Our walking adventures

With so many parks and trails,  it's so much fun to go out and explore.  Last week, before Brandon's doctor appointment (more on that later), Amelia and I decided to try out Tryon Creek State Park.  The Lewis & Clark campus is on the border of the park, which means it's super close to our house.

After living in Alaska for so long, I've grown accustomed to being very alert and somewhat reticent of going for walks in the woods because of moose, bear, etc.  I pulled up to the visitors center and noticed right away that the trails are very well groomed.  I started out on the main trail, still a little nervous....until I looked to my left and saw a woman in her 80s using a walker.  No. joke.  These Oregonians are serious about their exercise!? Unfortunately I didn't snap a picture of her. I think I was in shock.  Here we are at the beginning of the trail.  She was happy to look up at all the pretty green:

And here's my sad attempt at a self-portait:

We also recently discovered George Rogers Park which is close to our house as well.  It is a park of different levels, if you will.   There are three different sections of the park that eventually lead you down to the river.  The top has a baseball field, soccer field and playground (with lots of toys left for kids in the sand).  The middle has a gazebo type thing with an open field, and the bottom has a huge iron oven, field, flowers and steps to the river.  We loved it!

Here's the river where you can feed the ducks:

And here's Amelia, just chillin.

We had a good time and are looking forward to more and more discoveries!

Brandon's day off

We got a special treat last Wednesday when Brandon took the day off from studying.  We went to Costco (of course), and then to the mall to check out a grill that we didn't end up getting.  Here they are before we left:

And in the parking lot, just chillin:

We decided to do one of those fun photo booth pictures, which was hilarious.  

It was a great day!

Our trip to Bend!

One of the things we were looking forward to most when moving to Oregon, was seeing a family we knew back when they lived in Alaska.  Early on in our relationship, Brandon and I rented a room from this family.  We learned a great deal about parenting as we watched them raise their two boys, Sean and Logan.  Soon after we moved in, Brenna found out she was pregnant, and had a baby girl - Lola Sophia.  We would have lived with them a lot longer than we did, but they moved to Oregon.

It took us a little while, but we finally rented a car and drove out to Bend (central Oregon) to visit them! After four hours in the car, we arrived at their house feeling a little bit sorry for ourselves....that is, until we met Rose and her daughter Cali (2 years old) who just drove up from Santa Cruz.  With a full house, lots of  food and conversation, we had a great time!  One of the first things we did on Sunday was travel to Tumalo Falls.  Here we are at the base of the trail:

Once we got to the top, we stopped and had a few snacks.  Here I am with Logan and Amelia:

The surrounding area was absolutely breathtaking.  Here's a shot of the waterfall, and the nearby hill-ish mountains:

It was a perfect hike on a hot summer day.  We were really hot, but also really happy.  Here are the two loves of my life chillin in the shade:

And just in case you're wondering what Brenna, Jason and Lola look like, here they are.  Well....kind of....

It was a short trip to Bend, but we had a great time.  It's a BEAUTIFUL city, and I wouldn't mind moving there one day.  If you ever have a chance to visit, I highly encourage it!

We left on Monday, which was a very busy day for us.  We drove back home, made a pit stop at a Honda dealership to purchase a vehicle, and drove straight to the airport to pick up our first visitor - Dave Enders!  More to come on that later.