Egg In My Basket

Oregon Post

We have lived in Oregon now for over 6 months. I guess it would be nice if I actually blogged about it every once in awhile. Chris has been busy with school and I have been working at the hospital here in Salem. The job is good but I really miss working in community health as it is a little less stressful. We like living in Oregon but we still miss Utah and would much rather live there. Chris and I were talking about the things we like about Oregon last night and here is our list: Trader Joe's (we go at least twice a week); plethora of gardens, pumpkin patches, berry patches, and Christmas tree farms; the milder winters despite the rain (we are able to run outside more in the winter than in Utah); being close to a temple; and Chris' school. Hopefully our list will get longer. The rain finally got to me last week so I booked a trip to Utah before I had a melt down. Chris says the rain helps us appreciate the sunny days. I think the rainy days makes me hate rainy days. I would rather have more sunny days to appreciate the rainy days rather than rainy days to appreciate the sunny days. Just sayin'.

Chris on his first day of law school. Looking sharp!

Our first trip to the Oregon Coast. We went to Lincoln City and saw the Devil's Punch Bowl (some bowl rock formation thing on the beach). We have been investigating the next best spot to visit at the Coast and hope to go soon. Maybe Astoria where they filmed Goonies or Tillamook to get some cheese.

We visited a great pumpkin patch in October and loaded up on pumpkins and a bunch of vegetables. Sadly, Chris was too busy with school that we never had the chance to carve the pumpkins.

We spent Thanksgiving in Oregon since Chris had finals the next week. Chris' dad was able to come and join us. I cooked the entire Thankgiving meal myself, the turkey and all. Next year we are just doing a turkey breast roast since no one ate the dark meat anyway.

I made some cute turkey napkin rings for the table settings. Anything to make the meal more fun and memorable since we were missing our big family shin digs. Thankfully, we were able to visit Utah and Las Vegas over Christmas break. Good times.

It has actually snowed a couple of times this winter in Oregon. The schools either close or have delayed start time with this much snow. Seems silly since in Utah we were expected to be to work on time in a blizzard.

We have even had a couple visitors in Oregon. One of Chris' best friends, Taylor, came to town for work and we were able to go out to dinner and catch up. Anyone is certainly welcome to come visit us anytime. I recommend the spring and summer time unless you want to see what rain and overcast days are really like.

3 Years Old

Our marriage is 3 years old today! Here are 3 of our favorite things that happened this past year:

1. Running the Halloween Half and staying over at Stein for our anniversary last year.

2. California trip. Chris still talks about cream cheese filled pretzels at Disneyland.

3. Going to law school. Its been a long time coming so we are glad to be here. Leaving Utah is still on my least favorite things list.

Love you Christer!

Things We Love About Utah

Chris and I realized how much we love Utah after moving to Oregon. We don't hate Oregon, we just like Utah better. I am so glad we made the effort to take time and enjoy the things about Utah before we moved. Here is a list of our favorite things:

1. Our Neighborhood. Chris and I really lucked out with our first apartment. The apartment itself was nothing to be desired, but the neighborhood and ward was awesome. Chris could be biking up one of the canyons within 10 minutes and we had great running routes beginning just outside our door. Plus, we had nice views of the mountains. We would love to move back to Holladay some day.

2. Holiday Oil. This gas station was another plus to our neighborhood. It was just around the corner and had some of the best diet coke around.

Chris went to get big gulps so often that he became good friends with Rob, the gas station manager. Too bad he never gave us free drinks :( (The gas station sells those shirts, and no we did not buy one).

3. Cafe Rio. Be still my heart. This has been one of the hardest things about leaving Utah is not having a Cafe Rio within 10 minutes in either direction. The closest one to us is in Boise, a mere 8 hours away.

4. Franck's: Hands down, one of the best restaurants we have ever been to. Its a little pricey but so worth it. We went one last time before leaving town and they gave us several free appetizers just because we were moving.

Franck himself. Great guy.

5. Yogurtland: Chris loves his frozen yogurt and Yogurtland has been the best place we have tried at the best price. They have several yogurt places in Oregon but they are over priced and try too hard to be good.

6. Sundance and the giant cookies: We love Sundance and loved it even more when we discovered the giant cookies sold in the Deli.

7. The Alpine Loop: This is our favorite drive and Chris' favorite place to ride his bike, especially in the fall. We always take a picture in this spot, usually with the fall leaves but because of the move, we had to get a picture a little earlier this year. We usually take this drive and stop at Sundance to get the giant cookies.

8. Park City: We loved being 20 minutes away from Park City. Mostly just so we could bum around for the day. We especially love Stein Eriksen lodge and are sad we couldn't go again this year for our anniversary. So we decided we would go to brunch there before we left.

Gotta love the chair lifts in the summer. We like taking the chair lift in Park City while eating a bunch of sweets from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (they have those in Oregon to my surprise).

9. Family: Last but not least, we miss being really close to our families. They all said they would come visit us in Oregon...right guys?!?

We are so excited to come back around Christmas time!

In case you haven't heard....

We are moving to Oregon! Chris will have his head buried in law books at Willamette University for the next few years. I will...well I'm not sure what I will be doing.

We are both really sad to leave Utah but excited for the adventure ahead of us and that we are still somewhat close to family and even closer to some good friends (right Nicole?!?).

Spring Time Adventures

Chris and I managed to have some fun during Spring despite its absence. We kicked off Spring with a trip to St. George with our fun friends Cory and Tara. We hiked in Zions including Angels Landing. I am not ashamed to admit that I chickened out half way up.

I celebrated my 25th annual birthday. It was awesome with a more than awesome dinner at Francks.

Chris and I took a trip out to the Boston-New Hampshire-Maine area. We visited the Point Elizabeth lighthouse in Maine and Chris ate Maine lobster. We had a fun trip but are glad we don't have to go back anytime soon.

Chris rode in the Iron Horse Classic in Durango, CO with his buddy Cory. Tara and I did not make it up to the finish line because they closed the road. After a few swear words on Tara's part, a couple of diet cokes, and a 5 hour wait in a parking lot, we finally met up with our husbands at the finish line.

Chris and I went on a trip to So-Cal and took a last minute trip to Disneyland with Chris' brother's family and Chris' Dad. It ended up being the highlight of our trip, especially since it had been 20 years since my last visit. (see those lovely blue shoes I am wearing...they are the Devil's shoes and should never be worn in Disneyland).

Chris especially loves Disneyland for their cream cheese pretzels. He gobbled down three of them during our one-day visit.

So, as a surprise for Future Father's Day, I made Chris homemade cream cheese pretzels. They were pretty tasty but I would rather have an excuse to go to Disneyland to get them.

We just returned from a fun-filled weekend at the Bailey family reunion and have a lot more Summer time adventures up our sleeves. Maybe I will be better about blogging them.

Cycling and running are more fun when its not about me anymore

THIS IS A POST FROM CHRIS:

I know I usually don't post on our blog but I was inspired to write about something that I love, running and riding my bike. There are a host of reasons why I enjoy running and riding my bike; endorphins, personal satisfaction, stress reliever, pushing limits, setting and achieving goals, being in nature, competing, winning, the list can go on. But there has been something that has always lingered on my conscience when I am running or the bicycle; that these activities are inherently selfish. The countless hours alone riding, away form family and friends, all for what? Spending money and traveling to run in a race all for my own personal satisfaction, why? The time, dedication, effort put into these activities can be self-centered and become a wedge in friendships, marriages, and families especially when this time is spent focused on oneself. For any athlete that loves to workout, he or she is blessed with great health that enables them to build strength, ability, and talents through consistent practice. I view my health as blessing to which I am immensely grateful. I realize that only through this health am I able to excel at running and biking. For this reason I see this blessing of health as something that I should seek to share with others. But how does someone share their health with others? I think a great example of this type of behavior is exemplified perfectly in the story about Dayton. Click here to see the video. The opportunities to share our health or talents can be as simple as encouragement, occasions to talk with friends, or inviting someone to come along fir a run or ride. When we actively take those gifts, talents, or abilities and put them to work uplifting others I believe we will only stand to gain exponentially from the experience.

One of the ways that I have tired to share my blessing of good health is through competing in various cycling races in Utah and Colorado to raise money and awareness for cancer research. I have partnered with the Livestrong Foundation and set-up a donation page, SEE HERE. The donations that I am collecting right now is for a race I am competing in in Durango, CO. In this race I will be riding with people that have battled or are battling cancer. It's staggering to think that over 40% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at sometime during their life. With cancer being a prevalent problem amongst our society I feel that cancer research is a worthy cause.

We will be riding on this road during the race in Colorado.

In this simple way my racing won't be solely for my own benefit yet I can already see how enjoyment has increased. This experience has reenforced an important lesson; when we lose ourself to help others lies real joy. I hope those reading this can help help contribute to the Livestrong Foundation and help further cancer research.