Audrey's 10th Birthday in Seattle

Audrey is officially in the double digits! This year for her birthday she wanted to go to Seattle again and this time she wanted to go to the top of the Space Needle. She invited one of her favorite people in the whole world, her best friend Aubrey, and it was the first time for both of them to the top. Actually, I hadn't been up to the top in about 30 years! (Uggh.. that makes me sound SO OLD, but I was reeeaally young the one time I went.)

Audrey has been looking forward to this for weeks and we were super happy it turned out to be such a beautiful day.

Can you tell they're excited?

We got our tickets! Aunt Maria came with us again this year. This is our second year in a row having a girls trip to Seattle. Maybe we need to make it an annual thing. We love that Maria came along... she always makes everything twice as fun!

Heading up to the elevators!

The top of the space needle. And if you haven't noticed... Fred and Günter tagged along for our adventure. We wouldn't have it any other way.

It was an amazing day with beautiful views. Seattle really is gorgeous!

Don't you just love their matching outfits? I surprised Audrey and Aubrey with matching outfits since the girl's birthdays are only six days apart. Don't they look so cute? When Maria and I asked them if I should have bought us the same matching outfit, they gave looked at us like we were nuts. They informed us that they wouldn't have walked with us if we were wearing the same outfits as them. I guess we're not cool enough to pull it off.

Getting Fred and Günter ready for their photo op.

After our visit up the Space Needle we rode the monorail over to the mall to have some lunch at the food court. My kids think a trip to Seattle without a ride on the monrail is a total bust.

After lunch we had a big... no a HUGE surprise for the girls. They have been wanting to get their ears pierced for as long as I can remember, and both Melissa and I keep telling them that when they get a little older we would let them. They both asked again this year, and we told them not yet, but after putting a little bit of pressure on Doug, Aubrey's dad, we finally got the green light! When Maria and I walked into Claire's and said... "Why don't we get your ears pierced?".. they thought we were totally joking. But after we finally convinced them we were serious and I told Aubrey, not to worry, I'm sure her dad wouldn't even notice, they were SO excited and SO nervous. I loved it! It was soooooo fun getting to watch them fulfill something they have dreamed about for so long.

Love, love, LOVE that they were totally there for each other. Aubrey was pretty nervous so Audrey said that she would go first! Aubrey was right there the whole time holding her hand.

Audrey said that it pinched just a little, but it didn't really hurt too much. This was a relief for Aubrey and watching how quick it went for Audrey, she was feeling a little more brave.

Sooooooo excited! Aubrey couldn't believe she was actually going to do it! I made sure that she also knew that I got permission from her dad before she actually went through with it!

Marking her ear. She was getting just a tad nervous again so we told her a story about a chubby unicorn and that helped distract her.

Ta-da! Look at those cute girls with those cute earings. They kept asking if this was a dream and were afraid they would wake up tomorrow and none of it would have happened.

Aunt Maria. We love you. We are so glad that you came along on our girls day in Seattle and helped us make such fun memories. And just so you know, we did not invite you along just to hold our stuff while we take a gazillion pictures. In truth, we begged you to come so that we could listen to hilarious stories about chocolate bars in bed. Thanks again for coming!