Fun Weekend!

My mom and step-dad came to visit us a few weekends ago, so we got to practice our tour guide skills. :) It was so great to see them, even if it was just a short visit. They decided to drive from Logan to Seattle and they stayed in Bellevue, which was cool because then we were able to go hang out on the east side which we rarely do. Anyway, the first night they were in town we ate at a tasty little spot in Redmond called The Stone House (and it really is in a house made of stone, imagine that!) that was super yummy, then we called it an early night so they could rest after the long drive. That Saturday we got up nice and early, grabbed breakfast, and went to show off lovely Seattle. First, we showed them Pike's Place, but because it started off rainy and cloudy we decided to drive up to the top of Queen Anne (a neighborhood close to downtown) to see if we could get a good view of downtown. Thankfully, by the time we found a good spot, the sun had come out and we were able to get some great pictures. My mom is the one with the fancy camera, and she got most of the pictures, and we ended up only taking one picture on Cody's phone, but I think it turned out great. :)

After that we went and visited the Ballard Locks. It's like a boat elevator that connects the Puget Sound to Lake Union and Lake Washington. We were lucky enough to see some of the smaller boats go through. We loved it!

Here are a few pictures from the Ballard Locks.

Cody being silly with the sculptures at the locks.

To get over to the locks, there is a cute little flower garden. It was very pretty.

Me, my step-dad Chad, and my Mom Lisa trying to get all the pretty pictures.

The next day we decided to drive out to Snoqualmie Falls, which is about 30 minutes or so east of Seattle. Cody and I had been meaning to go for quite some time, so having people in town was a great excuse to finally make it over there. It was an awesome place.

Some different views of the falls.

Cody and I at the falls. It was very, very wet! My hair was soaked when we were done with the pictures.

After the falls, we went and hung out around Bellevue for the evening. It was a very fun, very busy, very short weekend trip. I'm so glad that they were able to come and see our home and visit with the Vega puppy, even if it was only for a few days. :)

And finally, here is the most recent belly picture of me from this last Saturday. I am 25 weeks here.

Playing catch up...

Amazingly, in the middle of September, Seattle saw a few days where it got up to 90 degrees, so on one of the last predicted warm weather days, we decided to go hit the beach! Some friends told us of a cool little spot in West Seattle called Alki Beach, so we went and checked it out. It's a cute place with lots of beach space going out into the Puget Sound with restaurants and few little shops. It was a gorgeous day that started off a bit chilly but ended up nice and warm, except for the water, which stayed very, very cold.

Here are a few shots of the beach, some homes, and a few of the shops.

And here I am waiting for it to warm up.

It was so fun being able to find and go to a nice beach in Seattle. We even ended up hearing and seeing some seals, and also a dead jellyfish, which I didn't like, but was still cool. :)

A few days later we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe we have been married for four years! It's been so great and fun being married to Cody.

Here is a picture of us on our wedding day. :)

We went to a little town about an hour north of Seattle called La Connor. It is very tiny, but oh so cute! We had a room with a waterfront view, a fireplace, and we got a couples massage and ended the night with a fabulous dinner at one of La Connor's fancier restaurants. It was a great little get away for us.

Our view from the room, so pretty!

Cody has been pretty busy with playing and work this month. The first weekend in October, Cody went with some friends to Leavenworth, a little German town about two hours northeast of us, to celebrate Octoberfest. It was a boys trip, so I got to stay home with the Vega puppy, but Cody had tons of fun! The next weekend, Microsoft sent him to Philadelphia for a conference, but he was able to go do some sightseeing.

The Liberty Bell.

Independence Hall.

It looks like such a cool place to visit, and I was sad I wasn't able to join Cody on that trip, but he was just too busy with work stuff, so I wouldn't have had much fun. I'm just glad Cody had the opportunity to go, since neither of us had been there before.

Sorry this post has so many things squished into one post, but I'm trying my best to catch up with all our adventures before the holidays. :)

Bear Lake and Bumbershoot!

This is me trying to play catch up! :) Cody and I flew to Utah in August and the John family all went and stayed in a beautiful cabin in Bear Lake. I'm so glad that we made it to Bear Lake this summer, even if we live so far away. :) We had some wonderful views from the cabin, and thankfully we remembered to take some pictures.

We went and played in the lake, went on a 4-wheeler ride, played in Anna's kiddie pool in the back yard, and just relaxed. The cabin had a huge deck that we hung out on in the sun. It was great!

Here I am trying to soak up as much sun as I can before heading back to Seattle.

Cute Maday and Brandon hanging out.

Anna cuddling with Grandma.

As always, we ate some great food! Here is Papa John preparing dinner.

And JJ making dessert...yum!

Thanks to Jami for being a wonderful photographer and actually remembering to take pictures and for getting this great family portrait at the lake.

After Bear Lake, we came back to Seattle and on Labor Day weekend Seattle hosts a music festival called Bumbershoot. At the Seattle Center they hold an amazing event where bands come and play for three days. We only went for one day, but the few hours we were there we saw about 4 or 5 different bands play. We specifically went to go see Minus the Bear, who were amazing, but we were treated to some other great bands. If you want to check it out, go to Bumbershoot.org and you can see more what it was all about. It was such a great experience!

Waiting in line for some yummy treats.

Lots of people waiting for the next band to start. It was a beautiful sunny day!

Some awesome, crazy, circus band. Needless to day, they were very entertaining!

Free the Robots! He was fun to watch, but it was a very tight space for so many people.

And finally, Minus the Bear!! We heart them! Such a great show!

And an awesome picture of the Space Needle at night.

It was a great time with lots of music and some great food. I highly recommend this event to anyone who loves music. Just remember you've got a place to stay! :)

To end this post, here is a belly post of me at 23 weeks.