One of our favorite places

One of our favorite things to do is go to REI. AJ absolutely loves that store and I would much rather go to REI than go to a fish store or Home Depot, so it has become a favorite place for us to make the trek up to REI in Tualatin. In fact, we just went up there today.

Before AJ and I met, I was in a very adventuresome outdoor stage in my life and climbed mountains, skied and hiked a lot. Once I met AJ we did a lot of snowboarding and AJ taught my how to board. We then got married and moved to Vegas and started working full time jobs and didn't have a ton of time for outdoor stuff. Back to Oregon we moved, but I was now in school and worked and AJ was running a restaurant and so when we had days off, we wanted to veg. About two years ago, after we moved back to Salem and AJ finished grad school, we started to get outdoors more. We had visions of camping and hiking and started to acquire the gear needed when, boom, we found out we were pregnant. So, it went on the back burner again.

AJ has kept up with it so much more than I have as he has the capability too. I am either pregnant or nursing, so I just hasn't been in the cards for me. AJ has gone on a lot of solo hikes and then hikes with others. Sometimes his dad will go with him, sometimes he will take Porter and a few times I have been able to go.

Then this summer we decided Porter was old enough to take out camping and we decided to get all set up for that. We did and had a great time and we really look forward to more camping trips as a family. We will have to wait again till Maggie is a bit older, so Summer of 2012 we hope to do much more.

Another thing we really wanted to get in to during the winter was snowshoeing. AJ and I bought snowshoes last year and never ended up being able to use them. Who makes maternity snow pants??? So, AJ has a co-worker this year who snowshoes so hopefully they will be able to go out and get a few treks in so AJ will feel better about our never used snowshoes.

I tell you about all these things to tell you this. We spend a lot of time and resources at REI. They have a great selection of all sorts of things plus, they have the greatest return policy ever. If something gets a hole in it or comes apart, we just take it on back. No questions asked and get a refund. And with outdoor gear that is nice because sometimes you buy something thinking this is what you need and it ends up being more of a hassle than a help, so we take it back and get something else. I imagine if AJ didn't have a master's degree or a family, he might just work at REI so he could get the employee discount!

The other cool thing about REI is they have "garage" sales. It is a sale where they sell all the items that people returned because of a defect, like a hole or a broken zipper and the items that don't return to the manufacturer for whatever reason at a very discounted price. And this is how we got our steal of a deal on our double Bob stroller. We had a single Bob stroller and loved it and knew once Maggie came along, we were going to have to invest in a double Bob. Bobs are not cheap. We figured we would sell our single on Craigslist and then use our dividend check from REI and buy the double.

Well, Christy and Tobin invited AJ to join them at the garage sale for REI at the Clackamas store so off he went at 4am up to sit and wait in line. ONce the store opened at 11am, AJ headed off to check out and see if they had any used Bobs for sale. And they did, but someone had nabbed both of them to check them out to see if they wanted to buy them. AJ hung around and watched till they decided not to get either of them and so AJ grabbed one. It was in great shape and just needed a little cleaning up and TLC and it appears to be pretty much brand with a good wipe down with Clorox wipes!

The story gets better. My sister overheard a REI employee say how they get single Bobs returned all the time since people need to upgrade and most of the time nothing is even wrong with them. So she suggested we take our Bob back to REI. Well, shy person I am didn't want to do it and I made Christy do it and it was easier than getting the stroller out of the van, it was that easy!! They took it back no problem and gave us exactly what we paid for it. So in the end, we bought the double for super cheap, returned the other Bob and all in all paid $20 for a double Bob. Wow! What a deal.

We love REI. Porter's first outing a week after he was born was to REI. We love taking him there and exploring the store and finding fun deals. Where else would you want to spend a rainy Sunday?