COUPLE TIME

Tim and I have set a new goal of getting away for a childless weekend twice a year. We usually get rid of the kids and stay home for the night or weekend once every 12-18 months, so it's not like we never get time alone. It's just that it's nice to go away without them on occasion.

Well, that's a nice goal and all, but there's a problem. We made a commitment in January to put all our extra money for the year toward paying off the debt of college tuition and living expenses. We did budget part of our tax refund for two small family vacations, but every other spare dollar has gone toward debt. Obviously it takes money to get away for the weekend, so we reached a compromise. We called it a "marital investment", using some of Tim's summer officiating income, and went away for one night.

We dropped the offspring at Coolio's house on Monday morning, then headed to Silverton. First stop was Silver Falls State Park. We hiked about 8 1/2 miles and saw ten beautiful waterfalls. Actually we saw nine beautiful ones and one lame one, but it was a lot of fun. After hiking all afternoon we headed to Edward Adams House, our first bed and breakfast experience, to de-sweat and then grabbed Thai for dinner.

After chatting with the other guests and innkeeper over breakfast the next morning we headed to the Oregon Garden. It was so pretty! We're fantasizing about staying in their new resort, which is opening in September, some day. Pretty flowers, walks around the park, massages, summer concerts in the evenings. Sounds nice, huh? Maybe for our next getaway weekend. We still had a couple hours to kill, so we swung by the Woodburn Company Stores and picked up a few things.

It was a quick trip, but we had a great time! And the kids had a great time too. I'll post some pics of their time with Coolio when I do Webshots on Sunday.