Road Trip to Leavenworth

The day After Thanksgiving and we headed over the mountains to play in the snow. Stevens pass was beautiful... not as much snow as we had hoped for... but just enough that was it so pretty and the roads were not bad. One of the best things is that half way up the mountain the cell phone service really starts to get bad... and the daughters attitude starts to get a lot better :) I can and do take her phone away from her.. but then she is mad at me and I get all that.. but when we go on road trips where the phones do not work.. the kids just seem to shift into a lot better moods only a few minutes after their phones die. Yesterday was no exception.... about 10 minutes after we lost service we all really started having some fun.

Headed up icicle road which follows the river... there are lots of camp grounds and a bunch of snow..... not enough that we have to worry about getting stuck or anything.. but just enough to have a lot of fun and to make everything beautiful. I have memories from when I was very little of camping up here with my grandparents.. not really clear ones.. but more feelings :) I do remember that when grandpa would catch fish in the river that they would get frozen in the 1/2 gallon milk cartons. I also think there are some hot springs around here.. but have no clue as to where... going to have to remember to talk to my cousin about this.

Anyway.. we attempted to build a snowman... but the snow was not wet enough for that .. we were lucky to get some handfuls of snow so there could be a little sort of mock snowball fight. I love being the one holding the camera.. they all know snow is not good for a camera so I pretty much was safe. Dave and Missy got into it... wish I was better at taking action shots but with laughing so hard and then the snow being so dry that when it was thrown it ended up looking like a cloud... I did not get too many good pictures of that. We did find a couple of big parking lot areas and we had some fun with the jeep in the snow.. doing doughnuts... round and round we went...the older I get the less my tummy likes those... but they were fun.. again.. I tried taking pictures and videos.. lol after the fact I know I should have gotten out of the car to attempt that...no way I could hold anything still while in the car and laughing.

After we were done playing in the snow we headed into the town of Leavenworth... found this great pizza place... Rudloof's I did not take too many pictures because I was really hungry... but the pizza slices were so huge that one would have been plenty. We got the crust with the cheese in it... it was really good.. I will go back there for sure. By now it is dark out and the whole town is lite up with Christmas lights.. there is Christmas music playing from the gazabo in the town center and kids sledding down the hill.... they have tents set up and are having a craft fair... we bundled up and heat out. First thing Missy saw was the Starbucks.. so our first stop... Black and white peppermint mocha with whip.

We then wandered around in the snow under the lights, watched the kids sledding for awhile and checked out the tents... then wandered up and down the streets going in and out of the shops. Before we left we sure to stop in at Rocky Mountain Chocolate for a treat. It was the kind of night were everyone stops and talks to everyone.. where people are paying attention and if you stop to take a photo everyone stops for you.... everyone was friendly and thoughtful and smiling and happy. It was my first experience walking around Leavenworth and I did love it :)

Started home about 8... it was snowing pretty good.. roads were a bit more slippery on the way home but not too horrible... and the best part was that there was really no traffic.. which is the scariest part for me.... some people really should not drive in snow no matter what. Lucky for us..... they all stayed home last night. Was a wonderful day all the way around!

~Michelle

Snow Snow Snow and Cold

It is cold.. and white! Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow :) It seems as if this time of year something weather wise happens often. Looking back over the years there are a lot of Thanksgiving weather issues. Monday it started snowing... and it dumped a couple of inches... now it is wednesday and it is snowing again.. just big drifty white flakes. All day Monday was dark and snowing and windy... not great for going outside... but yesterday.. I woke up and the sky was so clear and the moon was shinning bright. Even though it was low 20's... it was so sunny and I was sitting here looking out the window and wanting more than anything to head to the beach.

I threw on some big thick socks.... some long underwear... my boots a hat some gloves and off I went... The walk to the beach was a bit slippery.. I just stayed on the sides of the road while going downhill... it worked! The beach itself is always amazing in the snow... because the snow stops right at high tide. so if you stand just right.. it does not even look cold... looks like spring

but it is not... it was 20 degrees out there.. plus whatever the wind added to it... now.. as long as I was walking this direction it was not too bad at all.. almost warm.. gloves came off right away

(playing with the glass keeps my fingers warmer than gloves any day) The only part of me that was getting cold was my nose... it was freezing.... but... all good... treasure hunted down the beach a ways... and then turned around... and it was a bit colder...I know I should check the wind direction first.. and this time I even remembered noting it was blowing from the wrong direction.. but... I get treasure hunting in my head and off I go. The walk back to the dock was a bit colder... my nose thought it would freeze off.. and my cheeks were cold.. so I held up my hands and breathed into them.. warmed my cheeks and nose up.. but when it unfroze it became a bit drippy... worked out better to just let it be cold.

I found many treasures... and was not nearly as cold as I had thought I would be.. was a great day... today it is snowing a bit again... have that dark dreary snow sky... and I am just cold and ready for spring... heard there might be even more snow tomorrow before it warms up... I love fall and spring... not too hot.. not too cold... perfect weather!

This photo is a bit tilted... lol I need to take pictures before I am frozen and can't move.

We are still not sure what we will be doing for Thanksgiving.. ordered one of the premade dinners from the local grocery store.. a first for me... but with no oven and not knowing if we will be going to the mountains, the ocean or staying home... figured it was a safe bet. Dave is picking it up tonight on his way home from work.. with a few extras and no matter what we decide to do we will have food! Hope you all have a wonderful Turkey Day and get lots of food!

~Michelle

Lazy Weekend

Well this weekend was not very productive but it was a nice relaxing weekend and I did get some things done. Friday Dave had to work in the morning so I spent the morning on the beach collecting some really fun treasures, heard it was going to be a really cold day but it was sunny and warm and I ended up wearing my sweatshirt and rain coat tied around my waist on the walk back up.

Saturday Dave and I headed out to check out the hobby shop in town and make our Christmas lists. We also went to lunch and then stopped and did our weekly grocery shopping. I need to remember to shop more the first couple of weeks of November so that I don't have to deal with the stores the week before Thanksgiving.. way too many people in there for me. Since the daughter was out for the night we rented a movie ( Grown ups ) and made some pizza. The movie was ok.. not Wonderful but not Horrible.

Kitty cat (Jackson) enjoying the fireplace today.

Today was a stay home and be lazy day.... my only goal was to find the dinning room table again. When we did the remodel we did our best to think ahead and have a place for everything so that everything could go in it's place. For the most part we have done really good at that. When the house is gets cluttered up it ends up with all of us being a bit stressed out. The biggest problem we have is our "projects" my crafty stuff and Daves models... we do not really have anywhere that is just for that. Dave is really good at keeping all of his stuff in the boxes and just pulling out what he needs. I am horrible. I have two tall book shelves full of different boxes and everything is sorted... the problem is... I like to be able to see everything when I am working on something. As soon as I start on something I end up with every box coming off the shelves and getting spread out. I have my shelves in the boys room, which they only use 4 nights a month and they don't mind sharing.. until I spread things all over the floor and their beds. In a year that room will be ours.. both the kids rooms will be ours.... office and hobby room...woohoooo!

Todays Chore.... Before picture

This is the dinning room table.. under there somewhere... I did get everything put back into the craft room/boys room... and most of that is even back into the right boxes and on the shevles.. almost... will finish that tomorrow.

The table after

Keeping Busy

I have not been blogging on here too much this week, have been spending a bunch of time on the beach and even though I could come back and write about every walk on the beach... I am pretty sure if I did that ever day that people would not visit my blog very often.

An update on my people adventures on the beach: I have not seen the lady who asked me to leave since the I saw her last, but I did see a new person there. She was not "on" the beach but she was in the parking lot of the access. She did not say anything to me but when I got there she was in front drivers seat, she then got out and climbed in the back... then after a few minutes she was back in the front on the passenger side... this went on for awhile.. I gave up being nosy after a short time and headed down the beach... went a short ways and headed back the other way... when passing the parking lot... she was still there... still swapping seats. She did finally leave as when I came back after a couple of hours she was gone. Other than that the beach has been pretty calm the last few days.


A friend and I have been working on something the last few days, I am hoping that we are able to get it how we want it and to share it with everyone sometime this next week. I am having a lot of fun with it and am excited to share it. Now I will have to stop talking about it or I will tell all. Yes I am one of those people that has to shop on Christmas eve or I end up telling everyone what I got them.... or worse.. giving it to them months early.

This weekend is about working on that project and spending some family time with the kids. We rented all three of the Toy Story movies and are watching them together. Last night we watched One and it was great, brought back a lot of memories and was a lot of fun talking about all the things in the movie the kids noticed ( and us ) that we missed all the other times we watched it. With everyone being so much older they picked up on a lot more of the adult humor in the movie. Tonight is 2 and then we will either watch 3 after that or tomorrow. Also wanting to spend some time playing games today. We used to play board games or cards almost every night, now it has been months since we have. We might even break out the poker table and chips.

Weird Beach Day

Today was a weird day at the beach sort of... it started raining last night and rained until this morning... thought I would skip the beach today but then it cleared up and the sun was shinning. I took that as a sign, I did take my rain coat as it only seems to rain on me if I am at the far end of the beach with no rain coat. I am glad to report that not only did I make it all the way down but all the way back with no rain.. even had some beautiful sunshine!

I got down there and the tide was just starting to go out, which is perfect, well any time at the beach is perfect... this just assures me I can spend more time there :) I started down the beach looking for treasures... was a bit dark out but there were some beautiful things on the beach today. Only found one agate but it was a big one and has a cool white streak through it.. not sure what it is.. but it looks great. I also found a small ( dime size ) pink sea glass heart... treasures!

I saw a beautiful star pink star fish being left behind by tide and then as I went to grab some seaweed to stick over it (to hide it from the seagulls so they do not peck at it) one seagull flew right up and grabbed it.. the whole thing.. and then just sat there with it in his mouth.. no way he can swallow that.. and he has no teeth. I gave him a strict talking to about eating things that have no brains and that do not even stand a chance of getting away from him.. and of "eating" something he is not even going to be able to eat. Then I headed down the beach a bit further.

I did not go very far that direction because it includes some climbing over trees and I was just not in the mood today so I headed back to the dock. I passed the seagull again... he is still sitting there with the star fish hanging out of his mouth.. it has gone limp and now I am thinking he just sits there and waits for it to go all soft so he can fold it up and swallow it maybe.. I have no clue.. can not even imagine it in his tummy.

I walked past the dock/road home and down a little further since I saw a friend with her dog out... visited with them for a few minutes then headed back to the dock and headed home. As I get closer I notice there is a woman there, one I saw the other day for the first time. I smiled and said hi.. she gave me a funny look, I asked how she was doing, she turned around.. put her hand on her hip and said... "are you always here?" I said "not every day but a few times a week for sure" ok this is where it gets really good... she said to me " I really wish you would not come beach combing here ALL the time it leaves nothing for the rest of us" I am pretty sure that starfish would have fit in my mouth at this time ( if the seagull would have shared ) as I am sure my bottom jaw hit the ground. I do not know this lady and was not sure if she was joking or what was going on. She then says to me "I drive all the way out here from Stanwood (neighboring town) and thanks to you it is a wasted trip I am sure" ok so I sort of laughed.... she had to be joking right???? She says "this is not funny, this is a public beach and you are hogging it" I told her I was very sorry she was not finding the beach to her liking.. but that it is NOT a public beach.. that it is in fact private.. and that I DO have beach rights because I DO live here... and not only that but I DO have permission for the owners of the surrounding beaches and that is how I know where the good stuff is because they have shared with me. I then explained to her that she might want to check out one of the local state parks.

I am so not sure what her issues where... there are about 4 or 5 of us that walk on the beach regularly looking for treasures and none of us have ever had a shortage of things to find. Sometimes 2 or 3 of us will walk together and we are all able to find lots of goodies. In fact most often the best pieces are often found on the way back... walking in the sand stirs things up and often uncovers the best. I am sure this person is not very mentally stable...in the end I was not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry.. the beach is plenty big enough for all of us.... sharing it is one of the joys.