Soccer, Food and a Wedding

One of my best friends in the entire world got married this weekend and I am so pleased that I was able to make it for the special day. But that wasn't the only thing I was excited for; I also had the opportunity to hang out with some family this weekend!

There is one more reason I was excited, well at least to fly. One of the sad things about Seattle is the lack of Chili's restaurants there are. There is only one in the city and that one is located in the airport after going through the security check, so I was excited to get a Chili's fix!

Saturday morning Cynda, Steve and I met up with the Taylor's for James' soccer game. It was a beautiful day and so much fun to see all the kids running after the ball. Despite both coaches' best efforts the kids didn't keep to their positions, but you could tell they were having fun! At the end of the game there was a little award ceremony and each kid got a medal for participation.

After the soccer game we ran some errands and later that afternoon had some yummy food at the Taylor's house. Of course Liz did some amazing grilling and I got to spend time with the kids. Madeleine loved showing off her bat wings, while Cole showed off his shell collection, Spencer showed of his tree climbing skills and James showed off his ever so lovable smile.

That evening I headed to the wedding reception. Kirsten has been one of my best friends since we met in St George about 7 years ago. We took a sports medicine class together and were a part of a group a friends from the dorms at Dixie State College. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding and she has always been a good listener. We have had some fun times together. I was pretty excited when she first told me that she was dating and then engaged to her now husband, David Astle. I met David in the 38th Ward (The same ward Matthew and I met in) and I always thought of him as a kind, giant soul. It also turns out that David moved in with Anthony Woolf when Matthew moved out to marry me! So Kirsten and I dated our beaus out of the same apartments, just at different times!

The reception was lovely. I loved that it was in a green house, even if the green house was at a cemetery! At first it was slightly weird to be at the reception without Matthew, but soon some familiar faces showed up and we had a good time catching up and of course dancing! I was especially glad to see my dear friend Matthew Meldrum and his mom.

Sunday was spent at church and the PUs home. I enjoyed Steve and Cynda's company as well as Steve's yummy grilled burgers. I feel so blessed to have such a good relationship with Matthew's parents. I feel their love for me and love spending time with them with or without Matthew. I feel like they are my second parents and I know I am lucky. Not everyone gets the opportunity to have such a relationship. After dinner the Taylors dropped by for a quick visit before I was dropped off at the airport. Although a short visit, it was definitely a sweet one!

From bat girl to ballerina

Say Cheese!

This weekend our friend, The Architect, stopped through Seattle on her way back home from a school trip to Vancouver, BC. We met up with her at Pike Place Market where we enjoyed a great sushi-filled lunch as well as the spectacles that come along with Pike Place including the ever so beautiful flowers. While in the market, Matthew and I also realized that an all too familiar scene was taking place. We happened upon, once again, the Cheese Festival. When we visited Seattle for the first time a year ago we also came upon the Cheese Festival while exploring the market.

Picture courtesy of The Architect

Us and the Cheese!

Woolf vs Seattle

Our good friend Anthony Woolf came up to Seattle for some Army training and had some time to hang out with us, so we decided to take him around Fremont. We've been to Fremont several times, but it is a great place to bring people because of the random statues you find, the great chocolate factory and all the good food!

We started by looking for a place to eat and found a mexican restaurant so we went in. The vibe of the place was really nice, but when we saw the price of the food it was a little more than we wanted to pay, so we slipped out before our waiter came back. It would have gone smoothly, but I add clumsy to most things and as I got up my purse got stuck to a chair and I tripped. Luckily I caught myself, but not before hitting my one of my fingers. It began to swell immediately, but that didn't stop us from enjoying our evening together.

The restaurant we fled

We decided to see a few statues while trying to figure out what else sounded good to eat and then we came across a gourmet burger place that the boys were insistent on trying, so Blue Moon Burgers it was! And the food did not disappoint. Matthew, of course, put everything he could think of on his burger including a fried egg,  grilled pineapple, bacon and more. Anthony Woolf order chili cheese tater tots, which I think was the best thing I ate!

The drawbridge went up while we were standing there. We waited at the light forever.

After eating we decided to bring Anthony to The Troll, but found something new along our way. There was a random picture frame statue in the middle of the sidewalk! After a brief photo shoot we finally made it to the troll and I think Anthony liked it!

Even though we were stuffed from dinner the boys stilled wanted to try the dessert at pie. Matthew and I split a cherry pie while Anthony Woolf had a hot chocolate cream pie that had a spanish spice that gave it a kick. We had such a good time with Anthony Woolf and were grateful that he could share some of his time in Seattle with us!

Video Chat with Noah

Most every week I Skype with my sister Elisa and her husband Alex. A few weeks ago Skype was giving us some troubles and Alex suggested we try to video chat using Google+ hangout feature. It actually seems like a decent alternative, but I'm not completely sold on it. I don't like that I can't view the video in full screen, but there are some silly fun things that you can do to entertain yourself.

One of the things we enjoyed was watching a few You Tube videos together. What was really cool about that is you watch the video together and although you can't hear one another unless you press a talk button, you can see the other person's reaction as they are watching the video.

The other thing we enjoy is the Google Effects app that allows you to place silly hats and other random things on your video. Yesterday, we were talking again and near the end Noah was in the perfect position to try out some of the effects on him. We might have had a little too much fun dressing him up. He is so cute!

Monopoly Man Noah

Dread Pirate Noah

Snorkeling Noah

Iron Chef: Vegetarian

So I have been thinking for a few months that there are quite a few young people in our ward and I don't know very many of them that well because we are all so busy, so in the spirit of getting to know people a little bit better I took a good friend's great idea and started an Iron Chef group. Now to be completely honest, I have never watched the show from where this activity gets its name, so I have no idea what it is really about, but the version of the activity that I have come to understand is to come up with a theme and/or a special ingredient that each participant is to use and no matter what group they are assigned (appetizer, main dish, dessert, drink) they have to incorporate the theme/ingredient.

I wanted things to be fairly simple for the first activity and I knew that we had a few vegetarians in our group, so I thought a no meat theme would be a good kick off. It could serve  at least 2 good purposes in my book, 1) make sure that for at least one of the get togethers, my vegetarian friends could eat something else besides what they brought and 2) maybe I could get a few new no meat option recipes.

So I collected e-mail addresses and sent out invitations asking for RSVPs so I could assign groups (assigning people to groups helps to ensure a little more variety). I never tell people what to make, but  give them an assignment of dessert, appetizer, etc.

 Drinks and Appetizers:

Dips: An olive dip on the left and spinach dip on the right

Yummy cheesy bread!

Entrees:

Meat free enchiladas and pizza

Butternut Squash Soup with cheese Ravioli

Desserts:

An Eclair cake and chocolate cupcakes made with spinach

 Pies!!

 Friends:

L: Kristy and Trevor Lacey R: Jack Quincy, Jordan and Summer Rigtrup

L: Bryon, Steve Hulet and Matthew R: Kevin McBride, Dave Shepro and Jen Wilson

Jeff Raj, Christie and Ben Rogers

L: Jessica and Mason McBride R: Nellie

L: Charles and Beautiful girlfriend R: Jack n Jamison with Jessica n Mason

I think our first Iron Chef was a great success! I hope people enjoyed it and are excited for more to come!

Ready to Run?

This is a picture I took of Matthew right before we headed out on one of our training runs. Doesn't he look excited?!