Life in Washington!

Before we visited anywhere else, we visited the beautiful Seattle Temple when we stepped off the plane here in Washington. It reminded me of how on my mission to Brazil, the assistants to the Mission President drove us to the Curitiba Tempe before we did anything else. Just that simple act had a profound impact on me as a new, full-time missionary. It helped me to not only feel close to my Heavenly Father in a place far from home, but it reminded all of us that though we were there to invite others to come unto Christ through baptism, ultimately, we were there to lead them to the Temple, where they could receive all the other ordinances of exaltation and prepare to live with God again.

Me with my mission group. I was the only sister; there weren't many of us then compared to now! :)

That special Temple of Curitiba has become one of the holiest places on this earth to me as I have been back many times, not only on my mission, but one year after my mission to witness the sealing of families I had been blessed to teach and see baptized. God had promised me in my setting apart blessing that this would happen, and I was so grateful when it did. Now that I am here in Washington with our little family of three, visiting the Temple was another experience that helped me to focus on helping my family, and especially our children, prepare to enter God's house and receive the ordinances of their exaltation, and invite others living here in Washington to do the same.

We absolutely LOVED the garden area of the Temple, filled with beautiful rhododendron flowers! It was wonderful to be there!

But, going back to my last blog post, Mitch had just graduated and we were all finished with our time as students at BYU. :( The next morning after my blog post was Monday, and this is the last picture of Lydia and I in our room just as the movers were coming to pack everything up. 

Dear Holly was so kind to invite Lydia and I over to her house all day while the movers worked and Mitch helped them. She made lunch for us even and Lydia and I took a nice nap. :) Thanks again, Holly!!! We miss you!

The movers finished at about 9:00pm that night, and we hadn't had dinner yet, so we stopped for some Brazilian food at my favorite restaurant, Tucanos!!! It was Lydia's first time, and as you can see, she loved the tart, grilled pineapple! I will miss you, Tucanos!

That night, we were grateful again to Holly for lending us pillows, blankets, and our home teacher for lending us an air mattress because everything we owned was on a truck going to Washington, except for what we had in our suitcases. 

It was so weird sleeping that night in Wymount, obviously without our stuff, but it was like, so sterile and like all the memories and what made it home were gone. It was so sad!!! The next morning after we cleaned up, (thanks David and Dani Steed for your help!!!) we closed the door on our beautiful Wymount apartment, and I was bawling (you can't tell in this picture) but seriously, it had been our home for the whole time we'd been married, and we brought home our little Lydia there, and we LOVED our ward, and had so many special memories there, so it was hard to leave! But it was time to go.

We went to BYU campus one more time in the WILK and got some tasty Jamba Juice!

Mitch's dad came to pick us up after our cars were loaded up and we got some tasty lunch at Cafe Rio! That was a special location for us because that is where we went after we had our first ultrasound of Lydia and the first place we ever took her to eat the day after she was born (even though she couldn't eat! :)) Goodbye Provo Cafe Rio!

We stayed with Mitch's family in Kaysville for a few days before heading out to Washington. We got to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Steed before we left. :)

As well as Wheeler Farm :)

Lydia got her birthday presents early from Grandpa and Grandma Steed, and her little hat is adorable! Hopefully she learns to leave it on her head for longer!

Lydia had her first plane ride as we flew to Washington. She was a champ!

She especially loved looking out the window at our new, green home!

After visiting the Temple, we drove by what would be our apartment in about a month, and then went to our temporary housing in Redmond. We would stay there until mid May and it was really nice for Mitch to be so close to work.

Mitch had a whole week before he would begin work at Microsoft though, so we got City Passes and toured all week long! It was a blast!

On Monday, May 2, we visited the Space Needle!

We also visited the Chihuly Glass Museum! (It was my favorite thing we did all week! It's so beautiful there!)

We didn't go to the EMP Museum, there were limits to the City Pass, but one day we will. It looks cool from the outside!

On Tuesday, we went on the Elliott Bay Harbor boat tour! It was SOOO fun! 

We also visited the Farmer's Market

And Mitchy and Lydia got me my first ever Mother's Day present! A beautiful bouquet of flowers!

On Wednesday, we went to the Seattle Aquarium! 

Lydia loved saying hello to the scuba diver who was feeding the fish!

We took a picture with the giant octopus, Lucy.

And saw lots of other fish!

  

  

On Thursday, we took a break and rested at our apartment. :)

On Friday, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo! It was SUCH a beautiful zoo, like, there weren't as many animals as in some zoos, like the Albuquerque Zoo has polar bears, lots more big cats and elephants, but this was probably the most beautiful zoo I've visited before because it was full of so many trees. Also, let's be honest that the Albuquerque zoo is the best because the flamingos are at the entrance, so you see them as you walk into the zoo and as you leave. Perfect design. ;)

I actually found myself being anxious the whole time until we saw the flamingos, then I was at peace. Then the zoo got my stamp of approval. :)

We saw beautiful wolves.

We got to feed parakeets and cockatiels! I felt like I was at home! But there's really no bird like my cockatiel, Roac. :)

One found a home on Mitch's head. :)

Lydia wasn't so sure she liked having a bird on her arm! :)

We pet lots of sheep! Lydia loved it! I had serious allergies! Good thing we don't live on a farm!

And of course, the most important part, the flamingos!

We also saw Mitch's favorite animal, the giraffes! And we even got to feed them! :D

Mitch started work that next week and on Monday night, we visited Snoqualmie Falls! It was beautiful!

We hiked down to the base and up again. I felt like we were in Rivendell or Lothlorien! The trees were so cool and thick!

We stayed in our temporary housing for a few more weeks. 

We made friends with our neighbors, Chhaya and her daughters. :) We went to different parks, malls and love getting together! Chhaya took me to a grocery store with authentic food from India and she taught me how to cook it! It was SOOOO good!

They came over for a little party for Lydia on the day of her 1st birthday!!!

They got her a beautiful pink dress as a gift!

Later when Mitch came home, we had cake and Lydia opened her birthday present! 

A little red firetruck, just like her Daddy used to have!

Here is her 1-year-old picture! I'm excited because now I'm making a photo book with all the pictures we took of her each month since her first month of life! :) It's amazing how fast she has changed!

Lydia got a special necklace from China from our friend, Holly, in the mail! Lydia is absolutely in love with necklaces right now, puts them on herself and wears them everywhere.

She especially loves her big, toy green necklace!

Lydia loves spending time in her very own bedroom. She loves to pull all her toys out of her pink shelf and pull books off for us to read to her. She will choose a book and find us in the apartment and hold it up for us to read to her. :) No matter how many times I put her books back on her shelf, she goes and pulls them all off again! I think she loves having her own space.

I hung up her growth chart that my Mom made and we measured Lydia at one year, me and Mitch on it. 

We hung it so the bottom is exactly 12 inches off the ground, so that when we move, we can take it and hang it and keep our measurements consistent. :)

Here Lydia is holding a tiny copy of The Book of Mormon! :) We read together for her a few verses each day and each time she sees the picture of Jesus in our room, her room, or in the hallway, she whispers His name, "Chee-sa," and blows Him a kiss. :)

She still enjoys playing the piano with "Dada." It was great to get everything unpacked (we unpacked the last box last week!!!)

She has also shown an interest in bargain shopping, studying (and eating) the weekly ads! :D

She loves Greek yogurt,

brushing her teeth with her new, Cookie Monster toothbrush and toddler toothpaste,

jumping on the trampoline with Dada,

and eating cheese!

We sure love it here in Washington! We miss our dear friends in Utah but are truly loving it here. :) For other quick updates, Mitch is enjoying his job, he just got called to serve in the Nursery at Church and LOVES it! I just got called to serve as second counselor in the Young Women's presidency. I'm excited, but also know I have a lot to learn! I'm looking forward to learning with the girls. :)

We can't wait for the 4th of July to show Lydia fireworks for the first time, and we're going swimming on Friday with Chhaya and her girls! More to come soon!