A weekend to remember

This past weekend James and I had tickets to see Cloud Cult in Seattle Friday night.  We arrange a few months in advance to have Sharolee watch the kids for us so we could go.

Of course the night before our big day Gwenevere came down with a nasty cough.   James stayed up most of the night helping Gwenevere and her cough.  I was a bit afraid we'd have to cancel since her cough was so bad, but Grandma assured us she'd be able to handle everything.  So once we knew she was okay with it we were okay with sticking to the plan.

Grandma Sharolee drove up Friday afternoon and picked the kids up.  The kids were so excited to spend the weekend with Grandma.  It was a bit crazy packing bags and getting everyone ready but it all came together and four happy faces drove away while James and I stayed behind.

This was our first staycation and I was so excited.

After the kids left James and I took some time to clean up the house so we could truly relax.   Then James and I decided to take a nap and try to catch up on some sleep.

After nap time, I showered, shaved my legs and painted my toes while I watched a cheesy chick flick.  James got up did some date night planning and enjoyed some relaxing alone time.

When we were all ready for our date night James took me to Pac Island Grill.  The food was amazing and we looked through old facebook pictures and reminisce about our time in Hawaii.   After eating haupia pie and Chocolate Lava Cake we made our way to to the Neptune Theatre in downtown Seattle.  The concert was awesome and the venue was intimate.  It felt like we were good friends with the band and were enjoying a fun evening hanging out with our friends (everyone who was at the concert).

funny faces at the restaurant 

Here at the Neptune Theater waiting for the concert to start

After the concert we came home on a musical high feeling young and in love.  It was awesome.

We brought our DVD playing into our bedroom and fell asleep  watching reruns of MASH.  There was other stuff that happened multiple times during our date but we won't talk about that.  Just know it was an awesome weekend.

The next morning we woke up refreshed and excited for a fun filled day of cleaning.  Yep.  That's what we planned.  We've been reading the book "The Simple Magic of Tidying Up"  and we were both very excited to have some time without the kids to do a few projects we've been wanting to do.

James made a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs.  As we sat eating our food we talked about how much fun it would be to drive down to Portland and watch Cloud Cult perform one more time.  It was so nice we wanted to do it twice.

James called up Grandma Sharolee to see how the kids where doing and to see if she wouldn't mind watching the kids a bit longer.  She was super supportive of the idea and even offered to let us spend the night at her place after the concert.

With excitement in the air,  James and I hurried through one of our projects.  organizing, filing and shredding all the paper in our house.

Once that was done, we packed our bags and excitedly left our staycation to go party in Portland.

The drive down to Portland was fun.  We  had uninterrupted time to hash out our dreams for the next 6 months.

When we got to Portland James took me to his old house in Southeast Portland.  We got of the car and walked around the neighborhood while James told me stories about his days living there, and the neighbors he remembered.

Then we met up with our long time good friends Michael and Sherilyn.  We attended BYU-Hawaii together over 9 years ago and it had been almost 6 years since we had last seen them.  Reuniting with such good friends felt so good.  We laughed all through dinner and then made our way to the Aladdin Theater to watch Cloud Cult once again.  We where happy to see a few familiar faces from Friday's concert there.  The show was even better the second night dancing and grooving with our friends.  We almost impulse bought (bid on) a 1000.00 painting for our bedroom or living room.  Today both James and I are a bit sad we didn't do it but we are hopeful that we will get a cloud cult painting someday.

Cloud Cult's picture of the audience.  I spy a James, Michael and Elizabeth, Sherilyn was covered by hands.  

After the concert we watched the paintings find good homes and then slowly left the theater happy and sad all at the same time.

Connie Minowe's Friday night Seattle Painting titled-Celebrating this thing we call Life

Scott West's Saturday night painting.  They paint all through the concert while the band plays and then auction the art off at the end of the night.  

Connie's art Saturday night titled Letting Go  (my favorite) 

We drove over to Michael and Sherilyn's new home and visited some more.  Sherilyn co-owns a Montessori  school  and we got to see one of the three schools opening up this fall.  We also got to meet all their pets and cuddled a baby tortoise.

Finally around midnight we said goodbye and drove back to Longview where we spent the night

This morning we woke up, visited with Grandma Sharolee and Grandpa Don for a bit and then drove back home in time to go to church.

This afternoon James has repeatedly said "I don't want this weekend to end.  I can't believe how much fun we had this weekend.  This has been an good weekend."

Yes it has.  This will be a weekend to remember.  I hope to do it again soon.