Stephen & Amanda

iPhone

2012-01-08T22:10:00.001-08:00

Usually for Christmas the only thing I ask for is clothing. But this year, since I am pregnant and don't fit into my regular clothing, I asked for an iPhone. Since I got the iPhone I have spent a ton of time downloading apps and different things. One app I downloaded called old booth. It is pretty entertaining. Here is a picture I took of Stephen.

January fun

2012-01-03T22:10:00.001-08:00

December was a busy month for Stephen and I. We took two trips to Utah and had some family come to town.

Stephens dad Dave had a business trip in San Francisco this week and came out a few days early to spend time with us.

On sunday we took Dave on a walk to the Berkeley marina which is about a mile away from where we live. It has a beautiful view of San Francisco, alcatraz, and the golden gate bridge.

On Monday we took Dave into San Francisco. We went to st marys cathedral, golden gate park, the golden gate bridge, and to Sausalito. It was really fun and we are glad we could spend the last few days with him.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

2012-01-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

My Auntie Julie, Uncle Tec and two cousins came to visit us this December. While they were here we took them to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is a 2 hour drive from where we live, but it was well worth it!

Here we are in front of the aquarium.

Stephen infront of the open sea exhibit. those big fish in the picture are tunas

here i am with a statue of a seahorse giving birth

wall of jellyfish

inside one of the tanks

stephen and i in front of the kelp forest

inside the kelp forest

Utah

2012-01-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

This December Stephen and i took two trips to Utah. The first was towards the beginning ofDecember for his sister Lara's wedding and the second was for Christmas. It was really nice to visit Utah after being gone for almost 6 months. We were happy we were able to see a lot of family and a few friends.

Here are Lara and Dave

We love our nieces and nephews very much!

This is stephen with Lydia and Joshua

Here I am with Max and Elizabeth

We saw the lights on temple square with the whole fam.I went to lunch with the Evelyns and Kamalei

Kamalei and I

Stephen with Mary, an Angel, and a Wiseman.

Christmas dinner at Grandma Ferry's

Hurray!

2011-12-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

Stephen and I are happy to announce we are having a baby boy! My due date is May 12th.

Christmas!

2011-11-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

Stephen and I are soooo excited for Christmas. We have been in California for almost 6 months now and are ready to go home to see our friends and family. We are planning to go to Utah twice this December, for Stephen's sister's wedding and for Christmas.

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree

Lately

2011-09-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

I have not done a very good job at keeping my blog updated. Since I posted last a lot of things have changed. Stephen has started school and we have had a lot less time to travel around and do sightseeing. September has been a busy month for us so far.

On Labor day Stephen and I took a 12 mile hike in Big Basin State park. It was so beautiful. We saw a lot of red wood trees and four different waterfalls.

Here is Stephen inside a redwood tree.

We are really fortunate that we are just a 25 minute BART ride into San Francisco. Stephen and I have gone into the city a few different times to go to dinner, art exhibits and shopping.

Here is stephen in Chinatown

Stephen's Uncle is the mission president of the Santa Rosa, CA mission. His daughter got married in September and we were so happy to be invited and to have family come out for the wedding. Stephen's parents, his brother, and sister in-law came out for the weekend. We spent a day at the wedding and with the family, then the other three days sight seeing.

Here is Stephen and his brother David. We tried to get them to stand close together for the photo but were unsuccessful.

Stephen and I at Bodega Bay.

Stephen and I in Armstrong Woods.

Jane, Brandy and I at fisherman's warf

Stephen and I at the oakland temple for the wedding.

Stephen and his class went to Point Bonita to check out the site for one of his projects. He really liked it and took me there a few days later. It is a really beautiful part of the coastline that divides the bay from the pacific ocean.

Here is stephen looking at the Pacific side of point Bonita.

Earlier this week my roommate from my friend Megan and I went to Alcatraz Island for a tour of the prison. It was interesting to learn more about the prison. And apparently after the prison was shut down, a group of Native Americans claimed it as "indian land." That is why "indians welcome" is posted throughout the island.

Overall, the last month has been a lot of fun. It still hasn't sunk in that we will be in Berkeley for the next 3 years. I still feel like I am on vacation. But we definitely do miss our family and friends.

Santa Cruz & Monterey

2011-08-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I have been having fun doing touristy things on my day off. Last week we drove to Monterey which is about two hours away from us. We did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach and saw the beautiful ocean, cliffs, cyprus trees, and golf courses.

Here I am with the Lone Cyprus, the symbol of Pebble Beach

Here is stephen walking along the cliffs and pointing at something

There is a big fat seal laying on the cliffs

After the 17 mile drive we drove into Monterey to have lunch at a yummy seafood restaurant. After lunch we went to see Cannery Row, a part of Monterey that was famous for its sardine factories. Stephen wanted to see it after reading John Stinebeck's book, Cannery Row, that was inspired by the place.

On our way home we drove through Santa Cruz to Natural Arches state park. It was beautiful! We are loving being in California.

Dominus Winery

2011-08-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I went on an architecture tour of Dominus winery today. It is a beautiful winery in the small town of Yountville in Napa Valley. The winery is typically closed to the public for tours and tastings, but they do give small architecture tours once a month to groups no larger than 20. According to our hostess, most tours are attended by architects or students of architecture because the building was designed by famous swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron, the same architects who designed the De Young museum in San Francisco and Prada building in Tokyo that I have written about in this blog. They also designed the bird's nest in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Most of the technical information about the building went over my head, but I did enjoy the scenery of the winery and the design of the building. Here are some pictures.

The arch of the building draws your eye to the winery.

The building's facade is meant to blend in with the scenery

the building is surrounded by wire cages filled with rocks

this door is supposed to make you feel like you are inside a wine bottle

french oak barrels, this room is kept cool by the thick cement walls and rock exterior of the building, no air conditioning is required.

Plants

2011-08-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I have been moved in to our apartment for almost a month now, but we are still busy doing some finishing touches. Last week Stephen was busy shopping for plants that would work on our small balcony. Our balcony faces north and doesn't get much sun, so he had to do some research to see what plants would be the best for us. I don't know the names of any of the plants besides the herbs, but i do love having them right outside our window!

Sunday Funday

2011-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Every sunday since we moved here we have gone on day trips in the bay area after church. there are so many places that have been preserved for us to explore. here are some pictures.

This past sunday we went to Point Reyes National Seashore, the area is known for its wildflowers, ranches, seals and as a great place to whale watch.

Plants + The Beach

Big Slug + 1 Dollar Bill

lighthouse

beautiful seashore

our first visitors!!

2011-07-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend Stephen's Mom and Sister came to visit. We had only been gone 2 weeks but we were very excited to have our first visitors! Here are some of the things we did....

Visited the beach on the west coast of san francisco.
saw the picasso exhibit at the de young museum.
drove across the bay bridge in fog.
took a walk at muir woods.
had lunch at alice water's restaurant chez panisse.
visited a cathedral in san francisco
had breakfast in the ferry building at fisherman's warf
grocery shopping at the farmer's market.

it was lots of fun and we were sad to see them leave.

Unpacking

2011-07-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

We made it to California Tuesday afternoon. It was a loooonng drive. I have driven to California before, but not for a few years. The drive was pretty boring from SLC to Reno, mostly just ranges and basins. Driving through the Truckee/Tahoe area was the most beautiful. We rolled down the windows so we could smell the pine trees.

Most of our things didn't arrive until Wednesday. Although our apartment is almost twice the size of our last one, there is a lot less storage space.

Here is our new couch and some of our things waiting to be unpacked.

Here is our kitchen with a ton of boxes.

The hallway leading to our bedrooms, bathroom, and study area

Stephen has his priorities for unpacking.

On Thursday we went to the DMV to get our Drivers Licenses and new plates. Look how gross the front of our car is from all the bugs we hit on the way.

After running errands and unpacking we decided to head into San Francisco for Dinner. We are only about 15 min away.

Our drive across the Bay Bridge

Our first stop in San Francisco was to the store of one of Stephen's favorite designers, Paul Smith. We have been to 8 of his stores in 5 different cities here and in Japan.

After Paul Smith we went to Pizzeria Delfina, a delicious pizza place we went to during our first trip to San Francisco for our Honeymoon. The wait was long, but it was worth it.

Fourth of July Fun

2011-07-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

We had a bitter-sweet Fourth of July this year. We woke up early in the morning to finish some last minute packing then went over to my brother's in-laws for a BBQ. It was nice of them to invite us. After that I said goodbye to my family and we headed over to Stephen's brother David's house for swimming and another BBQ.

Most of Stephen's family came and a few other relatives. After dinner we lit fireworks in front of David's house. It is nice that they changed the firework law this year. We could see fireworks across the valley and it also saved David a trip to Wyoming.

Here are Olivia and Jon Jon covering their ears. during the fireworks.

Cute Penelope was scared.

She wasn't scared after she got a cupcake

The goods.

We spent some good quality time with our newest nephew Joseph.

Joseph is a little big for his age.

We ended the night by saying goodbye to all of Stephen's family. I have moved a few times before this, but not for longer than the summer so it was a lot harder saying goodbye this time.

Sayonara Utah

2011-07-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

Our last three weeks in Utah were crazy! We had to find a place to live, find a new job, sell our car, pack, say goodbye to friends and family, and drive out to Utah. We started packing really early, anticipating we would be busy with other things during our last week here, but we ended up barely getting everything done in time. We used U-Pack through ABF and packed all of our things nicely into a small cube that was transported from Salt Lake to our new home in Albany. We are living in the Student Housing for UC Berkeley which is much better than the 70 yr old buildings at the U. I will put some pictures up later.

We were very fortunate to get to say bye to most of our friends and family, although we did miss a few people. Here are some pictures from our last couple of weeks in Utah.

We made s'mores in Richard's lovely backyard with Ren, Shauna, and their two cute kids.

It was really hard to say bye to these cute kids.

Farewell dinner with Evelyn and Todd at Ichiban. I will miss you friend.

Dinner at Setebello with work friends. I had the best co-workers. Seeing this picture reminds me never to wear that skirt again.

Bye-bye Byu Bowling with Eve P(G), Alex, and Kamalei.

Bye kamalei.

And to all the friends I did not get to say bye to. I will miss you, and come visit me soon!

Disneyland

2011-07-07T23:37:00.001-07:00

I am really late in posting this, but the picture is so terrible I couldn't resist. This was taken during our trip to Disneyland in the spring. It seems that everyone knew where the camera was except for me.

the city of angels

2011-06-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I took a trip to LA at the beginning of May. I have been in and around LA several times, but this was the first time I did some real sight seeing and spent some time in the city. We got an awesome deal at the Westin hotel right in downtown LA.

The day we flew in we went to the Getty Museum near Bel Air. Stephen went there last year with the Architecture program at the U and really liked it so we decided to go again. Almost the entire complex of buildings were covered in travertine imported from italy.

Here is Stephen with the travertine building in the background and one of the beautiful gardens. We were pretty sleepy from our early morning flight so we laid down in the grass and took a nap. The weather was perfect!

Here is the view of downtown LA from one of the balconies.

After the Getty center we drove to Santa Monica for dinner and shopping. We visited Hennesy + Inglass, a bookstore that specializes in Architecture books and had pizza on the boardwalk.

Here we are on the pier.

The next day we walked from our hotel to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a building designed by Frank Gehry. He isn't one of stephen's favorite architects, but i really like his buildings as well as the line of jewelry he did for tiffany's.

Here i am at across the street from the concert hall.

The courtyard on the 3rd floor was very beautiful.
this fountain was made of delftware, it was a surprise for lillian disney.

we took a self-guided tour.

After the concert hall we drove to chinatown to have dim sum at the empress pavilion.

After lunch we drove to hollywood and went to some of our favorite stores. We visited another Hennesy + Inglass store, jonathan adler, fred segal, and paul smith. We had sushi ad the geisha house for dinner.

The next day we picked up stephen's brother at the airport in Long Beach and went to see the Angels play the Indians. It was a really good game. The angels won in the last inning.

Happy Bananniversary

2011-06-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on June 4th. It is pretty crazy we have already been married for two years, it has gone by really fast. It has definitely been the best two years.

Stephen surprised me with flowers in two of my favorite colors, purple and pink.
We had dinner at faustina. I had the asiago cheese crusted scallops.
Stephen had the stuffed beef tenderloin.

We went to capital theatre to see Le Mis.

Happy anniversary stev-o. love you lots

dinner amongst friends

2011-06-01T21:03:00.001-07:00

Last week Stephen and I had dinner in the lovely home of Richard Bingham. The occasion: Ben and Olivia were visiting from North Carolina. It was nice to spend time with some of Stephen's friends from high school. The last time we were all together was almost exactly a year ago when the Knudsen's moved away. We had delicious burritos, potato salad, italian sodas, and tres leches cake for dessert. Followed by Stephen Groo's rendition of "Street Fighter." Here are some pictures from the occasion, all taken by and stolen from Ren Wightman.

what an amazing film

richard, ren, ben, and stephen

We met baby Cohen for the first time.

Happy times all around.

catch up

2011-05-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

I have been away from the blogging world for the last few months. mostly because i have been busy with work and unmotivated to blog. this semester was stephen's last at the University of Utah. Hurray! so he has been really busy with school. we are excited that stephen will be going to graduate school at UC Berkeley in the fall. so we will be moving to the SF bay area sometime this summer! we are planning on getting a couch bed or second bedroom so visitors will always be welcome! our time over the next few months will be spent preparing to move, finding an apartment, job, and enjoying time with our families.

p.s. we are also excited that cal and utah will both be in the pac 12 conference!

Best Birthday Ever!

2011-01-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was my 23rd birthday, and it was probably the best birthday ever. I am so lucky to have my birthday around the same time as MLK j.r. day every year. This year I had a 3 day weekend so Stephen and I planned a trip down to St. George. The trip couldn't have come at a better time because...

1. I was getting so sick of the cold weather and inversion in SLC

2. I really needed a vacation from work (January is the busiest month of the year at the bank)

3. I don't think I had spent more than 10 min outdoors since September

4. I needed to spend some quality time with Stephen.

Even though we could only be gone for 3 days, we definitely made good use of our time. Here are some of the things we did...

1. Played tennis twice

2. I went for a run

3. Went to Vegas Saturday for shopping an dinner at Trevi in Cesar's Palace

4. Went for a hike/walk behind Stephen's Parent's house in beautiful 59 degree weather

5. Slept in

6. Watched Despicable Me on redbox

7. I also watched several reality TV shows including Teen Mom 2, the X life, and cut off. (i don't know why i love these shows so much. ha ha) while Stephen watched football.

It was a greeeeeat weekend, just what i needed.

Here are a few other things that made my birthday especially great...

1. Birthday wishes from friends and family

2. Going to dinner with my Family tonight

3. Birthday card from my Grandma (she never misses a year!)

4. Lush messed up on my Christmas order, so I got a buy one get one free credit and bought all the things i wanted for myself for my birthday. he he.

5. Stephen got me a subscription to the Economist

6. Stephen also got me a platter from John Derian, a designer we discovered in NYC a few years ago and fell in love with. He did a line for target that came out in the fall, but we love the things from his store more.

I know this blog post is boring with all lists and no pictures--I kept meaning to take pictures but was too busy having a great relaxing weekend. I am excited to go out to dinner with my girlfriends next week for more birthday fun! Thanks for the wonderful birthday friends and family.

Christmas Fun

2010-12-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

Stephen and I are pretty boring when it comes to Christmas gifts. We typically do all of our own shopping and then wrap our own presents. Our stocking stuffers are the only real surprises we get. This year we finished our Christmas shopping early thanks to a trip to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving.

This Christmas we celebrated Christmas Eve with Stephen's family in Provo. Their tradition is to have tacos and re-enact the nativity. Stephen's sister Lara made awesome nativity costumes for the kids, but I didn't get any photos.

We slept over at Stephen's brother's house on Christmas Eve because we wanted to see the kids open Christmas presents. It was fun watching them open their presents and then helping them put their toys together. We had breakfast at Stephen's Brother's and then went to my brother's house to exchange gifts with my family. Afterwards we went back to Stephen's brother's for dinner and watched Elf. Stephen did a great job stuffing my stocking. This year my stocking stuffers comprised of...

-Beehive Cheese Co Cheese and Rusks

-Peanut M and M's

-A Chocolate Orange

-Riesens

-Socks

-An ornament from Anthropologie

-Pot holders from Anthropologie

-Portugeese Soaps

-Bath bombs and bubble bars from LUSH

-Banksy book

Stephen and I see the lights on temple square every year. This year, we went the same time as Stephen's family. We had dinner at Hires and then walked around temple square. Here are a few shots.

The cute Hemmerts
The Vellingas
The Stewarts
Cute Katherine on Stephen's head

My 3rd annual picture in front of my favorite nativity.

Halloween

2010-12-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

This holiday season has been very festive for me. Usually I don't really get into the holidays because I have been in school and haven't really had the time, but this year has been great. It all started in October with Halloween.

For Halloween I usually don't dress up. And if i do dress up, i find something around my house or wear a costume i wore in previous years. This year, thanks to a 25$ gift card to Target from my boss, i purchased a REAL Halloween costume. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to be. I needed to be something timeless that I could wear year after year. And I also wanted a costume that could potentially be a couples costume (assuming Stephen would take the initiative to go costume shopping.)

I decided to be Yoda. I found an awesome Jedi costume from Target in the little boy's section that fit like a glove. And then I went on my search for Yoda ears or headband or something. I visited several Halloween stores, and the only Yoda masks I could find were latex. Deciding that a latex mask wouldn't be best for work at the bank, i decided to scrap the Yoda idea all together and be a regular Jedi. Here is my costume.

We celebrated Halloween at Stephen's parent's house. We had "body part soup" for dinner, which was soup in a pumpkin bread bowl with plastic body parts, and then built a haunted house in the basement. Here are a few pictures.

Spooky witch Elizabeth

Joshua was a Chinese man.

Here are Harry Potter and Dracula reading Calvin and Hobbs.

Donnette Perkins gave Talisa Vistaunet and I tickets to see Dracula at pioneer theatre in Salt Lake. It was great! but a little scary. I also saw Thriller at Kingsbury hall with Stephen's family. It wasn't very scary, but pretty fun.

Dear Santa

2010-12-03T22:35:00.000-08:00

Things I want for Christmas....
I would love this Kate Spade "Upstate Fillipa" Cross-Body bag in Eggplant.

Lush is Lush is Lush is the best!

Essie nail polish, especially J.Crew's colors for this season.

Will I get Flowerbomb in my stocking this year???

Leopard print Sammie flats from Banana Republic. Love them.

What do YOU want for Christmas???

P.S. Thank you Heidi for the inspiration!

Sundance

2010-11-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

It is time once again for us Utah locals to register for tickets to the Sundance Film Festival. Do it here.

I know this is unrelated, but I also need to mention that Stephen took the GRE yesterday and got a great score! I am proud of him. He will be applying to 7 grad schools over the next month and a half. Good luck Stev-O.

My Guilty Pleasures

2010-10-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Ever since I graduated from the U I have had a lot more time on my hands. It has been fun to pursue things that I previously had no time for. I have picked up some good and useful habits and hobbies and some that are a little more embarrassing. Here's a list.

1. I have re-arranged my apartment several times since graduating. I have only shifted the furniture once but I have moved around picture frames and accessories dozens of times.
2. The Real Housewives-- I have become a fan of the show The Real Housewives-- I will watch any season from any location. I know it is kind of a ridiculous show, but that is why i like it.
3. Target-- I get gift cards to target when I meet my sales goals. This has led to quite frequent trips to Target which has become my second favorite store behind Costco. I have created a need for many and more things I never thought i needed before.
4. Sister Wives--I have come to love the show Sister Wives, I have watched every episode. I don't know why I like it so much... I think it is just interesting to see the daily life of a polygamist family.
5. The LSAT-- I keep changing my mind about whether or not I want to go to graduate school, so over the course of the summer I have resumed study of the LSAT and quit several times... I still have not yet made up my mind...
6. FOOD--We planted a garden in the spring which means we have had an abundance of veggies all summer--mostly tomatoes (or are they fruits????) This means I have cooked quite a bit. I love to cook and since I worked at Pottery Barn I made good use of my employee discount and stocked up on almost every cooking utensil known to man at Williams Sonoma.
7. The New Yorker-- Stephen got me a subscription to the New Yorker for Christmas last year. While I was in school I didn't have much time to read it, I mostly just read the New York Times, but since graduation I have been able to spend the time reading the serious as well as the more light-hearted articles in the New Yorker.

I managed to compile a list of things i have been doing since graduation, but I have an even longer list of things I wish I would have done with my extra time... But I guess I can save those until January and just make them New Years resolutions!

the magical kingdom!

2010-09-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

Stephen celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday with a trip to Disneyland!!!! Actually, the trip just happened to coincide with his birthday, but i keep telling him that was his present. Here are the top 10 things that made Disneyland especially awesome this year:

1. More/Older nieces and nephews to take on rides. (they are so cute and fun, this was really the best part.)
2. Seeing Stephen's cousin Johnny and his wife Jen and their 4 cute kids.
3. Sharing a hotel suite with more cute nieces and a nephew.
4. Having the entire Stewart family (except Penelope and Jack) in Disneyland together.
5. Going to a "Princess Lunch" with nieces where we met Ariel, Aruroa, Snow White, and Cinderella!!!
6. Bacon wrapped asparagus.
7. Lots of Churros
8. Halloween decorations
9. Buying nightmare before Christmas souvenirs
10. Spending 3 whole days with Stephen.

Disneyland is really the happiest place on earth. Stephen and I were so sad to leave, but we really had a great time. Thanks Stewart Family!

Here are some Pictures.

Stephen and Daniel were best buds our first day. They went on almost all the rides together.
Not sure what David is doing in this picture.
Justin and Traci in the car with the sweetest paint job.
Dave bought ponchos for everyone so they didn't get soaked on the rapids ride.
Little Jon Jon driving the car. Look at those beautiful curly locks.

We went on the grizzly bear rapids like 10 times.
I asked olivia to smile for the camera and she stuffed this wrapper in her mouth and smiled. ha ha.

We'll miss you Disneyland...

Family Foto Fun

2010-09-09T20:22:00.001-07:00

While we were at the ranch the Stewarts decided to take some family pictures.

Here is just one of the many family pictures

After taking the group shot, each family took their turn getting their pictures taken. Stephen and I decided we wanted some photos as well, even though we are just a family of two.

Crow Creek Ranch

2010-09-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

Stephen's family goes to the Stewart family ranch in Crow Creek, Wyoming every year. This year we went over Labor Day weekend. The Ranch is like your typical Wyoming Ranch (or at least what picture a typical ranch being.) There are cows, horses and two dogs to keep them in line. The ranch is in a pretty rural area surrounded by pine and aspen trees. It is really beautiful.

When we go to the ranch we try to help out wherever we can. Last year we spent half the day raking up grass clippings around where the houses are and filling up a big hole where a pipe had been replaced. This year we got up early one morning and helped repair a 50 year old fence that was in disrepair due to snow, falling trees, and cattle. Although it was hard work (i really didn't do any of it, i mostly just kept the kids that came along from getting hit by swinging hammers and wood), it was really fun to see the fruits of our labors. Stephen's Uncle Brent who runs the ranch said that he had never seen the fence look so good.

The day we helped repair the fence also happened to be Stephen's Uncle Brent's birthday. (We didn't know it at the time.) Even though it was his birthday he was a good host and took us all on a horseback ride later in the afternoon. We spent the rest of our trip relaxing, going on a four-wheeler ride, playing games, and watching our cute nieces and nephews.

Here are some pictures.

Here I am on top of the Plateau looking over the Ranch.

Stephen is filling up the gas tank on the four-wheeler using these old-school-looking gas tanks
Every time Stephen goes to the ranch he finds a hat in his grandparent's house that he wears the whole trip. He chose the red one this time.
Here I am with Uncle Brent on our horse ride.

end of summer fun

2010-08-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

the past two and a half months have been really draining on me. since i started working at wells fargo full-time while keeping my part-time job at pottery barn kids i have had no time for rest and relaxation. i was pretty sad thinking that summer was almost over and i will be working full-time the rest of my life. so we decided it was time to take a mini-vacation.

stephen's grandparents have a cabin in bear lake that he hasn't been to since before his mission. (about seven years.) i'll be honest, i was kind of scared to go after hearing stories of an indoor hot-tub, dead animals found around the house, and strange scents. but for me, any vacation is a good vacation. and all the hype about the cabin turned out to be over-exaggerated.

we spent most of our trip outdoors. we went on a couple of hikes, went swimming, and laid out on the beach. at night time we sat on the deck and saw millions of stars, way more than i have seen anywhere else. although we weren't too far from home, it was just the break i needed.

here are some pictures.
here is the view of the lake from the deck of the cabin.

here we are on the deck. i am trying to get stephen to throw away this Schmit house shirt, i hate it!
beautiful bloomington lake. the water was so clear, so fresh.

stephen walking past some wild flowers. they were soooo beautiful and colorful.
"take a picture of me with the wild flowers!"

summer veggies

2010-08-03T18:40:00.001-07:00

Today i picked our first cucumber of the season!
We are excited for the many tomatoes, peppers, squashes, and green beans to come.

le cruset

2010-07-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

I got my first Le Cruset piece about 2 weeks ago and I love it! I just wish i didn't have such a tiny stove and oven.

I made this yummy braised rosemary pork roast from The Silver Spoon (which Stephen gave me as a "prize" for getting a new job)

The Rest of our Trip

2010-07-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

So i realized it was taking me forever to blog in detail about our trip which was a little over a month ago at this point. So I will instead just touch on the things we did briefly. We spent the remaining 13 days of our trip as follows, 1 and 1/2 more days in Kyoto, 2 and 1/2 days in Tokyo, 8 days in Singapore and 1 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Things we did in Kyoto:

Went to more Shinto ShrinesSaw some Geishas at the train station.
Went and saw some Buddhist temples.
Sat under a cool Aqueduct in the rain.
Walked around the city.
Took a little hike onto the side of a mountain and saw a beautiful view of Kyoto.

Shopped in this alleyway that lead all the way up the mountain.
Went to this shinto shrine that had tori gates lined up really close together to form a pathway up and around a mountain. The hike would have taken about 2 hrs so we just did a small portion of it.

Things we did in Tokyo:
Visited the Museum of Western Art designed by Le Corbusier in Ueno park.
Went to see the Senso Ji temple which was right by the hotel we stayed in.
Went to the busiest crossing in the world. Shibuya? Something like that.
Went to the Imperial palace and gardens.
Had lunch in Toyo Ito's concert hall.
Got good views of Tokyo from the Tokyo Government Building.
Went to the national Sumo wrestling tournament.
Visited and purchased something from every Paul Smith store in Tokyo.
Saw the Dior building designed by SANAA
TOD's building designed by Toyo Ito
Prada building designed by Herzog and De Meuron

Things we did in Singapore

Went to the National Orchid Garden
Got a fish pedicure.
Went to a Chinese Temple
Went to McRichie Reservoir, a place I went a lot as a child.
Had a Tea Ceremony to celebrate our wedding with my Family.
Rode Segways.
Took a boat cruise up the Singapore River
Went to the Jurong Bird Park
Visited the Esplanade Theater.

Walked around downtown near the financial district.

It was such a great trip. I was really happy to finally introduce Stephen to the rest of my family, and I am very happy the Stewarts got to meet them as well. I love my family in Singapore, they are so wonderful. And I look forward to visiting more often in the future.

Kyoto Part 1

2010-06-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

As most of you already know, Stephen and I went to Japan the beginning of May. It was a really nice trip. It was kind of chilly and rainy most of the time, but still fun and beautiful. Here are a few things I learned on my trip...

Most of Japan is uninhabited (around 70%) so the population is concentrated in metropolitan areas.
Japanese people are "sensitive to the seasons" as described by our tour guide, they love all seasons.
There are TONS of Shinto shrines in Japan.
Japan is really expensive
Japanese food is good in the U.S. but even better in Japan!
Geishas are NOT prostitutes.
Japan has the most amazing public transportation
Japanese make amazing toilets with heated seats, built in bidets, and musical flushes.
A bonsai tree is not just a small tree, it is any tree in a pot.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. We were there for 5 days and I don't feel like we even scratched the surface. Here are some pictures
Dave and Jane (Stephen's Parents) got us plane tickets with their skymiles which was very very nice of them. The purpose of our trip was actually to visit my family in Singapore, but since it was cheaper to get tickets through Japan, we thought it would be nice to spend some time there. We only spent one day in Japan with Dave and Jane because they went to Thailand for a week with my sister-in-law Melissa before visiting my family in Singapore.
Here we are with Giro, a friend of Jane's family. He flew up from Okinawa to Tokyo to meet us and then planned our trip to Kyoto. We are at a Shogun palace. It was pretty cool. The floors inside are called "nightingale floors" because when you step on them they are supposed to sound like a nightingale. It was designed as a defense mechanism.We visited a lot of beautiful Japanese gardens in Kyoto. It is amazing that the gardeners put in so much time and effort into planning how to manipulate the trees to get them to look how they want. This is just one example of how they pulled the branches of this tree lower to the ground.
According to our tour guide Japanese try to "miniaturize everything" he said that the pond in this garden is made to represent a sea and seashore. According to him the big rocks are cliffs and rocks found along coastlines. It was really a beautiful garden.

Red Japanese Maple trees are my new favorite trees. They take a long time to grow as big as the one in the picture. There are also Green Japanese Maples in the picture, in the fall they turn the same color red as the Red Maples.
Here is a cute picture of Dave and Jane.We could always tell we were in the right place when we would see herds of Japanese school children. I think their uniforms are so cute. These are barrels of Sake, Japanese wine. They were donated by Sake makers to a Shinto temple.

Here I am trying to imitate the school children.

A beautiful crane on an island surrounded by irises. And perfectly manicured trees.

This is the golden pavilion in Kyoto, one of its most famous sites. On the top of the golden pavilion is a Phoenix, which is quite fitting for a building that has been burnt down several times. Because many of the temples and shrines were built out of wood, many of them have burnt down and been rebuilt. This one was rebuilt around the 1950s to the original design after burning down.

Beautiful lotus flowers.

Here is Jane getting close to the Lilly pads.

We had lunch at the cutest little restaurant. It was in this small ally-way and we would have never known it was there if our guide hadn't shown it to us. It was very delicious. These small rooms that people eat in were surrounding a beautiful courtyard with manicured trees and water features.
Here are Stephen and Jane with a big tori gate. Tori gates are a sign that a Shinto shrine is near by.

Wedding Bells

2010-05-04T21:07:00.001-07:00

My brother got married on May 1st to his girlfriend of like five years? Heidi Wolsey. It was beautiful! I didn't take too many pictures but here are a few from the joyous occasion.
Here is Heidi and Aaron at the Grand America for their luncheon.
Brother and sister
Brother and Brother
Stephen and I
This is a picture of the ceremony. Heidi asked me to be one of her bride's maids. I really like the dress she chose, but you can't see it because i'm standing right behind her.

The reception was really pretty. Heidi's centerpieces were orchids. They also had a photo booth and lots of yummy food.
My dad and I. He got pretty tired of standing in the line at the reception.
Cutting the cake
Heidi's brother's girlfriend caught the bouquet. Another wedding in the future maybe???

Mullet and Handle Bars?

2010-04-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Stephen surprised me with this facial hair and this haircut a few weeks ago. It lasted a day, thank goodness.

Spring Break

2010-04-03T10:10:00.001-07:00

Stephen and I spent Spring Break in Saint George. Because of our work schedules, we could only go down for a few days, but it was well worth it. We stayed at Stephen's Parent's house, played tennis, went to Zion National Park, and the Saint George Temple. Even though our trip was short, the weather was perfect.

Pesto

2010-04-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Pesto has come to be one of our favorite things to eat. We eat it on pasta, sandwiches, with veggies. It is really easy to make and is ten times better homemade than bottled. This is our favorite pesto recipe--it is from Bride & Groom first and forever cookbook.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup pine nuts
4 cups lightly packed fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for dirzzling3/4 cup grated Parmesan, preferably parmigiano-reggiano

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread pine nuts on a baking sheet and cook until aromatic and golden brow, 8-10 minutes. Stir the nuts frequently to ensure even cooking. Remove from oven and let cool.

Combine basil, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, kosher salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until the ingredients are well incorporated, about 15 seconds. Shut off the motor and scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the motor running, slowly add the 1/2 cup olive oil through the feed tube. Shut off the motor and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Ad the cheese and pulse until the mixture comes together and looks like a tick paste. Use immediately or transfer to a container, drizzle with a thin layer of olive oil, cover tightly, and refrigerate. This pesto will keep for two weeks.It is yummy with angel hair pasta, chicken, and cherry tomatoes.

Stephen is in LA and I am...

2010-02-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

...working on my Senior thesis

Jazz

2010-02-25T23:16:00.000-08:00

Stephen's cousin Russell called us last week and asked if we wanted to go to a jazz game with him and his wife Whitney. It was fun! My favorite part of the game was watching a guy sitting on the first row try to distract the players on the other team when they would shoot free-throws.Here he is with the megaphone
Opening and closing an umbrella
Tossing a basket-ball colored disk. The funny thing is I think they made nearly all if not all of the free-throw shots on that side of the court. Boozer slam dunk Here we are with some attentive fans

Lovely Orchids

2010-02-25T23:08:00.000-08:00

Stephen surprised me with this beautiful orchid plant for Valentine's Day. I love him!

My thoughts lately

2010-02-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

A lot has been on my mind as I am reaching a major milestone in my life--my college graduation. Here are a few of them...

1. I keep thinking about how I wish I would have chosen a major I could find a job in--you know, something practical like accounting, marketing, communications... Instead I am graduating with not only one, but two useless degrees.
2. I want to win the 2010 HGTV dream home.
3. Working for the FBI
4. I need to find a place to stay in Japan and things to do in Singapore
5. Stephen's elusive graduation date
6. Our apartment
7. I REALLY don't like Rick Sanchez on CNN and have started watching MSNBC, does that mean I am officially liberal???
8. Turning into an old lady
9. I think I have finished 4 books in the last two months
10. Religion
11. The Olympics
12. Friendships
13. My brother getting married, I actually day dream about it a lot.
14. And for some reason I keep thinking that when I see my sister for the first time in 3 and a half years this May, she will have grown really tall... This thought doesn't make any sense though.
15. Graduate school
16. Paying for graduate school

Those are all the thoughts I can think of

Holidays + New Years in Photos

2010-01-31T13:52:00.000-08:00

a break from Fall

2009-10-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I spent most of Fall Break working and doing homework. We were able to go to St. George and stay at his parents house for a few days, which was a nice break from the cold weather in Salt Lake. We got into St. George on Wednesday night, ordered take-out and then hung out with Stephen's nieces and nephews who were also down for the weekend.

On Thursday we went on a quick hike right out side of St. George, it was beautiful!After the hike we played with our nieces and nephews at a park near to his parents' house. It a really awesome park, I'm sad I don't have any pictures. The jungle gym at the park was designed by a Danish company I think? Anyway, it was really modern and had a bunch of non-traditional jungle-gym toys. The kids loved it!

In March Stephen's parents got us tickets to see Aida at Tuachan just out side of St. George. Tuachan is an outdoor theatre where a lot of different musicals and plays take place. The amphitheatre is right next to the mountains so they use the mountains as part of the set. It was a great musical, we loved it. Stephen's dad had a $25 gift card for concessions, and serious, Stephen used it all on treats. He was so full after having nachos, popcorn, candied almonds, red vines, ice cream, and two Dr. peppers. They didn't allow any cameras during the play so i took a picture of the set before hand.
Friday Stephen and I drove to Las Vegas and spent the day doing some early Christmas shopping. We went to the outlets and then spent some time on the strip. After shopping we visited my dear friend Kelly Stika who lives in Vegas with her husband and son. It was so nice to see her! She made us pizza and showed us around her new house.

We made sure to take pictures of some of Vegas's best while we were in town.

Happy Birthday Stevo!

2009-10-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Stephen celebrated his 25th birthday on September 19th! We drove down to Provo Saturday morning for lunch with Stephen's dad. We went to Spark in the Wells Fargo building for the first time, and it was delicious! Afterwards Stephen and I went to the Provo Temple and then saw Stephen's two favorite football teams play, Florida State and BYU. It was fun for me, but Stephen wasn't too happy about the outcome of the game. (BYU got their butt's kicked.)

After the game we met Stephen's family at Pizzeria 712 for dinner, it is our favorite restaurant in the Provo/Orem area. It was so nice to see Stephen's family since we don't seem them as often now that we are busy with school.

Last year I took Stephen to the Melting Pot for his birthday, but this year, since we own a fondue pot, I decided to make him fondue and start a tradition. I made a traditional cheese fondue as an appetizer, steak and shrimp fondue for the main course, and we had homemade coconut cupcakes for desert.It was nice to celebrate Stephen's birthday with him as a married couple this year. He is the best friend and husband I could ever ask for. Happy birthday honey!

Boo's Bridal Shower

2009-08-21T18:35:00.001-07:00

In mid-August, Talisa and I threw a bridal shower for the beautiful Stephanie Godinez, aka, Boo. We held it at her fiance, now husband, Phillip's home. It was fun to organize and get together with friends that I hardly ever see. We had a backyard bbq with various skewered meats, veggies, fruits, and cupcakes for desert. Here is the cute couple

Stephen was kind enough to do all the bbq'ing for us. He did a wonderful job too!Talisa and Brittany skewering veggies, and our cupcake tower. Brittany brought Funfetti, Talisa brought Chocolate Turtle, and I brought Lemon Cream cupcakes.

Phil set up the music while we waited for the rest of our guests.

Then the bride arrived! I would post pictures of the gifts, but I would like to keep this blog G rated.

Summer Weddings

2009-08-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I had the privilege to attend the weddings of several of my friends this summer. Here are some pictures from the happy moments.

Caitlin Perkins & Jason Bahr--Provo Temple

Caitlin held a beautiful luncheon at the mouth of Rock Canyon in Provo with close friends and family. Stephen and I were very happy we could attend.

My cousin Garrett Bodine & Andrea Forsyth--Mount Timpanogas Temple
Me with a cut-out of my cousin Jason who is serving a mission in Italy.

Evelyn Guanuna & Andrew Paulos--Provo Temple

My best friend from jr. high/high school Stephanie Godinez & Phil Manwaring--Provo TempleStephanie looked absolutely beautiful. They are a very handsome couple!
Stephanie held her reception in the Manwaring's backyard. It was very beautiful!

Sunday Dinner

2009-08-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Since I've been married I've been cooking a lot. Its not because of my new responsibility to feed another being, because really, Stephen will eat almost anything, but because I've been gifted all sorts of neat cooking things. I thought I should post a few recipes I have enjoyed so far.

We usually go to Provo or Highland for Sunday dinners with family, but this Sunday, we stayed in and cooked a yummy Sunday dinner. We had Salmon, twice baked patatoes, and green beans.

I've used this recipe for Honey Dijon Salmon several times--it is really delicious and simple!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
4 (4 ounce) fillets salmon
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, and honey. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs, pecans, and parsley.
Brush each salmon fillet lightly with honey mustard mixture, and sprinkle the tops of the fillets with the bread crumb mixture.
Bake salmon 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with a wedge of lemon.

For the Green Beans I just steamed enough for Stephen and I in a saucepan until it was cooked but still firm then added butter, salt, and pepper.

Stephen was incharge of the twice-baked potatoes, and he did an amazing job! He tried this recipe for the first time

Ingredients:

4 large baking potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon salt
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Use a fork to pierce the potato skins.
Bake the potatoes unwrapped for about 1 hour, or until soft, in the preheated oven.
Slice open the baked potatoes and, keeping the skins intact, scoop the insides into a medium bowl. Transfer the onion mixture to the bowl. Mix in the sour cream. Pour in 1/2 of the cheese and continue mixing until all ingredients are well blended.
Using a large spoon, fill the potato skins with the mixture. Top with cheese and chives.
Return the potatoes to the preheated oven and continue baking for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the filling is slightly brown.

Our Apartment

2009-08-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of our little apartment in married student housing. It took us a while to get settled, we were unpacking boxes up until about a week ago. Our apartment is very basic, cinder block walls, linoleum flooring, no a/c, dishwasher, or washer and dryer. But we have come to call it home!

The Cowboy State

2009-07-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I celebrated our nation's 223rd birthday with his family in Wyoming. I had some reservations about Wyoming--I always imagined it as a very rural place with mostly farm land and grazing land with nothing much to do. I always thought of this as a negative thing, but the untouched and undeveloped land proved to be more beautiful than I could ever imagine. On our drive to the Stewart family ranch in Star Valley everything we passed was green and there were wildflowers everywhere. I attempted to take several pictures out of the car window, but none could capture how beautiful it really is. The drive was pretty windy the whole way. I had asked Stephen several times before and during the trip how long the drive is to the ranch, but he refused to give me any sort of an estimate whatsoever. Not even a ball-park estimate. We listened to Harry Potter, the Half-Blood Prince the whole way up and finally we hit a little town called Afton and he told me we were twenty-minutes away.Stephen wearing a Stewart's Crow Creek Ranch hat and my sunglasses so he wouldn't get bugs in his eyes.
I was very excited to wear the cowboy boots I bought from DI in high school. Stephen let me wear the hat he always wears when he is up at the ranch.
There are cows on the ranch...
...and horsesI rode with these two cool cowboys the first day.
I stayed in this little pin because it was my first time and I was way scared! But the next day Stephen and Uncle Brent took me on a ride around more of the ranch. It was nice.
Stephen and Daniel getting ready to go four-wheeling.
We followed Justin, Traci, and Jacob to the edge of the plateau.
...and took pictures with the ranch.
Jacob seemed quite comfortable sitting in this awkward position on the four-wheeler.
Stephen and I wanted to go see Limpy's cabin, an old cabin on the ranch that no one has lived in for probably a hundred years. We tried to find a way to get there, but there weren't any trails. Stephen and I with the beautiful Wyoming mountains. He loves the McCain shirt I bought him at the D.C. Airport for $1.50. I would have worn my Obama shirt but he never gave me the memo.

This just in!

2009-06-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends for many years, Stephanie, aka, Boo got engaged this week to her long-time boyfriend/missionary Phil! Congratulations Boo and Phil! I am so excited for you two. You are such a wonderful/cute/responsible/attractive couple and will make the best eternal companions!Here are some fun facts about Boo and Phil...

1. Boo and Phil were both Senior Class Presidents at Provo High School.
2. Boo and Phil both took wood shop in high school long enough to furnish their new home with things made in class.
3. Phil has a dog named Rondell and Boo likes to paint pictures of Rondell.
4. Boo and Phil both love Tucanos
5. Boo and Phil are both very ambitious, smart people who work hard and accomplish a lot.

They're getting hitched August 20th in the Provo Temple. CONGRATULATIONS! I love you both.

Honeymooning: San Francisco

2009-06-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I look for the same things in every city we travel to....

1. Good restaurants
2. Museums
3. Shopping

This makes him the best travel buddy, ever! Stephen started planning our trip to San Francisco long before the wedding. He bought an Eyewitness Top 10 San Francisco book, and a San Francisco Moleskin for us to take notes on our trip and write down places we would like to return to and also to avoid.

We arrived in San Francisco around 7pm on Thursday evening. We had an early night. After we arrived we took BART to our hotel, checked in, and ordered room service for dinner.
Friday morning we had breakfast at Boudin, a sourdough bakery. It was Delicious! Then we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. We both agreed that it is pretty long and bigger than we thought. The weather was overcast but still quite warm.

We had lunch at Ton Kiang, a Dim Sum restaurant near Golden Gate Park. It was so yummy. I took Stephen to have Dim Sum for the first time last summer when he visited me in Washington DC, so it was fun to go with him again. We had Wintermelon soup (my favorite) along with various steamed dumplings.

After lunch we took a walk around Golden Gate Park, an enormous park in the middle of the city half a mile wide by three miles long. In the park we visited the Botanical Gardens and Japanese Tea Garden. Stephen's favorite architectural firm, Herzog and de Meuron designed the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. We viewed the exhibits and then took the elevator to the top of the museum's tower for a beautiful view of the city.

We were pretty warn out from walking around all day and so we decided to head back towards our hotel and just order room service for dinner. While we waited for room service to come, Stephen went down stairs to pick up some stuff from Walgreen's. He came back with pringles, sour patch kids for him, and milk duds for me. He knows me too well!

Saturday morning Stephen told me he was going down stairs to ask the concierge a question, he came back with pastries from two different bakeries and a fruit cup. It was a nice surprise! We took a street car down to Fisherman's wharf. He had the idea of buying Sourdough bread and eating it at the end of pier 39, so that is what we did! We had a nice view of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges, Alcatraz, and some stinky sea lions.

After we finished our sourdough we walked further along the wharf towards Ghiradelli Square. We were walking along a wide stretch of sidewalk when a homeless man holding up branches tied together like a bush jumped out and scared me. I jumped and screamed so loud, it was embarrassing. Stephen said he would have given the man some money for scaring me, but it isn't hard work.

We went to a seafood bar in Nob Hill for lunch because Stephen really wanted to try oysters for the first time. Big mistake. He ordered a oyster cocktail which was in essence a cup filled with grey sea water and white slimy oysters. He tried one and said it was disgusting, but proceeded to finish the whole cocktail dipping the oysters in Tabasco sauce, the clam chowder, cocktail sauce, and a combination of these. It was pretty gross. After lunch we visited several shops in the Nob and Russian Hill neighborhoods, and then took a street car to Lombard street, also known as "the crookedest street." A man on the street car joked that the crookedest street he has ever seen is Wall Street.

After Lombard Street we walked down to Union Square and did a little bit of shopping. We visited the biggest Banana Republic I have ever seen! It was pretty amazing. Stephen and I made good use of my employee discount. We also went to a few of Stephen's favorite stores. We had dinner at a Mexican place in the Ferry Building called Mijitas. it was delicious! They are famous for their tacos. We tried the pork, fish, and steak ones. The pork was the best.

Sunday morning we took the Subway to Mission St and had breakfast at Ti Couz. A french crepe restaurant. It was probably my favorite meal of the trip. We ordered a tomato and cheese crepe and a berry crepe and split them. They were delicious. We visited the mission Dolores afterwards. Rather than paying the entrance fee, Stephen and I went into the church just in time for the Spanish Mass Service. We stayed for a few minutes and then walked around the church cemetery. The Mission Dolores is the oldest building in San Francisco.

After checking out the mission and its really old cemetery, we made our way to Delfina Pizzaria. Stephen found out about this cute little restaurant in an article in GQ magazine listing the top 10 pizza places in the United States. We ordered the Panna Pizza and also the Cheese. Stephen and I are quite the pizza connoisseurs, and we were very impressed with their pizza pies.

We took the subway back downtown near to our hotel to do some shopping. We went to CB2 and bought a stainless steel planter and a few serving plates and then returned to our hotel for a mid-afternoon nap.

After our nap we took a walk to Chinatown. We visited San Francisco's original city square which is in the heart of Chinatown and several small stores. We purchased a chop stick set and a few other small things for our new home.

Monday morning we checked out of our hotel, left our bags at the concierge and headed to the Contemporary Jewish Museum whose building is right behind the hotel we stayed out. We saw an advertisement for a Chagall exhibit in the city and decided to visit the museum on our last day. The exhibit was titled Chagall and the Russian Opera, it showed the development and end of the Jewish Opera in Russia and Chagall's role in it. We both really enjoyed it. My favorite part of every museum is the museum gift shop. We spent quite a lot of time there looking at books and other things then headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and travel to the airport! It was the best honeymoon I could ever ask for.

Married!

2009-06-15T08:36:00.001-07:00

Stephen and I were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on June 4th, 2009. We celebrated our wedding by having a luncheon with close friends and family. It was a wonderful day! I love being married to Stephen, he is the sweetest most caring guy I know and he is also my best friend. We have moved into a tiny apartment in the University of Utah's married student housing. While it is close quarters, we have all the essentials and have worked to make it feel like a home. Here are some pictures from the big day

Stephen's boyfriends

Stephen's cute nieces and nephews. Katherine was really happy I let her hold my bouquet.

My side of the fam.

Stephen's parents, siblings, and their children.
The group outside of the temple.

Raising the roof!

A memorable evening

2009-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Stephen took me through the temple for the first time. It was a wonderful experience. I was nervous and scared leading up to the big day, but once I was there I felt peaceful and happy. My active family, Stephen's parents, siblings and sibling-in-laws all tried to make it to the temple, it was every sweet of them. Afterward we had dinner at Setebello, one of our favorite restaurants. It was wonderful.

Sweet springtime is my time is your time is our time for springtime is love time and viva sweet love

2009-05-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

This springtime really is love time. I feel like I have learned so much about love the past few months not only from my own relationship, but by learning of others'. Three of my friends are getting married this summer, which has provided ample opportunity for me to hear sweet stories of their love, lives, futures. It is truly a happy time. I thought I felt close Stephen months ago, but the last few weeks I have grown closer and closer to him than I could have ever imagined. I can't wait for us to start our new life together.

This springtime will be a time of union... This weekend was the first marriage springtime. My friend Marcie was married in the Salt Lake Temple to her fiance Graydon. Stephen and I went to their reception, it was so beautiful. Here I am with the lovely bride.

And a time of reunion... My best friend for years, Stephanie, threw a bridal shower for me this weekend. It was fun! Stephanie was a wonderful hostess and made a delicious breakfast for all of her guests. I am so happy I was able to see many friends that I don't see very often.

My family from the east coast will fly in for my wedding on the 30th. The wedding is drawing closer... Eleven days until I am sealed for time and all eternity to the most amazing man on the planet. I really do love him.

P.S. My cousin Garrett got engaged to his girlfriend Andrea, they will be married Aug 14th! Congratulations!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

2009-05-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I joined the Stewarts on a family trip to Southern California. We spent two days in Disneyland and California Adventure and a day in Newport Beach. Nine of the ten of Stephen's nieces and nephews came along for the trip, and they LOVED it, it was so fun to watch them get excited about being in Disneyland. On almost all the rides we went on, Stephen tried to convince a niece or nephew to sit with us on the ride. He knew the songs to a lot of the rides and got really into some of them to try to get the kids scared/excited, it was really entertaining to watch. Stephen loves Disneyland, when we were sitting in the airport getting ready to fly back to Salt Lake City he was sad to have left, it was really cute.

We are so happy to be in Disneyland!

Stephen's brothers, Justin and David, little David, and Stephen on the Rapids ride in California Adventure.
Justin and Traci on the pier in Newport Beach, Traci is expecting in September and I am convinced they will have the cutest baby ever!

I am really grateful to have the Stewarts as my future in-laws. They are the nicest people and are so much fun to hang out with. The wedding is 16 days away!

As Galinda would say, I'm Engagified

2009-04-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

Stephen popped the question last Monday. It was so cute and wonderful. We are very happy

.

Reasons why I love the District of Columbia

2009-03-29T04:23:00.000-07:00

1. Good restaurants! Food from all over the world can be found in Washington DC. During my trip to DC last week I ate at one of the oldest restaurants near the White House, Old Ebbits Grill, it was amazing! The next day, I went out to eat at Merekesh, an Ethiopian restaurant, YUM!
2. DC's amazing public transportation system. It is sooooo nice to be able to take the metro/a bus almost anywhere!
3. It is a walkable city. Washington DC is an easy city to just wander around in. There are historic sights to see throughout the city, along with embassies, beautiful neighborhoods and unique buildings.
4. Washington has an atmosphere of intellect and politics. I love that there are so many academics and prominent public policy makers who speak in Washington DC regularly and for free! It is an easy city to learn in as there are so many forums, symposiums, and of course pieces of literature that are easily accessible.
5. Nearly all in the Museums in Washington are free! It is awesome to get to do all your sight-seeing in a day for absolutely no cost. The Smithsonian's and national museums don't charge a cent and the monuments are free to visit.

It was nice to be in Washington DC for the week, sometimes I really miss the city.

Friendly Crafting

2009-03-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

I totally stole this from Evelyn who stole it from Debra. But it is a great idea!

The first THREE people to comment on this post will get something made by me.
My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. You probably wont... at all. But ill try.
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely creative.

Additional rule added my me
6- I may change the rules at anytime.

Now you must re-post this on your own blog and offer the same deal to 5 of your own lucky blog readers. So, the first 3 people to leave a comment telling me they are in, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it.

This will be fun! Pass it along!

My grandmother is better than yours!

2009-03-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

In search of a whoopie pie

2009-03-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

After reading this article in the New York Times, I just HAD to try a whoopie! I didn't look for my depression era delicacy at the grocery store because Oreo was insufficient and Hostess just wouldn't do. Instead, I asked my grandma, one of a few people I know who was alive in the 1930's, where I could find that chocolately treat. She told me about Blyer's, the local Amish market and so that is where we went!

Daddy Daughter Day

2009-03-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

Today my dad and I went to Rehoboth Beach!

Over Where???

2009-03-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

It is Spring break '09 and I'm spending it HERE:

Delaware is a small state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. I've been browsing the internet trying to find some interesting facts about Delaware, but, really, there aren't any. But here are a few bits of information you probably did not now about the state:

In case you didn't read what the Delaware state quarter says, Delaware was the first state to ratify the constitution.
Delaware is the only state without any National Park System units such as national parks, seashores, historic sites, battlefields, memorials, and monuments.
The most historic site in Delaware is Barratt's Chapel (no relation). The chapel is where the Methodist Church of America was organized in 1784.
The Lady Bug is Delaware's official state bug.
Delaware is sometimes referred to as the Blue Hen State, after its state bird, the Blue Hen.
Delaware is the second smallest state.
Delaware was considered the three lower counties of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution.
Delaware has the lowest median elevation of any state at 59 ft. above sea level.
Delaware is named after the first Governor of Virginia, Lord de la Warr (really!)
Delaware's state slogan is Its good being first!

After learning a little about Delaware, you have probably come to the conclusion that Delaware is not your typical spring break destination, and i concur. But Delaware is the perfect location for me to spend my spring break because my goals for this week off are simple:

Study for the GRE every day, boring, right??
Write three papers
Spend time with my family.

So far I have done both 1 and 3. I have yet to start working on number 2, but i still have a few days left!

Valentine's/President's Day Weekend

2009-03-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

Over President's Day weekend I went with Stephen and his family to St. George. I have driven through St. George dozens of times, but this was the first time I stopped and visited. It was a really fun trip. I think Stephen's nieces and nephews are the cutest little kids, and despite my fear of getting sick from one of them, it was fun to be around them all weekend. After we got back to Provo Stephen got me 2 dozen beautiful white roses! I would put a picture up, but I know you would all be jealous!

The preacher

2009-02-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

So as many of you know, I am a humongous worry wort! I worry about everything! I always lock my doors, set three alarms to wake up in the morning, stress myself out about work, school, and basically anything no matter how large the significance. In case any of you find yourselves plagued with a similar state of mind, here is a scripture that we discussed in my institute class about worrying. It is from the book of Ecclesiastes, which has become my favorite book in the Old Testament. I love Ecclesiastes because of his metaphors, images, and beautiful language!

Ecclesiastes 11:3-6
3 If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall towards the south, or towards the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
6 In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

This scripture helped me not to worry about things beyond my control and not stop myself from doing things that put me out there, are risky, or challenging because I'm too afraid of not succeeding. I think the scriptures are my biggest spiritual resource. I have been blessed by having my prayers answered by scripture all the time.

On another note, this past week has been as busy as ever! The Middle East Student Advisory Committee, of which I am the chairman, hosted an open house for the Middle East Center. We had done several weeks of planning. We had food from Cedars of Lebanon, music, games, and lots of information to give students about study abroad and other things going on in the center. It turned out really well!

Friday night was fun, Evelyn G and I took advantage of the time we had away from our boyfriends by renting a chick flick (we saw The Duchess, and LOVED it!), painting our nails, and going out to eat we finished the night off by having a sleepover. FUN huh??

I spent Saturday with this guy.... so of course it was excellent.

يانير

2009-02-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

January was one of the best months EVER! Nothing amazing happened, but overall, it was a great month, and I think I know why...

One of my new years resolutions was to not watch rated "R" movies, try my hardest not to gossip and follow all of the commandments, I usually don't have a huge problem with these three things, but I felt like there was room for improvement. Because of my ability to stick to these three resolutions, for the most part, I feel like I have been blessed so much! Although school is just as stressful as ever, my job still doesn't pay well, and despite the unseasonably warm weather we've had lately, I still feel like it is freezing out side, having this goal for myself has helped me to overcome little negative things in my life and focus on what is really important.

Oh yes, did I mention Evelyn C got married January 24th? This is how happy it made me.

...and Stephen moved to Salt Lake City!

Good Riddance!

2009-01-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

A new year always reminds me of the resolutions I failed to keep, goals I didn't meet, and things that I didn't seem to get done in the previous year. However, I will spare you and not list all the negative aspects of 2008, and instead list a few of the positive ones.

I learned a lot about myself while i spent the summer as an intern in Washington DC
My friend/former roommate Staci got married to a really cool guy
Taught myself how to crochet
Declared my major as Middle East Studies-Arabic
Started dating Stephen
I finally got to do some sightseeing in NYC (Stephen coming along was of course, an added plus)
Attended two pretty nerdy debate competitions in Denver and DC
I got to spend Christmas and New Years Eve with Stephen's wonderful family (Although I missed my own a lot, I still had a lot of fun!)
Started cooking more, and of course
Barack Obama was elected president!

For 2009 I have established quite lofty resolutions and goals. Here are some of them:

Only eat one treat a weak (this is the most difficult of my resolutions)
Don't drink any soda pop
Exercise five times a week (also very difficult)
Don't watch any rated R movies
Be more diligent in my scripture studies
Get some sort of scholarship for the 2009-2010 academic year
Decide what I want to be when I grow up
Don't make fun of people who bear their testimonies during testimony meeting
Write a budget and stick to it

Ideally, I would love to keep all of these goals and resolutions, but realistically, I know that many of these will be difficult to achieve (no treats and exercise specifically), But regardless, I believe 2009 will be a great year! Stephen's sister Lara gave me some good advice, she said that in making resolutions I have to also prepare to make mistakes, and don't give up!

Temple Square

2008-12-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Stephen's grandparents gave us tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert in the Conference Center at Temple Square. I was feeling pretty sick that day but still enjoyed the concert. Afterward we walked around and looked at the beautiful lights at Temple Square.

Change we can believe in

2008-11-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

Although I am relieved that Barack Obama won the election, I am still quite apprehensive about what his presidency will be like. I favored Obama's stances on key issues to John Mccain's, but I am not too confident that the change Obama has promised will come anytime soon. Obama has stressed the domestic issues in his platform mush like George W Bush did when he ran for office. I fear that the much needed reform will take the back burner to the more pressing issues of Afghanistan and Iraq much like social secuirty reform and immigration reform did soon after Bush was elected. But regardless of my fears and apprehension, I know that Obama was the best, although not the ideal, canidate in this election. Obama has promised to, "hit the ground running," and I think it will be interesting to see if he can deliver.

Sundance 2009

2008-09-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Registration for Sundance Film Festival tickets begins today! Click Here

An Assignment

2008-09-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Go watch this movie.

Halloween

2008-09-21T16:01:00.001-07:00

Boo has inspired me to do some thinking about my Halloween costume for 2008. The Evelyns, Elena, and I have discussed and came up with an idea. But rather than reveal it now, I will just give a few clues as to what we are going to be.
I think the Mickey Mouse gave it away.

Moved-out Life

2008-09-08T18:55:00.001-07:00

I'm back in Utah now after three very long months in Washington DC. I was happy to come home but unhappy to move into my new house. Not because I wasn't excited about my new roommates, the neighborhood, or the house itself. I am just sick of moving!

Ever since I moved out the summer after my senior year of high school, I have led somewhat of a nomadic lifestyle. I've lived in 6 different houses/apartments in the past two years! That means I move an average of once every 4 months.

The dorms my Freshman year.
I lived somewhere in East Millcreek for about a month before I went to Jordan in Summer 2007.
I lived here in the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman during most of Summer 2007.I lived here in Sugarhouse during my Sophomore year.

I lived here in the Consulate apartments during Summer 2008.

This is where I currently live just 4 blocks from my old house in Sugarhouse.

I am happy to be moved in. I love my new house and all of my new roommates. And I am so grateful for all the people who have helped me move in and out of my homes. And also for all the people who let me sleep on their couches while I was waiting to move in.

Provohomeroad

2008-08-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

I'm less than a week away from home! This past week has been one of the best I've had so far out here. I held off going to museums for the past three months, but since I'm down to the wire now, I am trying to go as often as I can. Over the past week I went to the National Gallery of Art, Hirshorn, and Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. I really liked two of the touring exhibitions by Martin Puryear And Richard Misrach's On the Beach. The sculpture above is by Pureyear.

The national gallery also has a big collection of Alexander Caldler's mobiles and sculptures. I've

I took a class this summer at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies on Oman. Oman is a country I knew near-to-nothing about until this summer. The course was sponsored by the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, the chairman of which is the Omani Ambassador to the U.S. so upon completion of the course, my classmates and I were invited to the residence of the Omani Ambassador for dinner. The food was great and the residence was beautiful!

Last Friday my colleague, Virinia, and I went to the Middle East Instituter's "Talk Souq" event. It was a Moroccan themed party with live Moroccan music, food, hookah, and hena! We didn't stay too long, but It was fun!

I also went to Annapolis, Maryland last weekend with Randy, Marko, Sunetti, and Rochelle. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pictures from that, but I will put some up once someone uploads theirs! Annapolis is a beautiful old city. It is the capital of Maryland and considered the sailing capital of the U.S.!

This weekend I went to Delaware to visit my family for the last time this summer. The weather was soo perfect! On Saturday we went to Fort Delaware, a fort/prison that dates back to the civil war. Fort Delaware is located on Pea Patch Island, a small Island on Delaware bay in between Delaware and New Jersey. We took a short ferry ride from Delaware City to Pea Patch Island and then rode in some sort of a trailer thing to the fort.

Here is the fort!

the OLYMPICS started this weekend too! I watched the opening ceremony and some of the events with my family. Zhang Yimou, who I am a huge fan of, directed the opening ceremony. If you didn't see it, I highly recommend trying to find it on youtube or something. You can read more about Zhang Yimou in this New York Times article.

August 9th was Singapore's 43rd birthday!! I miss Singapore so much sometimes! Although I have never lived in Singapore for more than a year, I am a dual-citizen (Singapore and US) and have a little bit of nationalistic pride for the country. Majulah Singapura!

What I've been up to lately...

2008-07-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks in DC have been great. I did some site seeing, went to Delaware, went to some museums. I've also had time to work on my newly acquired hobby, crochet, and have been reading quite a bit. Here is a little more about what I've been up to.

My roommate Erin and I went to Georgetown for a nice walk after work one day. Here we are standing by the Potomac.

I went to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's estate, with a group of U interns. Mt. Vernon is a huge property with a prime location looking over the Potomac. The estate consists of several gardens, a large farm, and a couple of buildings that make up George Washington's house.

Here is George Washington's main house.

There were several animals on the property including cows, pigs, sheep, horses, and donkeys!

I took a walk around Georgetown with Stanley a few weekends ago. We walked from Foggy Bottom metro all the way to the University and back. This picture along with the following two were taken by Stanley.

There is a canal that goes through Georgetown, it is pretty neat. Stanley and I walked along the path visible to the right. There are all sorts of bridges that cross over the canal and cool apartments and old buildings that look over it.

Here is one of the older buildings that make up Georgetown University.

Here I am near the Potomac. The bridge in the background is the Francis Scott Key bridge, i believe.

Last weekend my Dad met me at the New Carolton Metro station and we drove back to Delaware. It was a short trip but it was nice to spend time with the fam. The drive to Delaware, if traffic is good, should take about an hour and a half. In order to get there, you have to drive over a super long bridge near Annapolis, Maryland. It is so beautiful!

I went to the premier of the Dark Night the night before i went to Delaware, so I didn't get much sleep. I slept most of the way there and the rest of the night.

This is the only picture I could get of the bridge that shows a good portion of its length.

Delaware is a gorgeous state. It was such a nice break from the city. On the way to Dover after crossing the Bay Bridge, it is mostly farm country. There were numerous corn fields and other crops.

On Saturday morning my Dad and Uncle and I went to this beach, I forgot what it is called, on Delaware Bay. It was a lot less crowded than Rehoboth, the beach we went to my last trip. There were people fishing and crabbing off of the long pier, and only one person actually laying out on the sand.

After we went to the beach, we drove to Bombay Hook, a nature preserve. It was soo pretty. We saw all sorts of animals I had never seen before. Ibises, cranes, herons. It was great.

Here are some Ibises. There was also corn growing in Bombay Hook.

On Saturday night my dad's cousin from Canada came over to my Grandma's to visit with his family. They were touring around US history sites. It was nice to meet some really extended family, hopefully I'll see them again soon.

This weekend wasn't very eventful. I wasn't feeling too well so I spent a lot of time at home reading and crocheting. I did, however, make it out to see the Jim Henson exhibition at the Smithsonian International Gallery. It was probably one of the best exhibits I've ever been too. They didn't allow photography, but i snook this picture with my camera phone.

I made it a goal to read a book every two weeks, I've done ok so far, but I still have a few more I want to read before school begins. Here are some of the ones I've read this summer.

This book is mostly pictures, but I really liked it. It has a bunch of artwork and writings by Palestinians.
This is a great book about the history of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This book was quite tedious to read, however I recommend it to anyone interested in detainee treatment laws in Guantanamo Bay.
This is the best book I've read this summer. It is about how the world shifted after the fall of the Soviet Union and how the US chose to behave after becoming the world's sole superpower.

I finished this book this weekend, It was really good. I saw the movie in the Spring and really enjoyed it. As usual, the book gives a lot more details than the movie.

I've tried to pick up some hobbies while I've been in DC. The only one I've really been working on, however, is teaching myself how to crochet. I am still not very good, but I'm getting there! I've taught myself a few stitches and now I want to learn how to make a case for my ipod.

I found this book at Border's this weekend. It is the next hobby I'll be working on. The book instructs on creating stuffed animals from socks and gloves. The animals are really cute! I can't wait to get started!

Overall the last few weeks have been great. I have less than three weeks in DC! But I am ready to come home.

Wow, I am the worst Blogger ever

2008-07-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've proven to be quite possibly the worst summer blogger in history. Things here in the district have been good, but quite busy. I've made it a goal for myself to read a book every two-weeks and am trying to teach myself how to crochet! Work is crazy, I can never get enough done. I have been staying after and coming in early quite often. Right now we are researching the reasons for anti-Americanism in the Arab world. I am also in the middle of writing a case-study on the agreement made between Hizbullah and the Prime Minister of Lebanon's party establishing a united government between the two parties.

A lot has happened in the last month-and-a-half. I went to Delaware to visit the my Grandma, Uncles, and Father who recently moved there. Stephen came to visit and we went up to New York, My old roommate, Megan, from the dorms at the U freshman year came to visit with her friend Mallory, and I celebrated the fourth here in the nation's capital!

Among other news, Barack Obama got the Democratic Party nomination! And I got a long overdue haircut, as you can tell from this picture. Haircuts cost a lot more here on the East Coast, I called around and looked around for a while before I decided on where to get my hair cut, and it still cost over 60$!

It was my fellow-intern Virinia's birthday so I went to a BBQ with her and the other Utah State interns at their apartment in Crystal City. This is a picture of me, Virinia, and Jake (the other Intern I work with from Weber.) As you can see, my hair looks a lot better here than in the pre-haircut picture.

This statue is one of many Uncle Sam statues by the Crystal City metro stop. I thought it was way cute!
It was so nice to be in Delaware with my Dad, Grandma, and Uncles. We made the most of our time visiting the Air force Museum, Rehoboth Beach, Brecknock Park, and the Puncheon Run behind my Grandma's house. Rehoboth Beach is a picturesque East-Coast beach city. There is a long boardwalk lined with cute little stores that sell salt-water taffy, greasy fries, Philly cheese stakes, and homemade ice cream.

This picture was taken at Brecknock Park. I visited this same spot when I was in Delaware in December when everything was brown and there were no leaves on the trees. Things have really greened-up since then.

In Washington I spend at least an hour underground each day commuting to and from work. It is something I am not use to, and quite honestly, it is hard for me to deal with at times. The streets here are always busy and the city is so developed. Being in Delaware was a nice break for me. I spent quite a bit of time outdoors. We saw a bunch of animals while we were out-and-about--including painted turtles, cardinals, bull-frogs, bunny rabbits, squirrels, and a snake! I am making another trip to Delaware next weekend, and hopefully one more after that before I go back to Utah.

Stephen came into town the day after I came back from Delaware for a week. It was nice to go around DC with him. We went to all the major site-seeing spots in the District and then went up to New York for the weekend with a group of Interns from the U.

Stanley, an intern from the U is working in Jim Matheson's office and was able to give Stephen and I a tour of the capital building. He was a great tour guide!

This is a beautiful painting in the rotunda of the Capital Building. I believe it is called the Apotheosis of George Washington. In it you can see at the center 13 women representing the 13 original colonies, along with George Washington being consulted to by Greek Goddesses. And on the outer rim Greek Gods including the God of War are giving consultation as well.

This is my favorite painting in the Capital Building. It is George Washington giving the power to declare war to Congress. This painting has great significance because it is the first and last time a president has given power back to congress. In light of recent events, specifically the neglect of the War Powers Resolution and the abuse of presidential power that has occurred during this administration, I think this moment in history is definitely one that should be remembered and should be looked back to in precedence.

This is one of two statues submitted by the State of Utah inside the capital building. The other one is the guy who invented the TV, who is not actually from Utah.

Stephen and I had Dim Sum at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

I had to work two of the days Stephen was here, so we did some of the sight-seeing at night. It also rained quite a bit during the week he was here so we got caught in the rain a few times. Here is a picture of the Jefferson, it is my favorite monument.

Fireflies come out at night during the summer, they pulsate green light every few seconds, it is way cool. It is really beautiful to see them around the monuments and throughout the city.

It is really affordable to go between New York City and DC. There are several bus services that travel non-stop between the two cities for around $40 round trip! Stephen and I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in New York doing the basic touristy things. We went to Central Park, rode the Staten Island Ferry, Saw the Empire State Building, Flat Iron building (picture above), Times Square, the Manhattan Temple, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, and walked around Fifth Ave and SoHo. We also went to the MOMA and Met. It rained quite a bit while we were in New York, but we did our best to keep ourselves entertained indoors while it rained.

Here is Moroni sticking up among the tall buildings in Manhattan.

Here we are at Times Square. Not the best picture of me... but Stephen looks good!
The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

We found this statue of Hello Kitty so I asked some near-by Japanese tourists to take a picture for us!

My Grandma worked as a Secretary at Radio City Music Hall back in the times of Roger and Hammerstein.
The Guggenheim was under renovation when we went there. The entire outside was covered in scaffolding and once we got inside we discovered that most of the paintings had been removed. But nevertheless, it was still nice to go inside and check it out.

Central Park is humongous and really pretty! We didn't see everything there is to see there, but we walked around for a while and went to a few of the main attractions. My favorite was by far the turtle pond (pictured above.) There were soooo many turtles swimming around in it, it was way cool!

Here we are at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The New York Subway system is so gross compared to DC's. I thought DC's was pretty gross compared to what I was use to in Singapore, but New Yorks.... it is really bad! It is stinky, poorly ventilated, dirty, and there are a lot of sketchy people. Stephen and I got caught in the exit of this subway station for a long time! Finally we got brave enough to exit it and go sit at a restaurant near by. We had a great view of the Empire State Building and Flat Iron building from the restaurant, but were really happy once it finally cleared up.
Two of my roommates and I had a girls night and went to a Nationals game and then to Larry's for ice cream. Larry's has great ice cream, but the owner, Larry, is the soup Nazi of ice cream. It

A group of us interns went to Alexandria for seafood and a historic ghost tour. It was fun, but really kinda spooky.

Megan came and visited me for a few days. I felt bad because I couldn't get any work off while she was here, but we hung out at night. We did some sigh-seeing and ate at a few good restaurants. It was nice to see her again!

It rained a bunch while she was here. Here I am with Mallory in the rain!

Some of the girls upstairs who are interns from the U had a cake party on July 3rd. Here I am with my roommate Erin and the cake I made.

The morning of the Fourth of July the Hinkley interns had breakfast at one of the apartments on the top floor of the building. It was sooo good. Then afterwards we went down to the parade. It was a looooooong parade, but really good. My favorite float was definitely the Hello Kitty one, although it is not at all patriotic.

We got hena tatoos at the Indian Festivil down on the mall.

After the parade we went to the capital building for a concert and fireworks. It was so crowded! We got there way early so we had a really good spot. A bunch of supposedly famous people played, but the only person I was really impressed with was Jerry Lee Lewis and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The fireworks were so beautiful!

The last month-and-a-half has been great, hopefully my next post will come a lot sooner though.

Presidents Race

2008-05-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hello! So I'm out here in Washington, DC for the summer! It has been two weeks and I have ten to go. I'll be back towards the end of August. Things here have been great so far. I'm out here with a group of students from the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. We are interning at a variety of places, from the RNC to the DNC. I'm working for a company called Pal-Tech, it is great! The company works off of government contracts and does a large variety of things. I work with two other interns, one from Utah State University and the other from Weber State University. We aren't really involved with what the company does, we mostly just do research on the Middle East. I love DC, it is a great city with so much to do, but at the same time I'm sad that I'm missing another summer in Utah. I am going to make a attempt at keeping this blog updated throughout the summer. Here are some pictures from my first two weeks in DC.

Here is the Washington Monument. I took this picture just as a bus drove past, it turned out pretty cool.

This is the building i work in in Arlington, VA. It is right across the river from the District. It is a nice area and is really close to the metro! However, it does take about 40 minutes to commute from where I live (Van Ness, DC) to Arlington.

This picture was taken out of the window of the chairman of our company's office. You can see (from left to right) the capitol building, the Washington monument, the Lincon monument, and the Jefferson monument.

If you look in the other direction, you can see the side of the pentagon. It doesn't really look like a pentagon at ground level.

Here are Virinia and I waiting for the metro. Virinia is an intern from Utah State that I work with.
Here I am in front of a pretty sculpture at the Woodrow Wilson center. We found out that there was a symposium about Iran, Iraq and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, so we were able to go during work. Our boss wants us to take advantage of being in Washington DC. He says that we are interns here to learn, not to work so he will be sending us on more things like this. The thesis of the speaker's presentation was that in order to build a new, stable, Iraq, the United States needs to have talks with Iran, since Iran plays a huge roll in Iraq and has great influence there. The US, however, has been unwilling to have talks with Iran because the US accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. I personally think that if the US closes its doors to talks with any country or organization it is putting itself at a disadvantage. I don't think there can be any peaceful resolutions without dialogue. But anyway, it was a very interesting talk and I'm glad we got to hear it.

Dr. Kader, our boss, wanted the interns to watch some films in his office while he was out. We watched Bush's War, a PBS font line documentary, I highly recommend it. We still have a long list we need to watch. This is a picture of me trying to choose which delicious chocolate to eat.

The first weekend I was here a group of us, all interns from the Hinckley Institute visited a few embassies that were having Open Houses as part of a foreign embassy open house event. This photograph is of a painting in the Colombian embassy that I really liked.

Here is our group in front of the Colombian Embassy. We also visited Pakistan, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh embassies.

Many of the embassies were closed and we had to just pass by without going inside. Here is a picture of the crest of Singapore in front of the Singaporean embassy. It made me miss Singapore a lot. Majulah Singapura!
There was a very entertaining fashion show in Ghana's embassy.

Here are the other interns who work with me at Pal Tech. Jake (Weber state) and Virinia (Utah state.)

Here I am reading in my mini cubicle. The book I'm reading is titled Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace. It is a great book, It is not very long. I haven't finished it yet. It was published in early 2008 and gives a history of the peace talks between Israel and countries of the Arab world during the Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2 administrations. Then it gives 10 suggestions on how to negotiate Arab-Israeli peace. It is great, I think the authors need to send copies over to Obama and McCain.

Here I am looking out over the Potomac river at the Kennedy Center.

Every day at 6pm the Kennedy center has a free performance. I went twice last week to see a jazz performance and chamber music performance. They were both great. I love DC because there is so much free entertainment!

Here I am at the Kennedy Center with Megan (a girl from the Hinckley Institute.) The building on the left in the foreground is the Watergate building, where the Watergate scandal took place, and on the right is the Saudi Arabian Embassy.

Every Friday after working hours there is a free jazz concert at a sculpture garden near capitol hill. So I met up with some other interns from the Hinckley Institute for a little picnic after work. The weather was perfect!

Here are Christine (left), Erin (Right) and I in the Metro on our way to the Jefferson Memorial.

This is my fourth trip to Washington DC in the past year and the first time I've ever been to the Jefferson Memorial. We decided to take a walk over there at night time. It was beautiful! I want to go back during the daytime. This picture was taken on the other side of the tidal basin.

Here is a shot of the Washington monument from the opposite side of the tidal basin.

This Saturday, after spending the day laying out by the pool, a group of us decided to go to a Nationals game. It was my first major league baseball game!

After the 4th or 5th inning Lincon, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Washington came out for a Presidents Race. These are seriously the cutest mascots I have ever seen.

Lincon won!

Thank you State Department and American Taxpayers!

2007-07-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

In a recent attempt to update my blog, I came across a post that I never completed. This is almost a year late, but better late than never! Here are some pictures from my trip to Jordan last summer (2007) I was there from June-August. While I was there I traveled all around Jordan, the bank cities of Bethlehem and Rumallah, Jerusalem in Israel proper, and Damascus, Syria. I may post pictures from my trip another time, but here are some from the old post I never published.

I am currently working as an Intern in Washington DC for a company called Pal-Tech. I am loving it so far, hopefully I'll post more about that later.

Here are some pictures from our 5 day trip to southern Jordan.

Here I am with some of the other people from my program. We stayed in an amazing "campground" in wadi rum. It was the first campground I ever stayed at that had a full dance floor, swimming pool, restaurant and bar. We did sleep comfortably in twin beds in tents, so it is considered camping.

This is one of many facades found on the sides of mountains in Petra, Jordan. This is called "the monstary." although it looks quite large, it only contains one small chamber inside. Petra was recently named one of the new 7 wonders of the world!

Here is Flannery and I on the red sea. Part of our itinerary was to take a boat out on the red sea for a bbq and party, so we did. Thank you again, american tax payers. It was really fun and the food was great. We stayed in a 5 star hotel in a city called Aquba. Many countries have ports in the gulf of Aquba (where this picture was taken). From where we were we could see Egyptian, Israeli, Jordanian, and Saudi Arabian ports. It was quite amazing.

I took this picture on our bus ride up to the castle of Karak. This castle was one of many existing fortresses modified by the crusaders in the 13th century.

Here is our group learning about the Nabateans who once inhibited Petra.

Here I am waiting for others to gather to go on our boat ride out to the red sea. This is in the lobby of our hotel, the movenpick, which use to be owned by the bin-laden family.

Here I am with Flannery (right) and Christine (left). These girls were probably my best friends in Jordan this summer, they are awesome. We are in a place called Wadi Rum. Several movies have been filmed here. And the sand is really that red!

Here i am waiting to go snorkeling in the red sea. it was so beautiful! I've never seen such beautiful corals in my life! i wasn't aware the red sea was a big snorkeling and diving destination, but i guess it is!

This is probably the most famous facade in Petra, called "the treasury."

After walking through narrow canyon walls for nearly a mile, this is the first glimpse you see of the city of Petra. wow, it was breathtaking!

Camels for rent! You can rent these camels to take you in and out of Petra. If you look closely at this picture, you can see the facades of small dwellings in the foreground.

this is the narrow "siqh" you walk through to get to Petra.

This is our group in wadi rum. the Bedouins, which are local tribal men, hosted us for tea and coffee. I can't imagine how people can drink that stuff in such hot weather! cold water was fine for me.

this is a picture i took out of our hotel window in Aquba.

Our caravan driving through wadi rum.

The sunset at wadi rum

Our trip to the south was great. I really love Jordan. It is so rich in culture, history and there are so many beautiful sights to see. But despite staying in five-star hotels, cruising in the red sea, and staying in, what i would consider, a five-star campground, all at the expense of American tax payers, we are learning a lot out here.

Ana eskoon fi Amman!

2007-07-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

Marhaban! So I am still here in Jordan and loving it. This blog post isn't up-to-date, but I am working towards that! Over the past few weeks we've visited quite a few places. We went to Um Quais, Jerash, Ajloon, Wadi Hasan and Al-Salt.

Here are Flannery and I in Um Quais. We got tired and hot so decided to sit here a bit. After looking at some mosaics and pieces of statues and column capitals.

Um Quais was awesome. From the northern side of it there was a great view of the Sea of Galilee and Lebanon. The city is from the Ottman era. The buildings, roads, and pretty much everything inside the city was built of black basalt and limestone, as you can see in some of the photos.

These boys were dancing a traditional dance called the, "Debka." it is kind of like a country line dance but a lot cooler. The amphitheatre they are dancing in is built of black basalt.

Here I am in Jerash. It was ridiculously hot the day we went. Jerash is an old roman city. A lot of archaeological discoveries have been made here, and then re-buried for preservation. The government kept a few of the temples and buildings exposed for tourists to see, but a large number of them remain uncovered.

Our group in front of the temple of Artemus. You can actually see the columns of this building sway with the wind. It is pretty scary.

Exposed mosaics from the temple of Jean-Baptiste. Or John the Baptist. And when I say exposed, I mean it. There is no roof that protects these mosaics, they are totally exposed to the elements.

A view of the city center in Jerash.

Flannery and I with some bag-pipe dudes inside the theatre in Jerash. This is where i saw Ozomatli play. You will see the pictures from that in future blogs!

Flannery and I near the entrance of Ajloon. A castle built by Saladin's forces during the crusades.

Me being blinded for the sun and posing for a picture inside Ajloon.

Flan and I being silly on the bus.. The people behind us were pretty much all asleep haha.

Here is a picture of everyone sleeping. We were stuck in traffic for almost two hours... literally stuck.. we didn't move more than 30 feet.

Wadi Hasan is one of the many canyons in Jordan. I didn't realize Jordan would have such sweet geology, but it does. We had quite the adventure in this canyon. We paid one of our Jordanian friends, Hakim, who is also a tour guide to take us to this canyon. It was intense. We had to swim most of the way, but also hike, jump off cliffs, repel, and rock climb to finally get out of the canyon. It took about 7 hours.

This is a picture of us finally resting after making it out of the canyon. We are laying in a natural hot spring that intersects the main river which formed the canyon.

We stopped for a swim in this pool of water.

Al-Salt is a city in Jordan that hasn't been westernized a ton like Amman and Aqaba. The buildings here were much older, and being preserved. We walked around the city, visited a church and an archaeological museum.

Joe, Christine and I on a roof-top checking out the view. Photo by Charles.

Christine and I representing Asia. You can see the minaret of a Mosque in the background.

The best dinner of my life at a Lebanese restaurant.

My Trip to Jordan so far has been awesome. I am having a ton of fun and learning a ton of Arabic. I really love the people and the culture of Jordan and i really hope I'll be able to return next summer or sometime soon.

Marhaban!

2007-06-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, so i started this post over a month ago and didn't finish it.

I am in Amman! it is fun!! it is way hot here.. this city is pretty developed and westernized, I was really surprised. but despite the tall commercial and residential buildings there is a lot of cattle around here. I was very surprised to see goats and sheep grazing in uninhabited plots of land in between tall buildings. There is a shepherd who herds his goats to the open field next door to where i live and lets them graze there.

Here is the shepherd with his sheep and goats. This picture was taken from the living room window of my apartment. In the foreground you can see ruins that are from the ottoman era.

I'm staying at the American Center for Oriental Research. It is pretty nice here. When they told us we were living in a hostel I was expecting the bare minimums. But it turned out to be pretty nice. I live in a two bedroom apartment on the top floor of the building with four other girls. Our building is not bad. It is about twenty years old. I'm pretty sure all the furniture, sheets, and towels are around the same age. It is kind of gross. Since we live in the middle of the desert we don't have much water here. Water is delivered once a week so we are encouraged to take 'navy showers' Yesterday while i was taking a shower the water went out. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. But thank goodness I had a two liter of mineral water handy. I was able to rinse most of the soap off of me.

This is the only picture i have of ACOR. We have our own long private driveway and 'special police officer' that is stationed outside 24/7.

This is our neighborhood, Ta'al al Ali. It translates to "Ali's hill" in the foreground is a Bedouin tent, they are the nomadic people that once lived throughout the Arabian peninsula, and in the background is our neighborhood.

So far i have really enjoyed this program. It is definitely refreshing to be around people who are so diverse. There is so much to learn from the people here and I love it. Being here, even though its only been a week, has re-kindled my interest in learning. It is good that i feel more motivated to learn now, but at the same time it is making me more indecisive about my major. I love geology, but there is so much more i want to learn about as well!

Yesterday was a really fun day. We had our first cultural tour. We went all around Amman and visited historical sites. I no idea that civilizations have been living here for thousand of years.

This is the blue mosque near downtown Amman. it is beautiful.

Yum, fried cheese, sugar and psittacosis.

This is the world's tallest flagpole. 400 ft!

The first site we went to was a roman amphitheatre. It was right in the heart of down town Amman. it was crazy to see it sticking out among the regular city buildings.

here is the theatre amongst the buildings!

Nazneen, Flannery and I scaling the steep amphitheatre steps.

Group picture!

This is Flannery and I at the sacrificial alter. Flannery is in the program with me. She is studying near eastern studies at Princeton.

After the theatre we went about 500 meters to the top of a hill where the temple of Hercules once stood. There was also a cool archaeological museum there with some of the dead sea scrolls.
The temple of Hercules with downtown Amman in the background.

We went to a small village called Iraq Al-Amir after the temple and saw another temple built during the Ummayd empire. Some women from the village prepared lunch for all thirty of us. It was mansaff, which is chicken, rice, and some spices. it was really good.

Here I am knocking on the door of a handicrafts store in Iraq Al-Amir.

A group of people from my program decided to go see a concert at Hussein Gardens. We saw a Palestinian rap group called "damn" or something like that. They were actually pretty good.

Joel, Dennis and I. i think this picture is so funny.

Damn in action.

Me with one of the many faces of King Abdullah displayed heavily throughout Jordan.