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: