Gig Harbor Get-A-Way

As mentioned in the previous post, Valentine's Day Brigham and I were able to escape for a night to a little town about an hour away called Gig Harbor. For Christmas we both decided that what we really wanted from each other was a little get-a-way trip and so we were finally able to make good on that.

I picked Brigham up from work and we drove in the rush hour traffic to the hotel room.  Luckily, the traffic gave us plenty of time to admire the views, because it really is beautiful on the way out to the town.

This is the picture I took while driving on a giant bridge you get to cross. We got to our hotel and dropped off our stuff and then went to a nearby subway, picked up some sandwiches, and headed back to our hotel to eat, watch movies, and just be alone!

The hotel. It was really cute, it didn't look like the standard get-up and it made it feel like we were on more of a vacation.

It might sound really boring and simple to just get subway and head back to our room, but really that's what we needed. Living with my parents has been a blessing and I couldn't be more grateful, but having separate beds (I sleep on a day bed and Brigham pulls out a trundle every night) and our two kids in our same room for the last six months gets sorta old. We missed just being able to retreat to a bedroom that's ours to talk instead of whisper, to hang out in and watch movies and play games like we used to. So it was a bit of heaven to have that back for one night. And we enjoyed getting to sleep together in the same bed (and for a girl who really likes her sleeping space and usually prefers her own bed, I never thought I'd say that, but I really did), even though I was so tired I fell asleep by 10:45.

The next day we slept in late. Brigham was sweet and went down and got some of the free breakfast and brought it back up to me on a tray, and then we packed up, checked out, and went to go explore the town.

We had all these hikes planned, but unfortunately it was pouring rain so we went with plan B and went to the movies instead to watch Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Afterwards we decided we could brave the rain enough to walk around Historic Gig Harbor.

It really was beautiful despite the gray and wet (things you really have to get used to if you live in Washington). And we enjoyed just perusing around and taking silly pictures.

And some surprisingly cute ones.

We were going to go out to lunch but I wasn't feeling well and we decided to just head home to check on the kids. It just gives us another reason to go back to try out a few of the places that looked good. It was a good thing we headed back when we did because traffic was bad (another thing that you just have to get used to in Washington) and it took us a little longer, so it was late afternoon by time we arrived home.

It was a short but sweet trip, with the only regret being the rain keeping us from hiking. So nothing too exciting, but I loved spending the weekend with my Valentine and relaxing together to escape reality for a little while.

Valentine's Love

I've probably mentioned it here before, but I LOVE Valentine's Day. It's my second favorite holiday and I get giddy with anticipation when it starts to roll around. I love valentines, chocolate, sappy movies, flowers, and everything in pink and red. And we did our share of participating in the festivities.

This year we decided to make some heart-shaped sugar cookies to decorate.

We've been making sugar cookies a lot around here for various holidays, so my kids have been getting pretty good at decorating...or at least their biased mother thinks so.

(Excuse the sideways picture) Ammon's is the white cookie and Lydia's is the red. They decorated these cookies all on their own. Pretty tasteful for a three and four year old, aye?

I, myself, love decorating sugar cookies and got my hands dirty in the frosting business.

I tried to do a chevron design just to tease my sister-in-law who recently posted how she's surprised at how long the chevron pattern has hung around. It turned out ok. And I just loved my baby heart.

I also got into the heart-hair business with Lydia.

Why does being able to do simple things like this for Valentine's Day make me so happy?  I don't know, but it does :)

We sent valentines in the mail and received valentines in the mail.

My kids were thrilled to get valentines from their cousins Abby and Maddi and a giant package of love from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Nonie. Not to mention the valentine's bag of love from Grandma Becky when they woke up that special day.

I love handing out Valentine's and so I was super excited to stay up late to leave out surprises for everyone to get before they left for school and work on Valentine's Day morning.

And I was overjoyed to get my first valentine from my daughter, a heart-windmill she made at school.

The best part was that Brigham and I were finally able to use our Christmas present to each other: a one night get-away. I saved it for Valentine's Day weekend and we escaped to Gig Harbor for alone time with each other. But more to come on that later.

So basically, what I've been trying to say with all of these pictures, is that we gave and received plenty of Valentine's Day love this year...just like I like it :)

Imagine Dragons Concert

For Christmas my mom surprised Brigham my two brothers and me with tickets to Imagine Dragons concert. I knew their hits from the radio and really liked them, but I wasn't familiar with all their stuff. So quickly, in preparation, I obtained as much of their material as I could and listened to it whenever possible. And I fell in love. Seriously, they've got some good stuff!!

The night of the concert was a school/work night so we rushed off as soon as Brigham got home from work and got to hit rush hour Seattle traffic in the pouring rain. If you've ever experienced that, then you know what a nightmare that is. Not to mention we missed our exit and got stuck on the freeway for an extra few miles and then had to try and navigate our way back through the outskirts of the city to downtown. Oh yeah, and parking was TWENTY dollars. Whew!

After that nightmare we managed a quick, and I mean quick, dinner at Dick's and made our way to Key Arena. Our seats were pretty far up, but we were on the end of a row so we had nothing in front of us except a rail and so we got to stretch our legs. Which means awesome seats for me :)

The longest part was sitting there for an hour and forty minutes of two opening bands.The first band was pretty talented! But had a potty mouth between songs and had a pretty suggestive first song. Leave that out, and they were good.

The second band was good...until we listened to an hour of them and all of their songs sounded pretty much the same. At this point I was tired. I was starting to get sick, it was late, and I wanted to get to the good stuff.

Kenny and Ryan's first concert

Well then Imagine Dragons came on and it was all worth the drive, the wet, the parking, the wait. They. Were. Amazing!

Man the lead singer is one talented man. He sounded so good live! His drummer and guitarist had skillz too. I could go on and on, but basically I am in love. It was an awesome show and we loved every second of it.

I decided that concerts aren't the most ideal place to take pictures. And that I'm the worst video recorder ever. This the best of all the videos I took.

We had such a good time at the concert and  managed to navigate through the crazy traffic and drivers afterwards, through a back alley and a hidden freeway entrance that took us out of the mess and got us home in half the time. It was fun to see how many other LDS people were there, and I found out the lead singer is in my sister-in-law's sister's ward! That means I pretty much know him right? I think a trip to Vegas is in order :)

Last But Not Least: January Recap

I feel like January was an eventful month - though when I think back I don't really know why. Besides Ammon's birthday, it was pretty much life as normal.

Brigham continued in the exercise competition he's in with my brothers. The last one to still be exercising 30 minutes a day, four days a week, gets to be taken out to dinner at the place of their choice. With all the pricey, delicious seafood places here in Washington, Brigham's desperate to be the winner.

I like it because I need my hubby healthy. Since he sits at a computer all day for work, he needs to get his body moving! There's nothing more attractive than a man working out. Hot stuff right there!

And although we've had exercise going on around here, we've also been frying up some bacon.

Or at least Kenny has. We argued over the different ways to cook it and Kenny was determined that it be fried for the optimal texture and taste. However, the one downside of frying, boiling grease splatters, was combated with the ultimate safety outfit. The BLT's did taste excellent.

The kids dressed up in their new winter hats/earmuffs, received from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Nonie for Christmas, to go play outside. When the sun starts shining you go out no matter what!

And they also had some fun indoors with cash register buying the ingredients and also preparing "frosting soup" for me to eat.

Mmmm, mmmm. Delicious.

It was spirit week at Kayleen's school and she let me do her hair for crazy-hair day.

She won third place out of the entire school! I'd say the crazy was a success. I used 19 rubberbands to complete this beauty.

And finally, the last recap for January: Ammon singing and sorta dancing to a game on the I-pad on his birthday.

I was trying to get his dance moves (which consist of him poking and waving one arm and pointer finger around), but every time he notices me recording he gets extra silly so we only get small bouts of it. 

I don't know where he picked up his dance moves, but him and that girl of mine sure do know how to make me smile.