Weekends are my favorite.

The last few weekends have been WONDERFUL. I got up SUUUUUUUUPER early on the morning of September 18 and caught a plane to Charlottesville for the day...got to see my family at the Knight reunion...after I'd had my fill of "pickin' and grinnin'", I caught up with friends from the singles ward over dinner at my FAVORITE Charlottesville restaurant (Thai 99...mmm...I dream about their curry and drunken noodles...sooooooo good!). It was a great evening! The next morning, Randi and I went to the Charlottesville airport to try to catch a flight to Charlotte so that I could go back to Tampa and she could go to Hilton Head, SC. Turns out our flight out of Charlottesville was C-A-N-C-E-L-L-E-D due to maintenance...so we jumped in the car and started making our way to Lynchburg...the seats we wanted to get out of there filled up before we got there, so we decided to just go ahead and go all the way to Charlotte! Ca-razy! My flight to Tampa didn't work out, so I ended up flying into Sarasota and my friend, Jenna, came to pick me up. I worked Monday through Wednesday of the next week (though those days were some of the longest work days I've experienced in a LONG time) and on Thursday morning I got up early again and headed out to see Niels in Washington state. Thursday was a long day, too...just getting to Washington was exhausting...but the fun we had over the course of the weekend made the long flights, bus rides and wait until he got off work worth it. He is truly one of the greatest people I know and I'm so glad I got to spend some quality time with him...it'd been a long time and we definitely needed to catch up! We went to dinner at a REALLY great restaurant on Thursday after he got off work and then to his offices so he could finish up a few things before taking off for the weekend. After his offices, we went to downtown Pullman for some Huckleberry ice cream, which was really good, and then home to watch lots of youtube videos and talk more.

The next morning (Friday), we got up and ready and packed for spending the rest of the weekend in Seattle. With the hotel booked and our camera batteries charged up, we first stopped by his office to get his water bottle and meet one of his co-workers who was really nice...and then we set out for Seattle...taking our sweet time. It's normally a 4/4.5 hour drive from Pullman to Seattle...but with all of the stops we made along the way to take pictures, taking a pass that made the trip about 100 miles longer so that we could see Mt. St. Helens and Mt/ Rainier (BECAUSE WE COULD) and a little traffic along the way, the trip to Seattle ended up taking about 10 hours...and it was a great ten hours!!! We checked into our hotel and then went to get dinner at a place in Greenwood called Mr. Gyros. Ho-ly cow...it was delicious! The guys working in there were SUPER nice (um, and handsome) and the food was amazing! We walked around in downtown Greenwood for a little while and then went back to the hotel and to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up and skedaddled into downtown Seattle. We went to Pike Place Market and took TONS of pictures, then we went to a place called "Three Sisters Cafe" for breakfast. After Pike Place and breakfast, we walked around downtown Seattle taking TONS AND TONS AND TONS of pictures. We went to the Experience Music Project Museum, did our turn on the Duck Tours, and finished out the evening atop the Space Needle and dinner at Buca di Beppo.

Sunday we saw the Fremont Troll, Gasworks Park, Jimi Hendrix's grave, did the Underground tour and saw the Ballard Locks and then wound down by seeing "Crazy, Stupid, Love" that night. I was glad that it was still playing in Seattle...I'd wanted to see that movie since it came out...and was not disappointed. We both really liked it.

Monday we got up and checked out of our hotel, got some breakfast and went over to Glazer's Camera shop so that I could get a lens cap to replace the one that I'd lost in the VERY FIRST field that we tromped around in back in Pullman on the way to Seattle. After we finished at Glazer's, we started the drive back to Pullman...the trip back, though leisurely, took the normal amount of time...basically. We stopped at a place called Steptoe Butte on the way back so that we could take in the view of the area and, of course, take more pictures. After Steptoe, we went over to the mall in Moscow, ID to check on Pandora charms (which we didn't find anywhere in that mall) and got dinner. After dinner, we stopped back by his office for a few minutes so we could take his lunch for Tuesday over...since Tuesday was going to be such an early morning with a run to the airport and then the early meeting he had to run. After we got back to his house, we loaded the pictures we'd taken onto his computer and edited a few of them in LightRoom...can I just take a moment to say how INCREDIBLE that program is?! Truly. I CAN'T wait to get my new computer and get a copy of it...and learn to use it! :) I love it!

The rest of the week at work was busy playing catch up...and this past weekend was General Conference...which was just the kind of "pick-me-up" that I needed since I haven't been to church in almost a month at this point!

This weekend, my sister Randi and her boyfriend Jonathan are coming to Tampa for Flugtag. I can't wait to see her...and meet Jonathan...and take lots of pictures of people in their "flying machines" shooting off into the Bay! :)