Mmmm!.... Multnomah Falls

Mike and I had the opportunity to go to Portland, OR over Easter weekend. We had a wonderful, exhausting time looking around at the city, navigating through the foreign streets, and spending time with wonderful family. We flew using Mike's mom's flight benefits and got there just fine. When it came time to come back home, however, we found out that there was zero percent chance of getting on the flight because Portland State University (my future alma mater) had just started their Spring Break. We had only two options: buy a full priced ticket or rent a car and make the twelve hour voyage. After some deliberation we got our bag back and loaded it and our other junk in the rented Chevy Malibu to begin our journey.





We were fairly unprepared for the beauty which we would soon behold along the way. After speaking with my mom about our newly decided adventure, and due to her suggestion, we stopped at a bit of heaven known as Multnomah Falls. It seemed to be just outside of Portland, though it was probably more like an hour or so outside Portland.

So, here are some favorite pictures from our short stay at the falls:

Yay for Portland! And- I love my Mike! To see more from our Portland trip go to his blog.

Carrot cake

What a great weekend it's been! This was the first Saturday in a long time that I haven't had to work and didn't have something else to do. This was the kind of day I wish there were more of; a day filled with fun and adventure and relaxation and love! This day we attended a sealing at a beautiful temple (have you ever noticed the awesome bluish pinkish strips of light along the sides of the Mount Timpanogos temple? P.S. Congrats to Ayumi and Tyler!), had some fun at the Sportsman's Expo (neither Mike nor I would consider ourselves even close to sportsmen), tried out a new recipe, house warmed with some awesome people, and won like three of the four games we played! The balance of my post this time will focus on two of the above Saturday activity items.

I will first talk about an awesome recipe I found for carrot cake. I seriously think this stuff is heavenly. I don't know what it is, because the recipe was pretty basic, but there musta been some magic or something because it was awesome. I decided to make little baby cupcakes to take to the aforementioned house warming party and had some fun doing every aspect. Mike helped in a huge way by grating the carrots, which, as you know if you've made carrot cake, is not an easy task. Thanks, sweetie! It's also not easy to get the batter into the little tiny cupcake cups without making a huge mess. This is where it got really fun! We scooped the batter into a ziplock bag, cut the corner off, and carefully dropped enough into each cup. Our really full, really orangey- browny- lumpy bag of batter looked moderately unappetizing to say the least!

Well, in the end we made superb little morsels which were enjoyed by many! Oh yeah, that's another thing- this recipe made a ton of little bite- sized cupcakes and even a mini cake for Natalie's birthday. All I can say is DELISH!

Here's the recipe:

Carrot Cake

• 2 c.flour
• 2 tsp.baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp.cinnamon
• 2 tsp.salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. oil
• 2 c. brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 c. chopped walnuts (I didn't use any nuts)
  
• 3 c.grated carrots

Directions :

Mix dry ingredients; add oil and blend. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Add carrots and nuts and blend well. Put batter into a greased and floured 13x9 rectangle cake pan (or 2 9" round pans) for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting:

1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese

1/2 c. margarine

1 lb.box of powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together untill smooth and spread on cooled cake.I usually sprinkle with extra chopped walnuts for garnish.

Next item of business- just gonna toot my horn for a minute; well, sorta. I totally kicked butt on Apples to Apples at the party last night. Okay what I really want to say is that I am a really horrible loser. I HATE to lose. I didn't really think that I was that much of a sore loser until I started thinking about winning last night. Always when I play games the haunting title of a sore loser is lingering, but I just kind of poo poo it away and think to myself, "nah, I'm just competitive." Well, last night I was thinking about how I wasn't going to be a sore loser, that I just would keep myself from caring about the game. That, in itself, is hard to do for one with my condition. I guess sometime throughout the night and the few games we played before Apples to Apples I forgot about my personal goal and totally went for the win. I was successful, but for what really? It really bothers me about myself that I am such a poor loser. Note to self: work on losing and being okay with it. That's all.

Mars roll... my new fave

Tonight I went to sushi with Teana (Te-Neasha, as I like to call her!) and friends and had a really great experience with a new roll. It is kind of the Teana tradition to go to sushi for her birthday and, since this is the blessed week of such an occasion, we did just that. We attempted to go to Happy Sumo (which I've heard is too trendy and, as such, a bit overpriced) but the wait was just too long. Teana decided, much to my approval, to change locations to Ginza! Love love love Ginza! Usually we get the X-roll and sometimes the Fubuki. We got both as well as the Mars roll. Boy, am I glad we added that tasty treat! It has tuna and crab on the top along with a slab of perfectly green avocado. What a great night of freaking fabulous food! Thanks, Teana, for being born and loving sushi!

Daylight Saving...

So, I thought I'd give this whole blogging thing a try since "everybody's doing it!" Actually, it seems like everybody goes through the same ritual: get married, start blogging, have kids. Yikes! We'll hold off on the last part for a while!

I thought I would use this blog as a journal of sorts for the time being and, when I'm studying architecture, as a way to plot my course. I have started working with Google SketchUp to try to familiarize myself with new-ish design programs. Eventually, hopefully, I will be able to document my progress on that.

Well, today is Sunday, March 9th- Daylight Saving time. It is amazing how different the feeling of daylight saving is based on one's preparedness for the event. Last night was, for my ward calling, the Blue and Gold Banquet for the little tykes known as the cub scouts. I am- as most of you know (he he :)- that sounds like a whole lot of people actually care to read about my life junk!)- the Cubmaster and was practically solely in charge of planning, preparing, and executing said event. In addition to this, however, I had to work yesterday and prepare for the forthcoming 7:30 am meeting for our Institute calling- Mike and I are the Married Student Association Presidents. Well, needless to say, in the midst of everything else we forgot about daylight saving. Mike, too, has been extremely busy with school, work, and callings (he, in fact, had to prepare a lesson for today's Elder's Quorum meeting among all sorts of studying and homework). We didn't set the clocks ahead, we didn't go to bed an hour early in anticipation for the lost sleep we would be experiencing- in fact I think we went to bed later than normal, it didn't even cross our minds. I use my cell phone for an alarm clock and when it went off at 5:30 am instead of 6:30 (Mike's bedside table clock read 5:30) I was utterly confused, annoyed, and oh, so sleepy! Thank goodness, I guess, for automatic updates to cell phones. My forgetfulness and ill-preparedness set the way I felt about this day. Had I remembered last night, I probably wouldn't have been so annoyed about losing my precious hour of sleep! Perhaps, instead of using this blog to journal, I should use it as a reminder of upcoming annoyances that I should prepare for, like a planner- only without the leather binding and lined paper.

So, I've been sleepy all day- which actually makes for some pretty interesting behaviors! I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or the fact that I have, for the past several weeks, spent a great deal of my energy preparing for the Blue and Gold banquet and now that's over with and I have an abundance of energy I don't know what to do with. Nevertheless, I have been crazy today! Between my bouts of exhaustion, it's been a silly day filled with fun and laughter. Mike just confusedly smiles and slowly shakes his head in response!