Well, it's official; this is the last year of my twenties. That seems so odd... next year I will be thirty. I am getting old. At least I started this year off with a bang; for my birthday Marc, Romey, and I flew up to Seattle to visit Erin and Rick. As a huge bonus, our friend Alex drove up from Portland for a couple of days and visited, too. I was so excited to get back up there, and this time Marc got to come with me! Oh. And I have to give a HUGE thank you to our friend Valerie, who watched the dogs and the house for us while we were gone. Thanks Val!! The first couple of days we just relaxed, played card games, Alex taught us a new version of Apples to Apples, watched It's Always Sunny, quoted It's Always Sunny, walked into Ballard to grab cupcakes and dinner (and Rick made a comment that we were clearly just trying to see who could gain the most weight this trip, and I think I won), and just stayed at Erin and Rick's mostly. It's still hard to plan an entire day's worth of stuff since Roman still wants to nap twice a day, and he really won't nap anywhere but in bed, but we squeezed in as much as we could. And we went to the coolest place while we were there... hmm, maybe not coolest... Okay, we went to the nerdiest place ever: it's a bar in which you can play board/card/situation/role playing games. It was so much fun to see all the games that were there, and the fact that you could play games and drink, well that's just a win-win in my book. And it should be noted that I dominated Marc in Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Erin and Rick also surprised me with a little birthday celebration and gifts when I arrived, and an early birthday present for Romey that he has been crawling around with all day.
And how could I forget Words with Friends? We played that all weekend long on our phones, which is kind of ridiculous considering that we were all hanging out in the same room doing it, but we were all enjoying ourselves, and that's all that really matters, right? And every time I am at their apartment I spot a new animal. Last time I was there I was the first one to spot a seal. This time there was an otter running around in the park just outside their window. It was totally random, but we were all super excited to see it.
While Alex was there I wanted to be sure that I got a good picture of him, Erin, and Romey to put up in Rome's big-boy room... Alex and Erin are what we are calling Alt-mom and Alt-dad since we're not really church goers, so god-mom and god-dad seem a bit odd for us. Look how cute this alt-family is:
Since we spent so much time hanging around and eating our weight in cupcakes, we decided to pack a bunch of things in on Sunday and Monday. On the agenda for Monday: The Seattle EMP museum to see the Battlestar Galactica exhibit, the Rock-n-Roll exhibit, and the Horror Film exhibit. All three were amazing. I super-geeked out in the Battlestar exhibit, but the other exhibits were definitely more "fun." The rock exhibit had a hands-on area in which you could play various instruments, and there was this huge drum- table (for lack of a better word) that you could go bang on, and so we had fun showing Rome how to play. Downstairs in the horror area there was this cool wall which turned your shadow into a creature. It was really neat to see. If you made a circle with your hands it would make an eye, or it would give you a mowhawk, or your shadow puppet would become some creature. Check out the picture; it was super cool. Then we walked over to see the Space Needle and the big fountain in the middle of the square. Did you know it's 18 dollars to go to the top of the Space Needle? No thank you. I wouldn't have gone if it were free, but Marc passed when he found out it was nearly 20 bucks. We finished our day at this restaurant called the Lunchbox... I think it has a much longer name, but that's what we call it. It has the most amazing burgers ever. Of all time. Super delicious. I couldn't wait to get there. On the way back to the house I asked if we could run past Gas Works Park, and the view was spectacular. It was gorgeous seeing downtown Seattle all lit up. So we took some pictures, Marc climbed up a steep cement incline, and then we headed home to play more Words with Friends.
On our last day (Monday) we headed downtown to Pike's. The best part about Pike's for me is all the food. There really is a little bit of everything there. So we snacked and walked around and bought a few things at a couple of the little shops, and then we headed to Nordstrom. Once again I was packed to the absolute brim, and Erin had already bought me a pair of shoes, so really we went in looking for boots for Erin, and we found them! We were looking for a specific pair that she tried on while she was here, but with the half-yearly sale happening we just had to go get them. So it was a successful shopping trip. Then we were off to a park with this amazing old water tower that overlooked part if the city. It was also next to a cemetery which had Bruce Lee's and Brandon Lee's graves, so I can now say that I have been there. It was actually a pretty cool cemetery because it has some pre-20th century head stones, and the historian in me goes all nerdy for these kinds of things. After the park, we went back to the house, packed, played some games, and I got to have a spicy chicken bowl one more time before I came home. It was a great trip, but it seemed to go by so fast. OH! and a couple of really cute Rome-things happened while we were there. 1. He surprised himself by pushing off the window and standing by himself for about a second or two, which has now started a thing, and he keeps trying to do it again, but he hasn't been able, yet. 2. He started really, really trying to talk. While Rome and I were hanging out in Erin's room one morning he was staring at the mirrors behind her bed, and she said to him, "I see you... I see you," and he turned toward her and said, "Ah eee ooo," in the exact same tones as she said it. He did this twice, and the second time Erin and I got so excited that we yelled and scared him. It was so adorable. He's trying to talk more and more, so I am putting a list together for a different post, but I was pretty excited. And now we're back home, and Rome and I are sick... that's okay though, the trip was totally worth it.
