Hiking at Deception Pass

Funny T Shirt

Diane spotted this T Shirt in a little shop in Leavenworth and couldn't resist.  It is now proudly worn by the man pictured below.  It says "If God wanted us to be vegetarians...He would have made broccoli more fun to shoot at.

Tuesday in Leavenworth

We decided to make a run for the sun, so we packed up the kayaks and headed East.  We got to Leavenworth at lunch time, so here are the girls waiting patiently for the food to be ready.

Keith and Eric stood in a pretty long line to order our brats.

This cute little place right in the corner of town is usually very busy, but worth the wait.

The flowers here are so gorgeous!

I'm sure there is a funny story to go along with this picture, but I don't recall what that might be.  So, if you want to suggest one, just put it in the comments section. 

This is now Eric's second brat, and I think he was looking forward to it since he knew what to expect this time.

While Katie, on the other hand, now lives in the brat capital of America.  I don't think she was disappointed.

We didn't want to spend a lot of time shopping, so we just hit a few highlights.  The Christmas Shoppe is a definite must see.  Diane liked the Christmas Story village, which comes complete with the boy sticking out his tongue and having it frozen to the flag pole.

Katie was impressed with these beautiful wooden decorations from Scandinavia.

This tree was covered in African type decorations. Lots of zebras and giraffes and such.

 Eleanor was particularly fond of the polka dot Christmas ornaments.  They were bigger than she was!

If I could just reach a little further...

She liked the nutcrackers too.

Eleanor was a very good shopper.  She loved all there was to see.

Another fun shop is the Australian Store.  There is a fun variety of hats in the back.

Gee, everyone looks good in these oversize cowboy hats!

Looking good, Diane.

Diane begged Katie to buy this hat.  It's cute.

The famous Indiana Jones hat.  Awesome.

Grandpa found a good hat for Eleanor. 

Now for the toy shop.

These puppets were pretty entertaining.

Looks like Keith is having a lovely time, too.

Look at the amazing thing we found at the toy shop.  Would've come in real handy at dinner that night when we were all tasting each other's food!

The sweet shop was close.  Again, there is a line, so I kept Eleanor busy looking at the gumballs that were just out of reach.

The ice cream looked good, but Eleanor was really hoping for a bite of her mom's big pretzel.

Time for the kayaking adventure to begin!

The girls enjoyed kayaking a lot. They had a little trouble steering at first, and ended up on the banks and running into trees a bit, but it was really nice to be on the water and be warm. It's about an hour trip from the drop off point to the pick up point.  Keith stayed in the truck with Eleanor the first go around while I kayaked, that was fun. Then he kayaked and I stayed with Eleanor. 

So it worked out great.

It was warm and the river was beautiful.

A new vantage point for Ellie!

A funny story goes here too.

Dinner at La Pavz was excellent.  Everyone ordered a different dinner crepe, except Diane who got french dip, and everyone loved their meal.  Fabulous.  I want to go back!

After dinner we had delicious dessert crepes.  Perfect way to finish off a really fun day!

Rainy Days and Mondays

Well, despite the fact that I promised the girls good weather when they came home for a week, we did have a very rainy Monday.  Very. Rainy.

So, not only did our boat trip get postponed because of technical difficulties, now we had to get it covered up due to rain and face the likelihood that the boat trip may not happen AT ALL.

Besides taking the boat out on Saturday, the other main activity we had planned was kayaking on Tuesday.  Not looking too promising at this point!

This definitely called for a day of shopping.  And so we did!

After a busy afternoon shopping, it was time to get baby ready for bed.  Eleanor was so cute getting her teeth brushed, she really enjoyed it!

She does well in the tub too.  Luckily her mom brought Mr. Duck along for the trip.