A few weeks ago Nate got offered a teaching job in Arizona! My family lives there and Nate's family is just 5 hours away, so we decided it would be a good move to make! We have loved living in Washington and so close to Oregon and being to explore so many new and different areas. It has been awesome for our marriage to be in a new place and have so many new experiences together. We are excited to be moving close to both of our families now though!!

Lately the weather has been perfect so we have been taking advantage of it and spending our days outside. We have a really pretty trail right by our apartment that we like to run on. It passes by streams and bunches of wildflowers!

We planned each weekend out until we leave to make sure that we can do everything that we have wanted to do up here! A few weekends ago, we both took Friday off and went camping in the Columbia Gorge. The drive up there is so pretty and one of our favorite drive up here. We found a pretty spot to camp and were the only ones there! There were tons of huge pine trees and bright yellow wildflowers everywhere! We made foil dinners and reeses s'mores and sipped on honey cream soda. It was so nice to get away from everything and have such a relaxing weekend!

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend so we headed to the Oregon Coast to camp. We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory on our way there and it was so fun! I kind of laughed when people kept telling us to visit the factory but we both ended up loving it! It was really interesting to see how everything was made and hear the history behind the brand. We got to sample a ton of cheese and eat cheese curds (squeaky cheese). I actually didn't like the cheese curds very much but it was still fun to try. Then we bought some smoked cheese and had a picnic outside with a baguette and some fruit. Tillamook also makes ice cream, so of course we had to get some of that! I got marionberry pie and hazelnut salted caramel in a waffle cone and it was seriously the best ice cream I have ever had!!!

(I always make fun of these things, but couldn't resist getting a weird picture of Nate..)


Next, we stopped and did the prettiest hike along the coast. It was so gorgeous and had the prettiest views of the ocean. At one part, we were looking down and saw two whales, a mom and baby one, swimming next to each other. It was sooo amazing to watch and we kept watching until they were too far to see.





Then we went to our camping site and had the usual, foil dinners and s'mores! In the morning, we went on a walk from our campsite to the beach. There were sooo many mosquitos. For some reason they hate me and love Nate! He seriously had a swarm following him! We would start running and they would still follow him until they got left behind. Once we would stop, they would find him again!

After the beach we went to do another hike. This one was down by the ocean, through tide pools and ending at Thor's Well, a deep hole in the rock that makes waterfalls all around it when filled with water. The hike was so beautiful and the weather was perfect! We accidentally ended up taking the wrong path, I think we should have realized it since we had to cross a little river and then make a pretty big jump over the ocean from one rock to another on the other side. Anyways, we ended up having to turn around and go back until we found a much easier path. We finally got to Thor's Well and were standing right next to it, filming it with a GoPro when a HUGE wave came and completely covered us!! Luckily I was right behind Nate, so I just held on to him with one hand, and onto a rock with the other hand! It was awesome though and we couldn't stop laughing after, it made our trip! (: There were a ton of people watching from above so everyone kept making comments to us after about how we gave them a good show. Next we drove up to a pretty viewpoint, the highest one on the Oregon coast. We had a picnic of baguette, Tillamook cheese, fruit, and chocolate! Afterwards, we headed home.



It was such a fun trip, I always thought that Hawaii was the most beautiful place and that I would be living there forever. Who would have known that I would move to San Diego and then near the Oregon coast! It has been so amazing to live in so many beautiful places. I love them all and love all of the differences between them. I still love Hawaii the most, nothing can beat the laid back atmosphere and the amazing surfing and private beaches. San Diego is awesome because there is always something going on, the best Mexican food, and also some fun (cold) surf. Oregon has Portland, which I love (mostly because of the amazing places to eat), the prettiest hikes and camping, and has more trees and greenery than I have ever seen!

It is crazy to thing that now we will be settling down in Arizona. I am so excited to be by my family and close to Nate's family, but also a little scared to think of buying a house and being so settled in a place. I always said I could never live away from the ocean after living in Hawaii, but as I've gotten older I've realized that family is the most important thing. (And we will be taking monthly trips to San Diego so I think I will get a pretty good amount of ocean/ surfing time!)