Trader Joe's

The Mrs. and I have lived in Oregon for over a year now and we are starting to embrace organic food. We live around a lot of hippies and they freakin' love organic stuff. They even have their own organic grocery stores around here. From our experience, organic grocery stores=overpriced goods. Then Angie started shopping at Trader Joe's and raving about how great it was. I've been reluctant to go there because it's a store for two types of people: 1) hippies and 2) yuppies who think they're hippies. Well, I went and became a convert.


Everything there is about the same price as Albertson's, and some of the weird stuff there is actually pretty good. The pita chips (with cinnamon and sugar) and pumpkin butter are excellent, as well as the produce. I can't wait to try some of the other random they have. Does that make us hippies?

Surprise Visit

Last Monday, Dan and I (with the help of my sister, Jodi) decided it would be fun to drive down to Utah and surprise my family. So, on Tuesday afternoon, we hopped in the car and stayed in Boise that night at our friend's house. We got to my parent's house in Eagle Mountain Wednesday afternoon and here's their reaction:



We had so much fun out there! We were able to see everyone and got to go to the New Year's party my mom had put together. I had been so bummed that I wouldn't be able to go. She has the best parties! We got to go to movies and just hang out. Jodi and John even treated us to a night at Inn on the Creek in Midway. I love Miday! It was so much fun! The only bad thing on our trip was that I got rear-ended (we were all fine), but the cop didn't give the other guy a ticket. Don't get me started on that one... We drove home all day yesterday and had pretty good weather with the exception of a couple of areas. Here are some pictures from our trip, as always. Thanks everyone for such a fun trip!!

Fun Visit with Steph and Dallin

We've been blessed with such an awesome family that comes to visit often and last week, Steph and Dallin came out and stayed with us! It was their first time to Oregon and I hope we left them with a good impression. :) We had so much fun with them!! We did so many fun things. We went to the Children's Museum in Portland, went to the park, saw some Christmas lights, went to Rob and Kristi's, went swimming, and got some GOOD hot chocolate, which I am now addicted to. :) We tried to give them some local flavor by taking them to a couple good restaurants, which they ended up loving. :) We're sad they're gone now, but we were so happy to have them here!! Thanks for the pictures, Steph!

To Send or Not To Send?

I need opinions. Should we send Christmas cards this year? Since we don't have any kids, I really don't want to mail around a picture of just Dan and me. :) But I don't think just a card with a few words and our signatures would be terribly exciting. What do you guys do or have you done before kids??

More of Eugene

So Dan and I decided we're staying in Eugene for at least 9 more months. It was time to renew our lease on our apartment so we had a decision to make. Well, I HATE moving and have done so much in the last 4 years :) that I really didn't want to move if we were staying in Eugene. That is, unless it was going to be a permanent move into a house or something. However, we aren't sure we want to settle down here. Hence, the 9 month lease. I'm still loving living here and exploring. And I'm definately not missing the snow - except on Christmas. I always love snow on Christmas. And I can't wait until our annual 4 inch snow storm that closes down the town. We do love the diversity and weirdness Eugene brings to our (well, mainly my) sheltered lives. We're very happy with Eugene and are excited for the upcoming months here!