Hey, what happened to Spring?

So now I know why they make such a BIG DEAL out of snow up here in the northwest.

What looks like 2 inches of innocent snow is actually 2 inches of ICE, covered with 2 inches of snow. aka: skating rinks for cars

Three's Company

Friday Night Aimee and her 2 girls flew up to spend the weekend with us in Bellevue. What a fun surprise! Saturday, we took a day trip down to the Seattle Center Children's Museum, the Space Needle, and Pike's Place Market. We all enjoyed the activities in the Children's Museum, spending 2 hours there, and we could have stayed longer. There are so many fun things for the 6 and under set to do there. The girls got to touch a crab at the market, and then shake its claw. (it was cooked-so no danger involved). We bought a chunk of fresh salmon to cook for dinner and got some asparagus at the farmers market too. We went across the street and bought 3 giant cookies and shared the nummy goodness of chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and pumpkin. Yum-o!

We passed by a sculpture garden that had some really fun sculptures, including a giant old-school art eraser complete with pink wheel and blue tassle on the end. Very cool. Aimee, Larry, and Sophie rode the elevator up to the top of the Space Needle and took in the mah-velous view.

It was a sunny day, so you could see for miles. We ate lunch at Lowells in Pike's market, which was delicious. Yummy fish n chips, chowder, and crab cakes. We were all pretty tired at that point, so we had Sister Garmin show us the way home. Sunday was Church, and Mackenzie had a blast in her Primary class with her new friend Corbin. When I went to pick her up the teacher said "She is outstanding, just incredible!!" I had to agree, and squeezed her for good measure.

Aimee cooked dinner and made a delicious glaze for the salmon with rice and asparagus. Elders Hansen and Russell had brought us a raspberry cake, so we had that for desert. We went for a walk down to the duck pond and fed the ducks and the lone goose popcorn. Gary had his fare share of peanuts this weekend, along with fruit snacks, cheerios and bread. We were glad to have them visit and sad to see them leave. It was a great weekend!

Another day at the Office

Here is Elder Wilson sitting behind his computer and he's not even on ebay!

Last week we got 15 new missionaries. Elder Wilson taught them Mission driving rules and car care. The Missionaries are expected to keep their cars clean and the oil changed.

He even had a power point presentation to show them. The missionaries have to keep track of how many miles they drive each month and stay within the guidelines they are given or they get their car taken away for a period of time. At Zone conferences awards are given to the zone that stays within their mileage, and the "Golden Hubcap" is given to the cleanest car.

Winners get Krispy Kremes and/or candy bars.

I don't know what she's doing either....

...must be some kind of ancient
housewife ritual.





Thanks to Jodi & Brian for making
my day.

Conspiracy Theory

We really think there's a consiracy to keep people from moving here. All the stories of clouds and rain, gloom and doom, etc etc. How can you not like a place that has 46 degree days in February, a beautiful blue sky and some of the best fresh seafood there is? We think it's quite ideal. Tell us, what's your idea of the ideal place? We'd like to hear from you.

Please don't squeeze the Garmin

We have a new friend. Her name is Garmin Nuvi. She knows how to get anyplace.

Our Little Forest Friends

I love these guys. I know, I know, Aim, they are just rats in cuter pajamas, but I can't help myself. When they come to the patio door looking for peanuts or bread, we just have to feed them. They fancy themselves to be good at hiding their nuts in the grass, but the birds just wait until they leave, then enjoy the nuts themselves. (We have lots of birds here, from large to teeny tiney)

Today while taking out the garbage, Larry thought he saw a rather large cat run across the breezeway to our apartment. When it turned, he noticed it was wearing a burglar mask, and was, in fact, a rather pudgy raccoon. We couldn't have asked for a better location for our apartment. Seeing all the cute animals more than makes up for the roller derby in the apartment above us.

To market, Pike's market, to buy some fresh fish....

So........we figured, hey we've been here 2 weeks, that practically makes us native Seattle-ites. We never carry an umbrella, and we wear jackets everywhere. We fit right in.
Feeling pretty confident in our ability to navigate, we head west on the 90 to downtown Seattle and the Pike Place Market to get some fresh salmon for Sunday dinner. If you've never been to the market here, you've probably seen it on "The Bachelor" or "Sleepless in Seattle" It is filled with a variety of vendors from fresh produce to fresh flowers to fresh seafood, handblown glass, and touristy souvenir stuff galore.

I wanted to draw as little attention to us as possible. One of the mission rules is "never look like a tourist." so we took our own cloth re-useable "Muir Woods" eco-friendly bag with us, hoping to blend in and look a tiny bit like locals. {Seattle is a very eco-conscious place, and they look at you with disdain if you don't carry your own bags when you shop for food} So, anyway, we're feeling pretty good strolling along with our eco-bag, buying oranges, asparagus, portobellos, and salmon. That is, until we decide to head back to home sweet Bellevue. My google map was completely worthless, except for one street name we were able to find and work our way back to the freeway, across the bridge, through the tunnel, miss the exit, turn around, miss the exit again, get on the 405 and find our way OFF the freeway at the one Bellevue exit I know, all the while worrying about running out of gas in the Suburban.
Whoever said getting there is half the fun didn't try getting there with a Google map in a Suburban. Now you know.

I love to See the Temple, I'm going there someday...

Saturday we ventured down 148th to the Seattle Temple, conveniently located about 10 minutes from our apartment in Bellevue. It was fun to see how things are done at different Temples, and we enjoyed our experience there. We met a Temple Worker from Vancouver, BC, who commutes 2 hours each way to work in the Temple on Saturdays. It was a sunny, blue sky day, so we took pictures to prove it. The grounds are lovely, and the dafodils were beginning to bloom.

Earthquake? What earthquake?

Apparently there was a 4.5 quake at 5:30 am below puget sound that was felt as far away as Vancouver. I do some of my best sleeping at 5:30am, so was oblivious to the whole thing until Elder Wilson answered a phone call from a mom calling the mission office to check on her son.
After conducting an informal poll of mission office workers and phone-in Elders, no one felt the quake. Not even Sister Elder who was actually up at 5:30. We're all fine here.