Last week Alex and the road had a brutal encounter. Alex was on his way to work via his bicycle when he ended up flying over the handlebars after his bike got stuck in a gap in the pavement. Thankfully no one hit him while he was in the road, and some people even stopped to make sure he’s okay {nice to have reminders that there are still good people out there looking out for the rest of us!}.
ERs are the worst!
It could have been much worse, but Alex wound up in the ER with a broken wrist and quite a few bumps and bruises all over the rest of his body. Per his hand specialist, he does not have to have surgery and they expect his wrist to heal up just fine in the next 4-6 weeks. Alex has a splint to secure his wrist and instructions to take it easy.
Sporting his new sling, which he wore for less than an hour before ditching.
We are currently halfway through our dog training package with our private trainer and I have exciting results to report! It has been just over a month since Jackson turned one and we really stepped up our game to curb his unwanted behavior. This month has been extremely challenging, eye-opening and amazing. The biggest “wins” we have had have been more awareness about why Jackson is behaving the way he is in each scenario and making sure that Jackson gets enough exercise.
Jackson getting some training while we enjoy the nice day.
On the first day of training, we were asked if Jackson gets enough exercise. Both of us answered “yes” knowing that we walk Jackson anywhere between 5-7 miles a day. We were schooled when our trainer informed us that while that’s nice, it’s not the type of exercise that Jackson needs. It turns out he needs 30 minutes of heart-pumping exercise like running, playing fetch, swimming or playing tug. Honestly, that alone, has been the biggest change we have seen in his behavior. When he is actually well-exercised he is a totally different and much more amazing dog!
Handsome man fresh from the groomer!
Our trainer has armed us with more confidence and tools to build a better relationship with our pup and make sure he remembers that we’re the one’s in charge! Here is what we have been working on:
*Walking, walking, walking and more walking. I thought that Jackson did pretty well at walking on a leash in our neighborhood. I was so wrong after now seeing what it looks like when he is actually listening to me and “walking nice” as we now say. Katie, our trainer, gave us some invaluable advice on how to teach Jackson to “walk nice” and a week and a half after my own personal boot camp session, I can safely say that Jackson listens to me and actually does “walk nice.” Now we just need to step it up and practice in more distracting environments, like down by the lake,
*Anxiety. We thought that Jackson had a pretty great deal of anxiety. It turns out that he’s just a huge brat who is trying to manipulate us. Yep. He sure got us! Katie taught us how to tell when he is actually anxious versus when he is exhibiting demand behavior. While he definitely has some anxiety in certain situations, most of what we thought was anxiety is really him just trying to get what he wants.
*Jumping and door manners. Jackson is the friendliest dog I think I have ever met. When he meets another person or dog he just wiggles his body like crazy and then likes to greet the person by jumping up on them. It’s lovely and not embarrassing at all. Kidding!!! Jumping on people is one of the behaviors that Alex and I have been working on since the first day we got him. He rarely jumps on us because we have no tolerance for it, but I think he was reinforced so many times by people thinking he was so cute that it taught him that it was ok to jump on other people. We are going to be focusing on this in tomorrow’s training session, but we have already begun working on it a little bit.
It sure takes a lot of time, dedication and hard work to raise a puppy into a nice, well-behaved dog. We are absolutely committed to that and are enjoying working with Jackson on basic commands and our training regimen. We are so lucky to have such a bright, smart dog and the last month has really solidified his spot in our home.
For the first time in my life I can say that I have been enjoying yardwork. I’m not sure what clicked but this weekend I was actually happy to be outside pulling weeds, planting flowers and shrubs and helping Alex spread mulch and compost in our flowerbeds. I bet my mother never thought that day would come! We had a super productive weekend in the yard and our to do list of outside projects is shrinking fast. I love when that happens.
Mulch in the flowerbeds made such a difference! I can’t wait until the peonies start blooming…
I made another trip to the nursery this weekend and got a few peonies – one to plant in our retaining wall and two to put in our front flowerbeds. Since our lovely dog dug up our mintbush, the small evergreen shrubs behind our patio, and the ground cover back there, I got a bit more to plant to replace it. Currently there are three chairs and a table covering those new plants to keep said dog from digging them up again. I also got these cute little droopy white flowers called Candytufts to hang over our retaining wall. Apparently they are fast spreaders. They will ultimately look like this:
Here are some photos of what we got done:
I can’t wait to see what this looks like mid-July once the roses are in bloom and the peony has grown a bit and the new white droopers have started spreading and drooping.Peony and some future droopers along with a big ole’ batch of catnip for HenryHopefully these guys will start spreading fast!Our grass seed is coming in SO well – we re-seeded these patches over the weekend and will soon pull out the rest of the crabgrass that has taken over our yard and replace with seed. You can see it’s starting to die…
Our weekend kicked off with our first dog training session on Friday evening. We spent two and a half very productive hours with Katie, our trainer, getting the low-down on how to be better puppy parents. So far we love Katie’s suggestions! We worked on walking nicer on-leash {yes, mother, with loads of treats!}, jumping up on people {or rather NOT jumping up on people!}, honing distracted Jackson back into us on walks, drying off Jackson’s paws, and a few other things. Alex and I are both extremely thankful that we’re able to have a one-on-one training experience.
Sleepy dog after his long training session
In preparation for our Europe trip I dropped Jackson off on Saturday with the family who we’re hoping will watch him while we’re gone just to do a test-run/playdate for a couple hours. While Jackson was playing with his new dog friends I ran into Woodinville to do some errands. Unfortunately for me I did not time my stops well at all and ended up getting caught in a downpour about 2 minutes into my trip to Molbak’s Nursery. Oops! I was still successful in getting most of the plants I had intended on.
Jackson’s first selfie!
I didn’t end up planting anything until Sunday, but here are some photos:
This dirt-filled area was once covered with a couple small shrubs and ground cover. Then we got a dog.This is the area my mom helped me plant last spring. I thought most of it died but all of it except the fuschia came back this year. I will replace the fuschia and get some plants that droop over the retaining wall hopefully soon. For now, I replenished our supply of catnip for Henry and his friends. And yes, I do realize how terrible our yard looks!
The front of our house. I have never done multiple flowers in containers before so I was pretty proud of how my first round went.Let’s see how long I can keep herbs alive for! My friend Carrie made me this adorable planter that says “Ali’s Herbs” for my birthday a few years ago.
Alex had a pretty tall order while Jackson and I were out for the better half of the day. He was tasked with cleaning and re-painting our front porch. This item has been on our to-do list since probably the first year we have lived in our house. We have pushed it off for far too long and it feels AMAZING to have this finally checked off the list!
The edge/right where you first step up onto the porch has been slowly chipping away since we moved into our house almost four years ago.
Our hard work and the torrential downpour made both of us quite sleepy so we indulged in a mid-day nap on Saturday afternoon! It was one of the highlights of the weekend.
Ahhh nice smooth paint!
We capped off the day by heading over to our friends’ Ryan and Mary’s house for a bit. Ryan’s parents were visiting from Kansas City and we wanted a chance to meet them while they were in town.
Sunday did not go at all as we had expected. We woke up and took Jackson for a walk just like any other day. When we got back I set off to the kitchen to make eggs Benedict, one of my favorite Easter meals.
Round two: success!
I rarely make eggs Benedict because, while delicious, it is grossly fattening and quite tricky to make. The very first time I made hollandaise sauce from scratch I think it took three or four tries to get it right. It is just such a finicky recipe! This time the hollandaise turned out perfectly on the first time but then I kept it warm over too-hot water and it separated beyond the point of pulling it back together. Somewhere in there I got stressed out and threw all of the eggshells into the sink, which of course clogged the drain.
Jackson is such a helper!
Here we were with a full dishwasher, every pot in our house full of eggy goop and on top of the stove, elbows deep into hollandaise sauce and the damn sink goes out of commission. First world problems right here. Long story short, eggs Benedict round two was a success, and after the fourth or fifth trip to Lowe’s we ended up having a sink that works and doesn’t leak by Monday evening.
He makes a great boss! {Jackson, that is}
Because of the kitchen sink fiasco we were extremely late to our Easter brunch and we arrived empty handed {unless you count a bag of raw green beans!} to the feast at the Buffingtons. We had a wonderful time nonetheless! It was a great way to spend the holiday with a group of people whom we enjoy spending time with.
Patrick’s special easter egg fruit pizza!
As always, our weekend went by way too fast, but it was full of friends and getting things done around the house. We have a fairly low-key week to look forward to, though.
There always seems to be about 1,000 things on our to do lists. This spring, though, I think our to do list is extra long. It has started to feel like the honeymoon stage of being a homeowner is over! Our house was renovated just before we moved in so it seems like they took care of a lot of the maintenance and we had slid right on by for the first 3 years we lived here. Well, that party is over and now we really have our work cut out for us!
The piles and lists… they are never ending
The weeds. Ohhh the weeds. Our lot is about 3500 square feet, most of which is covered by our house. There really isn’t that much space for weeds to grow but my lord I think they are covering 70% of what was once our lawn. Normally I whine about weeds but this year they have moved in and are taking over. Alex and I spent a great deal of time digging them out a few weekends ago and we began sprinkling in grass seed in new soil. While I’m not a huge fan of commercial weed killer I have to agree that this year it was necessary. We’ve got quite a bit more work to do on our lawn but I am hopeful that will help. Either way, our lawn already looks better, even half covered in dirt, than it did covered in blackberry bramble and crabgrass.
What a mess!
This weekend we will continue to focus on the yard. I’ll plan on making a trip to the nursery to pick up mulch, some pretty flowers to put in containers on our porch and a few plants and shrubs for our backyard.
Something along these lines would work well on the porch
We have some minor projects in the yard this year, like staining our patio steps, patio table and the fence, as well as touching up the paint on our front porch and putting in a stone/paver path from our patio to the fence gate so we don’t have to walk in the mud anymore. Alex plans to get started on some of those things this weekend while I’m doing some planting.
Henry is a good supervisor! Under where he is sitting here will soon be re-painted, due to excessive chipping paint.
Since it’s spring break in Seattle right now I don’t have to volunteer on this morning so I am hoping to get a few things accomplished on our indoor spring cleaning list. It felt SO good to scour our kitchen a few weeks ago. Microfiber cloths are the most amazing home cleaning tool I have ever discovered. Our kitchen was literally sparkling. I have never seen it so clean, all thanks to the magic of microfiber cloths.
Spring cleaning underway!
Hopefully by the time we leave for Europe this summer our house will be in tip-top shape!
Two of our major priorities the last couple weeks have been getting Jackson and his anxiety under control and preparing for our trip to Europe this summer. We have mixed in a few fun activities the last few days to enjoy the unbelievably gorgeous weather, too!
I had a HUGE milestone with Jackson last week. We went for a run on Friday around Seward Park and he did awesome! I needed a win like that.
Last week we had Katie, a dog trainer from Pawsitive Packleader, come over to our home to give us an evaluation and discuss how she would go about working with us to help ease Jackson’s anxiety and curb some of his unwanted behaviors. She was amazing, simply put. We had a 2.5 hour long session with her last Thursday at no charge and we learned several strategies to implement immediately. We have officially hired her as our trainer and she begins on Friday! Here are some things we’ll be working on with her:
Minimize stress
Help meet his drive needs (scavenge, dig, dissect, chew, etc.)
Build confidence
Teach impulse and arousal control
Enhance leash walking manners, especially in distracting environments
We had already discovered that Jackson needed more exercise than the 5-7 mile walks we were giving him, so we now play ball or go for a run about 5-6 days a week, replacing one of our walks with the more heart-pumping activity
Katie recommended this Kong Wobbler for Jackson – it is bigger than my hand and fits one of his meals in it. He knocks it over with his nose or paw and it dispenses his kibble. This allows him to work for his food and scavenge for it, which helps him meet his drive needs.
We ended our ski season on Saturday with a perfect spring skiing day at Crystal Mountain. It’s sad to wrap up such a short ski season but we had an amazing day on the corn snow under the sun.
See ya later ski season!
I spent a couple hours going through my closet and recommendations from travel experts to see what I could come up with to bring in my teeny tiny carry-on bag for our trip to Europe. Somehow I am going to live out of a backpack for a month this summer. I really am not sure how this will work but I know it’ll come together.
Some options…
We ran over to REI on Sunday so Alex could purchase his Europe backpack and some travel accessories. He picked up a few packing cubes to help keep his clothes organized. We also found a compact daypack that folds up into itself that we plan to bring with us and will probably use every day while we’re there.
Alex and his new backpack
After our REI trip we headed over to the Millers house to discuss travel plans and packing solutions. The Millers are leaving in just a couple weeks for their trip to Europe so we were comparing notes and ideas. It was a spectacularly gorgeous day on Sunday so we spent a few hours drinking wine and snacking on their back patio. It was a glorious way to spend the day! Plus, we made some progress on our Europe trip and schemed up a summer trip to take together.
Our Sunday wrapped up with Chris and Heidi coming over for dinner. We had a lovely time catching up with my cousin and his wife and always enjoy spending time with them. Plus, it was nice enough outside to where we could grill and sit on the patio past 9:00 p.m.
Gorgeous weekend
Monday was our anniversary, which we spent celebrating at Bottlehouse and Restaurant Zoe. We enjoyed a delicious glass of bubbly at BH then moseyed on down the hill to Restaurant Zoe to take part in their three-course Restaurant Week special. It had been a while since we had eaten at Zoe but both of us were glad we made the choice to return. Everything was excellent!
We’re looking forward to Jackson’s first training session this Friday and a fun weekend of seeing friends and getting things done around the house.
Alex and I lived together for a few years and even owned a house before we got married. We had been together through four years of college plus a few years after college and survived that transition into adulthood flawlessly. Because of those big details I didn’t really think that marriage would change our relationship. Boy was I wrong!
People get married for a variety of reasons: love, passion, business, pressure, religion, security, and so on. The reasons we got married were more than just our love and adoration for each other. We chose to get legally married in advance of our wedding day for security purposes. Our love for each other was so strong we were able to put it aside and make a true business decision to provide security and stability in case something happened to one of us. While we hoped this would never happen, we wanted the other person to be able to make the difficult decisions and to be financially secure.
At the time we made this choice I had recently been laid off and was working a part-time job. I was paying an arm and a leg for health insurance and student loans and we needed a new car. So, truthfully, it just made sense for us to put our dreams of a wedding on hold and elope.
March 14, 2011 is our official date of marriage, according to our marriage certificate. We had a lovely civil ceremony on a beautiful spring day at the Seattle Courthouse with our witnesses Chris and Carrie, both of whom are very close friends. While that day was special in its own way, it was certainly not the wedding either one of us had in mind, nor is it what we think of when we think of our wedding day. Before our marriage we had talked about when and where we wanted to get married. We decided we wanted to have a small wedding in the mountains that next winter.
Fast forward six months. We were days away from a trip to Colorado that we had planned to take to scout out wedding venues. We were “married” but not engaged yet {are you lost yet?}. You read that right. There are few traditional things about us and the way we went about getting married and engaged proves that quite well. Thankfully Alex realized it might look silly to wedding planners and venues to have us appear at their site with a ringless bride. He had grand plans of proposing on the top of a mountain, or so he says, but one night he couldn’t wait any longer and when I fell asleep on the sofa in front of the fire in our living room he said it reminded him of all of the days when he would sneak into my freshman dorm room before his 8 a.m. class to kiss me goodmorning. He knew that was his time to pop the question. It was perfect.
We set out to Colorado that very next weekend as a newly engaged couple and found the most incredible venue where our wedding would take place seven months later.
The Donovan Pavilion
Today is our anniversary. When people ask us how long we have been married we’ll answer with the number of years we legally have been married, but our anniversary and wedding day is and always will be the day of our wedding in Vail, April 14th. To us, our courthouse wedding was just a formality, but our Vail wedding was the most special day I think either one of us will ever have.
Happy Anniversary, my love!
I’m not sure how that marriage distinction has changed our relationship but I really feel like it has. It intensified our bond and I think that we both cherish each other and the time we spend together even more than we did before we were husband and wife. While important, our marriage today is far more than our tax status, our joint bank accounts, the health insurance we share together or the piece of paper we have that proves our union. We stood up in front of 90 of our closest friends and family and made a commitment to support each other through it all. That meant something to us. Our wedding day was strictly about love.
It is always fun to think back to our wedding day, but today especially I am reveling in the memories. There were a lot of small moments that made the day and weekend so meaningful……
The groomsmen sure knew how to get ready in styleThey clean up nice!A special moment with NanaEnjoying a laugh with my momWedding-day toast!Spending a few minutes with the FOB – one of my favorite photos from the dayAdmiring my dressFinal details coming togetherOur “first look”Entering Vail Village for our photo shootOne of the funniest moments of the day. Someone came out of a shop with a ball and chain that we used as a prop for our photos!The groomsmen and ushers
Blushing bridesmaidsTrying to figure out how to bustle my dressOur officiant, also known as Uncle Dave. He did a bang-up job presiding over our wedding.The moment we pulled up to the venue it started to flurry. By the time the ceremony was to start it was a full-on snow storm.Walking down the aisleThe fathers of the dayA special moment with Alex’s proud granparents. Papa was in his prime this weekend and we are so thankful for the extraordinary memories of him from our wedding.The best mother/son dance in the history of weddings!Thanks for the great party!
Having a puppy is an enormous amount of work. Before we got Aspen, our first puppy, I had no idea what we were in for. By the time Jackson came into our lives I was a seasoned puppy owner, having just dealt with a 0-6 month old pup a few months prior. After Jackson hit 6 months of age we were a bit blind and didn’t really know what to expect. Still blind, I know that I have expectations of our lovely dog’s behavior that are different than reality.
Training started on day one for this little guy!
About 80-90% of the time Jackson is absolutely lovely. He really is a great dog. He’s happy, cuddly, extremely playful and has a lot of great energy. He loves to play ball, go for walks or runs and is perfectly content laying on the floor playing with a toy. Until he’s not. The rest of the time is when we are blessed with an anxious, impulsive, wild animal. It is the 10-20% of the time when we haven’t figured out a consistent solution to help him work through these behaviors.
He is never too far away from us! We love a sleepy dog who just hangs out.Jackson’s registered name “Action Jackson” suits him well!
Once Jackson turned one Alex and I found ourselves continuously saying something to the effect of, “Jackson, you’re one now, we have no tolerance for ____________” with a plethora of things filling in the blank. A lot of what Jackson struggles with is things that we’ve either been trying to work on ourselves or just have no idea how to handle. Clearly we need some help in figuring out how to deal with our dog. It is time to call in the professionals!
One of the things we are working on is Jackson not jumping on the bed or the sofa… this photo was taken in July and we still haven’t made much progress :/
We are really looking forward to working with a professional dog trainer starting next week. We have a behavior evaluation on Thursday where a trainer will come in and see what’s happening in our house and make note of our challenges and put together a plan of action for us. There are a couple other trainers we are considering, but I have a feeling we’ll end up going with Pawsitive Packleader who we’re scheduled with next week.
Naughty dog!
One of our goals for training is to get Jackson ready for our trip to Europe. He will have to stay elsewhere for an entire month while Alex and I are traveling abroad. Given how much anxiety he has when he is in a new space alongside us we have a lot of work to do to make him comfortable in a new space without us. We’re meeting a new family next week from Rover.com who we’re hoping he might stay with for the duration of our trip. We are working to make the adjustment as easy as possible for Jackson so he has a lot of fun and forgets about us while we’re gone!
This is what our mudroom looks like after Jackson comes inside from the backyard. It sure is hard to keep this dog clean!And this is what our backyard looks like after Jackson comes inside from playing in it. The amount of work it takes to have a dog extends far beyond training and exercise.
Our trainer will have her work cut out for her, that’s for sure! We are really looking forward to continuing to work hard to make Jackson’s life more enjoyable, thus making ours better too.
Jackson sure has his tough moments, but we are so thankful he is in our lives. He is a very smart dog and we’re looking forward to continuing to make improvements in our pup’s attitude and behavior.
Not any different than the last month, our week has been very busy. We had a lot of time catching up on things at home and getting mentally ready for spring. Last weekend was kicked off by a clothing overload.
I love donating my clothes and was so happy to find Fashion Project, a non-profit that serves basically as a consignment shop and pays in Nordstrom gift cards. I sent them a handful of things I had been meaning to get rid of, especially to make room for new clothes!I ordered my first Stitch Fix last week! I was giddy with excitement to receive my first shipment… Stitch Fix is an online personal shopper, basically, that sends you a box of five things they think you’ll like. I filled out a style profile and shared my Pinterest clothing board for them to get an idea of my style. You only pay for what you keep and then you send back anything you don’t want.LOVE this dress – too bad it didn’t come to me before Carrie’s wedding last summer because I have basically the same dress. I love the necklace too, but it was really cheap looking, yet $50.I really liked this outfit but the top was too big and the bottoms were too small. Dangit!This was a fun top but it was HUGE! And it was a little boring in the front.In all the excitement with my Stitch Fix, I also got an awesome birthday gift from my mom! She sent this fantastic dress for me {along with a different necklace}. I can’t wait to wear it.
In case it hasn’t been clear so far, I have been trying to expand my wardrobe and build up an adult-like collection of garments. Alex has been really helpful with encouraging me to branch out and be a bit more exciting with what I wear, so as another way to support that he took me on a shopping spree for my birthday! We spent much of the day on Saturday in downtown Seattle at Pacific Place Mall, Nordstrom and Banana Republic. Most of my closet is from Banana Republic and I was trying to get some different pieces elsewhere, but it ended up that everything I got was from BR anyway!
Walking from the bus to the stadium for Saturday’s Sounders game
In between trying on clothes Alex and I took some time out for sports. We cheered on the Iowa State Cyclones at Bravehorse Tavern on Friday night as they played in the Sweet Sixteen basketball tournament. On Saturday we braved the rain and attended the Seattle Sounders soccer game at Century Link Field in Seattle. Thankfully we had club seats so we were in one of the only covered areas in the stadium, otherwise we would have been drenched by the end of the game. Unfortunately for us, we were cheering for two losing teams this weekend. Oh well, it was fun for us either way!
Here we are!
Monday was my birthday – I felt like I had a 4-day birthday this year, which was awesome! On my actual birthday Alex took me out for dinner at our new neighborhood joint, Red Cow, and we had an amazing cheeseburger {seriously}, then last night we met Ali, Tyler and Vivian at Cactus for dinner to catch up and celebrate my birthday again. We always have such a great time with them and it was so fun to see little miss Vivian – she is at the age where she is really starting to get a personality and man does she have a great one! She is just too much fun.
Club seats mean it’s okay to drink wine 🙂Of course Alex will always drink beer at an MLS game.
This week we are focusing our efforts on getting things checked off our to-do list and whipping Jackson into shape. More on both soon!
After my parents’ repeat visits it was time to welcome Alex’s parents for their spring visit to Seattle. Donna and Stan came out to spend some time with us last weekend. They arrived on Friday morning and we had a quick lunch at the Hi Spot before we packed up the SUV and hit the road to head for the mountains.
Cascade Mountains from Stevens Pass
It was a beautiful day for a drive and we loved checking out the views through Snoqualmie Pass and Bluwett Pass as we approached our cabin in Peshastin, Washington, just outside the town of Leavenworth. It took us just over 2 hours to get there from our house, which was a nice and easy drive to get us out of town. Our rental cabin was so cute!! It was really in the middle of nowhere, situated on a huge lot. The cabin had a funny layout but it worked really well for us with a galley kitchen that opened up onto the dining room and living room. The view of the Cascade Mountains from the front of the cabin was incredible.
Our cute little rental cabin
Jackson was in paradise the whole time we were at the cabin. The property allowed for him to go outside off leash and run around and roam free. He and Alex played ball for hours upon hours. Jackson has some pretty substantial anxiety issues, we’ve realized, so we were a bit nervous and unsure of how he would do in the new space. Much to our surprise he actually did do pretty well! At our last cabin weekend at Crystal Mountain we didn’t get any sleep at all the first night because Jackson was up crying all night from anxiety and restlessness. Thankfully he went to bed just fine both nights and was able to feel comfortable in the house and he didn’t feel the need to mark his territory in the house, either.
He was in absolute heaven.
We didn’t have much on the agenda for our first night, other than to run into Leavenworth, check out the town and grab some groceries. We picked up some steaks, a lot of wine and some appetizers to enjoy back at the cabin. It was so nice to relax and catch up with Alex’s parents on our first night.
Jackson did such a good job of settling down in the cabin.
On Saturday we had a wonderfully relaxing morning at the cabin before packing up the car and driving about 45 minutes to Stevens Pass to go skiing for the day. Alex and I typically ski at Crystal Mountain and I have only skied at Stevens Pass once, while Alex has skied there a handful of times. Neither one of us is too familiar with the mountain so it was fun to explore some new terrain.
Ski tips up!
The weather on Saturday was wonderful! We enjoyed skiing in the sunshine – it was so warm that most of us ended up dropping a layer in a locker we rented. I always get a kick out of skiing with Donna and Stan because it is amazing to watch how much they improve from the start of the day to the end. The last time they had skied was in Breckenridge at Thanksgiving when they had their ski lesson. I think the pointers from ski instructor Rick really stuck with them! Stan, especially, showed drastic improvements – he truly looked like a different skier from the first run to the last.
Pro skiers!
After our fun ski day we headed back home to soak in the hot tub. It’s not a ski vacation unless there’s a hot tub! We had a wonderful dinner together before we all passed out on the comfy sectional in the living room.
My handsome hubby!
One of the disappointing parts of great weekends is they always go too fast! We were all enjoying our time at the cabin so much that it was very sad when it was time to say goodbye on Sunday morning. It was such a relaxing environment for all of us, which was much needed. I wish we could have stayed longer!
Hanging out in Leavenworth
On our way back to Seattle we decided to stop in Leavenworth again to spend a few hours perusing the town and grabbing lunch. Leavenworth is an adorable Bavarian-style town in the heart of the Cascade Mountains. It is really quite picturesque. Alex and I have spent more and more time here in the last few years and adore the town.
The four of us
Since it was another gorgeous day Alex and Stan parked themselves at an outdoor beer garden and ordered a stein of beer to enjoy while Donna and I browsed in some of the shops and did a couple wine tastings. We met up with the boys for a lunch of sausage and pretzels at the Muchen Haus before getting back on the road to Seattle.
Leavenworth photo opp with the mountains in the backdrop
The rest of our day kept in line with being very relaxing. We shared a bottle of wine on our front porch before walking up to the new restaurant in our neighborhood, Red Cow, for a delicious steak dinner. I haven’t been impressed with Red Cow’s dessert menu, so I suggested we walk across the street to Bottlehouse to see if they’re still open. Everything about Bottlehouse is impressive, including their dessert menu, so we were happy to see that they still allowed us to come in for a night cap even though they had already technically closed. One of the many perks of being regulars, I guess! Donna and Stan got to catch up with Henri, one of the owners, while Alex and I ordered a bottle of bubbly and some pots de creme, two of our favorites.
Wine tasting
Monday meant back to work for Alex and me. Donna and Stan were feeling independent so they hopped on the city bus and headed downtown to do a little shopping before meeting Alex for lunch near his new office. Shortly thereafter it was time for me to take them to the airport before I had to go to work.
Alex and Stan
It’s hard to believe how quickly our time came and went with Alex’s parents! As always, it was wonderful to have them come and visit. We are so fortunate that although we live so far away from our parents they still come to see us in Seattle and we always have a great time!
