mini-album: inspired by AmyTan

Travel Mini inspired by the very talented Amy Tan! The Mr. and I will be taking a couples trip to one of our favorite places, Chicago, in August; we are meeting up with 4 other couples! I couldn't help but take Amy's advice to "just create"! It took all of 30 minutes to put this together and get it ready for our trip. I love her technique with using the clothespins & sewing machine - very cool & simple! I plan on scrapping while on the trip; my first to try this out. Very exciting to say the least.

snippets from the little man's SIXTH birthday | around here.

We spent his sixth birthday at his most favorite place in world (at the moment): Seattle! We did everything & anything this little kiddo wanted to do. He had a lot of fun -- and so did we! We visited this beautiful place last summer and all three of us equally fell in love with it. During this visit, it was an entirely different feeling -- in a good way. To us, he just seemed more "grown up"...even til this day, he just seems older to us. Oh, how time flies! Our little baby is growing...and we are thoroughly enjoying every single of minute it!

Our friends came by to drop this off to the birthday boy. And it was such a hit!!

Weekends with the Rivera's

  

This is my brother's family. We have recently found out that my brother will be stationed out in the middle east for awhile a long time so we've planned a few weekends together until he has to leave; they live about eight hours away... Most of these photos were taken by him. I love how we share the same passion in capturing everyday moments that are special to us. I think he's a lot better than me when it comes to understanding SLR's though. Hanging out with them literally takes up the entire day and really our entire visit. My parents are wiped out by the time we have to leave for home. Here are a few photos taken while visiting them.

This me & M anxiously awaiting Bruno Mar's opening surprise performance. And those are D's fingers, ha-ha.

Bruno Mars. LOVE 'em!!!

Maroon 5!

One Republic. A new favorite of mine!

M & I out at Flemings taking advantage of Restaurant Week!

The cousins: Joey, Jason & Mia. Jason is SO GOOD with them! Joey calls him  the "silly cousin".

And this is when D & I can really go out and not feel so guilty with leaving Joey. You can't go wrong with the grandparents and cousins! Totally guilt-free!!

We have a few more weekends scheduled with them. My brother works a lot so when he has a few days off from work in a row, we are so there!!! Cheers for more family time...can't wait for more!! Thanks for reading!

    

Oh how we miss you, Seattle!

After realizing how much Joey loved to fly on airplanes, we quickly booked our family trip to Seattle; just in time before he had to begin his new school. D and I have been wanting to go to Seattle for awhile now! For me, I've been wanting to since design school which was more than 10 years ago! I'm in love with their architecture! Based on how Joey did on his first airplane ride dictated whether or not Seattle was going to happen! So happy it did. We had such a good, relaxing time! D and I knew mentally going into this vacation that it would be Joey friendly. D & I are foodies (not-child-friendly-restaurants) & we like taking tours that requires a lot of walking & not much talking (not-Joey-friendly-haha)...& we love the long walks within the major cities (again-not-Joey-friendly-haha), etc. I know there is such a thing called strollers we don't use them anymore and there's a tool called carrying him we don't do that either. We still did a few of our favorites things just at a minimum. We took a lot of breaks and because our hotel was we think in the perfect location, we would go back to the hotel to rest our feet while Joey took a nap sort of. On our drive to the airport, all three of us said I don't want to go home. We are in love with Seattle...and here are a few photos to share as to why.

We were greeted with this: a hedgehog & kid size robe laid out on Joey's bed super cute!

They welcomed Joey with a nice snack!

This is the view we see as we walk into our room! A beautiful view of Elliot Bay. If you look down about 3 stories, we see the hotel pool filled with salt water & heat! Gotta love that!

The two boys at the top of the Space Needle.

Seriously in love with their skyline.

Museum of Flight was the best for Joey! We stayed two hours! We only left because they were closing. 

How cute is this? They even had complimentary slippers for the kiddo!

Pike's Place was literally one block away from the hotel; we made multiple visits! And man, these bouquet arrangements were only $10! 

Oh yes, if you come from our family -- its always about the cheese! D likes cheese plates for his desserts!

The kiddo and his love for garages! Gotta love it!

The aquarium! 

"Nemo, Mama!...and Marlin too!"

Outside the original Starbucks!

Seattle Center!

Discover Park...the best was a little town called Fremont about 2 minutes from here. We spent all evening there walking into tiny shops, talking to the locals...enjoying their restaurants.

A photo we took the morning we left for home. Our flight was at 10:30am -- we squeezed in as much as we could while visiting now one of our favorite places!

Now this is special -- the sunset looking outside our hotel room! This was the last night of our stay. :(

Thanks for reading!