The Phantom of the Opera!

This coming Thursday is Loni and I's fourth wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we bought tickets to go see the Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount in Seattle. I had never seen the performance in person, just the movie, but every one I have talked to said it is incredible, so we were both excited. So we got all dressed up, dropped Ellis off and headed downtown. The night was a lot of fun - we were both dressed up and it really reminded me of when we were first married and had less cares and worries. We ate at Gordon Biersch at Pacific Place - my pasta was delicious - and then headed to the play. I don't even have words to describe how great the performance was - it was incredible. The actors and actresses are incredibly talented and had such great voices - it was really, sorry to be redundant, incredible. It was a lot of fun and lots of thanks to Lanae and Amber for watching Ellis for us. Anyway, here are some pics of the night:

My Little Goofball

So ever since Loni has had his motocycle, Ellis has had this facisnation with bikes and anything associated with them. Especially helmets. Everytime Loni's helmet is within reach she will go and drag it over to one of us and have us put it on her head since it is too heavy for her to pick up. Well, I think one day she got tired of having to ask us to help her, so she went to the cupboards to create her own "helmet" - out of a strainer. Now she will put it on all the time and walk around the house wearing her it and making motorcycle noises. Then the other day, I think she realized there are multiple uses for her helmet, because she was using it as a chair. What can I say, she is Loni's kid! :)

wearing her helmet...
multiple uses...
up close and personal (yes that is food on her face)...

Crazy 8's

I was tagged and so I thought this would be fun:

8 T.V. shows I love to watch:
- House
- The Office
- Scrubs (when it comes on)
- 90210
- Jon & Kate plus 8
- Project Runway
- Kitchen Nightmares
- Thomas (for Ellis)

8 Favorite Places to Eat:
- Cheesecake Factory
- The Best Pho & Thai (it really is the best!)
- Taco Bell (does this count as a restaurant?)
- Red Robin (love those bottomless fries!)
- Wendy's (again, does this count?)
- Casa de Weaver (ie: my home kitchen)
- Happy at the Bay Teriyaki
- Sunday dinners at the Weavers

8 Things that happened yesterday:
- went to work
- went to the gym (yay!)
- made dinner
- did laundry
- had lunch with my mom (and she bought me birthday presents - thanks again, mom!)
- played with Ellis
- sat down to watch The Office - and it wasn't on! The horror!
- made arrangements for someone to watch Ellis so Loni & I could go to Phantom of the Opera for our anniversary

8 Things I look forward to:
- going to The Phantom of the Opera tonight
- Loni & I's 4th anniversary
- Seeing Ellis experience the upcoming holidays as a toddler
- Fall and the festivities associated with it
- My birthday
- Trip to Utah in November
- Twilight Movie (i am borderline obsessed about this - yes I am a dork)
- Christmas

8 Things I love about Fall*:
- the smells
- baking
- the beautiful scenery everywhere
- my marriage anniversary and birthday
- the decorations
- being bundled up in sweaters
- getting ready for the upcoming holidays
- the pumpkins!
*disclaimer - Fall is really my favorite time of year, so I am biased in this posting; I love everything about Fall...

8 Things on my wish list:
- to get into a house
- that the economy will turn around
- that Ellis will just go to sleep the first time I put her in her bed
- that I will get back to my pre-pregnancy weight
- to inherit millions ;)
- that Loni & I will live happily ever after
- that Ellis will grow up to be strong, independent, loving, faithful and happy
- that I could help out more people

I tag Clarissa, Kyla and Kandy!

I wanted to illustrate how beautiful Seattle is during the fall (and to reminisce a bit) so here are some pictures from my wedding, which was in the fall:

Point Defiance Owen Beach Park

Last weekend, Loni's work had a company picnic so we decided to go and network a bit. I had never been to the Point Defiance beaches before so (i thought it was just a zoo not a national forest area), so I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was actually very nice. The organizer did a great job with decoration and food and they even had some blow-up inflatables for the kids (and Loni) to play on. Ellis really enjoyed going through the 'big kid' inflatable - especially the slide. But even with all of the toys to play with, her favorite thing to do: pick up, play with and throw rocks. She is such a tomboy. All in all it was a fun time - a nice respite from everything that had been going on.

Throwing rocks with Daddy

Climbing up the inflatable - she did it all by herself!

All I wanted was a cute picture of her and this is what she gave me.

Don't mind the double-chin - this is Ellis' first picture she ever took.

I love her!

Do the Puyallup!

Here are pictures from when we went to the Puyallup Fair for Gary's birthday as well as a video of Jaida and Ellis going on a ride. The little girls loved it - all the rides they could go on, they would. The giant slide was one of their favorites!

Friends Visit & GreenLake

So a couple weekends ago we finally had the pleasure of seeing most of our long lost friends - Dan and Kyla Stevens, Ben and Lauren Candland and Michelle and Deloy Blanchard. The weekend was full of fun things tthat we did, but of course I didn't take many pictures. One of the things we did was with the Stevens family - we went to GreenLake and rented paddle boats. Now this sounds more glamorous than it really was; we spent the entire time trying to find a comfortable position in the seats. But hey, it was something we had never done before and we were with good company, so it was still fun. The weekend was great and it was really good to see everyone; I think it has been close to 4 years since everyone was in town at the same time. Here is a brief slideshow of the pictures I was albe to take from the weekend, Enjoy!