What Jason does for "fun"

Jason went camping this weekend with a guy friend to celebrate finishing his first semester at school. He texted me this picture this morning ... at the top of Mica Peak ...  in the snow ... where they had hiked into and camped last night. Not my kind of fun. But exactly what he'd been hoping for :)

Sunday morning hiking

This morning dawned clear and cold after a week of gray and drizzly days. So we decided to bundle up and go on a quick hike from our house before heading out for church. It's amazing how great the sun can be after not seeing it for a while. The fields were frosted white with ice after an overnight freeze and so sparkly as the sun came up.

Last weekend was the adventure of getting our tree which we cut right off the property we're living on. Love being able to just walk outside and pick out our tree ... and the price was right :)

Of course, I somehow always manage to pick out the tree that is the most difficult. We'd looked at some smaller trees, but I'd noticed that the top of a larger tree was really nice (it already had cute pine cones decorating it) and since it was slated for being cut soon anyways due to it's location under some power lines, we went for it. The only problem was when we realized half-way through getting it down that it was actually leaning toward the lines and would likely fall on them instead of away :( We weren't sure what the power company does when you've caused your own power to go out??!! We were fortunate not to find out as we got it to fall the other direction.  And, Luke was thrilled that we brought a tree inside!

Snow baby

We had a little snow stick this week and it's been fun to watch Luke figure out what snow is. I'm so thankful to my cousin, April for sending us the awesome hand-me-down! Although, I wasn't prepared for how much longer it would take to just get outside with all the extra gear on :)

Jason got in on the action Tuesday when there was still a little light left after he got home from work. He promptly encouraged Luke to eat the snow of course!

We had something else exciting happen this week - our Jeep crossed over the 200K barrier. Woo-hoo. Hoping it still has lots of adventuring left in it!!

Friend thankful

As Jason & I continue to work at finding & making friends here, I am feeling very thankful for the friends we've made in other places who make a point of crossing over into our new locale. Two weeks ago we were treated to one such visit from a friend we met during our first year living in Vermont.

We met Phil while working at Okemo, he was a bellman in the evenings after spending his days instructing kids skiing. He started coming to hang out with us at Forest Echo, exploring the property together and even let us use his shower in town when our water lines froze for FIVE weeks that winter. We got to hang out at his family's New Hampshire lake cabin that summer, but then he moved to Utah and we hadn't seen him for over two years when he arrived after an 11+ hour drive from Park City.

We had a great time reconnecting with him, making some new memories and got some good hiking in. Luke especially loved having a person asleep in the living room to wake up each morning ;-)

At Kamiak Butte in Washington (this is the hill that we see from our deck) --

At Coeur d'Alene Lake --

A Kenmore Thanksgiving

Happy December and Happy Monday!

Vacations always seem to go way-way to fast and getting readjusted back to reality can be such a challenge ... especially after a terrific time which is exactly what we had at the Schoening House over Thanksgiving.

Allison had always said her parents house was "on the lake" but I hadn't really visualized what that meant until we arrived into their beautiful, lake-front home and took in the amazing views.  It definitely felt like we were on a retreat and was exactly what we needed!

Thanksgiving Day -- our third Thanksgiving meal with Allison since we had two Thanksgivings together last year (one with our Solomon's Porch family and one with our AMA family).

My Black Friday shopping -- a trip to Trader Joe's!!! Hurray!

The evening ended with getting to participate in decorating the Christmas tree together - so special!

Saturday morning we awoke to a dusting of snow everywhere to enjoy before getting on the road.

We had several added bonuses to our time in the Seattle area ... Jason got to do a police ride-along with his long-time friend,Jeremy and he got to spend several hours visiting with a retired, career forester who Allison's dad graciously introduced him to.  Lastly, on our way home we got to spend time with our Peace Corps friend, Jamie and her family at a children's museum. Luke had never been to one of these facilities before and could hardly believe all the fun things to do ... a perfect way to tire him out before our drive back to Idaho and as always, so fun to see our friend!

The drive home through Stevens Pass was spectacular!

And then .... we were back on the plains of Eastern Washington ... sigh. Not bad, just different.

The view from our deck has changed again ... fields covered in white for now. So pretty.