Happy Birthday to Jim

Yesterday was Jim's birthday.  He had a nice day and enjoyed talking to his parents and siblings who called to wish him a Happy Birthday!

When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner he said chicken.  When I asked again he said - how about stir-fry.  I learned long ago why Grandma instituted Happy Days so many years ago  - to try and get Jim to say what he would like!  It's not easy!!

So I made a chicken stirfry for dinner - General Tsu's and it was yummy. I used fresh green beans from the garden. Jim really liked it and said so numerous times during dinner so I guess I did o.k.

As always the girls kept up entertained at the table.

Growing up Jim's favorite cake was a white cake with caramel frosting so I made him a caramel cake with caramel frosting for his birthday.

 Making a wish, maybe??

Hope it comes true!

We got the boys on speaker phone and had Jim open his card (which is quite amusing!  Give Jim a call and he'll read it to you!)

Inside the card was a travel itinerary for a trip to Utah to see BYU vs. Univ. of Washington on Labor Day weekend for Jim.  He was quite excited!  The kids had all chipped in and mom helped out too.  

Happy Birthday old man!!

Seattle Day Two

Tuesday Jim walked down the street to his meetings so Tessa and I could sleep in a little at the hotel - so nice of him especially since we had gotten up at 3:30 a.m. the morning before.

I had done a little research on the computer and talked to a few Seattle friends to figure out what we were going to do for the day.  We love exploring!

We headed over to the Queen Anne Hill area of Seattle - just north of the Space Needle to a restaurant called 5 Spot for breakfast.

It was a fun and funky little restaurant with lots of fun art work on the walls.

 I especially loved this fun sign hanging over the bar!
Tessa and I split a yummy ham and egg scramble.  Their hashbrowns were so good and I don't even like potatoes!

After breakfast we headed down to the pier and caught a ferry over to Bainbridge Island.  It was the perfect day for ferry riding!  Sunny and warm, no wind.  We enjoyed taking some photos on the ferry and doing a little reading during the 30 minute ride over.

And then a nice man took a picture of the two of us together.

We had fun exploring the island.  We both decided we want to live on an island and that maybe Jim and I should retire to Bainbridge Island.  It looked like the average house price was about one million so we better hope that 401K improves!

There were lots of fun little shops and restaurants.

We found a great little ice cream shop.  The ice cream is all made on the island.  I tried their orange cream and it was amazing.  As good as the orange creamsicle gelato I had last week that I was still dreaming about.  Now I need to find a recipe to make it at home~

Before boarding the ferry back to Seattle we had lunch.  I had been told about the amazing biscuits they had at Steamliner Diner so we decided to have lunch there.  The only problem was, they were out of biscuits for the day!  So disappointing.  That is just not acceptable - to be known for your amazing biscuits and to run out! 

The ride back to the city was just as beautiful!

We headed back to Sea-Tac and picked up Jim and headed back to Portland.  A fun couple of days.  I know I have said it before but we are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place!!

Seattle Day One

Jim had a sales seminar in Seattle on Monday and Tuesday this week.  He invited Tessa and I to join him (Cali had to work).

We got up early and left for Seattle at 4:30 a.m.  For those of you who know Tessa will be shocked to know that she was pretty much ready to go on time.  It did entail her getting up at about 3:30 a.m. to be ready in time.


In fact we were all up because Cali is working the 4:30 a.m. shift this week at Costco so she was up getting ready for work too!

Tessa and I dropped Jim off at his seminar which was near the Seattle airport and we headed into downtown Seattle.

Our first stop was Pike's Street Market of course!

We were hungry so we decided to try Lowell's for breakfast

.  It is in the market and has been there for years.  It has a great view of the bay.

Tessa and I shared some vanilla cinnamon french toast.

And then Tessa kept me entertained with her orange slice.

We wandered around the market a bit looking at all the pretty flowers, fruits and vegetables.

From there we headed up the street to do a little back to school shopping for Tessa.  But first we made a stop at the gourmet popcorn store for a little treat for later.

 One of the main reasons Tessa wanted to go to Seattle was to do some shopping at H & M.  The one in Portland doesn't open up until this fall.  She found some great basic pieces for her wardrobe that will be great for school.

From there we headed up to the Capitol Hill area which has lots of fun little shops/boutiques which we like so much more than the big department stores.

Of course we had to stop and check out the cupcake shop we found!

And we couldn't resist buying one cupcake - a raspberry lemonade cupcake.  Yum!!

From there we went to the Pretty Palace a fun vintage shop a friend had told me about and Tessa found a great 1960's vintage dress.  I just wish I had taken a picture of her in it.  But it is darling and I know Tessa will do some fun things with it.

We found a fun little hole in the wall pizza place where we each had a slice for lunch and then we headed back to the hotel to get checked in and then pick up Jim from his meetings.  We all then headed back downtown to do dinner on the pier at Ivars.

I don't think we've every been to Seattle without a trip to Ivar's for fish and chips.

Unfortunately the Mariner's weren't playing in town that night so no baseball game.  We did enjoy walking along the pier and enjoying the amazingly beautiful weather!  The sunset was pretty amazing too!

Of course feeding the seagulls with our extra french fries is always a must too!  Tessa even got brave enough this time to give it a try!

It was a pretty beautiful and perfect Northwest evening!