Friday – We left around 7:30 after work and had Bagels in the car for dinner.  Traffic was not an issue which was a really nice surprise!  Gavin actually fell asleep in the car on the way there which hasn’t happened since he was little!  We looked for the bear driving in but didn’t see him.  He has been seen on our road so we are hoping for a sighting of him soon.

Saturday -  The boys and I went to the pool for a few hours in the morning.  Theresa and Chase were there so Gavin had fun playing with Chase.  There was a juggling and fire-breathing clown there.  After the pool, we had lunch and then went to Kahler Glen golf course to enjoy their deck, the sun, and some refreshing drinks.  It was a perfect place to relax and enjoy the day.  We then came back to the cabin and roasted smores.   What a great day!

Sunday – We started out on a hike down White River Road called “Indian Creek Trail”.  We walked for about 20 minutes and hit a creek crossing that wasn’t going to happen.  We turned back to the beginning and were able to branch of f on another trail called the  ”White River Trail”.  We walked to the end; the “White River Falls Viewpoint”.  It was an amazing waterfall that came right under the cliff outlook.  It was pretty crazy.   There is another trail that we may try sometime that is pretty aggressive called “Mount David Trail”.  The hike ended up being 3.3 miles so it was a nice walk!  Gavin collected 3 Harry Potter sticks and Hayden collected a rock, a bluebird feather, and a few special leaves!  After the hike we went to Chris and Jen’s for a short visit and a few drinks.  Gavin played Bocce Ball with Ethan and his friend while Hayden talked with Ally and her friend.  We headed back to our cabin and Steve BBQ’d our green bean and flank steak meal.  It was yummy!  I have been reading my book Outlander and am getting close to the end.

Monday – We went on a bike ride in Ponderosa and stopped at the park to play.  We headed back, had lunch, and packed up.  Traffic was light on the way home which was a very nice surprise!  We stopped at my mom and Bob’s for a 4th of July BBQ.  They had steak, baked potatoes, pasta salad, corn and bread.  It was so good!  We sat in the sun and I drank yummy margaritas.  Hayden bonded with Yo-Yo who finally stopped squirming and fell asleep on Hayden’s lap.  Bonnie, Rob, Conner, and Lydia arrived later so the kids were able to run around and have fun with their cousins.  We left around 7pm and worked on unpacking.  We lit off a few ground fireworks in the cul-de-sac like snakes, ground flowers, hatching chickens, and smoke bombs.  The boys had fun and loved the sparklers.  It was a great 4th of July!

We now have Fiber at our cabin which means I can update my blog real-time.  This is the first update since over a year ago! 

We came up Friday night and got here after 10pm so it was un uneventful evening.  We did see the most amazing rainbow on the drive up near Goldbar.  It was straight up and down and lit up the whole sky.  The colors were so bright and cars were pulling over to the side of the road to take pictures.  It was crazy.

Saturday morning I went for a run/walk.  Yea!  I listened to Shopaholic ties the knot on my phone which was entertaining as I ran.  We had a lazy morning and the boys built an obstacle course out of our bears and shoe laces for their Bok choy boys and Domo guys (the newest vending machine craze toys that Hayden is collecting).  They made cars out of mini cereal boxes.  We had a snack of peppers/brocoli/tomatoes and pita and humus and then headed out.  We had lunch at the Mexican Restaurant “El Sol” in Wenatchee.  Afterwards, we went to Ohme Gardens in Wenatchee for the first time and it was so beautiful.  The boys had fun running around the trails and finding the hidden ponds and waterfalls.  We got a little work out in the end as the trails are pretty steep.  The weather was perfect (mid 70′s).

After the Gardens, we went on a search for a cable to hook to Steve’s phone to watch video’s on our TV.  We went to Wal-Mart first and tried not to laugh at all the toothless people inside.  Erik wasn’t able to help us despite Steve calling him by name from his name tag trick.  We tried Radio Shack next and Steve got out of there as fast as he could.  He was in there with Gavin and there were gang members who were swearing and one guy had 4 tear drop tattoos under his eyes.  Scary!  He finally found the cord at Verizon and we are still working on getting it to work.   We celebrated finding the cable by going to Baskin & Robbins.  I had a snickers cone, G had mint chocolate chip, and Hayden had strawberry.  Steve tried a Reese Peanut Butter sundae but it was too rich so he bagged it and got a mint chocolate chip shake instead.  When we got back to the cabin, we had hot dogs and bagels for dinner, and roasted smores for dessert.

Sunday – We went on a hike called Twin Lakes between Dirtyface and Chiwawa Ridge.  It was beautiful.  There were a few old growth cedars that were huge.  We hiked in about 1.5  miles when we got to a really fast creek crossing (Twin Lakes Creek).  There was a log bridge to walk across, but we were worried if the boys fell in the water it would take them downstream.  It was pretty fast and deep.  So we made the decision to not risk it and turn back.  We will go back in a few months when the creek is lower and try to make it all the way to Twin Lakes which is about 4 miles in one way.  It was a great hike and the boys and us had a blast!  After the hike we packed up and stopped at the 59er Diner for dinner.  Steve and I had the Southwest Chicken salad and it was really good.  Great weekend!

Friday – We left around 6pm and had bagels in the car for dinner and the boys watched Rocky IV.  Rocky was on TV several weeks ago and we watched it and the boys loved it.  Now Gavin wants to be a boxer and wants to see every Rocky movie ever made.  We made it to Rocky IV so they watched it in the car and we recited back all the funny one liners “You know me, Stallion” and “You want to ring the bell?…ding…ding!” were just a few!   When we got to the cabin Gavin found a large stick and was doing the leg exercises that Rocky does out in the snow.  He is obsessed!

Saturday, February 20th – We watched the rest of Rocky IV and then headed out to find the elusive train that we hear every so often and see almost every drive heading up or heading back from the cabin.  Steve had taken his motorcycle on the road past our cabin and thought it may pass the railroad intersection where the train actually goes right through the mountain.  So we headed out on our walk and it was a beautiful sunny day.  A little cold but not too bad.  The views were amazing of the mountains.  We weren’t sure if we would find the rails and Hayden was getting tired.  After about 1 1/2 miles we heard the train, looked down and there it was!  It was going through the mountain…so cool!  We couldn’t believe our luck on the timing.  It we had been 10 minutes slower we would have missed it.  We headed back and made lunch of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  That night Steve made a yummy dinner of marinated steak, salad, and french bread.  Steve and I watched the movie “Adventureland” which Steve thought was okay but I didn’t like.  I thought it was supposed to be funny so I think my expectations were off.  It was just kind of boring.

Sunday – Had pancakes and watched Rocky again!  Had lunch and headed back for home!

Wednesday – I worked from home on Wednesday.  I slipped off our step Tuesday morning and landed with my toes under my foot.  It really hurt!  By the end of Tuesday it was pretty swollen and hurting quite a bit.  S did a power ice on it for 15 minutes that night with a bag of ice strapped to my foot.  It was still hurting by Wed. morning and was kind of purple so I decided to work from home so I could keep it up all day.  I got a lot done and it was good to keep my foot up.  We packed up around 5 and headed out around 6pm.  We stopped at REI to pick up our CC ski’s that we were having waxed.  We were good and had sandwiches at home before we left.  H fell asleep in the car.  He had a tough day.  He went to the Doctor to get a huge wart burned off his hand and it really hurt him.  He started crying pretty hard and it took him awhile to calm down. 

Thursday – The boys slept in…yeah!  S made Egg McMuffins for breakfast and we had a relaxing morning.  We all went sledding in our yard which was fun.  You have to watch out for several trees and for the snow woman on the way down.  After sledding we had lunch and played games.  S and I played chess where I won again.   S made a nice dinner of ham, beans, and red potatoes.  We had ice cream for dessert which was what H had requested – Strawberry ice cream.   We played my new game of Blokus which the boys like too.  S and I watched Inglorius Bastards right up until midnight and we heard the neighbors ringing in the new year with fire works and the clanging of pots and pans.  Happy New Year!

Friday – Happy Birthday, H and Happy 2010!  We woke up early and H opened his presents.  He said his hands looked bigger for being 5 years old.  He was very happy to get a Star Wars DS game and Batman castle and Batmobile car with all the characters.  We had breakfast at the Mountain Springs Lodge and then went on a 2 hour Snowmobile tour!  We had so much fun.  H started off behind S and G was behind me.  After the first break we switched the boys because S said H was having trouble holding on to S’s waist.  We then switched again because G said he was getting “dizzy” riding with S because he was going “so fast”!  Then on the 3rd break the tour leader said I was going too slow and wanted me to go directly behind him because it may help me go faster!  So that is what we did and I did go faster!  The curves made me a little nervous but I got more used to them.  G started to loosen up and was yelling “yeah!”.  H had no fear…even as S took a turn so fast that his snowmobile track caught air!  It was a ton of fun and I want to do it again next year!  After snowmobiling we had lunch back at the cabin and the boys played with H’s new bday toys.  The boys sled outside and we got cleaned up to have dinner in Leavenworth.

Friday – Merry Christmas!  We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve relaxing at home and then the boys and I went and saw The Chipmunks the Squeekquel at the movie theatre.  The boys really liked it.  We then went to Jeff and Karen’s house where we had a Mexican Christmas fiesta.  Kathy made Mexican lasagna and Carol made Enchiladas and it was very yummy.  Karen made Sangria which was very yummy too!  We opened presents and did our $10 white elephant exchange.  Steve drew the crazy jingle bell hat but it was stolen by Karen.  Steve then had to take the only present left which was in the creepy cat gift bag.  On Christmas we opened presents and had a nice morning.  We also received a very exciting call from Karen…Jeff proposed on Christmas Eve after we all left and Karen said yes!  We are very excited for them!  Gavin had opened his beloved Nintendo DSI a few days before Christmas.  We made a deal where the boys could each open one present early if Gavin got his haircut before Christmas.  His hair was so long it looked like a helmet on his head.  We had attempted getting his hair cut a month or so before and he broke out in major tears once they arrived at Rudy’s.  This time the deal worked…Gavin got his DSI that he has been lobbying for for the last year and Hayden got a Spongebob DS game from Gavin and Gavin’s old DS.  For Christmas dinner we went to Bonnie and Rob’s new house which is so nice and the first time that I had seen it.  Bonnie and Rob made a super fancy dinner of pork with Red pepper sauce, special stuffing, a pear and celery salad, and mashed sweet potatoes.  For dessert she made a special apple pie that was sooo good with celery salt on top.  Yum Yum!

Saturday – We left in the morning and headed over to the cabin.  We were going to have a nice breakfast first but we slept in by mistake so we had McDonald’s instead.  When we got to the cabin Gavin said “hey, someone built a snowman”.  We had renters here just before us.  Gavin went down to check out the snowman and came back very flustered and said “uh guys, the snowman has boobies!”  Sure enough, it was a very obvious snow woman.  Gavin was so embarrassed that he asked Steve to fix it.  The snow was total ice.  In fact, as Steve headed down towards the snow woman he started to slip and had to just run down the hill to keep from totally falling.  Steve couldn’t knock the snowman over so he grabbed a stick and started smashing the boobies down.  It was very disturbing!  We hung out and played games.  Hayden and I played his new game “Trouble” and Gavin played his new wii game “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”.  We met Julie, Rick, Rylan and Zaden in Leavenworth that evening to look at the lights and have dinner.  It was super crowded and really cold and icy.  We put our names in at Gustav’s and it was a 45 minute wait.  We walked around the town and the boys sled down the icy sledding hill right there in town.  We had a nice warm dinner at Gustav’s and then Rylan came back with us and spent the night.  Gavin and Rylan giggled and had a great time until they finally fell asleep around 10:30. 

Sunday – The next morning we had pancakes and the boys sled on the ice outside.  We dropped Gavin and Hayden off at Rylan’s around 11am and Steve and I went and had lunch at the 59er diner.  They had this special Santa Fe soup of the day and it was so good.  We picked up the boys afterward and hung out for a bit while the boys ate lunch.  We headed out around 3 or 3:30 and thought we were getting a good start on getting home.  Once we were almost to GoldBar, cars driving the other direction were flashing their lights at us.  The traffic completely stopped and we creeped along for about 30 minutes until we reached some signs that said “Accident Ahead” and then a sign that said “Road Closed”.  Steve called his mom and she watched the news and found out that a semi had Jack-Knifed and was blocking the entire road.  We had to drive all the around across Bluett and over Snoqualmie.  We didn’t get home until around 9:30pm.  Ugh!

Thursday – Happy Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for Steve’s new consulting job!  He starts on Monday and it is going to be great!  I am also thankful for our family, our beautiful, amazing kids, and my job.  I am also thankful to have a few days off and a long weekend to spend at the cabin.  We had a relaxing morning and we put Gavin’s spy game together.  I cleaned the house and did some laundry.  Steve cleaned his car and we took down the Halloween decorations.  We headed over to Steve’s parents house for the gathering at 2pm.  It was a small group this year because Karen went to Jeff’s family’s house.  Nick and Dylan were with their dad so it was just Kathy, Joe, Stefi, Hailey, Don, Carol, and the 4 of us.  We had a really nice time.  We gave Don his “flattened fauna” book and he loved it!  Hayden did his performance of “The Turkey song” and he belted it out perfectly!  We had a great dinner and were totally stuffed! 

Friday – We left around 8:30AM and headed over to the cabin.  The forecast is for no snow so the drive was easy as the pavement was bare and wet.  We arrived around 10:30 and had a late breakfast at The Squirrel Tree.  We got the cabin warmed up and played wii and read for most of the day!  The boys played outside and had the most fun ever playing their own game of “Gavin the legend of the fire lord” – a game they made up outside playing in the trees.  Steve rented the movie ”Twilight” and rented two wii games “Madden NFL” and “Ben 10″.   Steve made our signature spaghetti dish that we love “Spaghetti Ala Amatriciana” with bacon and San Marzano tomatoes.  The boys fell asleep around 9pm and Steve and I watched Twilight.  It was really entertaining since my expectations were so low and I loved the books.

Saturday – The boys played wii and we geared up to go on a hike by Lake Wenatchee.  We hiked in all the way to the lake which was frozen.  It was a fun hike and the boys ran and did great not complaining.  We threw some rocks on to the ice and watched them break through.  It looked really cool!  It was probably the last time we could do the hike as the snow was already there.  Gavin kept falling down in the snow and I told him he was going to wet and cold.  At the end he was sure enough “wet and cold”!

Friday – It is our anniversary this weekend…11 years!  My mom came over to watch the boys for the weekend.  Steve and I headed out around 6pm and stopped at The Alpen Drive Inn for dinner on the road.  We got to the cabin and it was cold and so quiet without the boys there!   Steve got the fire going and we relaxed and enjoyed the peace and quiet! 

Saturday – We slept in and had a relaxing morning.  I worked on my blog, relaxed and drank my coffee.  I love mornings like that!  We left around 1pm and headed in to Leavenworth.  We stopped at Safeway (I needed to get a card for Steve!) and then decided to have a light lunch since we had dinner reservations at 6:30pm.  We went to Ducks and Drakes which was a cool little pub.  We had a huge plate of nachos, beer, and coffee and baileys.  It was so nice to talk, drink, and enjoy each other’s company!  We stayed there for a few hours and then did a little shopping.  We found a hilarious book that we purchased for Steve’s dad called “Roadway flattened fauna” or something like that.  It was all about road kill, their dimensions when they are squished, and other weird info on road kill.  It was perfect for his Dad who joked that we would be having possum turkey this year for Thanksgiving!  We then went to a wine tasting at “Leavenworth Tasting Room” where we tried wine from Pasek Cellars and Willow Crest.  They had a few white wines that I liked and we bought one.  The red wines didn’t taste good to me at all which was weird.  The last thing we tried was a cranberry wine which tasted really good and unique.  We decided to buy a few bottles for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  After the winery we sought out another pub..the ones the locals like which was Uncle Uli’s Pub.  They had a cheese fondue that I want to go back and try.  We kept it to the drinks so we wouldn’t be full for our dinner.  We had dinner at Katz and it was really nice.  They had a big fireplace inside with wood beams and wooden tables.  We both had the prime rib which was very good.  We had a great night and a great anniversary!

Sunday – We had another relaxing morning, put up the Christmas lights, and headed out early.  The people from the house that we had contacted in our neighborhood called us and wanted to show us the inside at 4pm.  We loved the inside.  It was very charming and would be a great house for us.  They aren’t sure if they want to sell.  They bought a total project house in Fall City and they want to see what kind of progress they can make on that before they sell their house.  So we left it as we are interested but we will wait and see how things play out.

Friday – After a great two months of Gavin’s soccer season, the Jedi’s had their last soccer game on October 31st…Halloween.  The team did great this year.   Gavin had  a great time playing with his Bear Creek friends on the team, and we loved watching him.  Most of the games were on beautiful sunny days.  The only drawback to soccer season is that we missed the cabin during the most gorgeous time of year due to the Saturday games.  This is our first weekend back in about two months.  Last weekend we couldn’t come because Gavin had the “family” birthday party last Saturday and on Sunday the boys both had a birthday party to go to.  Gavin went to Adam’s party at the Jump place and Hayden went to Michael’s party at Chuck E Cheese.  So we are all very thankful to be back at the cabin!  Since I started working at Microsoft Oct. 1st, we had to wait to leave until I got home from work.  We finished packing and left around 7pm.  We packed bagels to eat for dinner in the car.  It was snowing on the drive over and Steve didn’t like driving my Acura.  It was squirrely and may need new tires.  The road wasn’t paved so it was a challenging drive.  Steve just switched out the headlights in his car and they aren’t bright enough.  He ordered replacements headlights  but hasn’t received them yet so that is why we drove my car.  We arrived around 9:00 or 9:30 and the cabin looked and smelled great after having renters in it 4 weekends in a row.  It was very cold!  Steve started a fire and after the boys had their new cereal of Fruity Pebbles, we headed upstairs to sit in front of the electric heater.  The boys fell asleep and Steve gave up on the downstairs because it was too cold! 

Saturday – We woke up to the cabin being toasty warm, and outside looking beautiful with a light covering of snow and blue sky!  Steve made yummy pancakes and bacon and the boys played in the snow after breakfast.  We played Gavin’s new card game Blink and enjoyed the morning.  We headed in to Leavenworth and the drive was so pretty with the snow on the trees.  In Leavenworth they were working on putting up the lights for Christmas.  We ate lunch at a new place called Pavz and it was sooo good!  They have tons of crepes to choose from and the atmosphere was really nice and warm.  Steve had a spicy sausage crepe and I had a black forest ham crepe.  For dessert we shared a crepe with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce…so good!  After lunch we went to the nutcracker store and got a new nutcracker for our collection…a really cool Cowboy nutcracker!  We then went to the cheesemonger’s shop and picked up some cheese and salami, got groceries at Safeway, and headed back to make dinner for Julie, Rick, Rylan and Zaden.  They came over and we had our cheese and crackers, nice wine, and Steve made a Turkish chicken dinner with yogurt and orzo.  It was very good and we had Haagen Daz bars for dessert!  As always, we all had a great time!

Sunday – We played some more “Blink” and Steve started working on putting the Christmas lights up.  Rick came over and picked up Gavin for a little play date with Rylan to play chess and legos and their cabin.  As Steve was putting up the lights he noticed that half the strings were out.  He and Hayden went to Plain Hardware to buy more Christmas lights.  They didn’t end up finding any good ones so we will work on the lights next weekend.  Hayden played some games and then we watched “Up”.    We left around 3:30pm to avoid driving back in the dark.

Friday – Hollywood Hill’s back to school social was Friday night.  We went and had sub sandwiches that HH provided, and the kids bounced in the bouncy houses and played games.  They had a lot of fun.  We stayed until the end hoping to win an auction basket with no luck.  The boys played with Molly, Carly and Sophie Brooks along with Eamon and Corwin.

Saturday – The Jedi’s had their 3rd soccer game this morning and not only did the Jedi’s win but Gavin scored his first goal at the end!  We left for the cabin after the game and worked on moving the wood on to the new pile that Steve built.  It was a messy job.  We had dust in our hair and eyes and dirt all over us.  We found several mouse nests so it wasn’t a pleasant task.  But we got most of it done and Steve came back during the week and finished the rest on his own.  We went to the Squirrel Tree restaurant for dinner and tried to get the lady to put the Husky game on the TV but they couldn’t find it.  We watched “Taking Chance” with Kevin Bacon that night which was a sad movie about a Marine who follows a coffin with a fellow marine killed in combat to bring him home to his family.

Sunday – We watched Harry Potter in the morning and then left early so we could make it to Zaden’s birthday party in Duvall.

Friday – Gavin finished his first week of 2nd grade at his new school, Hollywood Hill Elementary School. He loves it and had a great week! We met him at the bus stop and he walked home ahead of me while Hayden’s new friend Corwin followed them to our house. The boys played with their new friends (Corwin, Eamon, and Teagan) for a little bit while we talked to their mom, Liza. After they left, we finished packing up and left a little after 5pm. We were good and made Bagel sandwiches for us to eat in the car for dinner. We drove through Duvall to miss the traffic from the Evergreen State Fair and Labor Day weekend traffic. That was definitely a good call. The traffic wasn’t bad and we made it to the cabin around 7pm. Gavin had a runny nose/sneezing attack in the car so I gave him Benydrl.  He fell asleep which he never does. An exciting week of school combined with the start of a cold just wiped him out! It was cold inside the cabin when we got there. The boys played Tony Hawk and I read a book under the electric blanket to get warm! I started reading Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Saturday – Rain, Rain, Go Away! Shortly after we woke up it started raining. This is the first rain of the season, and it is raining hard. We had planned on going on a hike so hopefully it won’t rain hard all day. Gavin is excited about the rain because it will wash the bees away. Steve continued working on the firewood project. Julie called and invited us over for Salmon dinner (fresh from Alaska) so we headed to their cabin around 5:30. Rick made marshmallow shooter guns for the boys out of PVC pipe and they had a blast! We had a wonderful salmon dinner and lots of wine. The boys had a great time playing. A fun evening with friends!

Sunday – We attempted to do our hike again today.  Chris called and invited Gavin over to play with Ethan so we  headed over to Chris and Jen’s cabin.  We stopped to chat and it started pouring down rain while we were there.  We ended up bagging out on the hike as we didn’t have any rain gear and didn’t feel like getting instantly soaked.  We hung out for a few hours.  They invited us for dinner that night so we thought we should give the kids a short break and then resume in a few hours for dinner.  Steve went on a motorcycle ride with Chris and Ethan (Ethan rode on the back of Chris’s bike), while the boys and I went to Plain Grocery and picked out a DVD.  After much deliberation they finally picked out Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  We headed back to the cabin, made some popcorn, snuggled up and started watching Gavin’s new obsession!  He was so enthralled and is now a huge Harry Potter fan.  Rick and Rylan stopped by and asked if we wanted to go swimming with them.  We couldn’t since we would be heading back over to Chris and Jen’s but Rylan stayed for a little bit and watched the movie with us.  Steve’s motorcycle ride was quick as he kept slipping in the mud.    We got cleaned up and drove back over to Chris and Jen’s.  Steve was outside with Chris when he saw the most amazing Golden Eagle fly right by in front of them.  They made an awesome dinner of grilled flank steak, salad, asparagus, and bread.  During dinner there was a knock on the door.  Jen opened it and we heard this guy say “this is terribly embarrassing, but could you tell us how far we are from such and such street”.  He was absolutely freezing and soaking wet.  He and some friends were celebrating for a Bachelor Party weekend and decided to float the river even though it was really cold!  It took much longer than they realized and it started getting dark.  They even had a Black bear cross the river in front of them!  So Chris and Jen offered them to come in, warm up by the fire, and dry off.  They gave them a ride back to their car and that was that!  After dinner we played a fun board game called Blokus where you place your colored shapes on a board and try to use up all of your shapes while not being blocked out of moves by other players.  Steve won the first game and I won the second game.  Beginners luck I’m sure!  Gavin and Ethan watched a Harry Potter movie and Hayden and Ally played.  We had a great time and the kids did great!

Monday - We left early to go to Karen’s postponed Father’s Day BBQ.  Unfortunately, we had to miss it because Gavin was coughing the whole drive home, Hayden starting getting sick, and Steve started feeling a little under the weather.  Ugh…the start of the cold season!