Summer

First ride in the Whaler this summer:

Pie

Before going upstairs to tuck Edie in I made the comment: "I'm DEFINITELY having a slice of pie when I come back downstairs." The pie was only recently acquired and there was more than half a pie left last night when I had a (second) slice.

15 minutes later, I came downstairs and excitedly approached the pie. Only to find this:

Because we have been married for a long time, I immediately knew Jeff was fucking with me. I looked through the pass-thru in the kitchen to see Jeff snickering in the living room. After a good laugh I demanded to know where the pie really was. Super sincerely, he replied, "There's a slice in the microwave for you."

This is what I found in the microwave:

Which is actually, just about right.

Later, while eating my pie I pictured Jeff carefully extracting half a pie from the pan and hiding it just to mess with me and laughed. He saw me laughing to myself and apparently, knowing what I was laughing about, said, "It would have been better if I was quietly eating a slice of pie in the living room when you found the pie missing…. but I wasn't hungry." 

Anniversary Dinner

Jeff and I threw ourselves a little party with our nearest and dearest Seattle pals this weekend. This month is our 10 year wedding anniversary, which also marks 20 years of Jeff and Jill - it seemed worthy of a party. We rented a funky space a block from my office where Edie also took ballet last summer. It's usually a Masonic Lodge, but it had decent enough bones that I had hopes we could transform it.

In some ways I think I enjoyed the party more than our actual wedding - my dress was certainly more comfortable, as were my shoes. I also started drinking the sangria pretty early in the evening, so some of these photos definitely showcase my drunk face.

I made some simple decorations with ribbons:

One banner that you might not be able to read. It says "10 YEARS IS A LONG TIME" in hot pink glitter pen.

We rented some cheap chairs and table cloths for the tables at the venue. Then I used some cute paper placemats with gold polka dots, tied more ribbon around napkins/silverware and used assorted bottles and bud vases from Goodwill to fill the table with flowers from the market.

There's Jeff in the background at the bar, getting the sangria ready.

And Dave, who came early to help us set up a bit with the white wine sangria:

We hired the paella chef who cooked for our rehearsal dinner to come back and he made a giant pan of paella outside. Here are Adam and Linda watching:

Jeff, me, Amy and Dave do a selfie:

Everyone eating paella!

Drunk face with 2 of my girls:

Mags and Dan:

There may or may not have been an electric stair chair at this venue. And I might have rode it with Matt (he didn't invite me to join him, I just hopped on). And yes, this is most definitely my drunk face:

Jake (Jeff's best man!), me and Katherine do what Jake called an "us-sie":

Blurry Jiff shot:

Less blurry Jiff shot:

The paella chef:

Moody Instagram version of the group:

Less moody, iPhone photo of the group:

Me, drinking my water as the guests start to depart and I realize I've had too much sangria:

The party was awesome; our friends are truly the best. Watching them all hang out together and catch up, make new connections, and have weird and funny antics with people they barely know was my favorite. We got so many lovely cards and more than one gift certificate to Mama's Fish House in Maui for when we go (sans Edie) in September - so excited to splurge one night and do it up at this restaurant we've been hearing about for years!

I think others got more and possibly better photos, but until they forward them to me, this is the best of our shots.

Impromptu date night

Curls

Edie asked for curly hair the other day. Some of her best friends have curly hair at school and so we tried our best with a curling wand to replicate her buddies' naturally curly hair.

Then we had a photo shoot (she was coincidentally already wearing her halloween costume).

Warning, if you've ever thought maybe you want a daughter one day, these photos might make your ovaries implode.

Reset

Work was crazy this spring. I got home late the Friday before Mother's Day from a week away managing a high maintenance event. This is my third year in a row working this gig and while in almost every sense, it's my dream job - I return home each year EXHAUSTED. The weeks leading up to my trip were pretty awful if I'm being honest. Edie turned into a total monster, throwing frequent tantrums that were so filled with rage and came on so quickly that the only course of action was to endure. It was a very defeating week or two and while it seems like I might have welcomed a week away from home, instead I felt like I was leaving on a terrible note and it was depressing how relieved I was to run away and leave Edie with her grandparents.

It was therefore a relief when I came home and Edie decided to be sunshine and light. We had a relaxing Mother's Day weekend with lots of this:

If you're wondering - this was taken by Jeff at 3pm. Edie normally doesn't nap, but the weather was gorgeous, we'd spent a lot of time outdoors running around, and I guess we were both on the same page for the first time in weeks. It was nice, like we'd hit the Reset button as a family. My workload has now decreased dramatically just in time for the summer and the weather this Spring has been pretty close to perfect. I'm looking forward to a summer of less work, more mother-daughter time, and family weekends on Orcas and at Birch Bay.

Birch Bay weekend

The weather was supposed to be terrible, but we ventured north anyways. We like to drive up late Friday night after the traffic has died down. Then we just carry Edie to bed and wake up at the cottage on Saturday morning. Saturday, Jeff had the idea to drive up to Mount Baker. I had visions of frolicking through wild flowers and agreed, but when we got to the top, I was embarrassed to realize that of course there would still be snow… we were poorly dressed for the occasion, but tromped through the snow for an hour or two anyways, throwing snowballs and comparing the landscape to the movie Frozen. Edie was pumped.

As we descended the mountain, the sun came out and we decided to swing by A&W for floats to break up the drive. I post this picture even though I couldn't look more pale and terrible because Edie looks SO PRETTY in it. Am I crazy for thinking that?

When we got back to the cottage, it was warm enough to strip down and play in the kiddie pool.

And for me to enjoy a summer cocktail and read:

After dinner we strolled down to the beach and found this yard that was 100% dandelions. Edie's mind was blown, because there are few things 4 year olds love more than stopping on walks to pick every dandelion and blow the fuzzies off:

Beach time:

The following morning we had breakfast with Kathleen, Javi and Luna and then watched the girls play in the sunny backyard: