For My Amazing Miracle Nephew Payton

I'm going to take a break from the Nathan and Ashley lovestory for a minute her. I know that Payton is far from a baby nowadays, but I have been thinking about him a lot lately and I have had this song stuck in my head (and it has been making me cry everytime I hear it dang it!) ever since I read Tiffani's blog. I just thought I would share it and hope in some way it gives Payton some comfort, even though he would probably just say something like, "Hey I'm not a baby!", because that is how awesome Payton is.

Baby mine, don't you cry.
Baby mine, dry your eyes.
Rest your head close to my heart,
Never to part,
Baby of mine.

Little one when you play,
Don't you mind what they say.
Let those eyes sparkle and shine,
Never a tear,
Baby of mine.

If they knew sweet little you,
They'd end up loving you too.
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for the right to hold you.

From your head down to your toes,
You're not much, goodness knows.
But you're so precious to me,
Sweet as can be,
Baby of mine.

All those same people who scold you,
What they'd give just for the right to hold you.

From your head down to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows.
But you're so precious to me,
Sweet as can be,
Baby of mine.
Baby of mine

Bumpershoot....Better Yet....WEEZER!!!

When Mom told me that Weezer was coming to Bumpershoot I was SOOOO excited! They are probably my favorite band of all time and I have never seen them live. I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to go to concerts, the first one being N*Sync, Celtic Woman, and Sesame Street Live. All very cool experiences, especially Sesame Street (Thank you though Tiffani lol) but none of which not necessarily brag worthy like Weezer. So suffice it to say I was REALLY looking forward to it and my expecations were met nay exceeded.



We entered Bumpershoot and Nathan and I could not stop tapping each other and pointing at the odd people we saw. Bumpershoot well....Seattle in general is an excellent place to people watch and boy did we have some interesting people to watch here!



Wanting some air from the close crowds and wanting to do something a bit more fun before Weezer Nathan got us some tickets to the Seattle Center's "Amusement Park" the Tornado (which made me nauseous for an hour afterwards)and went down a huge blow up slide.

The Space Needle At Night From The Hotel


We went back to the hotel nearby to get some warmer clothes and snacks and made our way to the Weezer concert!!

The Space Needle At Night Up Close


THE CONCERT

Buddy Holly


Sweater Song


Perfect Situation


Perfect Situation Continued


Perfect Situation Continued...Again


Beverly Hills (Rivers was standing on top of a porta-potty)


Can't Really Hear What This One Is...Sorry


If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I love how he jumps and down while still singing)


After The Concert


All throughout Bumpershoot I wanted to find a Weezer shirt, sweatshirt, anything Weezer but with no success and much sadness. During the concert Nate left to "go to the bathroom" and came back with a Bumpershoot hoodie! A nice addition to the sweatshirt and snowboard jacket I was wearing at the time (I WAS COLD!)but it was very sweet! SUCH A FUN AND AWESOME NIGHT!! Nathan I love you :)

Toy Story 3 Gone Wrong

Toy Story 3 was coming out and the whole family was getting together to see it on the Imax in Seattle. I had to work but tried my best to get off as early as I could to make it in time. Nathan and Jesse picked me up from work and we raced off to Seattle to only hit.....TRAFFIC!! The unevitable, always there when your in a hurry, aggravating TRAFFIC!!!! We raced and ran to the Imax theater only to find that we would not be allowed in! We were "too late" according to the Imax standards. ARGH!! Knowing we were meeting up with everyone after the movie was over the three of us were left to waste time for a few hours in Seattle. Walking around the Seattle Center Nathan and I were walking by the space needle when, Nathan walks over and looks at the signs above the ticket booth, he came up with some weird excuse of why he was looking and we continued to walk around. The three of us then j-walked across a few streets and jumped over a barrier to Buca di Beppo.






After a DELICIOUS "linnerch" we walked back to the Seattle Center where Jesse decided he was going to head home after which Nathan proceeded to lead me to the Space Needle again. Not to look at it but to actually go up it! I had told him a long time ago that I had never actually been up to the Space Needle and somehow he remembered! It was so cool to go up the elevator and go the viewing place on top. The view was beautiful!




We might have missed Toy Story 3, but an elevator ride to the top of the Space Needle? Pretty awesome! I think I like this guy ;)

Port Orchard Waterfront

After seeing it was a gorgeous day but not having much time or money to do much about it Nathan drove me down to the Port Orchard Waterfront and took a nice walk along the boardwalk. Isn't he brilliant?

The Shire

During the summer days when we were too lazy to actually do anything outside but we still wanted to enjoy the weather Nathan and I would grab some snacks, crank up the stereo, and go for a drive. This particular day we drove around Gig Harbor, not the town/city part that everyone sees, but the beautiful country part. Nathan has lived in the Port Orchard area all his life and knows how to get around everywhere, I have never seen him get lost. So he showed me around the farms and country of Gig Harbor which I have to say was beautiful!! We drove by lakes, the ocean, farms, and some huge fancy houses! The rich green and the rural farm land we saw on our drive reminded me slightly of The Shire from the Lord of the Rings movies (a place I always wish I could visit somehow, Hobbits and all). After driving around all this beauty I told Nathan I wanted to move there someday so we could have a beautiful house out in the green country and have some land of our own to make into a beautiful mini farm. It was decided. Whenever we refer to "our future house" it is always referred to as "The Shire".

The Poulsbo Waterfront

The Poulsbo waterfront has many cute little shops, obviously a water fountain (that Nathan had no trouble getting up close and personal with), and some pretty good places to eat. We unfortunately haven't gone to Jesse's restaraunt yet but we did eat at a cute place with a big deck, little tables with umbrella's, good food, and a killer view of the whole bay.

This is where I was introduced to Nathan's love for calamari, I would soon learn that anytime he wanted to order an appetizer I should just expect it to be calamari. When Nathan first learned of my picky eating habits he decided to try and educate me and we proceeded to make a deal that I had to at least try one bite of anything he wanted me to try, and if I didn't like it I would just have to tell him what I didn't like about it and he wouldn't push it on me any further, pretty fair deal I thought.



However when making this deal I had no idea it would be including...calamari...octopus...eww. Octopus' belonged in The Little Mermaid, The Wiggles, and Finding Nemo, not on a dinner plate, but a deal was a deal.

The plate arrived to show me little curly looking breaded things with two different cups of sauce to dip in. I tenatively took a piece of the strange substance and placed it into my mouth thinking *not octopus, not octopus, chicken, chicken* and...???? It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and after dipping it in the sauce, I actually kind of liked it! Ashley Frandsen not only tried...but LIKED CALAMARI!! I know...the end of the world is coming as we know it...but hey, if I get to spend it with this guy? I don't think I'll mind as much.

Our Story Had Some Fireworks...Literally

After blowing up other fireworks (including a cool parachuting firework that was by far my favorite) at my parents house, Nathan decided to take me to that twisty turny road off of Tracyton by Lion's Field. Luckily we had some fireworks of our own leftover and Nathan showed me a hidden trail (hidden due to it being extremely steep) down to the water. The main weapon in our arsenal of fireworks was bottle rockets, which we proceeded to launch in multitudes. One idea we had was to try launching them into the water which concluded with awesome results, it made some pretty cool noises and still somehow had a glow from the explosion. We tried not to be too cruel to mother nature but our own curiousity and fascination did lead us to launch a couple more into the water. It was our own private, scenic, and romantic 4th of July for us and it might be something that turns into tradition.


Here is some short clips of the experience:



(In case you were wondering what we were saying Nathan was asking me if I could see it on the video and I loudly say not really *giggle)