Northwest Folklife Festival (and other happenings)

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. It wasn't warm, but it was fun.

On Friday, Daniel was able to come home early and we took a picnic to the park. We stopped to pick up food at our brand new Panera Bread that has a DRIVE THRU (which is so awesome!!).

Saturday, we went into Seattle for the Northwest Folklife Festival. It was so much fun!! Will absolutely loves music, so he had the time of his life. We put him on his monkey leash, and let him guide us to wherever he wanted to go. He was fascinated by all of the different musical groups and street performers. He did lots of dancing! Of course, we also ate tons of yummy food.

On Monday, we went out to lunch and let Will explore the mall. Then, we went to dinner with some friends and then went swimming. Sadly, Will was not a fan of the swimming for some reason. He mostly just sat calmly with Daniel in the hot tub.

It was a nice long weekend to spend together. We wish every weekend was that long!

Our Return to Utah

In April, we had a friend get married. The wedding was in Utah (yay!) so we got a chance to visit many of the friends we had recently left behind.

We flew in on a Saturday (Will was not-so-good at the airport) and went straight to Brooke's birthday party. It was very fun, but Will had missed both naps during our day of travel, so he didn't last all that long. He certainly enjoyed the balloons, though.

We then went to Jessica and Dave's house (where we were sleeping that night) and met this little cutie, Dawson! The boys enjoyed each other, but I think the next time will be even more fun.

On Sunday, we were able to attend our old ward and catch up with friends there. We then met up with the soon-to-be-married couple at BYU. We had a lot of fun exploring campus first. It was a warm day - we even had to put on sunblock (which is very rare in Seattle)!

On Monday, we spent the day hanging out with Jessica and Dawson. We introduced the Gregorys to the ridiculous show "Yo Gabba Gabba." The boys had some time together (including a quick head cuddle). We also tried to get the babies to cooperate for some picture taking.

Then we went to Kalisha and David's house for dinner. (How did we not get any pictures Kalisha!?)

On Tuesday, we went to visit my school. I visited with some of the teachers/staff and even caught a glimpse of some of my cute former students. It was so fun to be back there for a little while.

Then, we were able to attend the wedding and reception for Trevin and Kim. Will was a crazy man at the reception, so we only stayed 30 minutes.

We stayed a few nights with the Pattees. It was so fun to be back in their beautiful home where we house sat for 18 months. It was also Will's first home (for the first 2 weeks of his life).

Wednesday, we played with my favorite little girls ever (and their awesome mom)! When Will was a week old, we took pictures with these girls in matching hats. Will was not as cooperative this time around. We also had some great adventures at the Dinosaur Museum.

We stopped and had some frozen yogurt with Janet, one of my mom's good friends. She got some seriously good cuddles from Will (which hardly ever happens).

Our last few days were spent up in Bountiful with Daniel's grandparents. Daniel's mom came into town too. We checked out the new mall and explored Temple Square.

At the airport, Will begged to get into his car seat, and then slept the entire flight back to Seattle.

It was a dream (and very unlike the screaming airport experience a week earlier). We had such a great time in Utah and we miss everyone there already.

Another Project Finished

Daniel just blogged about a project we just finished this weekend!

http://alohalarsen.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/creative-together/

Creative Together

Alexa is incredibly creative. Our house is full of charming, quirky, cute, and/or useful touches that have made our apartment feel warm and inviting (see here, for example).

Recently, we decided to work a project together, and I got to take a more active role (when compared to, say, sanding...). After a speed bump or two that delayed the project, we finally finished!

Here's what we did.

First, we got four blank 16x20 canvases.

Then, we painted the canvases four different colors (colors that matched throw pillows in our family room).

We had a plan for each of these canvases. Since getting married, we've spent time in four different states - California, Utah, Oregon, and, now, Washington. We wanted to create recognizable skylines representative of each of those states. From here, we found shapes and buildings for each skyline, and drew those shapes on a piece of vinyl that we then stuck to each canvas. We also cut out the state name in vinyl and stuck in near the bottom. It went sort of like this.

That was definitely the hardest step. Lost a little hair doing all of that.

After that, we painted everything on the bottom of the canvas black.

Once all the paint dried, we pulled off the vinyl and here's what was left.

California, where we both grew up. San Francisco is close to where Alexa grew up, and the Oakland Temple (overlooking the city) is where we were married.

Utah, where we went to college and did most of our dating. We did a blend of Provo and Salt Lake City, with the mountains (even Squaw Peak) in the background.

Oregon, where I spent a summer. I had gotten an internship in Portland, but we were house-sitting for family at the time, so Alexa had to stay behind in Utah. It was a long, tough summer, but Alexa was able to come out often enough to visit. We had a lot of adventures.

Washington, where we've ended up for now. My internship led to a full time job, and took us to Seattle and the greater Puget Sound. We moved here just two weeks after Will was born.

It feels nice to finally have them all up on our wall!

And our next project? Well, we're going to take it easy. We found an awesome little ferry at a garage sale just this past weekend, and we're going to paint it. Suggestions?