Hiking at Elk Creek Falls {Idaho}

Jason came home Friday with a surprise plan for our Saturday - a scenic drive to and hike at Elk Creek Falls. The weather was forecast to be wonderful (almost 60 degrees!!) and it was a perfect idea. We were all very ready to be out of the house and doing something active for a change.

It is about an hour from where we live, but we'd yet to discover it and it was really wonderful! I was feeling a little anxious as we drove up due to the amount of snow still on the ground and the fact I was only wearing my running shoes, not my waterproof boots. But luckily, the trail only had a few spots where snow/ice were still hanging around.

The hike includes look-out points at three different waterfalls - so so beautiful!

The end of an era ..

Monday morning Luke let me know he was up from his nap by knocking on the interior of his bedroom door. This was a first, since he is usually fully contained in his pack-n-play crib.  Since then he's figured out how to climb back into it too.

Fireside music

Jason had his guitar out last night which Luke loves to "help" him play and it was just a very sweet few moments of them together beside the fire, making music.

The prettiest thing I've seen in a while

I stumbled across this moss covered log the other day and couldn't believe how incredibly vibrant it looked in contrast with our dreary landscape. It feels weird to think that the prettiest thing around is moss, but that's the truth :) The pickings are pretty slim this time of year.

Surviving dreary Idaho

The view from our window today (and on many other days) looks like this. While I might not mind so much if it was foggy and warm, we had a high of 34 today and now down below freezing again. Not my favorite.

A few people have checked in on me since I've had a serious blog lull the past few weeks (thank you!!!). We are all fine ... it's just that although I pretty much only blog about trivial stuff, there really has been nothing blog worthy going on here. Pathetic. Winter hasn't been a "real" winter ... we've had a few weeks with very chilly temps and a few snow flurries, but otherwise have been left with this cold, damp, dreariness. And, I find myself uninspired ... go figure.

That being said, we DID have a fun getaway over MLK weekend.  We headed up to Sandpoint, ID about 2.5 hours north of us for a snow weekend in a camping cabin (complete with no running water and an outhouse!).

Luke LOVED all the snow and would have been content to just sit in it and eat it all weekend.

We got to go snow shoeing for the first time in nearly two years! The last time we went I was about 41 weeks pregnant and looked like this - oh my! Now thankfully, Luke is in a backpack and Jason is carrying him :)

Christmas tree removal ... Idaho style!

We took down our tree yesterday morning, realizing we had a much simpler way to get it out of the house than down our steep, narrow stairway ... directly out to the deck for a toss!

And that was that! :) Much easier and much more entertaining especially with Jason in his bare feet!


Here are a few photos from our Christmas & New Years --

A dusting of snow for Christmas Eve

On a quick hike with Jason's parent's --

We ate lots of treats (of course!) -- I've been using this cinnamon roll recipe for the past year, but never made it with all the recommended fun fillings (pistachios, dark chocolate & orange zest) until last week and man, they were great!



















At a new Moscow hiking spot, Idler's Rest. You can't tell by looking, but it was 15 degrees outside! Brrr!

And yesterday, while out on a quick hike from our house (what else is there to do with a toddler, outside in the below freezing temps?? any other ideas?) Jason noticed this gal peering out of the brush at us!