Tillamook Burn

A group of us headed to the beach this weekend to escape the heat and to run in the Tillamook Burn. We rented a house in Pacific City and were able to visit family, including a feast at Kathy & Skip's on Saturday night including fresh Tuna, Salmon and Crab... delicious!

This morning Bob, Rebecca, Travis and I set out to run our first adventure race. None of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. All we knew was that the course was about 6 miles long and that we would be running up hills and through creeks. We showed up and could tell we were rookies compared to the regular crowd who does these types of races. Knowing there were some hard core runners, we decided to start out at the back of the pack. I guess there's a reason they call this the Tillamook Burn, after the first hill, which there is no way you could run up it, and your lungs and legs are burning you realize what you've gotten yourself into. We climbed several hills (aka mountains), crossed the creek at least 4 times and manuvered around 3 bee hives with each of us getting stung at least once, but we all escaped the run without injury and smiles on our faces.

My New Obsession

So I have to admit that I have a new obsession. It's coupon shopping. Travis and I have been trying to find new and creative ways to cut our monthly costs. My idea was to look at our grocery shopping and figure out where we could save some money. The first step was making a weekly menu, creating a grocery list and only buying what was on the list when I went to the store. This definitely helped with our spending, but I wanted to figure out what I could do to save even more. So I started doing some searching on coupons. It's amazing how much money you can save. I've added a few of the links of the blogs I follow. These women do all the work for me. They post links to coupons, they analyze the weekly ads from the stores and they tell you how to combine coupons and store specials to get the best deal.

Last week I was at Albertson's and bought $95 worth of groceries for $19. The women behind me in line were amazed at what I accomplished. I left the store a little giddy with the deals I had scored.

So, if you have any coupons that you aren't using, rather than putting them in the recycle bin, send them my way, or even better, maybe you'll join the crazy world of coupon shopping!

4th of July

We headed to Waldport to escape the heat and celebrate the 4th. When we got into town on Thursday afternoon, we found sunny skies, but lots of wind. We spent some time on the beach playing and then headed to Aunt Melanie, Uncle Ian and Cousin Kieran's house for dinner. They filled our bellies and sent us up the hill to grandpa's house. Friday morning we woke up to grey skies and cold weather. We spent some time walking on the beach and then Travis, Uncle Ian and Uncle Dean headed to Newport to take advantage of the sale at the Rogue Brewery. Friday afternoon Nana and Papa T came into town and we all set off fireworks at grandpa's house. Unfortunately because of the cold weather, we didn't make it down to the bay to see the big fireworks. Which is probably fine since Merrick did not like the fireworks at all. After the first "whistling pete" he asked to go inside, so he and Travis watched the show from the window.

We decided to head home early, knowing that it was sunny and 90 plus degrees at home, compared to grey skies and 60 degrees at the coast. We went home through Lincoln City to say hi to Grandma Kathy and were able to have lunch with Grandpa Brad and Grandma Karen. Unfortunately, we got stuck between two accidents on hwy 18 about 10 miles outside of Lincoln City. By the time we got rerouted, we had already been in the car 1 1/2 hours. The entire trip home took about 4 plus hours. Not the way we envisioned spending the day, but we were happy to be home safely.

A trip to Seaside

A couple weeks after we got back from Maui, we headed to Seaside for the weekend. Merrick quickly realized that we couldn't swim in the ocean like we had in Hawaii. We did find lots of other things to keep busy with, including a ride on the merry go round, bumper cars, arcade, a sand castle contest, a ride on the train and a visit from cousins. It was a busy fun weekend.