Some of you may be thinking what have Emily and Brendan been doing up there in the NW? Well luckily for you a whole lot! A few weeks ago we went to the beach! We visited Canon Beach which is home to the rock in Goonies and the kindergarten from Kindergarten Cop. As if that isn't exciting enough it was Cricket's first time seeing the ocean and tasting salt water. Yum! The beach is located only 1.5 hours away from the house and to get there you drive through Tillamook National Forest (yes like Tillamook cheese). After arriving at the beach and frolicking with Cricket for a bit we had a lovely picnic on the beach and some cold white wine. Delicious! After that we soaked in some rays and walked in the surf (the ocean is way to cold to swim in). Then we went Downtown and had some fresh saltwater taffy and a milkshake. After we got our sugar high we left to go back home and I promptly fell asleep in the car.

Goonies Rock

Drive to the beach from Portland





Video of Cricket at the Beach




The rest of the week composed of regular daily activities such as Brendan working and I did school work and continued my job hunt! We also had dinner with our new friends Daniel and Lindsay at a delicious Thai resturant (Mom you will love it). It was our first time eating like city folk. We got there at 8pm and waited for and hour and a half to be seated! We ended up eating around my bed time, thank goodness it was a Friday night.

Last weekend we went to the Saturday Market which takes place every weekend. There are hundreds of booths with artisan crafts for sale. There are also food and beer booths and live music. We were able to see the local crew teams practicing on the river which looked cold and wet because it was raining.











Gyros from Saturday Market





Freshly made Corn Dog








Live Music







While Brendan was off getting his assortment of fair food I got hit on thanks to my trusty bike helmet. I believe the line was "I think it is so adorable that you wear a bike helmet". Thank goodness Brendan returned in the nick of time so I didn't have to break another man's heart.

Since I have some spare time on my hands and love an opportunity to avoid homework I have been doing a lot of baking. I started making all of our breads and cookies from scratch. Just to give you a taste of what I have been doing I have made this week I made wheat sandwich bread snickerdoodles, corn bread, and artisan bread (picture below). It has been very satisfying baking and I have really enjoyed it!











So far being together all the time hasn't bothered us. Brendan still enjoys working from him and I enjoy bugging him while he is here. As if we don't spend enough time together we had date night and went to one of Portland's best resturants Bar Avingion. I had the amazing pork chops and Brendan had seafood stew. I was tempted to try Brendan's dish until I dipped my sppon in and a baby octopus floated to the top. Ewwww.

(My Pork Chops, mmmmm)









Well, that's about all of our happenings as of now. Tomorrow we are going to the Blazers vs. Nuggets basketball game. It should be interesting and fun, hopefully we don't get beat up for being Nuggets fans. Of course we miss you all and will be home in seven short weeks for Christmas!
Love Emily and Brendan

Spider eating a bee in our backyard:

First Week of School

One week down, only ten to go! The quarter system makes school go by so much faster. I guess it also helps that my classes meet only once a week (which means I only have each class 11 times per quarter). Classes are 2.5 hours each, which is kind of hard to sit through. Brendan took some pictures of my on the first day of school.












My first solo voyage to Downtown Portland! I can make it to class in about 25 minutes but usually arrive sweaty (which is probably really helping me make friends). My first class was a nightmare, Management and Organization of Health Care. A class all about managing a health care company. When our first assignment was to write a paper about the organizational structure of a health care company we have worked with I knew I was in trouble. I have never worked for a health care organization and never planned on working for one. After talking with my advisor I figured out that I was in the wrong concentration. So, after this school year I will be in the School of Community Health receiving a Master's in Public Health: Health Promotion. It shouldn't be too hard to transfer but I do need to reapply to school. I am glad I got that figured out before it was too late.
So far I really love my classes. I am taking Environmental Health (learning about all the harmful things we do to the planet and how it affects the population), Principles of Health Behavior (learning the psyche behind changing behaviors), and Foundations of Public Health.

Other than school I have been taking Cricket to the dog park every morning. I took some pictures of the park that we go to. It's a beautiful park unlike anything we have in Colorado.





This weekend we went to a Portland Timber soccer game with our friend Chris and his Cousin's. It was an experience! The Timber's were playing in the playoffs and the fans were crazy! The mascot is a big guy who wears overalls and everytime the Timber's score he takes a chain saw and cuts off a piece of wood from a huge log and runs around with it. He also runs around with the chain saw running (without the chain on it)

Having drinks before the game

Start of the Game!

It was intense

Unfortunately the Timber's lost, but that didn't damper our fun. It was nice to get out and meet people and I think we made some friends! Woo-hoo.

Did you know that Matt Groening was born and raised in Portland?

Proof!

Well, that's it so far! We have taken it upon ourselves to try all the bars and restaurants in the area so when you come visit we can take you to the best of Portland!