dirty thirty in new york

a few days after i turned thirty, my mom and i flew to new york to partaaay.

we had quite a few days in new york and nothing in particular planned so we slept in every morning. it was amazing. soooo the first afternoon there, we went over to chelsea market. i love this place. very interesting food, shops and people.

a delicious lobster roll in the market.

we enjoyed our lobster roll but then remembered that there is another place that has better ones. oh well!

i cannot count how many  times we tried to take a selfie on the bergdorf goodman escalators. good times.

our hotel was close to (everything) grand central station. i had never been in there before. it is so beautiful.

that night we ate at grimaldis. best pizza ever.

right outside grand central station again. and the chrysler building behind us. not the most flattering angle for a picture. the guy just kept getting lower and lower and lower.....

on valentines day eve we enjoyed a late night frrrrozen hot chocolate at serendipity. we had never been there before but had always wanted to try their famous dessert. tasty!

the following morning we went to city bakery for breakfast. i couldnt resist the valentines day linzer cookie!

after breakfast we shopped around the flat iron district (fishs eddy and abc carpet and home are my favorite) and then went over to soho. we were so excited to see some gorgeous blue skies.

we couldnt believe our luck that we got a table at balthazar on valentines day AND that the guy (who, he and his girlfriend thought they were mighty fine) sitting across from us had major major bum crack hanging out the entire time. ha!

after dinner we ran back to our hotel to get ready for the concert and this stunning bouquet was waiting for me in our room. craig surprised me from 3000 miles away. :)

on our way to madison square garden we noticed that the empire state building was lighting up pink and red for valentines day. it was so pretty.

i wasnt really feeling up to asking people for pictures on this trip (it was cold and i didnt think people wanted to stop and take pictures for tourists) so there were a lot of solo shots. whatever.

finally! kings of leon time. craig got us tickets to their concert and it was seriously one of the best nights ever.

before the show.

during. loved every. single. minute. of it.

a little bit of snow! 

see that white handkerchief hanging out of caleb's back pocket? at the end of the show we leaned over and tossed it to me. i almost died right then and there.

the next morning was a snowy one. we walked up madison avenue, had lunch at barneys and strolled through central park.

a father and son were having a snowball fight and had just finished making this perfect snowman. children were sledding on the hills. it was a scene out of a movie.

i was in central park snow globe heaven.

we found shelter in the metropolitan museum of art. i had never been there before. it was fantastic. i especially loved the medieval armory wing.

my beautiful mom and an egyptian sphinx.

later that night we enjoyed dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, blue smoke. their warm bbq chips with bleu cheese dip is to die for.

my favorite partner in crime.

we saw a late movie in times square that night. long story short: rat, power outage, minor panic attack.

our last day in new york we had lunch at shake shack and visited the lego exhibit at the discovery channel museum. the things that man created with legos was fascinating. (this winged victory statue was life size!)

it was a trip i will never forget. i am so lucky to have my mom to share these incredible memories with.

3d valentines!

for valentines this year i thought it would be fun to use those old school 3d glasses to go along with a card that said "you make my world pop". and then i thought: holy crap. it would be so much cooler if the card was actually 3d! so i googled how to create your own 3d image and then i designed it in microsoft word. hahaha. craig makes fun of me for always doing my projects in such an archaic program. but who cares. they turned out and my boys loved them. happy valentines day!

turning 30

last week i turned thirty. that afternoon, my brother treated the boys and me to jimmy johns. love.

later that night craig drove me out to a surprise party with my friends. i knew we were doing something that night i just didnt know the details. craig and my friends turned it out. such a fantastic night. first, was dinner at the commons. complete with beautiful centerpieces and personalized menus.

birthday caramels.

my favorite humans.

after dinner...... SKATE KING! this place has been around forever (the stench proves it) but is always a complete blast.

going in circles with craig.

after skate king we were supposed to go over to kaitlins house for dessert. yeah, but then we walked out to this......

words cannot explain how incredibly depressed i was that we couldnt make it over to kaitlins (half of our group was stuck in ditches until after midnight and the other half was busy being towed up hills...). luckily, she texted me pictures of the set up so i lived vicariously though those.

love it.

i dont know about that. but it sure helps to get through life's crap with amazing friends and family.

the only redeeming thing about that snowstorm? tagg's super cute snowman he built the next morning with craig.

and for the family birthday celebration on sunday, craig made me his very first cake. such a wonderful birthday, thanks to the incredibly special people in my life.

disneyland & san diego

we just returned from a wonderful vacation to southern california. i dont know how we fit in all we do! first stop was our favorite beach up north: divers cove. 

it was right before sunset but my boys loved playing in the sand and finding little treasures. and sully loved looking like a lunatic.

the grey brigade.

very lucky to be able to vacation with my mom!

after the beach we walked around fashion island for a bit and then headed over to our favorite mexican restaurant, javiers. i would do anything to have a javiers in seattle. (please dont judge craig's hair. i kindly requested that he remove his hat our the dining experience)

after dinner we drove over to our hotel to get ready for disneyland the next day! of course, we did a little hot tubbing (my boys faaaaaavorite thing to do)

the next morning my dad and aunt brooke met up with us at disneyland! tagg had such a wonderful day riding rides, eating treats (see above) and being the birthday boy. 

and i had a wonderful day proving to my aunt megan (who was in seattle) that disneyland really IS the happiest place on earth. before we left for california, she had informed us that disneyland was crap and if you look around while you're there, no one is happy. so i took pictures of us AND strangers having a grand old time.

more fun (pay no attention to sully's face) at disneyland. i love pirates.

it was super bowl weekend so pete carroll... i mean my dad and craig loved showing their seahawk pride to all the other guests.

while my mom and i loved being cheesy little tourists.

tagg's first time on space mountain!

loved spending the day with our favorite (almost) six year old. he was such a brave guy! going on tower of terror and space mountain!

such a  magical day at disneyland. so there, megan.

after disneyland, we drove down to brooke's house in san diego. the next morning it was clear, blue skies! 

but no amount of blue skies could keep craig away from the SUPERBOWL! he flew out of san diego on saturday morning to meet up with his friends in new york to watch the seahawks play the broncos.

that day my dad took the boys out to the desert to search for creepy crawly things while my mom, brooke and i shopped at fashion valley. 

later that afternoon we dropped by the grocery store to fill up the seahawk mylar balloons we had brought from home. this was my mom trying to fit them all in brooke's car. 

it was was tagg's actual birthday day so we had cake and presents to celebrate.

make a wish, taggy!

that night we met up with our old friends from when we used to live in san diego. it was so much fun catching up and eating pat & oscars bread sticks!!!

then we went back to brooke's house and went in the hot tub. except my mom's and brooke's hands didnt. their nails were wet! :)

super bowl sunday! pete helped us decorate.

we had SUCH a fantastic time rooting our amazing seahawks on.........

but probably not as much as these nerds! this was the only picture from the nose bleeds because soon after they snuck down to the 100 level! so happy for craig that he got to experience this amazing event.

my cousins came up to the watch the game and entertain the boys when they got restless. tagg and sully were in heaven.

we loved every minute of the game. GO SEAHAWKS.

the next day we visited our good friends who had just moved from redmond down to san diego. they have this amazing park right across the street from their house so the kids played while denise and i caught up. loved it.

that afternoon we went down to la jolla cove to watch the sea lions snuggle on the rocks. they blend in, but those are the sea lions on the rocks to the left of tagg.

la jolla cove made me want to be in hawaii!

my boys loved searching for sea anemones to fondle.

such a beautiful day at the beach.

on our last night at brooke's house we kept the hot tub temperature a little down so the boys could play in there for a long time. they loved it.

and while i was watching two little boys in a luke warm hot tub, craig and his friends were sitting court side (kinda) at a nets game with russell wilson, jay z and beyonce. rough life.

on our last day in san diego we drove over to the wild animal park. i dont love the entire park (a whole lot of ducks and fancy deer) but the african tram is pretty cool.

wouldnt want to run hastily run through an amusement park with anyone else!

who needs to go to africa?!

we were basically there.

tagg made his first journal, documenting our trip. it was the cutest little thing i have ever seen and perfectly summed up an amazing trip.