Leavenworth Day Trip

Given the success of our Dayton trip, we decided to visit the tourist haven of Leavenworth. We went on Mollie's birthday, and figured it would be a fun way to celebrate. This town is smack in the middle of the Cascade range close to both Seattle and the Tri-Cities.  It is a very small town, and sometime back decided to remake itself as a bavarian mountain village.  Most of the buildings in the town center have been remodeled to fit the theme.

There were several differences between our Dayton trip and this one. For starters it is much further away (3 hours) so we had to rush to get out the house in time. I had wanted to stop at a little candy apple factory on the way there, but given how late we got out of the house, I felt that we had to press on to reach Leavenworth sometime close to lunch. We got to town around 1, and we were all pretty hungry. Looking at the town via Google maps, I had thought it would be easy to find a decent restaurant and sit down. But when we got into town, it was immediately apparent that Leavenworth's Christmas Festival was a pretty big deal.  There was no parking anywhere that I could see.  The town is only a few blocks long, so it's not too hard to drive the streets and see cars parked everywhere.  There must have been 10,000 tourists walking around.  It was packed! People streaming in from all around, and big tour buses bringing even more.

The streets were constantly flooded with people.  And all the shops were stuffed too!

We doubled back and parked at a Bavarian Bakery at the edge of town.  We stopped in there hoping that this was the kind of bakery that makes sandwiches or something.  Alas they did not.  But they did make some good pretzels and cinnamon bread.  That kind of became our lunch.

We got the kids bundled up and walked into town.  It was a very cold day.  Almost unpleasantly cold, so we decided to get indoors and visit the Nutcracker museum.  Although it's pretty small, just two or three rooms, you can fit an awful lot of nutcrackers into a small space. The kids were really excited to see all the different characters (star wars, disney, fairy tales, astronauts, mormon missionaries).  All in all a fun place.  They had a scavenger hunt for Harrison to do, and he really enjoyed that.

We went out onto the main square to figure out what to do.  It was so crowded that it was moderately disorienting.  We wandered around and looked at all the stores, but there was not really any room to get inside any of them.  The hat shop had a line of ~30 people standing outside queued at the door.  We got some kettle corn as a snack, but hunger was setting in, and none of the restaurants had indoor seating. So we walked back to the edge of town and hit up the old reliable McDonalds.  Even here we had to wait for a booth.

After that we went back to the car to get snow pants and the sled.  Near the center of the town there was a hill that had been set aside as a sled hill.  It was short but sufficiently steep to be fun.



I took the boys up to the top and Mollie went to find a place to try and get some pictures. It was getting very crowded, as the hill was adjacent to the tree lighting podium and only about 30 minutes before the ceremony started.  On the first trip down the hill, they boys got turned around backwards and tried to stop by putting their hands down into the snow.  They had forgotten to put their gloves on and without gloves, that got pretty cold.  Crying insued.

 As they looked around with kids coming down the hill fast and furious they tried to figure out how to get back up to be with me.  The confusion and freezing hands started a melt down.  After gloves got on, and hands got warm, it took a good 10 minutes of cajoling to get them to try the sledding again.  After a few happy rides with Dad steering, the lighting ceremony started.  

My favorite sledding picture.  That's me with Noah on my lap.

I really wanted to have a good brat while I was there, so I left Mollie with the kids by the sledding hill, and ventured out into the crowd.  The lines at the restaurant were gone, which maybe should have been a clue to me.  The ceremony started while I was gone, and was pretty much over before I made my way back to Mollie. 

Mollie got some pictures:

We were standing right next to the large Christmas tree, so you couldn't really see the whole thing.

The lights were pretty amazing, but we were all cold, tired and cranky. So we headed to the car, and headed for home.  I think Dayton was more enjoyable, but Leavenworth was more dramatic.  We'll have to go back to Leavenworth sometime when it's not the lighting festival, and save the Christmas kickoff type of festivities for Dayton.  Live and learn.

Building a Locker System

Our laundry room also serves as the mudroom.  It is in between the garage and the kitchen.  So it serves as a multipurpose dumping grounds. We have been intending on getting some more efficient storage in there for a long time. Here's what the area looked like before:

We had some hooks and such, but it was not working.  The bench was just a clutter pile, and you couldn't ever sit on it.  There were never enough hooks, and they were so close together, you couldn't use all the ones we had.  A locker system seemed to be the right fit for the space.


I was coming home (a day late) from a business trip, when Mollie got it in her head she wanted to build our locker system - we'd been talking about it for a while, but hadn't figured out the details.  After deciding on a plan, making measurements and some slight adjustments, she went online to Lowes.com and selected all the boards and accessories we would need. She ordered these for in store pickup, so when I got home from my trip, we headed over to Lowe's where all the boards were waiting for us.  Mollie had laid out the cut plans for the 4x8 sheets to get all the components.  Lowe's was super nice and made all the cuts for us.  And accurate cuts at that!  We came home, set up the boxes and got them nailed and glued together. We decided that instead of drawers underneath, we would just leave them as open compartments for putting shoes and boots in.  While Mollie loved the look of the drawers, we both decided they wouldn't be very practical.

We decided to try out using MDF for this project.  It turned out to be a real time saver.  It was really easy to work with, and we didn't miss the fussiness of real pine at all.  Each board was perfectly straight.  And PRIMED!  A big plus.  I just spend way too long sanding wood and preparing it for painting.   We also used bead-board for backing them, to add a little niceness.  These were pre-finished, so another great bonus.

Using my nail gun made it ultra fast.  Once the pieces are lined up, they can be fastened together in only a few seconds.  It is a pretty simple design.  The only hard part was putting the support on the back bead board so that we could install a coat hook.  The plans are a knock off of the Pottery Barn Brady Entry System.  A system, similar to what we built (+drawers) runs about $1400.  We spent about $200. So we feel like we saved a bundle doing it all ourselves.  We had it set up for a few days before we put the paint on.

We always dread the finishing part.  It never comes out quite as good as we would like.  I'm hoping, with some practice, we'll get better at the finishing part. But now that they are done, we are loving how they are keeping the mudroom organized.

Dayton, Christmas kickoff

On Friday after Thanksgiving, we took a day trip to Dayton, WA for their Christmas Kickoff celebration.  Dayton is a little more than an hour's drive from Kennewick through beautiful wheat country. On the drive up, I was constantly rubbernecking at the rolling hills and country farm houses.  It's a great drive.

We got to Dayton about noon.  The town is only a few streets and so there's very little chance of not getting to do everything we wanted to do. Mollie had spent some time before our trip looking up activities and attractions. Since it was lunch time, we stopped in at our first choice restaurant, the Country Cupboard. It is just a bakery that also serves soup and sandwiches.  It was great. Simple and delicious.

We next found a playground and next to the historic rail depot. The kids liked playing on the slides and running around. Harrison and Noah liked the spider web, new to playgrounds since my childhood.  Luckily it was not super cold and the sun was shining.  At ~40 it is still warm enough to enjoy a playground, if you are a kid.

Adjacent to the depot was the spot for the mule drawn hay rides.  This is something I just can't get enough of.  It's so simple.  You sit on hay bales on the back of some tractor and you ride around town.

 I actually love small towns. They are architecturally the best places.  It might be because homes are constructed in sufficiently low quantity and slow enough that it scares away the tract-home builders.  As we wandered through the streets, we could see some beautiful old Victorian style homes, some ramblers, California bungalows, big stately houses, colonials, 40's squat huts with a single attic room poking through the roofline, Cape Cod, etc.  It was peaceful and wonderful.  As I was pointing out all the home features to the boys, one of the other people on the ride joinedthe impromptu tour.  I'm pretty sure she was a local, because she would comment on the home owners.

There was an old historic victorian house that had free tours, called the Boldman House.  The home has been kept in it's turn-of-the-century furnishings, and features some interesting pieces like an old wood burning kitchen stove and a pump organ.  Each bedroom had a sink in the corner, which was strange.  But when you think about it, there wasn't a toilet inside.  So I guess you would put mirrors for shaving and a small sink for brushing teeth or whatever.  I was surprised how small the interior was.  From the outside the home looks grand, but the inside is quite small.  It was a nice tour, and worth the money. (the boys were not  in picture mood).

Santa was only a few blocks away, so we walked down to wait in a very short line. Some local business had cleared our their front room and decorated for Santa's reception line. Perhaps because the line was so short, there was absolutely no rush in a child's turn on his lap.  I think we stood in that line for a good ten minutes before we budged an inch. But, our kids each got as long as they wanted.  Olivia wanted quite a bit longer than anyone else.  She is just such a chatter box. Most of the (onesided) conversation may not have even related to Christmas, but boy does she love to talk.  We got a great picture of the kids, and this ended up being our Christmas card pic.

and Olivia got to ride a reindeer.

By 3:00, we went to the free showing of 'A Christmas Story' at the local theater. It was a small single screen theater, that reminded me of the slim twin in Emporia. Because it was a free showing, we got popcorn and drinks for the kids.  I think it may have been one of the first times I have ever gotten anything from a concession stand.  The movie was fun, but I had not remembered all the colorful language.  I am glad that my kids have not remembered it either.

At some point close thereafter we went to get dinner.  Unfortunately it was not as good of an experience as lunch.  We went Skye Book and Brew, and it was terrible food.  Everything was poor, and expensive. We quickly decided to just leave instead of trying to eat, and went to the live nativity.  This was highlighted by the wise men escorting a live camel. We happened to be right next to them when they walked by, literally inches from the camel.  I had to remind the kids that camels might be less than happy about being petted/poked.  I didn't want to be kicked or spit on by the notoriously fussy animal.

After that we decided to hunker down in the car for the parade.  I had cleverly parked the car on Main Street so as to be in the middle of the parade route.  We could sit in the warm car and watch the parade! not shiver on the sidewalk.  It was an interesting parade.  For starters, it was the first time I've seen a parade in the dark, and the first time I've seen fireworks for a Christmas parade.  The floats were fun, and at the end was Santa.

After the fireworks we took a quick drive through town to see some of the lights on homes.  Then we drove home, kids singing and pointing out farm houses that already had their Christmas lights up.  It was a great trip.

Thanksgiving

The kids helped out breaking the bread for the stuffing this year.  They loved that.

We spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just the 5 of us.  We started out the day going to the Turkey Trot. I would love this to become a new family tradition, and when I'm not pregnant, I'd love to participate.  We came home, and got the turkey in the oven, and made some other last minute preps.  I kept the meal pretty simple this year, and tired to stick to things I knew the kid would enjoy eating.  I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again.  I hate cooking turkey.  I'm not sure why I talked myself in to it again this year, but I don't think we'll do it again next year.  Ham or even a roasted chicken are so much easier (and more delicious in my opinion.)  As usual, with my kids, dinner lasted all of 10 minutes.  We did talk about several things we were thankful for - it was fun to see Harrison so serious and thoughtful about his list.  Next year I'll have to be better about making a record of those types of things. 

I opted for very simple veggies this year - just a relish tray, which the kids gobbled up.  

 

I also opted for disposable dinnerware.  Made cleanup so much easier after all that cooking. And really, it was a lot more festive than the dishes that I own.

And then we spent the rest of the day putting up Christmas decorations. 

turkey trot

On Thanksgiving morning, we all went down to the Columbia River Park for the annual turkey trot. Mollie entered Harrison, Noah and I in the one mile race.  There was also a 5K following a different route.

It was a beautiful crisp morning.  We got there in enough time to find parking, get our packets, and find the start line.  The boys and I got to the start line about 10 minutes before the race was set to start, and there were only perhaps 30 people there.  I though well this is going to be fun.  As we stood at the starting line, the crowd came.   I actually started getting a bit nervous about getting out of the blocks quick enough, noticing that perhaps 300 people had filled in behind us.

The race starts with an abrupt left turn, and I told the boys that our job was to get out of the way as quickly as possible so that other people could run by us if they were faster.  I had flashbacks to my cross country races, where you seriously sprint the first 200 yards as the course quickly narrows to just a few people wide.

Harrison was out quickly, sprinting along 20 yards ahead of Noah and I (who held hands most of the race).  After 30 seconds or so Harrison looked around and noticed that we were not right by him.  I could see him and made eye contact.  He figured out it was okay and kept on sprinting.  He was funny, sprinting for 50 yards or so, and then jogging back to Noah and I who were doing a more consistent pace.  This went on the whole race, racing ahead and then either waiting or wandering back.

We all finished happy at about 11 minutes. I was pretty surprised at how many people participated.  I don't know official numbers, but people were passing us the entire time we ran.

Post-race with free water bottles.

 I would bet at least several hundred people ran the mile race.  Then as we neared the finish line (which was shared with the two races), I could see the people still taking off from the 5K race.  There must have been over a thousand.  Loads of people walking with their dog, pushing kids in strollers. Even 10 minutes after the gun, people were still working their way out of the gate.

Snow!

While Sam was out of town, we got a little dusting of snow.  It was on a Saturday, so the kids were excited to get out their snow gear and go "play" in the snow.

It really wasn't enough to play in, but they really tried.  Harrison asked for a shovel - our house faces south, so we really don't get much that sticks to our sidewalks or driveway when there is so little snow, but I gave him a shovel anyway.  He proceeded to shovel the yard.  Onto the sidewalk.  I told him it typically works the opposite, you want to clear the sidewalks, and you pile it up onto the yard.

Fall pictures

We took the kids back to the same spot we took pictures last year, to get some updated ones for this year.  Here's a sampling of some shots we got.