Girls Only!

Last month, I experienced one of the best weekends of my life!  I met up with my Mom and sisters in Seattle for a Girls Only Weekend. It was a blast! Although I am a little bias, I do think that I have the greatest Mom and Sisters ever.  I only wish I could see them more often...it truly makes me appreciate the time we do get to share and makes me love them even more.

Kera, Kristyn, Mckell, Meagan, Mom, Me, Natalie

Seattle...one of the most beautiful cities

I have ever visited

My older sister lives in Seattle so we all decided it was definately time to take a trip, visit and celebrate her birthday with her.  Kristyn was the best host! She was the cook, innkeeper, chauffer, and tour guide.  Not an easy job.  Her husband Thomas was such a gentlemen...making sure the fridge stayed stocked with Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper, assisting with transportation and most of all, being Dad so that Kristyn could enjoy the weekend with the girls.  Of course, I can't leave out Aiden. What a sweet boy! I wish I would have had room in my suitcase to take him home with me! He is the smartest, most kind-hearted and one of the cutest boys I know. I am a lucky aunt!

We had so much fun not only touring this amazing city, but also enjoying being together. Our first outing was seeing the sites of Seattle first class style...in a Duck Tour Bus/Boat Ride.  It was a BLAST!! We really had so much fun.

So this bus goes down into water and becomes a boat. First we saw many of the attractions down town on a bus ride and then went to the harbor, down in the water and floated around there.

Aiden with his quacker

We seriously had the best tour guide ever! He was the man with many hats, had clever stories and music that went along with all the sites and attractions. He was a riot!

Being the birthday girl, Kristyn got to (had to?!) wear a duck hat and dance up and down the isles. (I know...just what you want to do for your birthday!) But she was such a good sport and definately had some pretty good moves!

Some of the attractions were Safeco Field, the building where Grey's Anatomy is filmed, the Space Needle and the famous Sleepless in Seattle home.

So I'm going to share a blonde moment I had.  While on the duck tour, one sign caught my attention: "ALL CLOTHING 100% off! Free admission"   I thought, Wow! They're having a great sale and it's free to get in! I leaned over and said to the girls, we need to check that out. Probably some great shopping in there.  Kristyn's response, "I don't think we want to go in there." Why, I ask. "Because it's a strip club!" Of course it is! Now, I do have to say that I couldn't see the top of the sign, the "Lusty Lady's" part. Being in the duck bus blocked the entire view! At least we all got a good laugh about that one. 

We absolutely loved the duck ride tour

The next day we drove to a beautiful city north of Seattle called Leavenworth. It is a cute little shopping and tourist German town.

We ate lunch in an authentic German restaurant. I was the only one not brave enough to try the food...I stuck with a chicken salad. I know boring huh. But the others got the real stuff... wienerschnitzel, bratwurst goulash, and sauerbraten. (I was glad I stuck with a salad!)

We had so so much fun shopping...very cute and original purses, jeans, jewelery, and our biggest treasure the "Beanie Band". We're not sure the real name, but that's what we named them. They are so cute.  My sweet mom bought us all one and we wore them the rest of the day.  We got so many compliments and people asking where we got them. Seriously, when we bought them there were like 30 in the store. When we left to go home we stopped in the store to say goodbye and tell them everyone loves the beanie bands and they already sold at least 20 more! The plan is for us to go into business...we shall see!

More fun shopping...

Thanks Leavenworth for the beautiful and quaint town, fun shopping day, and lasting memories!

So in the van, Natalie found a strap to pull, which surprised us both...it flipped the seat backwards and down we went! We had a good, long laugh!

The first night we were at Kristyn's, we were discussing missing our cousin Mckell and wanting her there with us. She truly is one of us.  So we got planning.  By 1:30am, we had a plane ticket purchased, thanks to Kristyn so willing to share her hard-earned sky miles. "Anything for Mckell", she said. Mckell was pulling an all-nighter studying so that she could be prepared to take a test Friday before leaving for the airport.  Call us crazy, I know, but it was so so worth it! The big surprise was that my mom had already gone to bed when this planning took place, so we decided to not tell her and just surprise her.  We made up a little story...I realized that I had forgotten a gift bag on the airplane. (It was Kristyn's birthday afterall.) I pretended to call the airport and discovered that they had it, so we took a trip back to the airport to retrieve this "special package." My mom believed every word. Here is the anticipation on our ride to the airport...

I went into the airport to retrieve the "special package" and came out with Mckell!! My mom was shocked!

Oh, how I just love surprises!!

We were all so happy to have Mckell with us

The next morning, we visited Pike's Street and the market.

Of course we watched the buying and selling of the fresh fish, which entails the fish being thrown around.  Nat wanted a little more excitment and she got what she asked for! The workers placed a bottle on the top of her head and then threw a fish over her head to the worker behind the counter, with the goal to knock over the bottle but hopefully not smack her face with the fish! It was suspenseful, but good to report the workers were successful...they knocked over the bottle and Natalie didn't leave with a fish smelling face!

 I was trying to stay in the back, out of sight because there was a little old man creeping around scaring and startling people with this crawfish.  Because I was so occupied with avoiding him, what I didn't see was one of the workers pick up a giant squid and start walking towards me. Yikes! It freaked me out! I started running away...and he followed. That was enough for me, we were out of there!

 

There is a famous "gum wall" downtown.  Years ago, they tried removing all the gum and cleaning it up, but people kept coming back and putting their gum on the wall.  Now, it's just accepted and attracts people to add their own gum to it.

Of course, Nattles had to contribute!

One day we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. It was beautiful.  The green foilage is unbelievable (especially coming from the desert!) And all the fall colors...very pretty. By the way, isn't my mom so beautiful? She is such an amazing and talented person. I love her so much! I feel so blessed to have her as my Mom. It is because of her that we as daughters and family love to be together. So thank you, Mom and thanks to my sisters as well for making this trip and all our time together so wonderful!