Watch dog

Quick hello from our hotel in Missoula, MT. Tucker hasn't left the window seat since we got here.

Minnesota bound

It's hard to believe our summer in Oregon is over already! We had such a great summer, but I am excited to be back home. We should be back in St. Paul by Tuesday!

Package

Looks like we should be set for the drive back to Minnesota. Thanks mom!

It's been so busy since Andrew's mom and dad left that I haven't had time to post pictures. We had a great week showing them around our favorite places.

Mt. Rainier



Haystack Rock


Low tide at Haystack rock


Seattle from the ferry


Brothers

Hello

Hello grandma and grandpa Hoitink! Thank you for the nice note. :) We are having a great time with Terry and Kay, and will leaving for Seattle in the morning to pick up Aaron. Andrew and I hope to see you soon!

Jamberry!

Rumble and ramble

In blackberry bramble

Billions of berries

For blackberry jam!

Raspberry

Jazzberry

Razzamatazzberry

Berryband

Merryland

Jamming in Berryland.

Blackberries will forever remind me of the days of reading Jamberry! to the wee ones over and over and OVER again!

Our backyard is overgrowing with blackberry bushes.

It's such a problem, I know. On my walk with Tucker yesterday I brought buckets along, and we ended up picking 4 cups of berries.

I say "we" because Tucker was helping.

Looking for the ripe berries.

When we got home I decided to make blackberry jam. I'm kind of a jam snob. I ONLY eat raspberry jam, and actually there are only a few brands that live up to my standards. But Andrew prefers blackberry jam, so I decided to give it a try. Well, let me tell you, this might be the best jam I've ever tasted! It ended up making way more than I expected. My only option was to make a tasty treat out of the jam! So, blackberry oatmeal bars for dessert tonight!

Duathlon

I had so much fun doing the duathlon over the weekend. It was a really cold morning, so I was so happy to be doing the run-bike-run, and NOT swim-bike-run! The triathletes looked pretty chilly in the water. It was such a huge event. Between the triathlon and duathlon, there were over 600 people competing.

Body marked and ready to go! It's been three days and I can still see my race number and age on my legs.

Trying to find my spot in the maze of bikes in the transition area.

Listening to 'I gotta feeling' on repeat.

vroom

Running my bike back to the transition area, and happy to be 2/3 done. Only a 5k run left.

Finish line!

Muscle milk

My cheering squad.

4th place overall, and 1st in my age group. :)

All aboard!

Over the weekend we took a train ride on the Mt. Hood Railroad. It was a fun ride through the vineyards and fruit orchards of the Hood River Valley.

View from the dome car.

Cherry trees galore. The grocery store we stopped at in Parkdale was selling them for .99/lb! Needless to say, our fridge is now full of cherries. Cherry pie anyone?

The train stops for lunch in Parkdale. We grabbed some food at the grocery store for a picnic lunch at the park.

And a scoop of Tillamook ice cream.

Beautiful view from Parkdale.

Dining car.