Seattle Aquarium and such

So it was Paul's first full day in Seattle. What to do? Lucky for me he shares my passion for an Aquarium Adventure. I decided to leave the big camera at home. Gotta break 'em in slowly.  :)

 At the touch station. There were all kinds of treasures for us to taunt. Seastars and sea anemones. Sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Oh my!

 And some creepy looking little things that freaked out and shriveled up when you touched them. Suh-weet!

 I made him do it. Sorry Paul! We waited until the perfect opportunity when no one in the hugely overpopulated room would be looking at him. I blocked the octopus with my body, and snapped the picture so quick I'm sure no one even saw the flash. All so I could post it on my blog for you to see!

 There ain't no shame in my game... I'll act a fool.

 The real deal had to show us up. If you look real close you can see her eyes. The odd glare coming what looks like the middle of her body?? Yup, that's it. Wish she would've moved a little, but she was sitting there... breathing. All creepy like.

 The super sweet arch of Jellyfish.

 We caught the guy cleaning the tank I guess. Since there was a gaggle of children practically glued to the glass, this is as close as I got. Don't worry, I let 'em have the good spots. Didn't step on any this trip.

 Don't get too excited, there Paul. (He claims the flash is too bright.)

 The lazy sea otter. She was just floating around, cleaning herself, pondering what she was going to have for lunch I'm sure. Come to find out, she is pregnant. Oops! Yeah, I guess it's kind of a big deal around here. Made the 6 o'clock news and all.

 Sooooo... we were walking down the pier after the aquarium and a real amazing dinner when we stopped off at the local arcade. Ya know, like ya do on a Friday night. I was talking all this mess about how I rocked at Skeet Ball. (I don't know what it's actually called, doesn't that tell you something?) Do we remember last time I tried this move with Riane in San Francisco and even SHE kicked my butt? Guess I'll never learn. Anyways, so I tried that line on him then didn't have the game to back it up as evidenced by this picture.

The next day we decided to walk down through and around Point Defiance in Tacoma. We found a trail that led us to some spectacular lookout points. My favorite part was when we found this sign at the entrance to one of the trails. Considering Paul and I had been talking smack back and forth about bikes all day, it was pretty fitting.

Next, it was off to the house to get ready for the aweome night to come. Yay, New Year's Eve!

My 28th Birthday!!

December 29th, 2011. Jessica Renee Evans' 28th birthday. I had no idea what the plan was, just knew that I needed the day off. Don't have to tell me twice! The festivities started off with brunch at the famous Beth's Cafe as featured on the Travel Channel, the Food Network, and Man vs Food. They are famous for their 6 and 12 egg omelet. Holy smokes!

 Yup, it's that way!! I missed out on getting a picture of the super sweet mural that was on another outside wall. Darn Seattle rain.

 Their individually decorated menus. This place was rad. Every inch of every wall (and even some of the ceiling) was plastered with *artwork* from patrons who used crayons to express their love for Beth's Cafe.

 See some of it behind us? The staff here was amazing too. I want to open a bakery with the same kind of atmosphere some day. Love this place.

 So then we went to the mall. Can't remember exactly what we went for, but ended up losing track of time being girly and trying things on. Sorry Pauly D! Because I couldn't stop giggling when I saw this robo cop on his segway, I had to take a picture. What you can't see is that 2 seconds after I snapped this picture, the second robo cop snuck up on me from behind and repremanded me. "No Photography in the mall, ma'am!" You've got to be kidding me. Had no idea.

 Then it was off to pick up Paul from the airport who was visiting for my birthday weekend. Best present EVER!! After doing a quick pick-up at the airport, we were off to dinner... at the freakin' Space Needle!! Yes, they do have a revolving restaurant. It was the craziest thing to ride the cramped elevator with glass walls up to the top, then to stand in the lobby and watch the tables slowly creep by. It was a little weird at first, but we found some things to occupy our time.

So there was some smart aleck that wrote something or another on a piece of paper and propped it up on the stationary windows next to the tables. We sat there and watched more and more papers drift by. Then responses started appearing on the papers. We had to join in on the fun. Paul grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, then pondered what to write. No pressure!

 This is what he came up with. :) 

(Don't mind the phone number on the right... we were just messing. Someone had Shawna's best interests at heart because by the time it came back around, the number was scratched out.)

 My dinner. Local salmon with kale and potatoes and pears.

 Paul's dish. Chicken with brussel sprouts and mushroom ravioli.

 Fat and happy after dinner and wine.

 Thanks Shawntell! Sorry you had to do it all on no sleep.

 The tree in the valet parking drop-off.

 We returned to the apartment to exchange Christmas gifts. I'm pretty proud of Paul's last minute

wrapping job.

My birthday cake!! Don't worry, the kitchen didn't burn down because it was store-bought. Super delicious brownie cake. Shawntasia and Pauly D even sang me Happy Birthday. 

Thanks guys, it was an amazing end to a superb day. And thanks to all those at home for sending gifts, cards and texts to wish me a great day, even when I am 1700 miles away. Love You!!

Christmas (on December 23rd or something of the like for us nurses)

I had to work on Christmas night, so I got to celebrate a little earlier than everyone else. Yay! Since I was so impatient, I harrassed Shawna until she agreed to do Christmas on the morning of the 23rd when I got off work at 8 am. This is the reason she looks like she just rolled out of bed (she did) and I am still in scrubs.

But first... we visit the Schoonover and Enos homes for a little holiday spirit.

Last year I took a picture of some chocolate peppermint cupcakes that I made by the tree. I fell in love with that picture, so decided to try kind of the same this year... this is the best I could get.

At the Enos Family Home we made and decorated some sugar cookies. Riane whipped up her homemade dough and frosting, Shawna rolled and cut out the dough, and I was on oven duty and "assisted" with decorating. Of course, Ashley wanted to help too!! I made sure she had her own cookies with her own little baggies of frosting so she could let her creative juices flow. Yeah yeah, so the cookies ended up smothered in a pile of overflowing frosting... Jake sure had a good time eating them! (That was his contribution.)

Does anyone else think Riane's apron is adorable? She has about 15 of them to choose from, so naturally she had at least 2 Christmas ones to share.

Much to Riane's chagrin, Jake just didn't have enough sugar at this point so he decided to share a little whipped cream from a can with his eldest. Come on... who hasn't  done this?!

After only sleeping for 2 hours then driving to Portland... sugar was the only thing keeping me going.

They made quite the pair rolling and cutting and whatnot.

Riane with the ever-ready smile! (She is like me, we always know where the camera is.)

I don't even know what to say.

The end result. Aren't they PRETTY?!

Then, it was beddybye time for all us sleepy-heads. We had to go to bed so that we could get up the next morning and have a little more CHRISTMAS!!

What kind of Christmas would it be if we didn't start it off with a few memosa's?

Merry Christmas, Deveraux clan!!

Ok... now off to Melinda and Rick's house for a Christmas afternoon of fun-filled festivities.

Whhhaaaat?! Look at this craziness! I can't believe they made this! Look at that little cute sign that says,

"N Pole."

I must explain. We are playing 'Find the Pickle.' If you don't know what that is, I guess it was a German tradition in Melinda's family to have a pickle ornament previously hidden by one member of the family while the rest look for it on Christmas morning. So, whoever finds it first wins a special treat. Not sure what Riane is doing there with her hand (remember the comment earlier about us always knowing where the camera is?). So after 2 hours, 1 hint and 3 seperate attempts to be the first to find the pickle, Jake finally found it first.

If you haven't seen the Honey Badger skit on YouTube, shame on you. It's hilarious. Not in the laugh-out-loud way, but more of the what-the-shit?? way.

Rick gets a make-over. You like?

Melinda shows off her socks. ~So cute~

So it looks like I want nothing to do with this hug. Not the case, I love little baby hugs. What was supposed to happen was both of them were going to hug me, one from each side. Natalie couldn't care less as evidenced by her interest in the hat on her head. So there we are, stuck in an awkward 'family' photo.

My Oregon family was so good to me! Because Melinda thought I was going to snap without my family for the holidays (truly, she told Shawna that I "probably shouldn't be left alone"), they went out of their way to make me part of theirs. This meant I even got my own stocking! It was filled with all kinds of spectacular goodies. Because I wouldn't be there on the 30th when they all celebrated their Christmas with Amber and Ray, and it wouldn't be very nice for the girls to see me open my stocking but not get theirs... we all opened them at the same time. I felt like a kid again.

Here's another one of Melinda and Rick's masterpieces. We each got one on our place setting. It was SO hard not to bite his little head off before dinner.

Now, back to the morning of the 23rd when I (was impatient and) got off work. Molly wasn't left out, of course. She got a Chuck-It. She is positively obsessed with anything ball related nowadays. She has even grown quite competitive at the dogpark when there is a tennis ball around. And because I recently had a run in with a ball that had landed in a ~landmide~ that was unfortunately not picked up by his/her slacker owner... I no longer want to touch anything at the dog park ever again.

My gift to Shawna. She has been drooling over different advent calendars for years, so I finally found a lady on Etsy who does them. That and the picture behind her of the Golden Gate Bridge. Score.

Shawna returned the favor by purchasing a few vintage camera straps and the PhotoShop program.

Double score!

Just in case no one knows which one is which, Molly is the red-headed freckled dog wearing the name tag, and Jessica is freckled brunette with the bow on her head. Clarification complete.

Have you noticed that she hates being posed for pictures yet? Every Christmas I try, every Christmas I am shot down.

Then there were baked goods.

It was Monday and Paul had just gotten off work. He came home to a semi-surprise of cookies needing to be made in his own kitchen. Peanut butter cookies with dark chocolate kisses. Oh yes. As you can imagine, Paul did not argue when I left most of them there for him to polish off.

This was our time-killer until take-out and a movie later that evening. We definitely had a good time with it. :)

 Even before the first bite, he approves!

 Best when served warm straight out of the oven, but darn that pesky chocolate drizzle down our chins.

 Doing my best to keep it all together.