This year we celebrated Ben’s birthday in Winthrop, which is a small mountain town in the Methow Valley, Washington. It’s located in the North Cascade mountains.
Winthrop is the Mecca for cross country skiing in the state. Their Nordic trails span the whole valley. I believe over 175 private land owners have agreed to have the trails cut through their property. These ski trails turn into biking/hiking trails in the summer. It’s absolutely incredible and unparalleled in Washington state.
We rented a charming cabin through Airbnb. Initially Ben kept saying how “boring” it was, but he quickly warmed to the quaint character of the small cabin and ended up loving it.
One major highlight of the trip for us was exploring the trails.
Alex and his friend Jeff went for a long, challenging ride one day. The rest of the time we did family rides on the flatter trails.
Each morning Alex and I traded off taking Brooks for a trail run, right from our front door. We have both been doing a lot of trail running lately and are really enjoying it.
Hannah is loving her pedal bike, but also takes a lot of joy in riding on the “shotgun” seat on Alex’s bike.
Our family bike rides were so, so lovely. We meandered through lush forests and along the Methow River, and wound our way through open ranch land with horses, deer and turkeys alongside us.
We ended up seeing three other families we’re very good friends with – two of whom live in Seattle and the other lives just down the road from us. It was such a treat for us to catch up with our Seattle friends – they are both families that were in our parent support group, PEPS, when Ben was born.
{Ben and Ian, his friend from school}
Our trip ended with the celebration of Ben’s sixth birthday!
We had the sweetest family day and enjoyed biking the pump track, going for a bike ride, eating cake and spending time outside together.
It certainly felt funny trading our touristy mountain town for another touristy mountain town in the same state. We sure did have a great time exploring, though. The region is absolutely stunning and I can’t wait to visit in the winter sometime.
