KEXP BBQ

Aaron and I attended the annual KEXP bbq this weekend to take in an afternoon of music. Included in the lineup were Blue Scholars, The Blakes, The Cave Singers, Cloud Cult, and the band we were most excited to see, Pela. Pela is from Brooklyn and their debut album, Anytown Graffiti, has been one of my three favorite releases so far this year (along with new albums from Arcade Fire and The National, respectively). I had been anticipating this show for some time now and this anticipation was only compounded by some very favorable buzz I read about their live shows on a couple of music blogs. I could go on an on about how amazing they were, but in short, I'll just say that they absolutely killed it. Aaron and I were stunned by how tight and fluid their sound was and they were quite possibly 10x better than any other band that played at the show.

I landed a drumstick their drummer Tom fired into the crowd (thanks to Aaron)

Me and Billy, lead singer of Pela

Aaron with Andrea Zollo of the legendary (but now defunct) Pretty Girls Make Graves

Pela rocks the stage

Billy belts out another song

The Cave Singers with Andrea accompanying for one song

Cloud Cult

The Blue Scholars

The Market Turns 100

The iconic Pike's Place Market turned 100 years old this past weekend and the city had a full weekend of festivities set up to celebrate. Capping the activities was a free concert held in the park adjacent to the market. We thought it would be fun to attend the concert so we got together with Ster for a night on the town. We had dinner at Cafe Presse, a new Parisian cafe by our house, then headed over to the Chocolate Box for a tasty dessert. The Chocolate Box is a new, chic, chocolate-centric cafe near the market with delicous treats of the--you guessed it--chocolate variety.

After our little dessert, we headed over to the park to check out the show. It was a really great night featuring musicians from bands like Pearl Jam, Presidents of the United States, and The Long Winters. They went through different eras of music playing the songs that made Seattle famous in a tribute to the local music scene. A highlight was their rendition of Soundgarden's "Spoonman" featuring the actual Spoonman who was made famous in Soundgardern's music video. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam closed the show with a riveting version of Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner.

Me

The stage, which you can obviously see very well in this photo

Fans sitting on the streets of the market watching the show

Me and Stacy

Me and Sterls

Visiting SLC

We spent last week in Utah visiting family and friends. The Henderson family was hosting our first annual Dean Henderson Invitational golf tournament, and that event coupled with Uncle Gary and Aunt Karen's "welcome home" from their mission to the Ivory Coast, Africa, was enough to justify the trip. The golf tournament was fun, and rather surprisingly, I wasn't completely awful. Gary and Karen also gave great talks and it was nice to see them after a couple of years. We also had the chance to have a little BBQ with friends and visit Steve and Shana's house.

Stacy with our beautiful nieces, Noelle and Olivia

Court's not actually crying here, he's just making a funny face in an attempt to get Tiana to give him an animal cookie

Trav Dogg and Stacy

Stacy, Grandma Marj and Me

The Girls: Tawni, Stacy, Tiana and Mom

With Johnny, Ashley, Sophie, Erica, Jason, Ster, Brandi, Lilly, Rett, Jill, Stacy and Me at a BBQ in Johnny's backyard.

The Hotness Rocks Our World

Last week we had the opportunity to attend what was possibly the most anticipated concert in Seattle history. The Hotness is a band formed in Salt Lake City and clearly on the brink of superstardom. Innovative in their sound and creative in their approach, The Hotness combines noted influences to create a sound that is both distinct in its quality and breathtaking in its range. They are difficult to describe, but Aaron puts it best: "We're like Wham, only gayer."

A good time was had by all.

Hell On Earth

Stacy taking a nap because it takes so long to get through this place

A sign I never want to see again

An idea of the awful blue and yellow the building is painted with

Me looking like I'd rather die

A sign of impending doom

Let me tell you about the worst place on the planet: Ikea! I couldn't possibly do justice to how truly horrific this place with is just words, but I'm going to try. Picture, if you will, the worst aspects of Wal-Mart and a Las Vegas casino combined into one awful experience. Think of the people you generally see at Wal-Mart (i.e. look like they have been exported directly from Arkansas no matter what part of the country you live in) and add to that a casino-like scenario where there are no windows, no clocks, and no way out--once you enter, there is literally just once exit and you have to traverse the whole maze just to get there.

Now keep that in mind while trying to imagine a place at least ten times bigger than any Wal-Mart you've ever been to (this place looks like it should literally have its own zip code) and painted in the tackiest blue and yellow have ever seen. If this little description keeps you awake at night because of its nightmarish posibilities, I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet. Once you pick out the item you want to purchase on the showroom floor, you have to go back into a warehouse, find it by its barcode, and take it home to construct it yourself! The first time I went there, I swore I would never go back. But Stacy wanted to go this past week to pick up a few things so along I went like a little fool completely forgeting just how brutal my first experience was. Oh the things we do for love.

Introducing...Jeff and Suzi!

Stacy and Suzi

Me and Jeff

Jeff, Suzi and Stacy

So this is Jeff and Suzi's debut in the blog. They are two of our best friends here in Seattle and we have know them since about the time we moved here. However, they have been in London for the past six weeks doing a study abroad so this is our first time seeing them since entering the blogging world. They just got back from their trip last week and last night we had the chance to get together with them for dinner. As always, we enjoyed our time with them as they had great stories about London, Edinburgh, Barcelona, and Jeff's favorite, the "coffee shops" in Amsterdam.

A little bit more about them: Suzi is originally from Korea but has been in this area since high school. She and I live the same unfortunate lives as JD/MBA students (though her's is exponentially more fabulous than mine). Jeff is from Shoreline (just North of Seattle) and is beginning his last year at Gonzaga's law school. He's headed back to Spokane this weekend so we're going to miss him.

The Tillamook Factory

Stacy and I enjoy our ice cream cones

Lilly tries her first pickle

A look onto the factory floor

Brandi, Stacy and Brittney posing with a cow at the entrance

Visiting the world famous Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook, OR was a highlight of the trip. The factory had several exhibits and displays which explained the cheese making process. There were areas around the factory where you could see onto the factory floor and watch the workers who are responsible for their tasty dairy products. The factory also had an ice cream parlor with fresh Tillamook ice cream and a cafe where you could order food items featuring Tillamook cheese. I had a ham and cheese and Stacy ordered a cheeseburger. We also tasted some of their ice cream. I had German Chocolate Cake and Stacy went with Huckleberry Pie.

S'Mores

ABells gets in close for the perfect roasting technique

The fire that produced several terrific s'mores

Stacy and Brittney get cozy next to the fire

One of our favorite things to do every night at the beach was make s'mores in the fire pit behind the house. We quickly noticed that everyone has their theory about how to make the perfect s'more. Honestly, they all taste good to me!

Sand Sliding

There were a couple of sleds at the beach house and a huge sand hill at the north end of Pacific City beach so we thought it would be fun to slide down. The pictures don't do this hill justice because it was big and steep. Unfortunately, most of us were too heavy to really get going on top of the sand (Stacy had better success than the rest of us who just sunk into the sand), but after a few runs we were able to make a little trail and get some good runs going.

The Pelican Pub & Brewery

Brit, Brandi and Lilly

Stacy and Brittney sipping on some of the house brewed Root Beer

The gang

Pacific City had this nice little brew pub situated right on the beach. We decided to check it out for dinner one night and had a nice little meal. Ster ordered an appetizer made form shark meat which was my favorite dish.

Scootin' in Heels!

The beach house had a couple of scooters so Stacy and Brandi decided to take them for a spin. They had a great time riding them to the beach.