5 Years of Wedded Bliss

 A few weeks ago on St Patrick's Day, Graham and I cheered to 5 years of married life together! We spent a wonderful, packed-to-the-brim 24+ hours, just the two of us, reminiscing about the journey and how we got to where we are now.

My sweet, romantic husband prepared a stack of numbered envelopes for me to open throughout the day which gave me clues as to our next activity. After dropping the girls off at their grandparents, we started with brunch at Volterra in Ballard, an Italian restaurant we visited while dating (and the location of a rather tell-tale conversation, I might add!) Next was a trip downtown to shop for skinny jeans (Graham was going for a "taste of Europe" theme) and I actually found and purchased TWO pairs. We had a quick lunch at our favorite spot in Pike Place Market, Piroshky Piroshky before it was time to pick up the girls and bring them to their overnight babysitters. Graham had planned to take me through the market to pick out a bouquet of flowers as we very seriously considered buying whatever flowers happened to be in season at Pike Place for our wedding bouquets. We've always wondered what kind of flowers they would have been and what better way to find out than to walk through on your anniversary? But we ran out of time. Next year maybe! We also had to defer a quick wine tasting at a favorite Truffle Cafe to another day as we wanted to maximize our time relaxing at the hotel.

 Our wonderful friend Amy (who has been a part of our anniversary lodging for 3 years counting now) hooked us up with an amazing suite at Hotel Bellevue. I mean seriously, we had an entire living room complete with glass chandelier and everything!

 The bedroom portion of the suite was larger than our living room at home and was decked out with red rose petals in the shape of a heart.

 I know I'm weird, but I had to get a shot of the bathroom too! But I only photographed one of the bathroom (yes there were TWO!)

 Upon arrival at the hotel, we were greeted by name (by employees other than Amy I might add!) and were handed glasses of champagne. Up in our room, chocolate-covered strawberries and a beautiful potted orchid and a full bottle of champagne awaited--royal treatment for sure!

 I love tradition and so have done my best to align my anniversary gifts with the traditional gift suggestion for each year of marriage. Graham is not a gift person and would prefer "consumables" or activities/memory-builders and so this a proven challenging, requiring extra imagination and creative juices. The theme for 5 years of marriage is wood so I selected a old-vine zinfandel (supposedly a US version of a primitivo) that sported wood undertones. Graham had been wanting to get his hands on an old zin to see if it was any good so I think he was quite pleased.

I also enlarged this photo from our engagement shoot and made a card out of it (get it? tree = wood).

Funny story! Amy had told us the hotel had a town car that could drive us to and from dinner. Graham had texted her the location and time of our dinner reservations (I didn't know where we were going) but never heard anything back. Once we arrived at the hotel, he called down to see if we did indeed have a ride but the concierge informed him that our restaurant was outside of the car's driving radius. Oh well! Our sporty mini van was a great second option! I needed to pump before dinner so decided--voila--I could pump in the van en route to the restaurant and save time. Perfect, right? Well, we went down to the lobby, pump in arm and immediately about 4 guys scurried out front to open the hotel doors followed by the doors of the white BMW sitting out front. I noticed the kafluffal but assumed there was some special behind us and so kept walking. Like literally walked right past the open car door 2 feet away from me. After some scurrying,  one of the guys chased us down and asked "Aren't you two going to the Barking Frog for dinner?" We were totally confused and said that yes we were but we'd been told the car couldn't drive us that far. The guy told us, on the contrary, they'd actually brought in an extra driver just for the very task of driving us!!! Wow! We felt awful for walking by them but, we are not used to such service! It wasn't until we were in the car (complete with individual DVD players and reclining back seats, I might add), that I realized pumping was not going to happen. Unless of course the restaurant just so happened to have outlets inside the bathroom stalls (which it didn't). So much for our brilliant plan!

Dinner at the Barking Frog was incredible, as usual. We were served complimentary flutes of champagne along with their to-die-for Grand Marnier Prawn appetizer (Amy's husband Sam knows the owner of the Willows and gave them the heads up we were coming....) Then I just had to try the Buttermilk Fried Quail with Black Pepper Waffle and Maple Chicken Demi. It was better than I could have imagined. Super crispy and delicious! Pardon the cell phone quality picture but it was truly superb!

 For our main courses, I had scallops over the best coconut curry risotto I've ever tasted. Actually the best risotto I've ever had period. And the most beautiful--fluorescent yellow with flecks of lime green and finished with lavendar flowers. Why don't I order risotto more? Graham had the duck breast with citrus and cocoa farro that was ok but I definitely "won" if our entrees were competing. We both went with the waitress' wine recommendations and it turns out I had me a $17 (!!!) glass of wine! Good thing it was our anniversary! :)

Graham spoiled me and got me some sparkly earrings and a cookbook with recipes from many of the most famous restaurants in the Seattle area (Barking Frog included). What a wonderful first night away since Emma's arrival! Thanks to the Croziers and Welchs for keeping the girls!