Brian's First Birthday!

Mom was probably more excited about Brian's first birthday than anyone was. She started talking to me about it around Mother's Day. Mother's Day was at our house. We made chicken, potatoes and green been sheet pan meal for dinner. I made a purple Funfetti cake for Erika because she wanted a purple cake and I made some gluten free brownies for Ben. The mother's opened some homemade gifts, received some pretty flowers and enjoyed everyone's company. Brian was now walking well, and I had to put a lot of my stuff away because he would grab them and pull them off the shelves.

Over the next few days Mom would pester me about Brian's birthday. I told her she needs to talk to Erika since Brian's her kid. Erika kept saying she would get back to us but never really did until the last minute. I found out on the Wednesday before his birthday that we were actually having a party. Mom made me get a couple of Baby Shark decorations online and luckily, I had enough time for Amazon to get it to us before the party.

Erika let everyone know that it was going to be at their house at noon. Zach wanted to have chili dogs, chips and fruit. You know, something easy for a last-minute birthday party. We all didn't mind because we like food. 

On Friday after work, I went to go pick up a few things. I hit up the Dollar Tree, Safeway and Winco. I grabbed a few decorations, a fun gift for a one-year-old and some chips to go with the chili dogs. I came home, ate something and then went for a walk since it was so nice. I listened to my murder porn. Ben and I stayed up way too late, but I got everything organized for the next day and got in a quick shower.

For some reason I got up at 8. I just went back to bed until mom called me. We talked for almost an hour about random things. I thought about going for a walk, but it was raining and I really wasn't feeling it. I ate a quick light breakfast to tie me over until the party. Ben finally got up, shaved and got in a shower. I was glad I did all of that the night before. 

We grabbed everything we were going to bring with us, including the extra table and chairs, packed it up in the Escape and headed over to Erika and Zac's house to party with Brian! Traffic wasn't bad, which was nice. Sometimes that area during the afternoon sucks. When we got there, we tried parking out of the way so everyone could fit in their yard. 

Zac had the BBQ all set up getting ready for the hot dogs and sausage dogs. We all went inside to see if Erika needed any help getting the rest of the stuff ready. I even packed up the dinosaur year blanket so we could get one more of Brian before he is over a year old. Erika let me get that last month I needed. She had made it really difficult throughout the year mostly because Zac didn't care so she started to not care about it. Mom and I had to do it and some of the months it was hard to get over there and get the pictures. We got his year-old photo, and other people started to arrive.

We had chips, potato salad, fruit, chili, hot dogs, buns, condiments and birthday cupcakes. We all filled up our plates and found a place to sit down. I haven't had a chili dog in quite some time. We made sure Ben brought his own gluten free buns since they are expensive. We visited as we ate food. Brian was having a great time with his pieces of hot dog.

We helped Erika clean up and set up presents on the floor so he could open them up, with the help of his mom, of course. He has been into bucket lately, so I bought him his very own bucket and shovel. I was hoping as some point this summer, we would make it to the beach so we could build sandcastles as a family. He got some new clothes, toys and some stuffed animals. He was so excited with all the cool new stuff to play with.

Mom grabbed him and plopped him back into his highchair so he could have a Baby Shark birthday cupcake. We put a party hat on him and sang to him. This was the first time he's ever had a cupcake and from the look of it, he enjoyed it thoroughly. 

After birthday cupcakes, Erika cleaned him up and we started putting everything away. Our tables and chairs were loaded up and Erika thanked everyone for coming over and celebrating with Brian.

Ben and I got home, unloaded everything and took a walk around the park before getting ready for session 10 of D&D over at Nicole and Del's house. 

I can't believe he is now a one-year-old. The year really did fly by. I'm kinda excited to see what he will be like during his next birthday. I know he will have more teeth, will be walking better and saying more, clearer words.

Happy 1st Birthday Brian!

Next Adventure: Amy and Jean's Birthday in Bonney Lake

Sunday: Girl's Weekend - Leavenworth

After a rough night of being woken up by constant interruptions - drunken snores and it got unbelievably hot sharing a bed with another person. I slept like hot garbage. I did set my alarm for 7:30 but got up earlier than that because I could hear people downstairs. I got dressed, did my bathroom things and headed downstairs to see what the plan was. 

They all wanted to go out and get coffee again. I chose to walk around the downtown loop again, just to get some exercise in and some fresh air. I knew the rest of the day was going to be rough because I didn't get enough sleep. I might take a nap once we get back home this afternoon. It was a pleasant walk, and I ended up meeting up with the girls again. We walked past some of those character cut outs near one of the resort complexes in town. We thought we'd take advantage of them.

We got back to the house and Megan immediately started making us breakfast sandwiches. We ate some of Fitzy's gluten free muffins too. Those were pretty good. I asked her if I could take some home to eat later and she said I sure could. While Megan was busy cooking, we helped her as much as we could without being in the way. We did start packing up the kitchen as we went too. Erika still felt terrible from the night before and relaxed a little bit. She said she just wanted water and a banana.

Food was finished and we all sat at the table and ate while we talked about random things. One of the things that was brought up was where we might like to go next year. Someone brought up Hood River, Oregon and we all kinda agreed that would be a great place to meet up. It was about halfway for everyone. Megan said she would look into housing options while the rest of us would look into activities and what kind of food we wanted to eat while we were there. We had a year to plan out the next girl's weekend along with the notes we took along the way.

After breakfast, we helped clean the kitchen and the started getting our belongings packed up from our bedrooms and making sure we got everything. We packed up the vehicles. I helped Erika get her stuff in the car. She still wasn't feeling great. I hoped she was well enough to make the drive home without a bunch of stops along the way.

We all left around 10:30 and got onto Hwy 2 to get onto US 97. Fitzy and Megan pulled over to exchange money and Erika, and I drove past them to the junction. Erika was doing alright at that point. As we started up Blewett Pass and the roads got windy, Erika wasn't doing as well. She got super quiet. I told her, "Let me know if we have to pull over." She just nodded. I really didn't want barf in my car.  As soon as I said that there weren't any good places to pull over. She rolled the window down and just puked out the window. Some of it got inside - I felt barf drips on me; she got some of it on the seats and the ceiling. Luckily, most of it got on the outside of the car. 

I found the next available place to pull over and try to get the Escape cleaned up. Thank you past Val for keeping wipes in the car for such emergencies. Erika felt terrible about making a mess inside my car. I told her that it can be cleaned up. We grabbed a bunch of the wipes and started wiping up as much as we could. 

Since Megan, Nicole and Celeste were behind us. They drove past us, realized it was us and turned around. They pulled up behind us to make sure we were okay. They thought we might have had some car troubles. I walked over to them. Nope, no car troubles but Erika barfed in the car. They felt bad for me, but we all realized it was inevitable. Erika went hard the night before. I thanked them for stopping. They continued on their way while we finished cleaning up as much as we could. 

We eventually got into Cle Elum and had to get gas at Safeway. It was cold and windy. Megan, Nicole and Celste were also there getting gas. They went inside the store to use the restroom and to get some snacks. Erika and I just got gas and were soon back onto I-90. We had no issues from Cle Elum to Hwy 18 to home.

I dropped Erika off just after 1 p.m. I helped her bring in her bags. She said she was going to take a shower and then go take a nap. I told her that was a great plan. I left and went home. I was tired but I decided not to take a nap so it wouldn't affect my sleep schedule for work the next day. I also decided not to clean my car until later on that week. I just didn't have the energy. 

Instead, I got in a shower, washed some clothes and got a few things done around the house before it was time to get ready for the upcoming work week. I had a great time during girl's weekend. I am excited for next year!

Next Adventure: Brian's First Birthday!

Saturday: Girl's Weekend - Leavenworth

I wanted to sleep in a little bit longer, but I just couldn't. I got up between 7-7:30 because I was too hot and sweaty. I made up my mind that I was going to take a quick shower. I could hear the others up and doing some stuff in the kitchen. I grabbed my stuff and jumped into the shower and then got ready for the day. I went downstairs and found out everyone else was getting ready to go get coffee at one of the shops in town. I am not a coffee drinker, but I went with them anyway. I decided to take a walk around town to do the other two Adventure Labs and then meet up with them when I was done.

I made quick work of both of them since they too, were mural ones. I made my loop back into downtown and saw them up ahead of me walking back to the house. I caught up to them, and they pretended like they didn't know me, lol. We got back to the house to help Megan prepare eggs benny for breakfast. 

We all hung out in the kitchen getting various pieces of breakfast together and carrying on. We talked about what kinds of things we wanted to do after breakfast and hoped that the weather held up for us. There was a chance of rain that afternoon. We sit down at the table and devour the breakfast Megan made for us. It was delicious.

After breakfast, we helped clean up and ran the dishwasher. We got ready and headed to the other end of town to the Leavenworth Adventure Park so we could ride the Alpine Coaster. Megan's 4 Runner didn't have enough spots for all of us, and we didn't want to take two cars, so I volunteered to ride in the back. We figured why not; we weren't driving that far...just from one side of the town to the other. If it was a super nice day, we could have walked to the adventure park.

I can't believe it's been that long since I've been to Leavenworth. The last time I was here, Ben and I had rented a chalet near the Icicle River so he could propose to me. This was in July 2022. Time really does fly. I guess three years is plenty of time to build an adventure park on a piece of land that was just dirt the last time I drove past this spot.

We found a place to park and goofed around a bit until getting in line to take a turn to ride the coaster. We all paid for a ticket except Celeste. She decided she didn't want to go on the coaster. Instead, she made her way to the viewing deck while the rest of us got in the coaster line. I bet this place is absolutely crazy in the summer time. 

We finally get to the front of the line, and we are loaded up into our coaster. I am getting excited. The adventure park crew make sure we are buckled in correctly and they tell us the basic rules. You know, keep your appendages inside the coaster, if you are feeling like you are going too fast or getting close to another person in front of you, you need to use the break. They told us to have fun and one at a time we moved along the track.

Nicole went first, then Erika, me, Fitzy and finally Megan. It started to sprinkle as I was ascending the track. Celeste took picture of us from the viewing platform. She said it was fun watching us fly around the track. 

Around one of the turns, you could purchase a professional picture of yourself if you wanted one. I decided to purchase one. I put my info into the kiosk, double checked it and pressed done. It told me it was going to be emailed to me within 10 minutes or so. We all used the restroom and walked back down to Megan's 4 Runner. It was still sprinkling. We decided we wanted to play a round of mini golf but needed our jackets.

We went back to the house to grab our rain jackets. Rain was not in the forecast. My picture had not arrived in my inbox yet and suspected there might have been an error. I asked the group if we could stop by the adventure park to check in with customer service and they said yes. I went into the building and walked up to the available associate. I told them that me and my group were just here and I haven't gotten my photo emailed to me. They asked me to hold on while they got their manager. The manager arrived and I explained the situation again. They told me that they would send it to me right away. I gave them my email information, and they said there should be an email within 15 minutes since it has to go through the system. They said if there is any other trouble to give them a call. I thanked them and met back up with my girls.

We made our way across the street, about a block, from the adventure park. There was a new resort complex with a mini golf course tucked in the middle of it. We parked and went into the lobby to pay for one round of golf and get our colored balls and clubs. We walked to the beginning of the 18-hole course and established an order. I haven't played mini golf in several years...this could get hilarious.

It rained a little at the beginning but soon tapered off. We gave everyone just one mulligan. At hole one, Erika immediately hit her ball off the course and into the pond. You could tell who was well versed in mini golf and who wasn't. Some of the holes Nicole and Megan were way over par, and I think Megan even had to grab the ball and put it in the cup just to end the misery. Celeste, Megan and Fitzy all had a hole in one. Celeste took scores as we made our way through the course. We had fun.

At the end, Celeste scored all 18 holes, and she was the clear winner. She said Wii golf helped her out a lot. Fitzy was second, I was third, Megan was fourth, Erika fifth and Nicole was sixth.  We had some memorable putts, outrageous shots and close calls. We will have to see if we can make this a yearly tradition. Obviously, it depends on if there are mini golf courses at the locations we pick in the future.

We returned our clubs and got back into the 4 Runner. We drove back to the house, people used the restroom and we walked to Front Street to wander around. We went into various shops and some of us played Pokémon Go. 

We all decided we wanted some drinks, so we walked over to the Blewett Brewery on Commercial.

We all had a couple beers, seltzers or ciders and passed the time. We had dinner reservations at Andreas Keller, a local Bavarian favorite, and a place several of us have been to before. Ben and I ate dinner one night there while we were in town during the proposal weekend, back in July 2022. The food was amazing! When it was almost time for dinner, we made our way back over to Front Street and down into the restaurant. We were seated right away. We all ordered food and drinks. I got the sausage platter, and it was still delicious just like it was the last time I had it. We paid and headed back up to the street.

We wandered around town a little bit more and then decided it was time to get back to the house and settle in for the rest of the night. We all changed into more comfortable clothes, Nicole grabbed her bags of games, we set out some snacks, and we each decided on what kind of drinks we wanted to sip on.

We started off with Telestrations After Dark. We've been known to have some pretty amazing drawings and guesses while playing this game. Some of them will live in infamy and every once and a while we bring them up and laugh our asses off. This round of Telestrations did not disappoint either. There were times we literally were laughing so hard at the drawing or the guesses that we almost fell out of our chairs. There was one time during one of the rounds where Megan, and I were holding each other up from laughing uncontrollably. 

We lost track of what Erika was drinking and soon she became very touchy feely, boundaries did not exist, got a little rowdy and direct with her words. We've all been there a few times in our lives. Erika just got done having a baby not even a year ago, has been isolated, doesn't drink very much and was finally with a bunch of girlfriends with no responsibilities, having a fun, carefree weekend. She definitely went hard that night.  

She ended up spending some time with the porcelain throne and she was not a quiet puker. Fitzy ended up going in and spending some time with her and helped clean her up.  At one point, Erika ran up the stairs without any pants on, which coined the new term, "Donald Ducking it." It goes great with "Rubix Cube drunk" which showed up into our lives back in 2013 when Nicole went to a Halloween party dressed as a Rubix Cube. You can't make this stuff up!

Fitzy followed her upstairs to see if she needed any help. Celeste and I volunteered to go clean up the bathroom. At that point, the game playing was pretty much over. We helped Nicole put the games away and cleaned up the dining room table. We all, soon, got ready for bed. I was the lucky one that got to sleep with the wild drunk girl. 

That night was long. I had forgotten how difficult it was to convince drunk people to go to bed. She laid on the floor a few times, hogged the bed, snored in my face, made the bed all hot and sweaty. It was miserable. I'm glad she didn't puke on me. When I finally went to bed, it was late and super uncomfortable. I do not recommend!

Next Adventure: Sunday:  Girl's Weekend - Leavenworth