I want to be a tourist (The Crab Pot)

After grabbing our ticket for our cruise through some of the area (more on that later), we went to get some lunch. As we walked past one of the piers, we had seen a few seafood restaurants and since we were in Seattle right on the waterfront, we wanted to have some. One place close by was called "The Crab Pot" and it looked good. Now, for those of you who don't know her quite as well, Katy usually likes to have familiar things off of menus when we go out to eat; furthermore, in general, Katy is not a big fan of seafood. So, I was curious what she would order and how she would like it. We waited for only a few minutes, and then were seated at a table outside under an overhang. We ordered this:

The table is full of Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab, Shrimp in the Shell, Steamed Clams, Steamed Mussels, Andouille Sausage, Corn on the Cob, and Red Potatoes in their jackets. Additionally, it came up that Katy had NEVER had salmon before! She didn't ever think she would like it since she doesn't really like fish, but I convinced her that it is not a "fishy" tasting fish if that makes any sense. So, we spent an extra few dollars to get some grilled salmon on a skewer. She liked it! She actually liked everything, though the shrimp not as much as everything else. She said she likes her shrimp deep fried and couldn't get over having to break off the shrimp heads and peeling off the shell. We both loved the crab, but we already knew that. I am a big fan of seafood, so I loved this fresh medley. About an hour later, we were left with this:

All in all, it was a great place. It was definitely a lunch we'll remember!

I want to be a tourist (Seattle Aquarium)

The Seattle Aquarium was the second place that we went on our CityPass of Seattle.  It was super fun! We got to see all kinds of animals, including ones that we would see just outside in the Puget Sound.  While it wasn't the biggest aquarium that I have ever been to, it still was really nice.  My personal favorites were the otters, both sea otters and river otters.  Cory's favorite part was the giant octopus which come directly from the Puget Sound.  We learned that since octopi are so smart, they have to catch a new octopus from the Sound every once in a while so that they don't get bored living in the tank.  The Giant Pacific Octopus, the kind found in the Puget Sound and in the museum, is the biggest species of octopus in the world.  We learned later that the largest one ever caught was over 30 feet long and weighed more than 600 pounds!  One of the other cool things that happened while we were there was the feeding time.  We just happened to be at the sea lion exhibit when the trainer came out with a bucket of fish.  So, we got to watch it do tricks and other cool things for food.  It was so fun to watch.  Here are some of the many pictures that I took while we were there.

I'm touching a Sea Cumcumber

Cory tired but he didn't really measure up.

The Giant Octopus

Fun colored fish that we saw

A puffin that is about to jump into the water right in front of us.  After he did jump, he ran right into the wall just in front of us.  It was so funny.

Star Fish

Sea otter.  He is eating his lunch.

Sea otter mommy and baby.  While we were watching we saw the baby getting milk from its mother.

River otter.  Just posing for us. haha

Sea lion working for its food. haha

I want to be a tourist (Pike's Place Market)

One of the most famous farmers markets.  It was awesome to be there.  We walked around and saw all the great things in the market, including the famous fish market where they throw the fish.  There were many shops and other places that sold handmade crafts and also many flowers.  They were some of the prettiest flowers I've seen and I've seen lots of flowers working at a flower shop.  Cory bought me a beautiful bouquet of peonies and irises.  They are gorgeous! 

I want to be a tourist (preview/intro)

So, since I got my first paycheck and we finally have some money coming IN instead of just OUT, we decided to take a look at downtown Seattle and visit some of the places we had heard so much about from  both people around here and from Rob (Katy's brother), who served his mission here. Katy had really been looking forward to it and "put her foot down" to make sure we went ASAP. So, on Friday, we looked online to try to come up with a plan of things we wanted to see on our foray into Seattle. There were a number of different things we wanted to see and do, so as we were browsing the internet, we saw something called a CityPass that would allow us to see lots of stuff. It's a packet of tickets to the Space Needle (a must-do activity according to most people we talk to), the Seattle Aquarium, a tour boat cruise around Elliot Bay, the Seattle Science Center, the Experience Music Project Museum, and either the Boeing Museum of Flight or the Woodland Park Zoo. All of those things sounded really fun to do, so we decided to purchase the pass; however, we knew that we could not do all of those things in one day and really enjoy any of them. Fortunately, the passes are good for 9 days from the time the first one is used. So, we planned two visits on consecutive Saturdays to downtown Seattle to see what there is to see in this great new city of ours. So, what will follow in the coming two weeks will be accounts of our two visits and I think plenty of pictures to go with them. I think Katy told me today that there were over 100 pictures on the actual camera and many more on the phones (though only Katy's phone has the capability to upload pictures from her phone to her computer. I suppose it's for the best since the quality of my dumb phone's pictures don't hold a candle to Katy's iPhone). Anticipate and then enjoy!

New Place

A week ago today, we moved into our new apartment here in Puyallup, Wa.  We went 3 days with out furniture which wasn't super fun.  The floor really isn't that comfortable to sleep on for multiple nights.  This past Tuesday we finally got furniture! It is so nice to have.  We haven't really done to much since being in Washington.  We have gone to our new ward on Sunday. I've done some job searching. Cory has started his new job, yesterday. Today we went to a big farmers market.  We got a flower and some tomato plants and strawberry plants.  I am really excited to grow them.  It's my first garden! Well not a whole lot of exciting stuff, but we will keep you up to date. :) Here are a few pictures (Don't mind the mess haha) :

Kitchen (before)

Kitchen (after)

Living Room (before)

Living room (after)

Bedroom (before)

Bedroom (after)

Bathroom (before)

Bathroom (after)

Washer and dryer  (that actually work well)

Dining Room (before)

Dining Room (after)

Garden

Congo River

We went to the Congo River...well the miniature golf course that is.  It was so fun!  It was Cory, me, Eric, Emma and Nora.  While Nora was only two months old she slept through the whole thing.  We had so much fun just playing and enjoying, but toward the end it was going to start raining so we had to hurry the end of the course.  We managed to get out of there just before the rain came.  That was really nice. The standings ended up being: Cory and Eric tied for first, then me, and Emma in last.  Here are a few of the pictures for the day of golf:

Cory

Emma

Eric

Nora

Me

Baseball!!!

I love baseball! I especially love the St. Louis Cardinals. So on Wednesday we went to see them play the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was super fun! By the end of the 3rd inning the score was 12-1. So the beginning was really exciting and fun! Not much was happening after that, but it was still great to be there, especially since we were sitting pretty close to the field. One of the only downsides was that it was really hot and sticky even for an evening game. We also saw the World Series trophy. Here are some pictures:

Ready...Set...Adventure!

Katy and I are about to embark on a great adventure that will surely be an exciting new chapter in our lives. I got an internship with Boeing this summer in the Seattle area, so we will be away from Provo for a few months to a place I have only visited once and Katy has never been to.
We've spent this weekend packing everything up and getting ready for the trip. We packed all of our larger items (TV, mattress, box spring, dresser, etc.) along with some other non-essential things into a storage unit on Saturday, and packed our car FULL of our things for the summer. One note on our move Saturday was how incredibly nice people can be. We originally thought that a number of people from our ward were going to be helping us with the move and that we'd have a couple of trucks. We did our due diligence in getting everything we could into boxes and black trash bags to make things easier for everybody to move and waited for people to start coming at 10:00, as Katy was told through text messaging with a ward member. One of Katy's visiting teachers, Megan, came at about 10:05, then........................nobody. We loaded up Megan's car and our car with the boxes and trash bags and started heading over to our storage unit. On the way, she called her husband to come and help me carry the bigger stuff up the stairs. He was a BIG help with all of that. But, we still didn't have a truck to load our bigger things into to take to the storage place. We started talking about trying a local UHaul place to rent one of their trucks by the hour, but then Megan said she would try to call one of her friends to come help. A few minutes later, a big white diesel pickup truck shows up with a mother and 3 girls inside who immediately began helping load our bedroom furniture into the bed of their truck. We went to the storage unit and came back for a second load, which included a futon mattress. Their truck got caught at a light, but it took them a long time to catch up to us. It turns out that the futon wasn't fastened down securely enough and was falling down in the bed of the truck. So, when they finally caught up, I saw a hand in the bed of the truck holding the futon mattress in place the whole way to the storage unit. One of the daughters had sat back there to keep our things safe. After unloading the second load, they left to go home. I don't even know their names, but I am incredibly grateful for their help. I was thinking about what we could do to pay them back. I knew we couldn't pay anybody with money since they wouldn't accept it, and I knew we couldn't express our gratitude with fresh cookies or anything like that. It seemed to me that saying thank you just wouldn't be enough for the gratitude I felt. I came to the conclusion that the best way to say thank you to them and show my gratitude was to "pay it forward" through service to others. So, the next time I hear about the elder's quorum helping somebody I don't know move at 8 am on a Saturday, you can bet your life I'll be there helping. I am SO grateful to that family that I may never see again or ever learn their names. I hope that someday I can do the same for somebody else.
Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow morning for a vacation to visit the Lindmarks in St Louis and then some Cunninghams in Orlando. We are super excited to go see a Cardinals game in St Louis with Katy's side of the family and then to go see our new niece in Florida. After that, we're off to Seattle for the internship and whatever adventures lie ahead. Wish us luck!

Tulip Festival

Cory's parents where in town this past weekend, which was super fun.  While they were here, on Saturday some of us went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT.  It was so beautiful!  Cory, his mom and I went.  We had a fun time just walking around and looking at all the beautiful flowers and other gardens.  Here are some of the pictures that we took (They were took on my phone) :

Start of a Fun Summer

Well schools out. YAY!!! Its been a long semester for the both of us, so we are excited that it's summer time.  Lately we have been looking for places to live here in Provo and in the Seattle area, finding a place to store our stuff, and packing up the apartment.  Not super exciting stuff right now, but we are still busy.  Its crazy to think that on Monday we leave Provo for the whole summer.  Before we head up to the Seattle area though, we are taking a short vacation back east.  We will spend a few days with St. Louis with my family and then go down to Florida to visit Eric and Emma and baby Nora for a few days.  Its going to be super fun, I can't wait!! After our short vacation we will get back and head straight north.  We are going to visit Kelly and Ryan in Idaho for a day and then from there make our final trip actually to the Seattle area.  Exciting stuff!! I'll try and keep this updated this summer. :) We will see how that goes.