Aaron's Last Weekend in Seattle :(

Ryan's little brother, Aaron, has been living in Seattle with Ryan and interning with their firm since the beginning on June. Apparently time has flown by and it is now his last week in Seattle. Since last weekend was his last weekend in the Pacific NW, we decided to get in a few last big things. We left Saturday morning for Portland after dropping of Tara at Leigha and Nino's house for a little sleep over (I think she had lots of fun!) We ended up being joined by one of Aaron's friends (also named Ryan) who had come up to Seattle from Olympia for the Capital Hill Block Party the night before. So the four of us road tripped it down to Portland. One of the things I had wanted to do last time was our first stop this time around. Voodoo Doughnuts. The line wasn't quite as long as the last time we had stopped by, but it was pretty toasty out so that 30 minute wait seemed like a long time. While in line, the founder of the store popped in for some doughnuts and a little photo op with a few people in line. We didn't know until after he left that he was the owner...he kind of just seemed like some wierd random guy who thought it would be cool to get people to take pictures with him...now we know. Once inside the tiny shop, I was a little overwhelmed by the lengthy menu and not knowing what was involved in each menu item. Since the line was so long outside I felt a little rushed to make a selection at the counter. In my haste I ordered a 'butterfingerer'. As one might assume it was a doughnut covered in butterfinger. Ryan and Ryan got the fruit loop doughnut...covered in fruit loops, and Aaron got the signature 'voodoo doughnut' shaped like a little voodoo doll with a jelly filling. It was certainly an amussing experience, however, I'm still not completely convinced that it was worth the wait taste wise. Perhaps a little more research on my options may give me a more educated selection and better experience next time. It's certainly an odd little place.

After our doughnuts we wandered around the waterfront enjoying the Saturday market and festivities at the beer fest and the beautiful weather! We ended up at a bar for a late lunch and a few games of table shuffleboard. Although this was my first time playing on a table as apposed to the full courts, Aaron and I made a winning team both games. VICTORY!

We had dinner plans Saturday night at the Urban Farmer (the awesome place we went last time in Portland) so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up and freshen up a little bit and of course enjoy the pool after the slew of small children vacated it.  A couple hours later we headed back into town for some delicious food! Once again we were not dissapointed. This place is so cute and the food is amazing! We started out with the cheese plate, which I'm pretty sure I could just have a cheese plate as my meal. There were 4 different cheeses. My favorite was the gouda...mmmmm. I followed this with a plate of scallops...also my favorite! It was so good and I love the presentation. It's definitely a place we can't go every weekend, but it's nice to splurge a little every once in a while, and it's well worth it here!

After our late dinner we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Sunday we drove back to Seattle, picked up Tara and prepared for our next adventure...a Sounders game! We had a great time at the game and the city in the background was really pretty as the sun was setting. The only problem is we were about 15 minutes late to the game in which time all three goals of the game were scored!! How does that happen?!? My tickets said the game started at 8pm, so we were there a little before 8 and the game had already started! Not fair! Oh well, it was still a lot of fun and a good experience of the Seattle pride in soccer!

I also made some cute little rhubarb tarts this weekend. I think they may have been better than the cupcakes, mostly just because you could taste more of the rhubarb and I love rhubarb!

I heart Rhubarb ;)

I miss having rhubarb growing in the backyard. I've been wanting to make something with it for a long time but I was having such a struggle giving in to paying the outrageous prices for it in the stores. I'm so used to having an overabundance of it for free. I might have to bring back some of it from Michigan in August...hope there's extra mom!

I finally gave into my urge to buy and bake with some rhubarb tonight and made some rhubarb cupcakes...yes, I love cupcakes. I took this cake recipe and made little cupcakes, then put a cinnamon cream cheese frosting on it. Quite frankly, it could probably do just fine without the frosting and make great muffins, but the frosting just looks cute. So we'll see how they go over at bible study tomorrow night! I think they're fabulous!

Dancing Through the Desert!

Here's a little video I put together of our dessert trip in Egypt. I meant to put it together a while ago, but got distracted playing with the video editing software for a while. Now I really want to get more software to play with...hello Christmas List!!

Zoooooooo

This past weekend we spent the day at the Point Defiance Zoo/Aquarium in Tacoma. It was a beautiful day out, so it was great to be walking around outside seeing all the fun animals!

[right after the bear on the rock took a big poopie in the water...ewwwww]

[Little Stephenson brothers]

[getting eaten..ahhhhhh!]

Later that night we went out to 'The Garage' bowling alley/pool hall to play some games for the rest of the night.

San Diego

I spent this past week in sunny San Diego. I was taking a class at the Navy Base down there, but it was also a good opportunity to relax in the evenings, soak in a little sun, and see a few sights! One of my favorite things about flying in/out of Seattle is seeing all of the beautiful mountains from above. This time it was a pretty clear day so there were great views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens on the way down. 

During the week, we got out of class pretty early in the afternoon, so I was able to enjoy the outdoors a little going running on the bay and visiting Coronado Beach and just relaxing. 

[Coronado Beach]

I do a lot of traveling for work, and I know my family members do as well, so it doesn't really occur to me to keep track of who is going where when. As I was sitting in San Diego, I got a message from Jordan saying that he was coming to San Diego that week too! What an awesome surprise that I was completely not expecting! I hadn't seen my little brother since Thanksgiving of last year. In the month of June I was able to see everyone else in my family in one state or another, but Jordan had already moved out to Boston, so I missed him. Thursday night Jordan got into San Diego, so I picked him up from the airport. After he checked into his hotel we wandered around the Gaslamp district. We supposedly met the guy who invented the 'shake weight' standing outside one of the bars downtown...that was an amusing experience! After that we found a bar to grab some food and a drink at before calling it a night. Friday was my last day in class and we ended up getting out around noon. I checked out of my hotel and headed back to the Gaslamp district to wait for Jordan to get back to his hotel after touring the Qualcomm headquarters. I had to laugh a little when the bus of Qualcomm interns pulled up to the hotel and the first few people got off and were all super nerdy looking all in matching t-shirts! It was cute. I'm glad Jordan can be super smart and like nerdy things while still maintaining a normal social lifestyle! At this point I had a couple more hours before my flight back to Seattle, so Jordan and I wandered around the waterfront seeing some of the sights and the Navy memorials. I'm so glad we realized we were both there at the same time so we could see each other!! Then in the next month and a half I get to see Jordan in Michigan and Seattle too! So much fun!

[Gaslamp District]

[Jordan and the Gigantic kissing couple]

[Yay little brother!]

Ryan's new Ride

Ryan bought a new motorcycle last week!! We're looking to take the safety class and get licensed at the end of august, then I just need to get one too! For now, this is the bad boy of choice ;)

Rachel Lake

We spent the 4th of July appreciating this wonderful country that we are blessed to live in by going on a hike to Rachel Lake! The first part of the hike was just a light uphill following along the side of a river/waterfalls. The last mile or so, however, was a pretty steep climb that ended up being covered in snow. Luckily it wasn't too much snow to keep us from completing the hike. We ended up at an alpine lake (Rachel Lake). Unfortunately the weather wasn't ideal, and when we got to the lake we were pretty much inside of a cloud. It was still really pretty and amazing. I guess all the rainy days are what makes the brilliant green foliage that makes the hikes so beautiful.

By the time we were driving back into Seattle it was perfect timing to catch all the fireworks at night. We drove across the I-90 bridge and could see fireworks in every direction. It was the perfect ending to a great 4th of July. God Bless America for real!

Yay Friends!

I always knew I had some of the best friends in middle school, now I get to hang out with some of them all over again!! Friday night I went out to happy hour with two of my favorite people from middle school, Leigha and Sarah! I've been hanging out with Leigha a good bit since we've both relocated to Seattle, but now I get to hang out with Sarah too. She was just in town for a few days, but her and her boyfriend were scouting out potential apartments to make the permanent move, and Sarah got an awesome job while here too! It was really awesome to be back together again with them, and it's still incredibley apparent why we were friend to begin with...because they're awesome :) Sarah is making the big permanent move out to Seattle at the end of the month, so I can't wait to all hang out again very very soon!

On Saturday we got to hang out with some more friends and make some new ones. We headed over to Golden Gardens Park again for another birthday party. This time it was for my roomie, Sarah! Obviously we hang out together during the week since we live together, but we both head south on the weekends, so we've never really hung out in the city. She is from Everett (just north of Seattle) so she spends her weekends there, and obviously I'm in Seattle every weekend. It was a great day out, so it was fun to spend the afternoon at the beach and meet some of her friends from home. They were also cooking up some giant oysters on the grill so I had to give them a little taste...they were soooo big!

New Apartment!

So Ryan is officially all moved into the new apartment. It's definitely a step up from where we were at. We're on the 32nd floor and have great views of Capital Hill and Downtown Seattle as well as Mt Ranier on a sunny day in the back ground. Some awesome things about the new apartment: really tall concrete ceilings, an actual bedroom, large dogs are allowed, a great gym overlooking the city, huge windows, and it's environmentally friendly! Really the only part I dislike about it is that there's more carpeting than I would like. I also did not like the small about of counterspace and storage in the kitchen...buuuuuut, that has been remidied! On Monday we scooted over to IKEA and picked up a great kitchen island! It has drawers and cabinets on one side, and a bar top seating area on the other side, and a huge surface area on the top! I love it and am super excited about it.

I think we're in an awesome place for now, and I plan on moving into it as well when I move down to Seattle in the winter and start my new position in Kitsap. We have a 18 month lease, which I think is the perfect amount of time to get all settled into our new lives and save up a little money to hopefully look into buying a place next. That would be super exciting! It would be hard to beat these views though!