An Oregon Getaway

An Oregon Getaway…. for one of us!

This past week, while Pat stayed in Tennessee to watch our fur-babies and make sure they stay out of trouble; I got to travel to Oregon to visit my best friend, Brittany, and her sweet family. We marveled over the fact that we hadn’t actually seem one another in 3 years since her wedding! Now she has 2 kiddos, one of whom is only a month old. So, we definitely had adventures!

Many of the little excursions outside of the house that we took included trips to some of our favorite local restaurants. We even had lunch at the spot she and her husband, Sean, were married! McMenamins Grand Lodge  in Forest Grove, Oregon, is the perfect spot to have a wedding or just to stop in for a bite. We also ate at some of our other favorites from high school, including Red Robin! And tried a new spot that I had never been to, the Thirsty Lion Pub & Grill.

I introduced her to one of my favorite obsessions… Cookie Butter from Trader Joes. YUM! I could not believe she had never had it before! And if you haven’t, you seriously need to try it out! There are several options but the one in the middle is my personal favorite (& Brittany’s too!).

A few days into the trip I was able to slip away and spend the day with my grandmother. We went to lunch at one of Pat & my favorite restaurants, BJ’s Brewhouse. We actually love the food there so much that we had our own wedding Rehearsal Dinner at in Florida.

After lunch we did a bit of shopping and then I got to spend the rest of the evening with Angela & Chris at their farm for an engagement session! We had a fun time chatting with each other, finding cute spots throughout their property, and celebrated at the end of the evening by going to Chipotle together.

We decided that with a toddler & a newborn it would be fun to make Cupcakes. So onto Pinterest we went. Salted Carmel Triple Chocolate Cupcakes sounded divine so we went with that recipe…. without looking at the directions. 4 Hours later we now know how to make our own caramel, chocolate ganache, & salted caramel buttercream frosting. Totally delicious, but crazy time consuming! But that’s ok, we had a lot of fun. And a bit of help…

After conquering this monstrous cupcake and making our own caramel the next night we decided to go all out and make our own salsa and tacos! Since Brittany & I like basically all of the same foods. It was a total no-brainer to make this delicious Mango Salsa! It takes a bit of time but is SO worth it and the ingredients are so simple.

Mango (obviously), Red Onion, Cilantro, Fresh Lime, Corn, Avocado, Red Pepper, and a bit of Salt & Pepper. Paired with Cilantro Lime Rice and Shredded Chicken — yep, we think we outdid ourselves. :)!

It was a fantastic trip but I’m happy to be back in Tennessee with Pat! It made it easier saying goodbye because this time we know exactly when we will see each other again – August!! Only a few months compared to 3 years. We can totally handle that; I mean, come on, we conquered caramel!