Happy Birthday!

To my beautiful Mom

I'm very grateful that she is in my life

Shine

Illuminate through my life, Lord...

Zucchini Brownies

My mom recently posted a recipe on her blog for zucchini brownies and I knew I wanted to try making them so when she gave me a huge zucchini from her garden I knew what I wanted to use it for! Check out her blog for the recipe, the only thing different I did was I used vanilla yogurt because I didn't have plain yogurt and didn't want to buy a big thing of it.

First bowl with dry ingredients:

Second bowl with wet ingredients and sugar:

Mix mix mix!

Shredded zucchini (be careful to not shred your finger)

Voila!

The brownies were sooo good, you don't taste zucchini and the texture doesn't change either. I didn't tell Eddie until he tried them what they were but apparently he had zucchini brownies in Italy...Haha needless to say he liked them too! 

We had left over zucchini so we made shish kabobs the following night:

Eddie's Europe Trip

Eddie recently traveled to Europe on a mission's trip with our church. It was a blessing for him to be able to go and visit the missionaries we support, and minister to them in their needs. He can tell you about his trip better than I can so here is the link to his blog where you can find out more about his trip.

I was very disappointed I couldn't go, especially since they spent some time in Ireland-my dream land :). After getting over my jealousy and sense of entitlement I committed to pray for the team, really pray for them. Not only that but since I didn't have Eddie to hang out with or take care of I had more time alone so I turned to Jesus and I knew ultimately He was the one that would take away my loneliness. I drew closer to God during this time, learning to really spend time with Him, and it is something that has lasted after Eddie's return. So if this was the only reason I stayed behind then it was a very good one. The 2 weeks he was gone were long, but somehow they went by fast also. I had lots of loving people to keep me company and I'm thankful for the family and church family God has given to Eddie and I.

Portland

The last full day in Washington we spent the day in Portland. One of my favorite places we went was Powell's Books. This book store was massive, I think it was 3 stories and had a large cafe. Inside, each sections of books (children's, classic literature, etc) was color coded and they have lightly used books too so the same book can be different prices. 

Maelynn and baby Genevieve 

We got to spend a lot of time with this cutie!

Caught him! Doesn't he look so cute ;)

We spent the rest of the day walking around various stores and visited the farmer's market in town. It started raining when we were there so we didn't stay long but Eddie and I did have some really good pizza and a strawberry smoothie! We ended the night with Fire on the Mountain, which is kind of like Wings n' Things here at home. It was a delicious end to a great day!

Seattle

I had too many pictures for Seattle to create the post by phone so now that I have some down time here is our day in Seattle:

The drive to Seattle was about 2 hours north from where we were staying so we started early in the morning. We went with our friends Ryan and Mary but Eddie played tour guide because they had never been. Our first stop was Pike Place Market, a huge farmer's market that was established in 1907. It all began with some expensive onions-the people of Seattle grew tired of paying a fortune for fruits and veggies because of the middleman so a market was created in which farmers sold their produce directly to the customer. The grand opening was a huge success with farmers selling out by 11 a.m. and it has continued ever since.

A huge tourist attraction is the fish market where the guys throw fish across to each other as an order is being placed, but there weren't any orders placed while we were around so we didn't get to see any of that.

It's also home to the first ever Starbucks! We didn't buy anything since the line was out the door but I did take a picture of the sign :)

After we left the market area we walked around downtown. Eddie took us to his favorite part of town and I can see why it was his favorite. The buildings were unique, there were trees, and overall everywhere we went the city was clean and felt safe. 

Next was a stop at Kerry Park in Queen Ann. As the pictures show, it was a perfect spot to look out to Seattle.

Ryan and Mary :)

Then we drove to Troll Ave to see the famous Fremont Troll. Some people think the troll under the Aurora bridge is creepy, I however love it! He was sculpted by four artists in 1990 for the Fremont Arts Council. He's made out of steel rebar, wire, and concrete. We had fun taking pictures :)

Opposite direction of the troll:

Our last stop of the day in Seattle was Gas Works Park. This was an old factory turned into a park. The factory was built in 1906 to convert gas from coal but in the 1950s the city began importing natural gas which left the factory out-dated. The city turned the factory into a park and opened it to the public in 1975

Old exhauster-compressor building turned into a colorful maze:

We ended the day with dinner at Cheesecake Factory at Lincoln Square in Bellevue. I'll always love our trip to Seattle, it really is a beautiful city. Thank you Ryan for driving us around!