Aunt Bina and Uncle Arty Came to Town!

 Need I say any more? I think the title explains a lot, because when these two show up anywhere, it's a party. And this time was no different. :) They actually had gone on a cruise up in Alaska but since their flight left through Seattle they figured "why not hang around a few days and spend some quality time with our favorite niece?" ok, they didn't really say that, but they did take a few days before boarding their flight. :)

While they were here, we visited the Famous Seattle seaquarium... 

We also did the underground tour of old seattle, which I found to be very fascinating. But then again, anything history makes me get all geeked out. ;0)

Tuesday night, in honor of our 3rd Anniversary, Bina and Arty took us out to eat at a nice restaurant called Palomino. The best part was that Bina wouldn't let cheapo Jason order anything less than a steak. And he loved it!

While they were here, we shared the good news with them about our little baby and of course they are very happy and excited for us. Bina took me shopping for some maternity jeans and I got some very cool, hip stuff! I finally own my first pair of skinny jeans, some two years after they became cool. I always take a while to get with the times...

I love these two!

Our Baby Girl

This is our little miracle. I had my 20 week appointment today and everything went very well. I am so happy and feel so extremely blessed! This little girl truly is a miracle in our lives and I just continue and hope and pray that she grows stronger and healthier every day. We can't wait to meet her!

Traveling the Great Northwest

This past week my parents-in law ( is that a word??) and brother-in-law came to visit and boy, did we have a heck of a lot of fun! They stayed for a week and we got a lot of goodness packed in. :)

Besides eating a lot of good food ( salmon!!) and getting spoiled by them, 

here are a few things that we did: 

 Had a barbeque in the park ( while watching eagles fly over us)

 

Visited Mt. Rainier National Park

 

 Took a ferry through the San Juan Islands to Victoria, B.C.

Visited the famous Butchart Gardens( after eating some yummy fish n' chips!)

 

Visited the Olympic National Park ( and saw TONS of wildlife!)

 

Traveled to the Hoh National Rainforest--the only one on the continental U.S.

And saw the Pacific Ocean! ( Second time ever in my life!)

We also went to the Ballard locks and saw a lot of salmon jumping up the ladder. So naturally we then had to go and eat salmon at Ivar's salmon house. :0) My wonderful mother-in-law, Diane, whom I lovingly  refer to as Mama Casebolt, treated us to an amazing massage and manicures on Friday, and we all had the pleasure of picking out a baby stroller at Babies R Us ( shout out to Crystal for the good advice and help) It was actually really hard! Whew! 

Dang, I miss them already! I can't wait to see them all again!

Chillin' in Utah

 I've done a lot of great things so far this summer--trek, Girls Camp, sleeping in--but the one that trumps them all so far was my trip to Utah. I had such a dang good time! Not only was it fun, but I felt like I learned a lot of valuable lessons about life and marriage. This trip helped remind me what some of the most important things in life are.I'm so glad I went. Here are a few of the things I did....

I got to catch up with old friends and roomies

Strengthened friendships

Went to Christina's wedding and reception

 

and saw Justin!!!!

Justin got permission from his Mission President to have lunch with me and Paul so we met up with him and his companion in Spanish Fork at a very yummy Chinese buffet. We even had our lunch paid for!

Summertime Quilt

I wanted to wait until it was a little sunnier, ya know to get the full effect, but you can't be picky around here when it comes to sunshine--you take what you get!

So this was a little project I've been working on this summer. It was A LOT harder than the baby quilt. Do quilts get exponentially harder as they increase in size? Maybe I should just stick to baby quilts....

But either way, I think it turned out pretty good( as long as you don't look too closely!) and I LOVE the colors! It really reminds me of summer. I love bright happy colors that remind me of happiness :)

Pioneer Trek 2011

This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to go on our stake's pioneer trek with the youth. What a great, fun and downright incredible experience! I was so dang proud of my girls, doing everything with good attitudes, staying upbeat and even enjoying life without all the makeup and cellphones and stuff.


I had two responsibilities while I was up there: I helped with the activities on Thursday, specifically quilt tying( which I myself had never done before but that's the beauty about you tube tutorials!), and then on Friday I was responsible for the vignette on Native Americans. Basically I did some research about Mormon pioneers and Native Americans on the trail and I gave a 5 minutes shpeal  to the youth when they passed my station with their handcarts. The fun part was that I got to dress up like a Native American! I wore a feathered headdress and bead and moccasins! I told them I was from the Sioux tribe and explained how the Mormons and Native Americans got along pretty well for the most part. Then I proceeded to give them "directions" on how to get to their next point since I was acting as their scout. Except I didn't do it in English--I spoke in Romanian and had Sister Rice, who had been hanging out with me, "translate." It was pretty funny because some of the youth actually thought I was Native American and that I was speaking some form of dialect! HAHA! Yay for Romanian being a very unfamiliar language. :)

I was especially proud of the girls when they did the womens' pull. All the men and boys had to leave and the girls had to pull the handcarts for a little over two miles. They were such troopers! There were some parts that were really hard, but they kept pulling, even those who had severe blisters or twisted ankles. I felt like I got a little glimpse of how Heavenly Father must feel when we work through our trials and challenges, and do it with a good attitude.

I'm so glad I went on this trek, even though I was freezing most of the time ( it dropped down into the 30s at night) and even though I'll probably have dust coming out of my nose and ears for the next week!

We had such good food!

Crossing the "river" It was actually just a little muddy pond

The Womens' Pull

Despite the cold, we pioneers are happy!

Happy Fourth of July!

Yesterday we had an awesome Independence Day! I lounged around most of the day, except for when I made a mean pasta salad ( thank you Crystal!), and Jason worked on his little project. Then we went over to the Boushleys for grilled burgers in the evening and hung out with them for a bit. Afterwards, we all met up with Fernanda and Daniel and walked over to the park in the middle of downtown Bellevue for the firework show. I thought it was pretty good and they even had a live orchestra to accompany it. I've never seen that before. Not too shabby! I am so proud to be an American and I am extremely grateful for the liberties I enjoy! God Bless America!!!