Sunday, April 24, 2011

Temple, Tulips, and an Easter Egg Hunt!

This weekend I was actually able to break away from research quite a bit and spend a lot of time hanging out with Megs. It was a very welcome break, especially with the 60 degree weather and sunshine.
First off, we went to the play "The Beams Are Creaking" at Taproot Theater. The play tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor during WWII, who actively fought against the Nazi's, including multiple attempts on Hitler's life. The story was depicted in Germany, while some accents drifted between Australian, Scottish, and occasionally German. Despite that, we still had a wonderful time.
Before the play, we stopped across
the street at Gorditos (http://gorditoshealthymexicanfood.com/) for one of their famous baby-sized burritos. Megan convinced me that we should just share one, but maybe I'll do one all by myself someday ;) As always in Seattle, everything was all natural and delicious!


Saturday started off at the temple, and because of the BEAUTIFUL weather, we finally got some pictures of the temple here.


We then headed straight from the temple to the Mt Vernon Tulip Festival. The 1-hour trip went fine... for the first 20 minutes. Then we caught up to the rest of Seattle. I suspect that the whole city was heading to the Tulip Festival. I-5 was backed up, for 40 miles. After 20 minutes of stop-and-go on I-5, we pulled out our trusty GPS and found little Highway 9, which runs parallel to I-5. Highway 9 is not much of a highway though. It's more of a paved, back-country road. It even runs into a one-lane bridge where you have to wait for oncoming traffic to cross. HOWEVER, we were the ONLY people that were taking that route. I don't know if no one else was brave enough to try that route, or if no one else thought to check for a parallel way on their GPS, but it probably saved us an hour of driving time; Not to mention, instead of being stuck on the freeway, we were driving on country roads, passing fields, lakes, farms, and summer homes. The drive was a million times better!
Which driving conditions would you rather? Traffic vs. Big Lake


When we arrived at the Tulip Festival, we were famished, so we went to the Kiwanis Club's Annual Salmon BBQ...and YES, it was way worth it! After that, we got some info to bypass more traffic and headed to the tulip fields. Check out the acres and acres of tulips. And by the way, this is only one farm. There are many farms in the city. It was beautiful!

This picture almost looks fake.


The fields stretch farther than eye can see!

Once we got back, we colored some eggs and headed over to the Church with some friends to have an egg-hiding contest. Each couple hid 6 eggs for their spouse. However, anyone could pick up any egg they found, so there was a lot of careful hiding and running around. It was a great time and Megan won the grand prize out of all the wives - a giant chocolate Easter bunny! Go Megs!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Spring Break...and it WAS Spring!

Mitch finished his classes 2 1/2 weeks ago and, unlike the past 4 years at BYU, we actually got a Spring Break! The weather was beautiful here, almost getting to T-shirt and shorts temperatures! The grad students had a BBQ a week after finals were over, so Megan came out with one of the kids she nannies. It was nice to be out in the sunshine, but while juggling a soccer ball, Mitch re-injured his left knee (the one he injured right before we moved to Seattle). Learning from the first injury, Mitch went to the doctor and scheduled an MRI yesterday. The MRI actually turned out to be quite enjoyable! They lay you on a bed with a heated blanket, let you listen to Enya, and make the ceiling look like you are laying beneath a cherry tree on a clear day. The good news is, it seems that Mitch may only have to get his knee scoped - no ACL surgery!

On Monday, March 21st, we went to Toys R Us to buy some kites. (By the way, I would recommend going to Toys R Us for a date anytime!) We got a "fancy" two-handled kite, along with a MicroKite, which is only about 6 inches wide! After Toys R Us, we headed over to kite hill on Lake Union (which is actually part of Puget Sound). The two-handled kite was VERY fun to fly. When whipped across the sky quickly, it would make sharp dives, rigidly flapping in the wind and making quite a bit of noise.
Here's Megan flying the kite near the Lake, with the Seattle Space Needle as a backdrop.



Megan also found out yesterday that she got cast for a voice-over for a video game. The game is based on the Nancy Drew books (http://www.herinteractive.com/Mystery_Games) and is the first voice-over Megan has done! She is very excited to have this part, especially with such a respectable company!

The LDS General Conference (wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Conference_(LDS_Church)) this weekend was also great. The counsel given by the leaders was inspiring, uplifting, and Spirit-filled. We started a tradition this year that every General Conference we'll be making home-made cinnamon rolls.... and they were AMAZING! If anyone needs the greatest cinnamon roll recipe, follow this! Do this recipe (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ooey-Gooey-Cinnamon-Buns/Detail.aspx) WITHOUT the brown sugar goo on the bottom and then use the icing from this recipe (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Clone-of-a-Cinnabon/Detail.aspx).