i turned 33 and america turned 241

the second half of our holiday weekend was busy and fun! my birthday started off with a flurry of activity in the morning. we dropped off ashford at his first day of preschool camp at the community center. lucky boy has both his best buddies ewan and bruce in the class as well. then vanessa, azalea, and i went to java bean and then down to market street to get manicures. vanessa and i were planning on doing it on my birthday and i got the idea that i should have azalea come along for her first manicure. for the record, i didn't have my first manicure until i was 22 and i definitely don't plan on making this a regular thing for her, but it was really fun! she enjoyed it so much (except for the waiting for her nails to dry). she was such a little lady and was really intrigued by all the tools they use that she had never seen before :)

while we were waiting for our nails to dry, i got a call from the community center that ashford fell on the playground and hit his mouth and his lip was bleeding :( it wasn't a serious injury, but he was having trouble calming down after it, so they asked if i was nearby and would be willing to stop by. so azalea and i booked it up the hill to give our boy a hug. he was still sniffling when i got there, but seemed to be better. we gave him some love and sent him back to class for the last 2 hours...just in time for me to take azalea to her first swimming lesson of the summer (i told ya we were busy!). it's at a private pool a few miles away that is open to the public for lessons only. it's her second time taking lessons, so she's still in the lower levels, but she is comfortable in the water and really enjoys everything they teach her. and i have to admit, it was really nice to not have to keep ashford entertained during the lesson. 

it was 57 and cloudy during the lesson. thank goodness for heated pools!

 when class was finished, we drove back to the community center and picked up ashford, then went home for lunch and a little work time for me. whew! thatcher went into work that morning and got home at 2pm just in time for me to order a lyft ride downtown with vanessa. we were so excited to get our much anticipated "staycation overnight" started. 

we checked into the hotel and dropped off our bags. some of our group was coming later/had other plans downtown in the afternoon, so the two of us headed out to do a little shopping. we both got some clothes and also went to the nordstrom cafe and split a panini and some wine. it was a great second lunch. haha! we did a little more shopping, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night. the 6 of us met downstairs at the hotel bar and had a drink. 

thank you waiter for the photo bomb ;)

the main focus of the night was one last hurrah before 2 friends in our group, allison and teresa move away this summer. we have all gotten so close over the last 2 years, so we are really sad to see them go. we had dinner reservations at a place called zig zag cafe, so we ubered there from the hotel and had the most delicious greek food and plenty of good wine. 

it was almost 10 by the time we finished, but we decided to walk to purple wine bar for some dessert. we walked through pike place market after hours and it was deserted, so that was kinda cool to see. 

our desserts were really delicious but probably not the best decision at that hour. ;) oh well!

we were really feeling ready for bed after that, so we went back to the hotel and did just that. 

what's more annoying than having the opportunity to sleep in uninterrupted and your body waking up at 6am? not much! at least i got to lay in bed for a couple of blissful hours. we group met up after getting ready for the day, and headed to dahlia lounge for brunch. so much food, but so good! pretty much everyone was needing to get home after that, but vanessa and i stayed downtown for another hour. it was a whirlwind birthday/going away party and it was so much fun. i can't believe our group is going to be shrinking down to 4 very soon. 

i got home in the early afternoon. thatcher and the kids didn't miss me too much. they went to the locks the evening of the birthday and met up with some other dads/kids at a playground the morning of the 4th. we did my birthday cake in the afternoon. 

we didn't do anything very special for the 4th. we made spaghetti for dinner and gave the kids a bath. last year there were awesome awesome professional grade fireworks shot off from the ball fields a block over from us, so i was hoping that would be the case again. i told azalea i would wake her up to come outside and watch with me when they started. well due to a couch nap in the afternoon, she was still awake in her bed at 10pm, so i didn't even need to wake her. we went outside and sat on chair on our front sidewalk with our neighbor martine and watched the show. it was sort of lackluster compared to last year, but it was really fun. azalea loved it and was still a bit scared of the noise, so she wanted me to hold her :) hope you had a wonderful 4th! i feel like it's a slippery slope now where summer is going to fly by! wahh