Zoo Time!!

This weekend we went to the Portland Zoo!!

Mom, Dad, Lori, Darran, Eliza and Talia came down to visit and we took the girls to the zoo. We had a blast!! The weather was beautiful and it didn't start raining until we were leaving (thank-you Portland.) Because the weather was a little cooler a lot of the animals were very active! I'd never seen the lions up-and-about, or the hippos out of the water!!

A little short?!

The petting zoo. Way to go Eliza!!

GO COUGS!! :)

Lions, Tigers, and Bears ooh my!!

The baboons were pretty crazy looking. This one made this face when one of the zookeepers walked by... wonder how that relationship is?





The bald eagle did a nice little pose when he noticed Dallin was taking his picture. :)








We spent most of the day at the zoo. We only left because it was closing. :) I think Dallin and I enjoyed the zoo just as much as Eliza did... if not more. haha!

Boxes. LOTS of boxes.

Here's a few more pictures taken during our move from Provo to Portland.

And here's a picture of the cake we made for dad's birthday.... Oreo's, whipped cream, sugar and cream cheese... how can you resist taste-testing the filling?!

Welcome to Oregon!!

We are officially living in Portland. We ran into a few minor bumps along the way... but we made it and are LOVING it!!!

Wednesday evening Dallin's family arrived in Portland. It was dad's birthday so after going out for dinner we celebrated at our ex-apartment with a delicious oreo cake that Dallin and I had made. We spent the next few days packing, eating off paper plates, visiting the Bean Museum, and dress shopping with Elayna. It was a great way to finish off our time in Provo.

Saturday morning Provo gave us a going away present... SNOW!! Yes. The perfect present for packing up a Uhaul.

We drove all day Saturday...
with a few stops at Krispy Kreme and Cafe Rio...

until we arrived in Kennewick. My family waited to eat dinner until Dallin and I arrived at home and could enjoy the French Dip sandwiches with them. (it was only 10:30pm when we got there....)

The next morning we all left for Portland. "We all" being me, Dallin, Mom and Dad Heath, Branden, Danielle, Trevor and Dakota. It was a party! and the drive was great! We stopped at Multnomah Falls to eat lunch and ended up hiking the 1.5 miles to the top of the falls.

When we were back at the bottom, we realized that both Dallin and I had a missed call on our phones from the apartment complex. They informed us that they close at 5pm and were wondering if we were going to make it. Well... it was 4:30 and we were at least an hour from Portland.... in other words there was NO way we were making it by 5pm. Luckily we convinced our manager to stay a little late and we quickly got in the car and on the road.

We found our complex without a problem and got there right before 6pm. We signed some papers and had dad give them a check because we had no idea where we had packed our check book (they don't accept third-party checks but would just hold dad's until we found our check book... we made quite a first impression didn't we?!) After the legal stuff was done we got to check out our new home.. and then started moving all of our stuff in. Thank goodness for all the extra hands!!! It made the job MUCH quicker!

Dallin started his internship with Intel on Monday, and my family left that afternoon. Things have been going well so far. Dallin is liking his work with Intel and I'm breaking in the fitness center and unpacking/organizing our new home. It's so nice being able to relax and not have to worry about school.

Sorry we don't have many pictures... there will be more to come. I accidentally left the camera on the parents couch back in Kennewick :( so once I get it back I will be posting more pictures!!

With love from Portland!!

Easter Sunday

We started celebrating pretty early today. Like 1am early. Dallin and I decided that we weren't tired Saturday night so we made cinnamon rolls.

First of all, it is quite a miracle that they turned out because we have not had the best luck with yeast... but the yeast ACTUALLY worked, they rose beautifully and were light and fluffy just as cinnamon rolls should be.

It was a great start to a wonderful day!

Church was wonderful. I always love Easter Sunday, singing all the songs about the Savior and his love for us. Dallin got to speak in sacrament meeting about Christ and his role as Savior and Redeemer in our lives. He did a wonderful job. I am so lucky to have such an amazing man as MY husband and best friend.

We were able to visit with some friends today which is always a treat. We have been so blessed to have such a great ward with so many kind, loving people. We will miss those who are leaving, but are so excited to see those who stay when we come back in the fall.

Dallin made our Easter dinner, as he has deemed Sunday as his day to cook.

He is becoming quite the talented chef. He made HOMEMADE chicken cordon bleu, with a strawberry/lemon salad.

It was delicious.


Thanks babe!

We had to do a little bit of egg dying... it is Easter after all! We decided to try a new idea... using silk ties as the dye/design for the eggs. They turned out quite awesome. And it was much less messy than using the normal food coloring. :P

We got to finish the day by talking with our fantastic families. We love you guys!!! Thanks for doing so much for us. :)

I am so thankful for my Savior. And I am grateful for a day that has been set aside to think and ponder on all the wonderful things He has done for me. I know I don't deserve all that He did, but I am so glad that He loves me enough that He did it all anyway. I hope you were all able to think about Christ a little today, and feel his love for you as well.

School's out... time to get your jiggle on!!

Thursday morning at 7am I took my last final and Dallin wasn't too far behind. Around 5pm we were OFFICIALLY done with the winter semester.

We are FREE! Literally. Neither of us has work or school. This means we are able to sleep in, stay up late, cook, go to bed early, watch movies, take naps, play games or whatever we feel like. It's fantastic, and weird. We aren't used to having NOTHING to do. But I am definitely not complaining!

With all our free-time we're trying to get ready for the move to Portland this next weekend. We already have 2 boxes packed due to running out of things to do to occupy our time. haha!

After catching-up on some much needed sleep after 4 nights of getting to bed around 3am, we were ready for a little excitement.

Friday night we had an unofficial ward party at the cultural center. We brought our Wii and Just Dance and projected it onto a screen in the gym. We had a blast!! It was a great way to say goodbye to our ward friends before we leave.



For the party we decided to try a fun new recipe we found (on a blog of course.)
Behold... Super Awesome Jello!!

We made 5 colors of jello.
Let them set, then cut them into cubes.
Threw the cubes into a 13x9 and added some white jello (which is basically gelatin, water and sweetened condensed milk)



They were delicious and addicting. Dallin referred to them as Jello Cocaine. :P

After the party we went to a friend's house and watched Tangled. LOVE IT!!!!
That is EASILY my new favorite Disney movie. (Which is saying something.)

We WILL be buying it,
and I WILL watch it at least once a week for the first month or so... Just saying. :D

FOOD!!!!...... and finals.

We've made it through two days of finals so far, and things are going.... well, let's just say they're going, and soon they'll be gone... and we'll be in Portland!!

I've been able (i.e. forced) to finish up three finals, so I've only got two left.

Being a loser with no job has given me a whole lot of extra time for studying. Poor Cassie doesn't have that luxury and still has quite a bit of studying/test taking, so tonight I decided that I would go ahead and make dinner for the both of us.

Now, before you go thinking "Right Dallin, what did you make? Grilled cheese?" (no offense to my father who would make grilled cheese every once in while, and I loved them, and for some reason can't make them as good as him no matter how hard I try), let me explain Cassie's recent fetish that has rubbed off on me. Her new past time is reading those cooking blogs... and well, I admit I now find myself looking through and reading the recipes trying to find good stuff (which honestly isn't that hard to do). Well, thanks to bountiful baskets Cassie and I had an excessive amount of green peppers and sweet potatoes, so tonight I decided to make stuffed peppers and sweet potato fries!!

The stuffed peppers turned out pretty darn good. It was a southwestern style filled with rice, corn, black beans, chiles, onions, chile powder, etc. It's definitely a recipe that will be repeated in the Hague home.

And although they didn't look the greatest ( I swear you couldn't really taste the burnt part, even though they are a little darker than they should be) the fries were super tasty! They are covered in plenty of wonderful spices and they made the house smell amazing. I wouldn't mind a few of these again....

Too bad they're all gone... Apparently they were really, REALLY good. I guess we'll have to grab those last few potatoes we have and make some more!

We just have to make it through the next few days and then we'll be free as a bird!!!