This Memorial Day weekend my parent’s officially celebrated their 30th Anniversary. (This weekend also marked 6 years of partnership for Josh and me). They had a big cook out in their backyard and invited many people. My Dad passed off his camera to me and I shot many photos. Upon returning to Seattle I realized my own camera lay untouched in my suitcase.
Much wine and Italian sausage was ingested. My only living grandparent, Grandpa Sam, was in attendance. I hadn’t seen him since our wedding, and it was awesome to spend some quality time with him. He sent me home with a carton of baby artichokes…he’s that kind of grandpa.
My brother regaled the party goers with humorous stories and my sister formally introduced everyone to her latest bf, a nice chap named Justin. My Dad put up these fantastic black and white pictures from the 70’s on the wall. He took the pictures with a box camera and developed them himself, so the portraits of my Mom and Dad are really gritty and stark. I love them. I really want the picture of my parents sitting in their backyard in Iowa City in 1974; they both have long hair and are wearing plaid shirts. My Mom’s black hair is streaked with silver–a preface to her hair graying prematurely. Another photo I love is the one where they are standing outside my grandparent’s house in Salt Lake, it’s sunny but there is snow on the ground. My Mom is wearing a gigantic, puffy, coat and my Dad is wearing nothing but a thin shirt. He’s hunched over and looks freezing, but he has this big grin on his face. My Mom looks toasty and happy. Obviously the photo was impromptu and my Dad was too bad-ass to put on a coat. My parents also put pictures of my siblings and I on display. The best one is of Sam and I sticking our blue candy coated tongues out at the camera. My bright red striped sweater is horribly misbuttoned and Sammy has on this awesome blue vinyl coat with a piece missing on the elbow. We were 3 and 6 years old.
We drank really tasty wine and toasted my parents. My father compared their love affair to his favorite novel, Pride & Prejudice. In it Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have a big falling out and eventually reconcile which is akin to my parents budding relationship. Legend has it that my Mom broke up with my Dad because he was “distracting her from studying.” This was when they were both working on English PhD’s in Iowa City. My Dad was heartbroken. A year later my Mom ran into my Dad on campus and casually mentioned that she had two tickets to a concert the Music Department was putting on. They went out, (my Mom wore a long sleeved crop top), and the rest is history.
The day after the party, Josh and I headed to Nordstrom’s Rack–the brand new, revamped one. It was pretty fantastic. Tons of Juicy Couture, Miss Sixty, and Lucky brand clothing. Sadly, I ended up empty handed except for a snazzy DKNY floral raincoat. Josh made out like a bandit; seriously, he did much better than I did. However my quest for denim capris continued when we hit up the Gap and Express, enjoying our tax free purchases. We met up with Gina at her place, and this is where I caught the few photos I took over the weekend:


Josh mulling over my sister’s Date Ball. We asked it dirty questions.


Gina with her roommate’s cat, Soda.


Soda and Gina.


The sideyard of Gina’s sassy duplex.