My wonderful spring break!

So, another spring break has come and gone, and I forgot to take a trip to Hawaii. Damn it, that makes 47 years in a row now. While many of my neighbors and friends jetted off to sunny vacations with their kids in tow, I, as usual, had no plans for spring break and no idea how I was going to spend it. I decided to just let it all unfold. And it not only unfolded, it unfurled into a week full of quality time with my kids, great time spent with my closest friends, and a lot of sunshine!

My spring break actually started the Thursday of last week. That was my last day of work and I had to scoot out to a (boring) meeting so I barely had time to say "See ya, suckers!" "Good bye!" to my co-workers. That night, I attended the high school talent show where my son performed with the Jazz Choir (and they were AMAZING).

Harrison and the BHS Jazz Choir

Friday, I did errands and cleaned and blah, blah. That was my most boring day. I carefully avoided cleaning as much as possible the rest of the week.

Saturday, we decided in the late afternoon to make the trek up to see the Tulips in Skagit Valley. Did I say "we"? I meant me. Jeff would have been perfectly happy puttering around in the garage all day, but I whined a little and so we went. It was a glorious day, albeit a bit cold and windy, and we enjoyed all the color of Roozengaarde, the show garden, and the colorful fields around it. We took a dinner break in La Connor, which Jeff had never seen before, and walked around the town. We returned to the tulip fields in time for the sunset. I took hundreds of photos. I was happy.

I love tulips! 

Sunday, we puttered, cleaned, erranded (that's a word now), and in the evening we enjoyed an awesome show - Harrison's band, Bushwhack, in concert at Sound Check Bar and Grill. They ROCKED IT and were asked to come back again.

My rock star son! 

Monday, I spent the whole day with my best friends, Janet and Tonya. We started out having coffee at Tully's, and we sat there for four hours when we decided we were hungry again and moved to Zeke's pizza for lunch where we sat another two hours. It was wonderful to just hang out, talk for hours, and EAT! The rain poured down and the conversation flowed. I love these two ladies - they have been a constant in my life for 21 years and time spent with them is always so much fun! 

BFFs!

Oh, I should also mention that on Monday, I let my son go camping with NO ADULTS for the first time ever. He was an hour and a half away with no cell phone. It's amazing how parenting changes with each child. I would NEVER have let my older girls go camping with no adult supervision at age 16, I was quite conflicted making the decision, but after consulting his dad, stepdad, and older sister, who all said "Why not?" I decided "Why not, indeed?" and let him go. I'm pretty sure the worst thing that happened was they nailed a 6-inch dildo to a tree, but I'll never know for sure. And I'm ok with that. 

Tuesday, I met Hannah and her nanny kids, along with my friend Sarah and her two sweet girls at an indoor play place. The kids ran around in endless circles while we attempted to make conversation in-between the mommy and the nanny juggling supervision, snacks and squabbles. I definitely had some nostalgia about the glory days of young motherhood, but it was also nice to be able to get into my own car to drive to lunch when Hannah's nanny child threw a fit and screamed "She cannot come to lunch with us!" at me. Lunch happened anyway, because she's not the boss of me, and it was quite sweet. Later that night, Hannah and I had dinner out, just the two of us, and we accidentally dressed exactly alike. It was a fun "Hannah" day and I got to see her in action as a (very calm) nanny. Bless her. I didn't get a picture of Hannah that day, but here's a cute on of her and Harrison at their "soon to be" stepsister's wedding over spring break.

All dressed up!

Wednesday, was Hayley day. We started out at Starbucks, then shopping at Target and Ross, where I bought her a summer wardrobe that consisted almost entirely of elephant-themed shirts. We had lunch at Panera and bought tiny plants at Molbak's. I didn't get any pictures of that day - shocking, huh? But here's a picture of Hayley anyway. And her girlfriend, Megan, because I seriously cannot find a picture of Hayley without her. :) 

Megan and Hayley

On Wednesday night, I went to one of those wine and painting places with Tonya. Except we don't drink wine! So, hard cider and beer it was, and we painted a picture of peacock feathers. Except mine looked more like sperm. And I kind of went overboard with my wavy lines. But it was hilarious and we topped it off with Mexican food and margaritas (ok, beer for Tonya!). Here we are pretending to be artists. 

Thursday was Arlie day. After much deliberation, we decided to go to the zoo. We got there kind of late - 2 ish - and the zoo closed at 4 but we decided to stay anyway. Bonus - someone gave us their parking pass so parking was free! We zipped around the zoo pretty fast and saw almost everything we wanted to see (except the elephants - they were whisked away the night before to their new home in Oklahoma City). We spent an inordinate amount of time visiting the jaguar and Arlie insisted she was communicating with him through her eyes. To say she is a little obsessed with cats is an understatement. We took dozens of photos and some video, too. She named him "Kristoff". I think the picture below sums up our day at the zoo. 

Here, kitty, kitty!

We topped off our day be eating at the Burgermaster in the U District then shopping at Value Village. Poppin' tags! 

Friday, Hannah went to Portland on the Bolt Bus and I had to drop her off at the bus station in Seattle. We decided to make it Harrison day, and after we dropped Hannah off, we explored the International District in Seattle for a bit, then headed to Fremont where we toured Theo's Chocolates, had lunch at the Red Door and walked around Gas Works Park. We walked so much that day, I actually got my 10,000 steps in! Plus we brought home delicious chocolate and enjoyed the warm sun and views of Seattle from the park. Hard to pick just one picture of the day, but I'll go with this one because he looks like a super model. 

Vogue.

Saturday was another glorious day so Arlie and I took Georgette to the beach. I realized I'd spent quality one-on-one time with each of my kids this week so why not my dog? Georgie used to love the beach but this time she just seemed overwhelmed and exhausted. She waded in the water, no swimming like usual, and she tried to keep up with the young pups, but she's just too old. Still, she seemed happy to be out and fell asleep in the car as soon as we left! Good old George! 

Georgette, age 13

Today, we started the day with coffee at a hipster coffee joint, then a little shopping in our local downtown.

Too cool for Starbucks

Afterwards, we did chores, puttered, and created some Sharpie art! It was another incredible Seattle spring day. 

Who needs crayons? 

We may not have enjoyed white-sand beaches, tropical cocktails, or a high-priced hotel room, but I'm going to have to say this was a pretty awesome spring break! Back to work/school tomorrow (sad face) but only eight weeks of school left until SUMMER (happy face)!!!!

I'm calling it a success! I love my life. 

Middle-ages meets Macklemore....

Last night we took the whole family to see Macklemore perform at the Key Arena in Seattle. It was the last show of his tour, and back on his home turf, so it was a pretty special show. The guy is an amazing entertainer and the show was spectacular, sprinkled with comedy, bits of wisdom and a lot of colorful language.

I bought the kids tickets this summer. I knew they were huge fans and would love to see the show. Originally I intended to buy tickets for all of us, but when I got on the website, they were limiting tickets to four at a time. Little did I know that the show sold out in 15 minutes! Two more shows were added, but I was satisfied that at least I had the four tickets for my kids.

A little back story: Jeff and I saw Macklemore two years ago at the Showbox in Seattle. It was a private concert to celebrate the release of a cancer drug that his company, Seattle Genetics, had created. No one knew who would be performing - only that there would be more than one band and it was a big secret until we got to the show. Macklemore opened for Weezer. We had no idea who he was at the time, and I was texting my kids asking if they knew of him (answer: sort of). I said he appeared to be an Eminem wanna-be (haha - sorry, Macklemore - first impressions). But I did recognize at least one of the songs. And he put on a great show! Still, he remained a little-known local guy for a while until he hit the big time not long after that concert.

Fast-forward a year and we were all fans of his music. When I heard he was coming in concert this month, I figured I'd see what was available in the way of tickets - I casually logged on to my computer, purchased the four tickets, and only later did I realize how lucky I'd been to even get them! Earlier this week, a friend posted on Facebook that she had four tickets for sale. I asked Jeff if he wanted to buy two of the tickets and go with the kids to the concert and he said "sure!" Which was actually quite a surprise considering we're broke and it's Christmas. But I scrounged the cash to pay for the tickets and we went.

I'm so glad we did.

The concert was amazing, "life-changing" according to the kids. I'm sad I wasn't able to sit with them to watch them go crazy wild enjoying the show. But afterwards, they were sweaty, disheveled and had hoarse voices - all signs of a great concert! They danced, sang, and enjoyed being with each other. So, so worth it.

And then there were the old folks. Jeff and I sat five sections away from the kids (although we could see them easily). The seats in the nosebleed section are small and tight - you have to get cozy with your neighbor whether you like it or not. I had my "mom purse" with me and since I didn't really want to put it on the sticky, gross floor, I pretty much had it in my lap the whole time. I was wearing the clothes I wore to work - a nice runway look called "kindergarten teacher." But by the end of the show, we were standing and dancing and we put our hands up "like the ceiling can't hold us."

We were surrounded by young people, or parents with young kids. Speaking of which, this was NOT a family concert and I can't believe anyone brought young kids to see it. The opening acts were rappers with language so filthy it made even ME squirm and that's saying something. When the first two words you hear are "f**king pu**y" you can be pretty sure it's not for the under 13 crowd. At one point, we were encouraged to put up our middle fingers and shout "F*ck the haters! F*ck the ho's!" I kept wondering why the arena seemed so empty but it filled up FAST once the opening acts were over. Note to self: It's ok to be late and miss the opening acts sometimes.

But it was worth the wait for Maklemore. He was incredible. The music was so loud I could feel the bass in my teeth. I'm pretty sure it interrupted the rhythm of my heart. It was LOUD. It was bright. There was glitter. And confetti. And fire. At the end, he thanked everyone from the stage crew to individual musicians. The encores were over the top. And this middle-aged mom loved every minute of it.

Music knows no age boundaries. My kids were still riding the high of the concert all day today and I keep hearing about how it was the best night and best concert EVER.  This is why I love live performances. Concerts, theater, shows - you can't get that feeling from a movie. I wish I could take my kids to every concert and every play they want to see just to see their faces at the end. SO worth it.

A life lived for art is never a life wasted ~ Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore

Choir Concert

The day after Harrison and Arlie were in their marimba concert, Hannah was in a choir festival at the local high school. Her choir performed three songs and then were given constructive criticism from judges who are professionals in the field. They did quite good (although Hannah would disagree with me!) and the concert was enjoyable, although long because of all the "judging" comments in between sets. I failed to video tape it, which was SO stupid of me considering I had a video camera with me. I was too busy trying to get pictures without the flash (and was not very successful either!). Here are a few shots of the concert.