I brûlée!

Our friends, Adam and Amanda had us over for dinner on Sunday. I offered to bring dessert and was trying to rack up my brain to figure out what I could make. I got a couple le creuset cocottes (doesn't that sound fancy?) from my cousin for my wedding and a creme brûlée set and I decided that putting the two together would be magical. 

 So, I decided to do it! I was super nervous because it's one of those fancy desserts, but it turned out to be pretty easy! I used Alton Brown's recipe. I used vanilla extract instead of real vanilla bean, but I don't think anyone noticed. 

Cute huh?

Adding to the Family...Room

So, as promised, our living room! This is the only room on the first floor of our apartment, duplex, living place.  It's a nice little space to hang out in. This is where Blake does a lot of his homework. And I know you're all curious as to what is living in that cool tank!

Can you tell yet??

Blake and I have turtles! This here is Dennis. Come over sometime and you can see why we named him Dennis. He is a red-eared slider that I bought from my friend, Alex, for Blake's birthday in April. He is a fatty and is so fun to watch. 

This is Walter aka Wally. He is an African side-necked turtle. When his head goes into his shell, it goes to the side instead of straight back. Side-neck turtle...get it? 

 And this little guy is Sebastian. He is also a red-eared slider. He had a twin, Lucky, but you probably don't want to know what happened to him. 

I never grew up with pets and I was a little skeptical at first, but I'm really starting to love having these little guys in the house. Stop by sometime. They love the attention =).

True to the Title

I think this may be the first DAYLY dose I've given anyone. Two days in a row, can you believe it? So, for the inside of our little home:

Home of Ie Ling's most delicious concoctions.

Dinners for two take place here.

Our beautiful wedding gift from Grandma and the nightstands that Blake and I refinished all by ourselves!  

This is the newest addition to our home. We had a little bit of leak, but it adds character, right?

Guest room for when YOU visit =) 

His and

Hers closets.

That's most of the tour. Another day (hopefully tomorrow) I'll show you our living room, but it deserves it's own post because we've got some special things in there =) Stay tuned!

House Hunters: Provo

We weren't sure where we were going to live when we got back to Provo, but I made Blake promise that we wouldn't live in another studio. He kept his promise. We upgraded to a cute little duplex in Provo.

Blake's friend from freshman year called us the day we were flying home to ask if we needed a place to live and we said yes. That night we took a look at the place and signed the next day. They were still in the process of turning it into a duplex and we were skeptical that everything would be finished in time, but we're finally moved in and loving it. We especially love having friends for neighbors. I hope you'll all stop by sometime so we can do some front porch sittin'. 

In an effort to keep me blogging, I decided that I'd post interior pictures in a separate post which will hopefully take place tomorrow. 

I fell off the blogging wagon.

What a failure. I guess work got busy and I had no energy after my 10 hour days. So, now we're back in Provo and I want to remember all the things I love and will miss about DC.

Hopping on the bus every morning at 6:25AM for work and taking two busses every Sunday to and from church.

Working in Downtown DC. You don't see a lot of skyscrapers in this big city like because there is a law  that says no building can be taller than the Capitol Building. 

Having Blake work on a beautiful naval base: Fort Lesley J. McNair. 

Going to the National Defense University where Blake works every Thursday

to watch super fun softball games. 

Tours of the Capitol Building from Blake. 

Watching fireworks over the Potomac River on the fourth of July in the nation's capital. 

BBQs with Blake's co-workers and international fellows.

Weekend visits to New York.

Beautiful monuments.

and memorials.

That is just a small glimpse into our lives the past 7 months. One day I hope to document better all our adventures, but for now this will do. I miss DC already, but it's nice to be back in Provo.

Passport DC

A few weekends ago, Blake and I had an awesome opportunity to travel the world. We started in South Africa and then went to Ethiopia, Ghana, Egypt, Korea, Australia, Peru, and several other countries. It was a dream come true. Twenty countries in just one day!

Ok, ok, you got me. We didn't fly around the world, but we did get to visit the embassies of so many different countries in one day. It was so neat. We got to experience a lot of different music, food, dress and animals.

South Africa was really fun. They gave us a bottle of marinade to take home. We used it tonight for our chicken and it was delicious! I really loved the Indonesian embassy because (besides the fact that it's my mom's native country) the building was adorned with beautiful details. It was extravagent  to say the least, and they had barbies dressed up in cultural clothes from all the different regions. 

Australia was fun. They gave us some vegemite on toast. Not my favorite, but it's really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. They also had some people showing native animals from Australia including a lizard type animal called a "blue-tongued skink." There was a woman who didn't quite hear what he said and she said, "that's a blue-tongued skank?" Haha. Blake and I also got some matching tattoos to show our support for the country where his grandmother served her first mission.

So, I'm behind on blogging and if I had blogged right after the event, it probably would've been more detailed, but for now, that'll have to do. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home

DC is the only home that Blake and I have known together and we were so glad to be back! We moved into a new studio apartment in the city and Blake started his new job. Our first weekend back we tackled some famous sites that we didn't get a chance to see our first time around. We visited the Jefferson Memorial, which is beautiful, the Vietnam War Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. Here are some pictures: 

And this is my favorite picture from the day:

A perfect start to our summer.

I HEART NY

So we didn't just go to Boston and then to New York, but I post with pictures and I don't have pictures from in between, so on to New York!

Blake's dad works in New York during the week and Blake's brother, Jared, and his wife, Mindy, were coming for an information session, so we decided to make the short trip north on the Bolt Bus which is a great deal if you're going to New York from DC. Sometimes you can get tickets for a dollar!

We arrived:

Blake and I relaxed in our hotel room until dinner. We had delicious sushi. The next morning Stephen took Mindy and I to pick out some birthday presents at the Pandora store and I'm really excited to fill up my charm bracelet!

We went on a ferry ride and saw the beautiful skyline of New York before we headed to our first Broadway show ever, GODSPELL!

Godspell was amazing. The music is spectacular and everyone was perfectly cast. Jesus and his disciples act and sing the parables and it was a really fun production. 

We rested for a little while and then got geared up to go to Del Frisco's. Best steakhouse I've ever been to. Despite being full out of my mind from crab cakes, salad, bone-in filet and vegetables, I got creme brûlée since it was a sort of birthday dinner. I'm glad I didn't hold back. It was delicious.

The next day we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 9/11 memorial. Both were amazing. The MET is incredibly large and we didn't even get to see a small fraction of everything, but Blake loves art and it was so fun to see him so happy and enjoying everything. 

The 9/11 memorial is really breathtaking. They have two large fountains. One for the North and South towers that collapsed. There are names etched into the stone for everyone who was lost in the towers and responded at the scene. 

Blake and I had to board the bus soon after, but it was such a fun visit to the Big Apple and I hope we get to return sometime soon! Thank you Stephen for treating us to a fun weekend in New York City!

I Think I'll Go to Boston

Does everyone remember that popular song from years ago? Well Blake and I did just that. We went to Boston for Presidents' Day Weekend with our friends Adam and Amanda. Amanda found some awesome  flights sometime in January and after a few computer clicks and dollars we were booked for Boston. 

First Stop: Fenway

Blake loves baseball so this was the HIGHLIGHT of our trip. It is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball and the tour was so fun. 

Later that evening we went to Little Italy and went to a delicious dinner at Giacomo's Ristorante.

Photo by Amanda Anderson

 It was pretty darn delicious. Then we walked a couple blocks to an improv comedy club for the rest of the evening. It was funny, but I still love Comedy Sportz, so everyone in Provo, take advantage of it!

Saturday Morning and into the afternoon we went on the most amazing tour of Boston called The Freedom Trail. We had the best tour guide. 

He was so knowledgeable and made everything really fun and interesting. We ended at Quincy Market which is really cute and if I was better at taking pictures I would have featured a picture right here. Haha. But it has lots of food and shopping and is a great way to spend an evening. Blake and I decided to eat at Capital Seafood for dinner and we had delicious crab cakes, fish, and Boston Cream Pie. 

We visited the New England Aquarium and had so much fun looking at all the animals. Sometimes I forget that those awesome creatures are real until I see them at the zoo or aquarium. It always leaves me in awe. Penguins!!! They're real!

We visited the Harvard campus and had lunch and got back to Boston and visited some more historical sites like Old North Church where they hung the lamps noted in Paul Revere's Ride. One if by land and two if by sea. 

We went on a fun little ferry ride back to Long Wharf and are happy to report we used all modes of transportation in our Boston trip: Air, land, and sea. 

We left Monday morning and headed home to DC. It was such a fun and exciting trip, but I love the feeling of being back in familiar places.

Happy Birthday to ME!

My oh my, I'm 22! I still feel like I did when I turned about 17, but lots of things have changed. I got engaged, graduated, got married, and moved to Washington, D.C. Blake's family really knows how to celebrate birthdays. It involves waking up early, eating cake for breakfast, lots of decorations, and opening presents. My special day was no different. 

I thought it was pretty darn cute that Blake went all out on the decorations. He enlisted the help of our friend, Amanda, to make my BTS cake and it was delicious! My one request on my special day was that he make dinner for me and our friends. (My birthday fell on a Sunday this year, which meant eating in.) He made delicious Filipino food--adobo, rice, and lumpia. It was perfect. We had more cake after dinner and Blake made sure we all wore our party hats =).

Here's to another great year of life!

A Saturday on Capitol Hill

I am a sucker for farmers' markets. Eastern Market is "DC's Oldest Continually Operated Fresh Food Public Market." I had to look that up because I wasn't sure how to describe it. Anyway, it's super cute and picturesque. There are indoor and outdoor vendors. Everything from fresh meat and produce to crafts and apparel. We went mostly for the food but the alpaca hats were fun to try on too. 

From the top left, clockwise: the Andersons, delicious crepes,
lovely produce, and blake with some fresh mini donuts.

Afterwards we went on a tour of the Library of Congress. It is gorgeous and so neat. I've come to terms with the fact that I have the worst memory ever and one day I'll have to have Blake do a guest post and write about all the things we learn when we visit different museums or historical sites. It was a gorgeous  day in DC.

First DAY on the Job

Pun intended. So, Blake is interning with Senator Orrin G. Hatch. He gets to work with three legislative assistants who work directly with "The Boss," as he's called. I felt like a proud mom on the first day of kindergarten. Here he is before he hopped on the Metro for work.

I was unemployed for my first week in DC, so I had plenty of time to make sure the table was set and dinner was ready right when he got home. I bought him a few treats from Sprinkles Cupcakes and Godiva to celebrate.

I love living right next to Georgetown!

Mr. & Mrs. Day

I can't believe I have put off the married blog right of passage for so long! Ever since I graduated in December, I feel like it's been go, go, go. Blake and I went home, got married in the Los Angeles Temple,

went on a honeymoon to Las Vegas

and moved to Washington, D.C. 

This is our first home: 

It's small, but it suits our needs very well. We are located right next to Georgetown which is so fun. Trader Joe's is across the street and we're just a few blocks away from the Metro. I've always had a love-hate relationship with journaling, whether on paper or the web. I have a writer's remorse type thing where I feel like I need to go back track all our adventures so that I don't forget them. So, the next few posts will probably be jumbled up between past and present, like an episode of "Lost." I'll blog about that another time. But, for now we're enjoying being newlyweds in the nation's capital.