5 on friday: {seattle edition}

Russ and I spent last weekend in Seattle visiting his brother's family. We quite enjoyed ourselves, and so I've decided to make today's five all about what you should do if you find yourself in Seattle.

one. Go to the Japanese Garden. It is beyond gorgeous, and it may cause you to want to move to Japan. Or to create your own little (or big . . . ) Japanese garden in your backyard.

two. Eat tasty food. We enjoyed a Greek place and a delicious teriyaki place, as well as home-cooked steak, pulled pork sandwiches, and pizza. Food is really one of my very favorite things in life, so it's always a highlight of any trip. And because I like it so much, I rarely take a picture of it. I'm always too busy eating it :) So one of the only "food" items I managed to snap a picture of was our root beer. There is a tiny little place filled with a bajillion different flavors of root beer! We got five different flavors . . . and to be honest, I didn't really like any of our picks (that's partially cuz Shayne and Steph have crazy taste, so their choices didn't really taste like root beer), but Russ's was my favorite of our five. It was the River City Root Beer, in case you're planning on trying it out :)

three. Make sure to hang out with these two cuties, Molly and Susan! :)

You could do all sorts of fun things with them! 

Like go to the park . . .

Paint computer screens at the Microsoft Visitor's Center . . .

Play a nice game of animals (which is really just Charades with a theme . . . Susan is being an elephant)

Teach them to drive . . . 

Read them stories . . . 

Or, you might even be able to convince them to let you be their prince . . . though I don't think so, because Susan already asked Russ [who is definitely becoming the favorite uncle ;)].

And when the cuties go to bed, you should definitely stay up late (because guys, 10:30pm really is late now) chatting with the adults, Shayne and Stephanie, and playing games like Take Two (Like Bananagrams), Love Letter, Quarto, or Robo Rally. But don't waste time playing UpWords; you'll probably regret that one. Be sure to ask Shayne and Steph about the books they're reading, because they are both avid readers, so it's fun to hear about what they're reading and get ideas for what you could read. Ask Shayne about all of his finance knowledge, and ask Stephanie about all of her cooking knowledge. Enjoy every minute with them, because those minutes don't come around often enough!

four. Go geocaching in Kirkland. Especially if, like me, you've never been before!

Don't let the wind deter you . . .

Because you might find a fun surprise like we found!

five. And my number one recommendation (best for last!) if you go to Seattle? Definitely have Steph make you a cake. That girl is a rockstar in the kitchen, and she nailed this Mango Tres Leches cake. I may or may not have had four slices of this three-layer cake all in one night. Okay I did, but only because it was my only chance to eat it before leaving early the next morning! :)

So there you have it--five awesome things to do on your next trip to Seattle! ;) Hopefully with these ideas you can enjoy a trip to Seattle as much as we enjoyed ours :)


**ashleynicole