a very canada-america birthday weekend

when i was a kid, i hated having my birthday the day before the 4th because everyone always went out of town (to cabins - because...minnesota!). but as an adult, i love it! while some people go out of town, it doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore and as a bonus, my birthday always feels like a weekend night, no matter what day of the week it falls on. awesome right?! this year was no exception. but first let's back up...

on saturday morning thatcher and the kids and i went to south lake union to check out the wooden boat festival. it was a donation-based event and really fun to see all the different boats - both working boats and pleasure boats. 

we even got to go on board the oldest (floating, running) wooden boat in the united states from 1889. so cool!

lake union is so pretty because it's right next to downtown. i love watching the sea planes land.

thatcher went in this boat by himself, if you look really closely you can see the kids and i are at the base of that clock.

in the afternoon we went to our friends vanessa, matt, and ewan's canada day party! my first time celebrating canada day! matt and vanessa are canadian born and have lived in various parts of canada (and abroad) through out their lives. this is their first time living in the u.s. and they wanted to celebrate with all their american friends. they also recently moved into a new townhouse in our neighborhood, so it doubled as a housewarming party. it was such a fun afternoon. tons of food, drinks, decoration, and kids running around. our canada day celebrations were more formal than our 4th of july celebrations. haha!

sunday was my birthday. hello 32! i got up with ashford around 6:45 and was greeted by the biggest, creepiest spider i've ever seen in real life in the bathroom sink. nope!!!! i ran outta there so fast. i normally don't freak out about spiders, but this one was roughly 2 inches long and moving fast. shudder! it couldn't get itself out of the sink, so i left it for thatcher to kill ;) my morning turned around quickly when thatcher not only killed the spider, but also whipped up some cinnamon french toast for breakfast. my favorite! we didn't really have an agenda for the morning, so thatcher suggested he stay home with the kids, and bake my cake while i go walk around the farmer's market and then get some work done at a nearby coffee shop. well, twist my arm! ;) i had a lovely morning walking around the farmer's market at my leisure, then spent an hour and a half at cafe umbria working. it might sound lame to work on my birthday by choice, but i didn't mind a bit! 

it's my "me-time." 

i had plans to meet up with my group of girl friends for happy hour at 4pm. we went to a new (to me) place on ballard ave. called "percy's and co". it's a southern themed bar with all sorts of crazy-sounding crafted cocktails (think "bacon-infused" "cilantro-infused" etc). i was so happy that 6 of the 7 mamas from my friend group could make it! we drank and ate and had a great time. 

we even decided to go to another place after because it was still early. we went to a place i've been wanting to try called "ocho" and had one more drink. it was such a fun night. i was home by 7:30 to have cake with my family! thatcher made me a chocolate cheese cake and it was sooooo good! i was ready to explode from all the food and drinks, but it was worth it :) 

sunday we had no plans, so we headed out on another day trip! this time to mt. baker-snoqualmie national forest (the cascades). we drove about an hour and a half to the town of skykomish which is basically the train capital of the world ;) ok, not really - but they love their trains there. they had a miniature rail road track and two mini trains with free rides. thatcher and i rode with the kids and it was seriously so much fun! 

next we drove to deception falls where we parked and then walked about a half mile to see the actual falls. it was so pretty there! 

azalea is really into taking our picture these days...;) 

after the falls, we ate a picnic lunch. it was only in the 50's out, so definitely the coolest 4th of july i can remember! 

finally we drove to another trail - the iron goat trail, which is a historical trail in the former town of wellington, wa that was destroyed by an avalanche in the early 1900's. it was pretty wild to read about! 

this concrete structure was later built to protect the rail road tracks from snow, but is no longer used. 

totally blurry, but i love this picture anyway! 

our 4th was pretty non-traditional, but a great day none the less (well, minus some un-named screamers in the car). we skipped fireworks again this year. seattle fireworks don't even start until 10:20pm. we had hours of booming just in our neighborhood starting at 9pm. thank goodness the kids were super tired and were able to sleep through them!