Our Little Getaway

Jim's parents gifted us with a little two-night getaway in Leavenworth. It was a nice break for us and a good opportunity for Josh to spend some quality time with his grandparents.

The drive to Leavenworth took us to a high enough elevation where there was a pretty good covering of snow.






Now...I'm going to tell you something, but you have to promise not to tell anybody.

Promise?

Are you sure?

You have to keep a secret!

It's about this place called Run of the River.

It's a bed and breakfast for adults only.

Our room was the top one on the left

In the middle is the dining hall

This is the beautiful dining hall.

Apparently the chandelier changes foliage with the seasons. In the afternoons, fresh baked cookies are made available as well as hot cocoa, tea and cider. The breakfast were very good with some of the items being organic.

This was our room

The ladder goes up to a loft. Behind the ladder is the jacuzzi tub.

Lots of counter space in the bathroom

Shower with two heads

The coffee station

The jacuzzi

The loft.

The lobby has movies and games that you can steal up to your room. I tought Jim how to play Scrabble in the loft.

Fireplace (which burned way too hot for the current weather)

Cozy chair by the fire

Our porch

The porch had a swing with a blanket and pillow on it. Behind the swing were hung a backpack, walking sticks and bubbles to play with. We were also given a bag of bird feed to place in various feeders on our porch railing.

The view from our porch

Leavenworth is a Bavarian-themed town.

We ate a nice, authentic German dinner our first night, beers and brats for lunch, and a yummy Italian dinner our second night.

Our full day there, Jim and I wanted to go on a hike. The weather was beautiful so we needed to take full advantage. I just wanted to find an easy, relatively flat hike to just take as a relaxation - nothing strenuous. Jim found what seemed to be a perfect trail and we hit the road to find it.

Suddenly we hit a road block. By following another vehicle through the campground to another road block, we learned that they were residents. They informed us that the road was closed due to a mudslide. There was no way to get to the trail we were looking for.

So instead we parked in the campground and just wandered around a little bit.

This bench was the strangest thing. I could not come with an idea of why it was so high off the ground. Do you see my feet dangling? I wondered if it was supposed to be buried in the ground, but as I looked at nearby benches, they were a different style, so couldn't confirm my suspicion.

Just weird

We walked along the Icicle River a bit

Ahhh...good quality time.

A trip worth remembering.

Just remember that secret you're supposed to keep.

Fun Around Bellevue

We were told about a play area in the Bellevue Square just for little kids. So, Jim and I took an afternoon to have a family day at the mall. We had lunch, Josh got officially fitted for shoes for the first time, and then we made our way up to the play area.

Holy Cow!!!!!

This place was amazing! I'm ready to move to Bellevue just for this mall. I am not a mall rat by any means, but I loved the stores they had and this play center was truly the icing on the cake!! Next to it was also a cupcake shop, a Gymboree center, and a kids' haircut shop.

The play area was free and big and safe. Everything looked so shiny and slick, but it was a deception. They actually were kinda tacky and soft. And the ground was gushy too.



I think Josh's head was on the verge of explosion. It was like he was trying to figure out how to play with everything at the same time. He would almost turn in circles because he couldn't decide which thing he wanted to do most.


He got so good at climbing up the "rocks" of the slide and then sliding down. He couldn't quite figure out how to turn around onto his bum, but he was happy enough sliding down on his belly.


This boy is so ready to climb.

Jim and his parents took Josh for an afternoon to give me a chance to do laundry and get Jim and I packed for a little getaway. They took Josh to the zoo.

Lunch!

Uhm...does any one else see that big scary cat...Right! There!!

Pa and Josh

The gorillas were a big hit.

And again so close.

Josh's "GalGa" souvenier

Family: Bellevue and Yelm

After 4 days in LaConner, we headed to Bellevue. We stayed with Glen's cousin Charles and his wife Lynn. The day we arrived we had a lovely lunch with lots of cousins.



Josh really took a liking to Leslie. He's good at picking out the kid lovers.


The next day we traveled to Yelm to spend the day with cousins related to the LaConner cousins. One of the main events was to get the "DeForrest Campbells" together - all these boys have the same middle and last name.

From the top:
Scott, Cameron, Glen, James, Joshua...
DeForrest Campbell

This house had a tent which Josh had a great time with. He struggled learning to duck down to get through the opening which brought tons of roaring laughter as the tent collapsed.