Stew's Birthday Pub Crawl

Stewart's favorite activity is day drinking, so we decided to celebrate his 31st birthday with another epic Ballard Pub Crawl! In honor of Stewart and his ever-present backwards hat, guests were encouraged to wear their own favorite hats... backward, of course.

We started out with breakfast and beverages at The Hi-Life, and since the weather actually turned out to be halfway decent we were able to sit outside in a cool sidewalk patio area. After everyone had gotten their fill of yummy food and delicious drinks we headed out to some of our favorite Ballard bars. First stop: King's Hardware, one of our favorites because it has a cool patio area out back, but mostly because of the skee ball inside. Brett arranged a super fun tournament in which I almost made it to the final four.

 

From King's we walked down the street a block or two to the Ballard Loft, which had an upstairs area that was perfect for our large group and also had shuffle board. So many people were able to come out and celebrate with us, and although Stew wasn't able to stay out as late as he planned (thanks for your generosity with the shots, guys), and even though we only "crawled" to three different locations, overall it was a super successful day of fun and friends.

A very happy birthday to my wonderful husband!!

Happy Birthday, Stewart!

Instead of writing wedding vows and reading them to each other during the ceremony, Stewart and I decided to do something a little different. We each made out a list of the 25 reasons why we love each other and gave them to our officiant prior to the big day. We kept them secret from each other and I couldn't wait to hear them during our wedding! Stewart's list was so perfect; it made me both laugh and cry. He knows me so well it never ceases to amaze me, and it was so nice to hear his thoughts proclaimed in front of all of our family and friends. One of the things that made everyone laugh was, "She will go see Titanic with me in 3D." It's true... we both love the movie and had been looking forward to the re-release this year.

So this week on Stewart's birthday we met in Queen Anne for a delicious dinner at Buckley's before walking over to the IMAX theater at the Pacific Science Center. I was actually really surprised at how well the 3D effects worked, considering the movie was filmed so long ago. And I wasn't at all surprised that the 3.5 hours flew by... no matter how many times I see Titanic I never get tired of a single second of it. Neither does Stew, so I think he ended up having a really good birthday... although he's probably looking forward to his pub crawl celebration this weekend.

A very happy birthday to my amazing husband!  

Celtic Woman... Believe

A couple years ago Stew and I both got completely sucked into a Celtic Woman special on PBS... super nerdy, know. But seriously, these ladies are absolutely AMAZING!

Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble featuring four Irish vocalists and a fiddler. They perform everything from traditional Celtic tunes to modern songs. We have absolutely fallen in love with their music, especially after seeing their show Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart last year. I had been waiting patiently for another American tour to be announced, and as soon as tickets went on sale for Celtic Woman: Believe, I snatched some up.

After waiting for months, Stew and I went to the show Monday night with my mom and sister. Ahhh... magical. I had chills up and down my entire body during the whole show. At some points I couldn't believe I was listening to live music, it just sounded too perfect. Máiréad Nesbitt's violin skills are out of this world. She's like this tiny little blonde pixie just flying back and forth across the stage. You can't even see her fingers they are moving so fast. Truly amazing.

Before the show, getting very excited!

Intermission.

The other four women have the sweetest, most pure voices I have ever heard. I really could have stayed there all night and the two-hour show flew by way too fast. I will be waiting patiently for Celtic Woman to come back to Seattle!

Tulip Festival

I have been hearing about the Skagit Tulip Festival for probably the past 10 years, but it wasn't until last weekend that I actually got to experience it for myself. The Tulip Festival is held each year in April and is considered a destination event in the Pacific Northwest. Every spring hundreds of thousands of people come to enjoy the celebration of spring as millions of tulips burst into bloom. Farmers raise tulips as an agricultural crop and 100s of acres of blooming flowers are scattered throughout the Skagit Valley.

Since Stewart was working and I didn't think he would be too excited about a flower festival, I headed up north with Tara and Jillian on Sunday afternoon (when we read it may not be so busy). This festival is pop-u-lar!! Traffic was terrible on the freeway and by the time we finally waited in line to park and walked over to the tulip fields it had been over two hours. But I thought the drive was worth it because the tulips really were breathtaking. The intoxicating smell alone was completely overwhelming, and that combined with the vivid colors of the tulips was enough to cause total sensory overload!

I've never seen so many perfect flowers all in one place. We walked down and up row upon row of them and I still couldn't seem to take it all in. It's been a while since the last time I was so amazed by nature. Really, truly, beautiful.

We didn't stay very long because we needed to get home and were worried about the traffic. We had reason to be, and proceeded to sit in miles and miles worth of stop and go traffic before we finally hit the freeway for more stop and go traffic all the way home. So we basically spent about 5 hours in the car to look at tulips for 30 minutes. That being said I'm really glad I went and I have plans for next year that include more friends, an all-day adventure, and definitely some breweries (they seem to be plentiful up there).

Welcome to Spring!