Parsley is a beautifier

I've decided that parsley makes food look beautiful, whether it is fresh or dried.

Case in point.

This was tonight's totally-substitute dinner. We thought a recipe we had sounded good, but realized that we didn't quite have the right things, so this is what happened...

Recipe                         What we put in
Linguine                     Corkscrew pasta (or whatever it's technically called)
Fresh parsley               Dried parsley
Extra virgin olive oil    Light olive oil
Sliced garlic                 Diced garlic from our refrigerator
Red pepper flakes          Chili powder

...Needless to say, it was not as good as the actual recipe. But it was decent.

Food I'd like to eat in heaven (since calories won't count, right?)

This afternoon has been wonderful. I have eaten some super delicious things.

First. I made some Muddy Buddies which were introduced to me by a friend my freshman year at BYU (first year of college = super healthy, right?). I've loved them ever since. Today was the first time I made them myself (with a little help from Bry).

YUM.

Chex + [melted(choc. chips + peanut butter + butter) + vanilla] + powdered sugar = AMAZING

Second. We went shopping at Costco and I had noticed they have some great looking spinach dip last time we went but we already had a lot in our cart so I decided to wait until next time. This time was next time. So we bought some. I wanted some good bread for it to go on, so I went to the bakery area and they had some amazing breads (that were still WARM!). I selected the Italian Pugliese. Aside from my mom's homemade French bread, this is possibly my favorite bread. SO good (especially when still warm).

I've always loved Spinach Dip. 

We like benches?

So before we left Provo, Bry and I had our friends Morgan and Dusty take some photos of us. Morgan was our home teacher for most of the time we were in our married student ward, and Dusty has been an awesome friend of mine since we moved into the ward. We miss them both.

Note: Pictures are listed according to the order in which stated event occurred.

1. The bench where Bry asked me to be his girlfriend (I required he ask me formally so we didn't have the weird confusion I'd heard of other people having where they didn't know if their dating was official/exclusive). He kindly heeded my request and waited until it was 9/10/11 (cool date, right?), although he was ready to ask me a few days prior to that.

2. This is where Bry and I first kissed, not that you likely care to know. We had a lot of long conversations here, too, when we were dating.

The picture below is of the bench (not far from the previous bench) I told him to take me to if he was ever going to break up with me. Needless to say we've never sat at that bench. And yes, it was a cheesy or whatever-other-adjective-you-think-of idea to have this bench designated for that.

3. Lastly, the bench at which he proposed to me, which is behind the Provo temple. It didn't look like this when he proposed - it had snowed lightly and was night time.

Okay, one more (bonus). This one was obviously not taken in Provo, but still at a bench. Day we got married. =)

Anyway. That's enough mushy stuff.

Exploring Seattle: Part 2

Today we finished off our Seattle excursions for the week with a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. I loved it. =) I saw many animals I don't recall ever having seen before.

As a random note, Bry and I found out (and saw) what a Skink is - it's basically a lizard.

We forgot to go back between 2 and 4, so I have no idea what this is implying. 

A zebra and some ostrich eggs!

Komodo dragon (the colors are off due to lighting).

Didn't know these exist but they're adorable.

Look! Aramark hand sanitizer!

TWO bears! :)

Fooooood (the half left when I took this).

Nicobar pigeon. It's beautiful.

Tree kangaroo. :)

Exploring Seattle: Part 1

So I've decided to divide up our three-ish days of sight-seeing (more like one full day, 2 partial) between two posts since it's sort of a lot of pictures for just one post. As background, Bry and I bought City Passes for Seattle as a way of seeing multiple sights for less money than buying individual tickets for the attractions. We decided to call this our early anniversary celebration. =)

The first day (Wednesday) we went to the Aquarium in the afternoon which was pretty great. I didn't take a lot of photos since, you know, most of the stuff to see is behind glass and I don't have a cool enough camera for handling glass very well.

My hair looks not great but it's because it was windy. I do have hair.

Second day involved Space Needle (twice - once in the morning, once in the early evening), a Harbor Cruise tour, lunch at Pike Place Chowder (which is sort of hard to find), and the Pacific Science Center which included watching a documentary in one of their incredible IMAX theaters.

My thoughts on Pike Place Chowder food:
1. Crab roll was totally unimpressive. If you like cocktail sauce, maybe you would have loved it. I've had a way better crab roll in San Francisco. This one had flavor that was way too subtle and drowned out by the pile of lettuce. Bread was great.
2. The Smoked Salmon chowder and Seared Scallop chowder were both AMAZING (note empty bowls at top of photo below). The Southwestern (bottom left) and Manhattan (bottom right, with oyster crackers) were okay.

I'm glad we got to try it, though. =)

Argosy Harbor Cruise.

Pacific Science Center. Arches in it, anyway.

The Duckbill's foot was way bigger than Bry's. 

The documentary we watched. Better than expected.

Space Needle: Round 2

Look! The sun!

The end (of day 2).