Happy Birthday Pups!!!

Our very sweet Lahki turned 1 year old this month. She got some yummy treats, a new little squeaky buddy, a rousing version of Happy Birthday and lots of hugs and kisses! ...oh, that's nothing new!

And of course there were pictures with each member of the family...Daddy with the sweet girl...

Jayson with the new squeaky toy, a penguin, (on his shoulder) and the birthday girl herself.

And mommy and her muppet! Kisses were abundant.

I'm sure she loved her birthday celebration...I know we did!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This is just a quick post to say Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family! I'm especially thankful for EACH ONE OF YOU, my health, my church and my job! I'm eternally grateful to God who has chosen to bless me in ways I don't deserve and could never earn!

May you all have a wonderful day!

Seattle (Catching Up)

It's been a while since I posted and I apologize. Let's start with the Seattle trip. I realize this is a long post, but we were there for a week! Part of the week was for a conference and the other part was a family vacation. We had a great time.

Here we are on the airplane....on our way!

We checked in to the Westin. Our room was on the 35th floor of this great hotel.

The view from our room was SPECTACULAR!!!! And we were blessed with wonderful weather! I thought it rained in Seattle? Not this week! Here's what we woke up to every morning...a full wall of windows looking toward the Space Needle.

And the sunsets over the water...

I was in Seattle for a conference of my professional association, the American Health Information Management Association. Some of the other department directors were there as well. We hung out with my friend, Nancy, who is usually my roommate on these trips.

On the first day of the conference, the four of us had lunch at this great pub, Von's. Their walls were covered with various taps. Their signature "thing" was to give customers cinnamon jawbreakers. They were SO HOT!

Seattle is a very walkable city! We walked everywhere and really enjoyed it!

We visited a lot of the major attractions, including the original Starbucks! Jay and Jayson were dying to see it! We really enjoyed our visit there. These guys were standing out front singing and selling their CDs. They were AMAZING! They were singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine".

It's a cool place...but VERY small!

Jay and Jayson bought some "souvenirs" and drinks.

The employees were all wonderful!

On our way to the public market, we found a vintage clothing shop. Jayson was really interested and found this great old Fedora. Doesn't he look great?

And we had lunch at the market. We got a great table overlooking the water. I love this picture of Jayson in his new hat with the ferry behind him. Super!

Every once in a while, down in the heart of the city, we would get a glimpse of Fall...cool temperatures and beautiful trees.

The market was amazing! We actually spent a lot more time there than we had planned.

The food and craft vendors displayed their wares and everything was so beautiful. Here are some of the highlights...

Market Spice is a fantastic little tea store and since Jayson loves tea, it was a must-see. Jayson really enjoyed selecting his souvenir teas.

And...we really enjoyed the FAMOUS Pike Place Fish Market!!! It was wonderful.

Of course I got a picture of them throwing the fish. Look closely at the left corner of the nave blue banner and you will see the BIG fish in mid-flight. Pike's has been written up in many leadership journals and they have the employee motivation program, Go Fish! It was a real experience to be there and witness their antics firsthand.

And then we were off to the Space Needle via monorail! That was fun!

I love this picture!

OK, so it's REALLY windy that high up!

After looking at the 360 degree view from the outside, we went inside and got a drink.


Our next stop was the "Experience Music Project" (EMP) next door to the Space Needle. The outside of this building is REALLY cool! This shot is the reflection of the space needle in the EMP building's skin. Another neat pic!

Earlier in the week, our conference sponsored an event at the EMP. Nancy and I attended that event together and had such a good time, I had to take Jay and Jayson back to see it. During our event, I snapped this picture of the guitar tribute.

At the EMP, they have a "sound lab". This area of the museum is dedicated to learning musical instruments. Nancy and I went into the voice lab and enjoyed singing together where we viewed a computer monitor that walked us through a vocal tutorial.

When we finished this we played "Rock Band". Now I know what you are thinking but that is NOT what we played. We had to name our band, the "Icy Hot Sisters" and got on stage in front of a video of 10,000 screaming fans and sang "I Love Rock & Roll"! We had a blast. Nancy played the electric guitar and I sang. It was fun!

Jay and Jayson had a great time doing the same tutorial.

Their favorite part was where you could change the microphone vocal effect. One option was a typical amplification, another was a Mini Mouse effect...but their favorite effect? Of course, it was Darth Vader! We all had to give it a try, but Jay was the best at saying "LLLLUUUUUKKKKEEEE, I AM YOUR FAAAATHER!!!"

Jay and Jayson also had a good time playing with other instruments. I messed around on the keyboards while these guys were playing. Needless to say, we ALL had a good time and yes, I drug them over to "Rock Band" also! In our case, we named our band "We Are Not Scientists" after my brother's band, We Are Scientists (and of course, we are NOT! scientists). Jayson played the electric guitar, Jay played drums and I played keyboards. We all sang! It was fun once again!

One of the best parts of visiting the EMP is that it also contains the "Sci Fi Museum". Now, I'm not your basic sci fi geek....but both my boys are! They love it. And because it's a museum, no pictures were allowed so this is our ode to the sci fi world!

That just about sums up our trip. I hope you have enjoyed our pictures. There were many stones unturned, so I guess we'll just have to go back again! Until the next time...Bye!