Mr. D and Mrs. M

Mr. D and I saved up most of our vacation for the year so that we could go on a big vacation with my parents to visit Taiwan and China. This trip was especially significant to Mr. D because it meant that he could visit the place where he served his mission about eight years ago. Mr. D acted as our tour guide for the first week in Taiwan and we went with a tour group for the second week in China. When we got to Taiwan, we took a taxi from the airport to the high speed rail station and journeyed from the north side of the island to the south. We looked like foreign tourists with all our luggage. The first photos of the trip were in front of this 7/11 sign because Mr. D told us that in Taiwan, 7/11 convenience stores were popular like Starbucks is popular in the Seattle area. According to Wikipedia, there are more than 5,000 7/11s in Taiwan. On the south side of Taiwan (Kaohsiung area), we got to meet many people Mr. D served when he was on his mission and they were all very ki...

This past weekend Mr. D and I ventured out of Seattle for our second camping trip of the summer. When Mr. D and I got married I remember explaining to him that I wasn't a camper (I was more of a shower everyday type of girl) and somehow we have managed to go twice this summer. At the end of the trip I even caught myself saying that I loved camping to one of our friends! Something that has been key for me in camping is being prepared for camping and bringing the right stuff. Thankfully we have a generous family in our ward at church that is happy to loan us some of their camping gear, which we've been incredibly grateful for. Mr. D and I had trouble finding a campsite, but got lucky and were able to find a beautiful space by a lake large enough for three tents for our group of six. Our neighbors we camped by were a little rowdy, but Mr. D had brought his earplugs so we were able to sleep well both nights we were there. On Saturday we hiked to Mirror Lake together where ...

This year I have the opportunity to volunteer again with the Girls Who Code program through my employer, Expedia. I love this program and hope when you learn about it you will share my enthusiasm for the program. When I share my involvement with Girls Who Code, a program that teaches high-school aged girls programming skills, with friends, I sometimes hear complaints about how unfair it is that this program that benefits “only women” exists. While I understand the complaint, I also disagree with it because I feel this type of advantage for young girls benefits our society made up of men and women as a whole. Our society greatly benefits from raising confident, capable women. Having come from a graduating class of 2 women (out of 60 students) for my Masters degree, I am acutely aware of some of the challenges of being part of a minority in the programming field and agree that programs such as this one are necessary. Last year was my first year volunteering with the Girls Who C...

Mr. D and I really enjoyed our opportunity to help out with Youth Conference this year with our church. We were asked to be in charge of the food for the event and got to spend nearly $1200 towards meals for the Thursday night thru Saturday afternoon event. Estimating how much food to purchase and then cooking it for a group of about 40 youth and adults was challenging, but something we really enjoyed trying to figure out. Here's a screenshot of part of the Google doc Mr. D and I used to plan out food: We went to a camp called Zion's Camp, which is a church-owned campsite in Belfair Washington. While we were there we got to play in a lake, do a service project, participate in a ropes course, and listen to leaders and youth share personal experiences about God. Here are some photos from the event: -Mr. D and Mrs. M  

This past weekend Mr. D and I went camping at Penrose Point State Park with a family we have been friends with for almost three years! We decided to carpool there together with our camping gear and all seven of us in their van. After we got there, we made hotdogs for dinner, s’mores and cobbler for dessert, and enjoyed spending time together in front of the campfire. The following morning we walked over to the water and had fun discovering crabs in the rocks. Here are some of the photos from the trip: Checking out an alive sand dollar  Looking for crabs on the water  Crazy tree and roots This was the website we used to book the reservation: https://washington.goingtocamp.com/PenrosePointStatePark -Mr. D and Mrs. M

Butchart Gardens To celebrate our three years of marriage together, we took a weekend trip to Victoria BC Canada via the Victoria Clipper ferry . Leaving on the Victoria Clipper ferry Welcome to Victoria BC Canada We started our adventure in Victoria with a city tour bus ride to the Butchart gardens . We were both pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the tour aspect of the drive where we learned about this history of Victoria. We learned that Butchart gardens used to be a limestone quarry and that the owners of the quarry, the Butchart family, decided to transform it into a garden after the limestone was depleted. Jennie Butchart herself actually planted a lot of the ivy found alongside the once quarry walls. Saturday evening we ate at Pagliacci’s restaurant. We got there just before a few large parties and were seated right away. The food was delicious. After dinner we had planned to do the Ghost Tour , but due to the heavy rain we decided to see th...