More bread please!

So we went to the National Zoo a few weeks ago and it was great! The coolest zoo I've probably ever been to. And what made it even cooler was the fact that admission is free! There were elephants (which I love), vultures, pandas, a cheetah, zebras, lions, and tigers and it was just a really cool zoo. So we spent the whole day there having fun and enjoying the nice weather because it actually wasn't too hot or humid that day which was nice. After the zoo we went and met up with Hannah (David's sister), John (David's brother) and Janice (John's wife) for dinner at a surprise place that Hannah picked. To my surprise and delight it was a restaurant that I love and had been to before... In Hungary! I served my mission in Hungary and I loved it! There was a restaurant in Budapest that all the missionaries loved to go to called Vapiano's.

Me in front of the Zebras (which you can't even see)

David and I killing time on a bench at the zoo.

Who knew there was a Vapiano's in America, let alone DC?!

I love to swim! Ever since I was a little girl growing up in Phoenix, AZ we always had a pool, which I loved because I could go swimming anytime I wanted... Which was pretty much everyday when the weather was good. But then when I was 14 we moved to Southern Utah and suddenly the only pool I had access to was the Hurricane Public Pool, which was not so fun for me. So my swimming time drastically decreased from this point on in my life. Last summer, having stayed in Seattle, I didn't go swimming at all. I went swimming once the whole summer and it was one day while on my honeymoon in Mexico at a crowded beach with murky water. Boo. So as you can imagine I was quite excited to go swimming this summer since we're in DC. So last Saturday I finally got my chance to go swimming! we went to this rock quarry with Hannah and had a blast! I guess I didn't really know what to expect when Hannah told us about it because I pictured something totally different. There was a rope swing, a diving board, floating platforms in the lake, a pool, picnic tables, grills for BBQ, basketball courts, and some sand volleyball courts. This place pretty much had it all, we went on the rope swing, dove from the diving board, played on a floating log, had a lovely few games of volleyball, which just as a side note I totally rocked at! And of course, we went swimming. I loved being in the water again! I love the feeling of being in the water because I'm not the most graceful person on land and I feel like in the water I have this undeniable grace and I love the feeling of it.

David and I in front of the lake

Hannah with a friend of hers at the lake.

This week John and Janice were out of town, so I took the opportunity to use the kitchen and make my first ever homemade bread. I wend on my mission to Budapest Hungary and it was amazing! One of the most amazing things about it was the bread! I love yummy European bread and I've missed it very much, so when I saw this recipe I thought i would try it to see if it was as good. I got the recipe off my good friend's blog and it sounded pretty easy. My friend's name is Cami and we were mission companions in the MTC over 3 years ago and even got to serve in the same city together for two transfers, I was in Buda and she was in Pest. I have to give a shout out to her since I stole this off her blog. She's great in so many ways so I knew she wouldn't mind me also posting the recipe. Love you Cami!

This is me and Cami on our mission.

This is me buying some yummy Hungarian bread.

And here is the recipe. I took a bunch of pictures and I had a ton of fun making it. I'll be honest in saying that I don't think it was quite as good as I remember European bread being, it didn't have as crunchy of a crust as I was hoping for, but it was still really good and I was proud of my first experience bread making.

French Bread recipe (this amount makes 3 small loaves or 2 large):

2 1/2 c. warm water

2 T. yeast
3 T. sugar
2 T. white vinegar
Add the above ingredients together and let sit until bubbly (about 3-5 minutes). 
Then add:1 T. salt
1/3 c. oil
6-7 c. flour (or a little more if it's too soft), one cup at a time--add enough until the dough is soft but still firm enough to mold into loaves

Cami used a stand mixer to knead the bread for a few minutes (2-5), but I don't have one so I used my hands. I added one cup at a time until it wasn't super sticky anymore. 

Kneading the dough

What the dough looked like after kneading.

Put the dough in the oven (not heated up) with a pot of boiling water. Punch the dough down when it gets to the top of the bowl (2-5 times) (most definitely my favorite part).

The boiling water makes steam and puts moisture into the dough and makes it rise.

Take the dough and the pot of boiling water out of the oven and divide the dough into 2 or 3 equal parts. I used scissors to cut it in half rather than trying to tear it apart. I also needed more flour for this part because it was too sticky. Make them look kinda like a thick baguette. Place on a greased and floured cookie sheet (the flour on the cookie sheet helps with the stickiness when you're molding it too). Make slits in the top of the dough (I used scissors) and then brush with a beaten egg. Let it rise for about a half hour on the counter. 

After forming the loaves and cutting the slits.

Brushing with egg yolks (well, there wasn't a brush, so I
used a spoon at first and then ended up using a paper towel).

This is after the egg yolk has been brushed on and it has sat on the
counter for 30 minutes, see how much bigger it is after rising some more?

Then put them in the oven at 375' for a half hour. I checked mine at 25 minutes and they looked done so I took them out. 

Here's my yummy bread! Looks pretty good right?

I let them rest for about 25 minutes before cutting into them because I didn't want to let all the moisture out. It was still warm when I cut into it though. I had it with some strawberry jam and it was delicious! David and I ate the whole loaf by the next day and I gave one away.

Now I keep finding bread recipes I want to try! There's one that I found on pinterest that I am dying to try! Only thing is that I need to wait until the end of the summer until we're home to use a certain pot that we have. I got this great enameled cast iron pot for our wedding and haven't had a chance to use it yet because I don't really know what to use it for. Well, this bread calls for that exact pot! The pot is French and it's super nice. The recipe says it's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and that it's super easy to make. The woman who posted it on her blog says she adds different things to make a bunch of different flavors too, so I will be having fun with that! 

This is exactly what my awesome pot looks like! My favorite color!

This is what the yummy bread looks like. See what I'm so excited to make it?
http://simplysogood.blogspot.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

Well, you'll have to wait until September to hear about this one, but I will most definitely be posting about it, so be looking.

From Washigton to Washington

Well, it's been a while since I last wrote and a whole lot has happened since then! And a lot of pictures (all of which are below)! So now I guess I'll try and catch up.

Well school is very much over now and both David and I did really well in our classes, both getting all As and Bs. We're relieved that school is finally over and we get a little break. My phlebotomy class finished and we had a week break from the last day of class until the certification test and David's sister Christina really wanted us to go visit her in Seattle and so she offered to donate to our cause so that we would be able to go up and see her. So we thought... Well, why not then! Let's do it! So we packed our bags and headed off for a week long vacation in the Evergreen state of Washington!

We left right after my last phlebotomy class. I left a little early around 8:30pm and we drove all night. Well, David drove and I slept because I had had a full day of work and then class. We arrived around 10am the next morning. David called a few people to let them know that we had arrived, but instead decided to tell them that we had broken down in a small town in Oregon where his family had broken down once, it was pretty funny because they all believed him until he confessed he was joking. David slept the whole day as I enjoyed my 4 nieces and 1 nephew and my sister-in-law Christina. We spent the week seeing old friends, hanging out with family, celebrating Christina's birthday and Cinco de Mayo, going to a pinewood derby race that Ivin (my brother-in-law) had entered a few cars in ended up winning his division! We played with the triplets and spent our nights watching shows and talking with Christina and Ivin and Ivin's cousin Maddie. It was a lot of fun.

We got to go into Seattle one day while we were there and we brought our nieces Ivie and Rebekah with us and Ivin's cousin Maddie. We packed our day full of fun things! We went to Pike Place Market where we walked around and looked in shops and ate yummy macaroni and cheese for lunch at the cheese factory place. Then we went to the aquarium where we got to see an octopus and touch sea anemones (sp) and feel then suck onto our fingers. We got to watch them feed the otters! I love otters, they are usually my favorite part of any aquarium so this was extra exciting. They were super cute and it was fun to be there with the girls. After the aquarium we drove other to Alki Beach and spent about an hour playing in the sand and enjoying the sun at the beach with the girls. It was such a nice day. On our way home we stopped by a shake shop that Maddie showed us and got 3 big delicious milk shakes that we passed around the car and shared between the five of us. It was awesome! Then we stopped by the space needle because Maddie had never been before, so Maddie and I jumped out and took a few pictures and enjoyed it for about 15 minutes while David and the girls drove around until we were done. Then we went home and both of the girls fell asleep on the way home, which doesn't surprise me... We wore them out pretty good!

Well, finally our time was up and it was time to leave, my test would be the next evening, so we got up in the morning and started on our journey home to Utah (even though it would only be home for another 5 days or so). We were making good time and everything was going great... Until we started hearing a noise coming from our car. We were about 10 miles out from Le Grande, Oregon, where we had already previously decided to stop for gas and food, so we just decided to wait until we got there to see what was making the noise. Once we slowed down as we pulled into the gas station the noise got a lot louder and sounded a lot worse! We popped the hood and took a look and it was quite obvious where the problem was and that there was indeed a problem. We asked someone at the gas station where the nearest repair shop might be and we cautiously drove about 6 blocks up the main road and pulled over at the first place we saw. Our car was making so much noise at this point that the mechanic actually met us as we pulled up and said, "well, that doesn't sound good." No kidding. And it wasn't looking too good either, once we turned off the engine there was a ton of liquid coming out of our engine too. Turns out our power steering pump was completely shot. Which is really unfortunate because the day after we got married, only 8 months before this point we had replaced the very same part and it cost us $250. Apparently he gave us a junk yard part, which turned out to be exactly what you would expect from a junk yard, junk! The mechanic called all over town (which is not very many places considering the size of the town) and was unable to find the part we needed. So he called a few more places in different towns and figured out they had a brand new part in Spokane (which humorously was actually cheaper than the junk yard part we got 8 months earlier) that he could get overnighted. So we found a cheap hotel and a place for lunch and made fun out of it. We looked at a cute antique shop and walked around town and watched movies in our hotel until our car was done the next day. What was funny is that when we made a few phone calls to let people know what happened they didn't believe us because David had joked about breaking down in Oregon before, and the town he had joked about was literally like 20 away from where we actually broke down. I think it was karma ha ha. We left around 12:30. Ok, now this posed a problem for me seeing as how my phlebotomy certification test was supposed to be at 6:30pm and we were an 8 hour drive away, not to mention that we would be losing an hour. So, I got ahold of my teacher who said I could still take it if I got there by 8:30. I studied the whole car ride for a test I might not be able to take, it was kind of frustrating. I was on and off the phone with my teacher updating him on how far away we were. David was speeding the whole way. We stopped once for gas and bathroom which was a record of about a 5 minute stop. After that intense, emotional day of thinking I might not make it in time and how I just wasted a month of hard work for nothing... We arrived at 8:20! passed the test and got certified as a phlebotomist! It was a miracle! Brought on by a lot of prayers from friends and family.

Well, the next day we packed up our entire apartment. The next day we moved all of our things into a storage unit with the help of David's parents and younger siblings and my boss Steve. We packed our entire apartment, moved everything out, cleaned and checked out all within 24 hours. It was crazy and we were tired! We stayed the next few days at David's parents house, sleeping in every morning.

We left on Tuesday morning for our big adventure! David's summer internship in Washington DC at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)! We drove through Utah, Wyoming, and half of Nebraska the first day. We stayed in Kearney, Nebraska that night. We drove the next day through Nebraska, Iowa and part of Illinois. We stayed in Joliet, Illinois that night. We spent the next day in Chicago where David served his mission. We parked our car and walked around the rest of the day. We saw the bean, had some deep dish pizza for lunch, and then walked to Navy Pier where we rode a Ferris wheel and enjoyed the sights of Chicago. We drove about 2 hours to West Lafayette, Indiana where we got to spend the next 3 days with David's sister Amy and her family. That was a lot of fun! Unfortunately we were having so much fun that I didn't take any pictures the whole time. The first day wasn't super fun for me because I was throwing up all night and too sick to do anything the next day but lay in bed. David, Amy and the kids went strawberry picking though, which I was able to reap the benefits of the rest of our time there. I love strawberries! We went to our nephew Sammy's soccer game, toured Purdue University (where John, Amy's husband is currently getting his PHD and David will be applying come this fall), rested around the house, watched movies and shows, had good conversation, ate yummy food and played with the our nephews Johnny, Sammy and Davey. Once it was time to get back on the road we just had one more day until our destination. We drove through, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland until we made it to Gaithersburg, Maryland! Driving through the Appalachian Mountains was breathtaking and I kept telling David how much I would like to live somewhere that looked like that someday, it was amazing.

Well, we've been here just over a week now and it's great. It's really hot and humid which we're not really used to yet, especially the humidity. David started his internship and things are going well, he likes the people he works with and his project is interesting. I haven't started working yet, but I should be starting sometime this week or next week. I'm going to be babysitting a little 4 month old baby girl, so that should be fun. We've been into Washington DC once to meet up with David's sister Hannah who lives there, we got some dinner and then just walked around and talked and had fun. This week we've just been hanging out with John and Janice and their kids Isaac, Amy and Joanna. We went to a lake and went out on a little paddle boat, which was fun and really beautiful. For Memorial Day we went to a cemetery and actually ended up finding the grave of a General from the Revolutionary War who died in 1800, it was really cool, we actually googled his name and were able to read about him. After that we had a little picnic at the park. We came home and just chilled the rest of the day, I read Harry Potter (I'm on the 5th one now, The Order of the Phoenix), we took naps and then had a little BBQ that night and then watched The Hunt for Red October after the kids were in bed. I had dreams of submarines that night.

Yesterday I went to an exercise group with Janice where the kids can play and the grown ups get to exercise. Well, we didn't have a key to the building, so we ended up using a laptop on top of one of the cars and doing a work out video in the parking lot ha ha. I'm sure it was quite the sight for passers by to see 4 grown women doing a Dance Workout for Dummies video in the middle of a church parking lot ha ha, but it was really fun and we were all laughing through it.

Well, we're here to have our Washington DC adventure for the summer! Yay! Here are the pictures of our trips and the fun times we've had so far!

This is us in Utah at a park right by our apartment before leaving on our journey.

David and I at Pike Place Market with our niece Rebekah (she liked to jump into our pictures last minute).

Pike Place with Ivie and Rebekah.

David outside the Seattle Aquarium with the girls, I love this picture because they're all doing their own thing.

Yes, that's an octopus behind me....

This is supposed to look like we're riding a whale, but it doesn't really ha ha.

Seattle skyline.

Alki Beach, the only sandy beach in Seattle.

Space Needle!

My little niece Esther and I

Random mural on the side of a building in Le Grande, Oregon.

Our hotel in Le Grande... $45 a night

Chicago for a day

David's old mission stomping grounds

Our reflection in The Bean

Touching the bean

My first real Chicago Deep Dish at the best place in town, Gino's East

Inside the greenhouse area at Navy Pier in Chicago

Navy Pier

Chicago

Riding the Ferris Wheel in Chicago

Chicago is a nice city.

There were tons and tons of these windmills in Indiana

Welcome to Gaithersburg! We made it!