Introducing Our New Cabin!

We did it! We've always talked about wanting to have a 4-season cabin for our family to enjoy. We found this beautiful cabin in Plain, Washington in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains, just under two hours away from our "city house." The cabin  30 minutes from Stevens Pass Ski Area, 15 minutes to the Bavarian resort town of Leavenworth, and only five minutes from Lake Wenatchee and the state park there that has boating in the summer and sledding, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in the winter. We are across the street from the Wenatchee River and are half a mile into downtown Plain - complete with a cafe, grocery store and hardware store. We are elated!

If all goes smoothly, we will close in mid-March - in time to use it for the tail end of ski season.

 We are pinching ourselves for finding this beautiful cabin that was built in 2000. It is actually "move in ready" and beats the other prospect of buying land and building on it. This way we can begin using it immediately with the kids and Eben won't have a laundry list of projects to do.  This is the main living area with amazing wood wrapped windows and a cozy wood stove.

The kitchen is tight, but has really nice cabinets and is far beyond what we were hoping for in a cabin. I was crossing my fingers we'd get running water, so this really is awesome.

 Looking forward to long summer evenings on that deck once the snow melts!

 Full disclosure: a tree fell on the back of the house in an ice and windstorm last month. The sellers have insurance and it will be fixed before we move in. We are going to use this room as a big dining room.

 The former owner was a glass artist and used this large room on the north end as a studio. We are going to turn it into two bedrooms  - a bunk room and a guest room. The white stuff is insulation from the hole in the roof. She has wonderful built ins and storage all over the house which we will take full advantage of.

 The other half of this room has a door to the deck and a sink.

 Not only do we have running water, but we have two nice bathrooms that are neutral and easy to make "our own" without having to rip down crazy tile.

 Upstairs is a giant master suite with two huge walk in closets and its own bath. These windows face south and even in winter there is nice sunlight coming in. What a wonderful place to wake up!

The plan is to have lots of sleeping spots for family and friends to come visit. We hope to get the house set up for visitors soon and want to take full advantage of it for years to come!

Lake Wenatchee in the Winter

For the long weekend in honor of Martin Luther King, we decided to get out of the foggy inversion layer in Seattle and head east of the mountains to the Lake Wenatchee area. We had heard that there is excellent winter recreation in the area and were not disappointed. They turn the whole state park into cross-country and snow-shoe trails, complete with a sledding hill. Further out in the forest land are snowmobile trails.

The scenery was amazing. In this shot, they are standing on a picnic table to get a firm footing - so yes, there is a lot of snow here.

It looks a lot different than our typical summer visits 

(this shot is from a couple years ago is Edison with Sara McManus).

 The kids were brave on the sledding hill and enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

 I've also been able to reconnect with my second cousin, Karen, who is now working in Mill Creek as a doctor. We had a blast up at Stevens. It is definitely fun to have her in town and Edison and Charlotte adore her!

JANUARY - Happy New Year!

Charlotte wishes everyone a Happy New Year!

 After the first success on the mountain with the kids, Eben bought them their own real skis.

And we took the kids skiing on New Year's Day.

 They were pros on the Daisy chair lift.

 They were all geared up. Though it was definitely a "learning experience:" don't go in the afternoon, don't have the kids try to walk to lodge in ski boots, etc. But we will try again in a few weeks.

 We've had fun rooting for the Patriots in the playoffs. The Seahawks loss on Sunday was devastating.

My mom brought up this guitar over the weekend. Edison adores playing with it. Now if we can only arrange a few lessons....

New Year's Eve: Grunge Flashback

We celebrated New Year's Eve with a Grunge Flashback party. Basically, we dressed Seattle style circa 1995, listened to grunge music and played Farkle, my new favorite dice game. Even the kids got into the theme.

Our family portraits from the evening....

 Pete, Jennie and Alton.

 Matt and Lisa.

 Matt and Lisa got the kids fishing nets and fishing poles for Christmas. We are going to have so much fun with those at the beach this summer! The kids are already using the nets to pick up everything imaginable.

 Happy New Year! We hope 2013 is as great to us as this past year has been. We're looking forward to many future adventures with our friends and family!

True Seattleites

On Thursday we got to visit the new Seattle Museum and History and Industry. It is one of my favorite places and they've moved into a new building. It is stuffed full of Seattle icons, like this Toe Truck, which I can remember seeing when I was a kid.

 One of their rotating galleries was about Seattle in film. We got to play in Fraser's living room.

 The museum is in the new park at the south end of Lake Union. We got to watch sea planes take off.

 The kids are so good about wanting to do "work." The pencil cases were a brilliant idea from Santa.

 For whatever reason, Charlotte has been wearing these glasses every day - to the grocery store and swimming pool - every where. Both of the lenses have popped out, but now they probably are better for everyday wear. When  I see her in her glasses, I can't help but get a smile on my face.

First Time Skiing

We took the kids skiing for the first time ever the day after Christmas. We left the camera in the car, so we didn't get any pictures on the slopes.

 They had a blast! We had them both on skis that strapped onto their snow boots. We had the kids shuffle around the base area to get the feel of it, then we hiked up a little ways and went for it. We each took a kid between our skis, we held our poles cross-wise in front of us while they grabbed on. They loved it! Eben and I decided hiking with the kids uphill was no fun, so we hopped onto the Daisy Chairlift. The kids weren't even scared and they enjoyed the ride. After that we did a few runs and the kids did great. They both liked going fast. Charlotte started saying "Yee Haw" when we went fast. We broke for a yummy lunch in the lodge and hit the slopes for a final run before the kids lost energy and we headed home. Quite a day!

 Skiing is so tiring.

 We visited Pete, Jennie and Alton that night. Alton is walking now - so exciting! He turns one next week.