Sweet Seattle

April 3-7, 2009

I have a cousin named Erika. Those of you who know me well know that we grew up together we are the same age and we have been great friends all of our lives. I spare you the reminiscing of what we did as children, but they are fond memories.

Erika and her husband Stanley live out in Seattle. I have been out there twice to visit before. Well, while I was living in Japan Erika and Stanley were blessed with their first child a baby boy named Tyler. He arrived a little early, but he got here and for a preemie has developed normally and he now is an active little 22 month old.

FINALLY after being back in the states for a year I got to go out and meet him and spend a long weekend with her family. I did this alone.

We had a grand time. Saturday we just hung out and talked, the weather was nice we went to the park. I got to meet Tyler and play with him. Busy Busy Busy is all I have to say. Daniel now is 4 1/2 and I forgot how busy those little toddlers can be! Saturday night Stanley gave Erika her birthday gift. Guitar hero. We spent a few hours playing it and had a blast. We even made up our own rock band "Couzins" we thought we were too cool!
Sunday was Erika's birthday. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was a nice morning out and Tyler really enjoyed the animals. They have Hippos!!! My Columbus zoo does not have hippos!! That was neat for me. They also have Tapirs - I am not sure if I have seen them before. Like my trip to the zoo with my kids they had the same type of sculptures that you can sit on and take pictures:


We did get to hold the live birds too.

Sunday night we celebrated Erika's birthday with a yummy cake (that we ate before dinner). And finished off the night seeing how hard "expert" was on guitar hero. I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time. My face was aching!

Monday was BEAUTIFUL just beautiful. Erika and I spent the day shopping, going out to lunch and having our toe nails painted. Just a fun girls day out. Erika has a Honda S2000 convertible and we were able to drive it around all day! I loved it! It is a manual transmission, and although I know how to drive one, I am not very good and I was not going to practice on her car!! But we did get this fabulous picture with Lake Washington in the background.
Tuesday I flew back to Ohio and had dinner with Bill, Gracie and Daniel (Patrick and Kevin spent the night at a friends house).

It was a wonderful weekend. THANK YOU Erika and Stanley for having me. I am looking forward to another visit in the future, but I have a feeling that I will be traveling with 5 extra people, I'd like my family to see that side of the country and to meet their cousin Tyler (and Tyler's new brother or sister due to arrive in Oct)!