wouldn't be into all the hair. detachable dreads are the way to go with a two-year-old. :)

we started out the day at our library's halloween-themed story time, which was actually super fun and better than anticipated. came home for lunch and to take care of a few things, then headed out to bellevue to visit b at work. all his co-workers wanted to see the little pirate, and then we went upstairs to the official microsoft party -- a full buffet spread, cookie decorating, balloon artists, face painting. it was totally legit.

but we couldn't stay long because a.) all the halloween decorations were freaking jack out and b.) we had a date in queen anne! we met up with our friends in seattle and took the kiddos trick-or-treating in the adorable queen anne downtown. it was just the right amount of trick-or-treating for jack -- which is to say, not that much. :)

it rained all day, naturally, but let up for a few minutes while we were out. jack got the hang of asking for candy pretty quick.

i think seattle in the fall is my favorite season. i can never get over the red trees! so pretty. after we walked the block, we headed back to the davis' house for cuban sandwiches, toddler bedtimes and a rousing zombie flick. the best way to spend a halloween. :)

SIX

oct. 20, 2012 was our sixth anniversary! as mentioned previously, we didn't celebrate much on the actual day because of my mom's change in travel plans, a crazy halloween party, etc. so instead we played hooky and celebrated on monday and tuesday. traditional work weeks are for suckers. ;)

it was so nice to have my mom in town to watch jack, and she insisted we go away for at least a night. sure, i can do that. we planned a little staycation right here in seattle and stayed at the four seasons in downtown. it was dreamy, complete with complimentary chocolate-covered celebratory strawberries, room service for breakfast and a tv right in the mirror. we had a delicious & kid-free dinner at lecosho and then walked around the waterfront.

the view from our hotel's rooftop deck was amazing! my favorite ferris wheel all lit up:

the next day, we crossed something off our long-procrastinated to do list and took the seattle underground tour. (sometimes we talk so much about doing things that we end up NEVER doing them because it just gets ridiculous. case in point: living in LA, we wanted to go to an outdoor movie at the hollywood forever cemetary sooooo bad. they show movies on the wall of a mausoleum, while you sit on the graves of hollywood starlets! awesome right? anyway, we talked about it SO much, and even drove all the way there twice, but never actually made it inside. i am convinced i will go to my grave -- pun intended -- without ever seeing a movie there. sad. tangent over.)

this, however, totally delivered! such a cool way to learn more about the history of our city -- and dig around in some old buildings too.

long story short -- when seattle was founded in the 19th century, they had a ton of problems with the water table & city development. after a fire wiped out most of the city, they rebuilt -- but decided to raise the entire city 15 feet. thus, the first floor of all the buildings became the basement, with the second floor becoming the main level. the roads were filled in, but all the sidewalks & basements still exist. this tour takes you through a few of the remaining basements and walkways, which were still open for business for a while after the re-grade (thus the skylights below). this is the earliest known photo of the original seattle:

i love all the old buildings in pioneer square. smith tower is especially cool. i got to go in there for the first time a few weeks ago -- they are the only building in seattle with real live elevator operators! i felt so fancy.

from there, we walked back to pike place market for some beecher's mac & cheese and headed home to see jack & my mom. it was a perfect little getaway and i hope we start doing this every year. ;)

and now, for the traditional anniversary walk down memory lane:

3 states, a few bad haircuts, and six great years. and i'm proud of myself for sticking by last year's pledge for no more children in anniversary photos. ;) i love you, b!

the great grammie visit of 2012

my mom came to visit us last weekend! living far from both sides of our family definitely has its drawbacks -- namely, lack of free babysitting quality grandparent time -- so we're always so excited when people come to visit and we can stock up on good, solid relationship-building. this weekend was perfect.

mom was originally scheduled to arrive on thursday afternoon, but she's now a hotshot blogger and got a last-minute invite to attend an all-expenses-paid blogger summit at the pfizer headquarters in NYC on friday. um, yeah. i'd take that trip too. so instead she jetted out to the east coast for 24 hours (what IS it with payzant women only getting 24 hours over there? we need to lengthen our trips for sure) then flew into seattle late friday night.

saturday was me & b's anniversary, which was to be celebrated a few days later, but we still wanted to have fun. all four of us had THE most incredible brunch of my life (no understatement -- and i've had a lot of brunches!) at pomegranate, right down the street. then we drove 15 minutes and went to jubilee farm for some pumpkin patching.

we went to this same farm last year and had loved it so much, we had to come back. it's just so perfect out there. gorgeous scenery, a hay ride out to the patch, cider & cooked corn, farm animals, even a giant wooden pumpkin slingshot that looked like something from braveheart. we love jubilee farm!

a comparison -- this year's hay ride vs. last year's. my hair is longer & jack is huge!:

after the farm, it was home for apple cider & football. b and i stayed up SOOOO late and went to a midnight halloween party, made possible only by having my mom in town. how else could i ever get a midnight babysitter? thanks mom. b donned his classic ghostbusters costume and i was katniss from the best book ever!

sunday was church and recovery mode after staying out so late. monday, b went to work and my mom & i took jack to the zoo! i had really been looking forward to this because we hadn't been to the woodland park zoo yet, and because i spent the majority of my childhood going to the LA zoo with my mom & MY grammie. (pretty sure this was only because grammie had a membership so it was good, cheap entertainment every time we came to visit -- "what should we do today?" "i know, the zoo! again!" -- but regardless, i have many happy memories.)

unfortunately, this is seattle, not burbank, and we froze our butts off. it rained the majority of the time we were there, i forgot gloves for jack, half the animals were off hibernating somewhere and they didn't even have a rhino. ah well, it was an adventure!

my favorite section was the rainforest because it was indoor and soooo warm. the zoo is pretty well prepared for inclement weather, as it should be, with lots of covered viewing areas and an indoor playground. they just can't force animals to frolic outside when it's 40 degrees out. ;)

we actually got pretty lucky -- the animals that WERE out ended up being super easy to see, like the elephant above. we could get so close! the best part of the day was when we rounded the corner to the jaguar exhibit to see one guy sitting RIGHT up against the glass. for a second i thought it was a fake. ;) but here is proof. i've never been so close to a jaguar and couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. now i want to open a zoo.

we're talking...CLOSE.

we came home to thaw out and then b & i left on our anniversary staycation (more on that later). we were only gone for a day and a half but i think jack & grammie got some fabulous bonding time in. she even taught him how to make her world-famous sugar cookies.

annnnnd then it was wednesday and we took her to the airport. :( it was such a fun visit! come again soon, grammie!