A Weekend in the Mountains

This year is our 5th anniversary and my parent's 30th anniversary. We wanted to do something special to celebrate. Our original idea was an Alaskan Cruise, but my dad just didn't have enough vacation time this year to make it work. Luckily, he does have a 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off, so we decided to meet in the Cascades for a long weekend instead. 

We left Seattle right after lunch, timing our drive perfectly with afternoon naps, and met at the Gingerbread Factory in Leavenworth. 

Leavenworth used to be the headquarters of the Great Northern Railroad, but when that era passed they reinvented the town as a Bavarian village. We took family pictures (more on that soon!) and had dinner at Muchen Haus - sausage, soft pretzels, German potato salad, and cold lemonade. 

My dad and Scott checked out a bookstore while the rest of us took a carriage ride around town. It was a huge hit with Claire and Maggie.

We drove an hour to our resort, Suncadia, and checked into our super nice condo. After the girls were tucked in bed, we ate chocolate and played cards. Adam woke up early the next morning for a bird watching session. When he got back, we had chocolate chip banana muffins, bacon, and eggs for breakfast and then hit the pool. 

We came back to the condo for lunch - we had packed sandwich fixings (with our favorite Costco pretzel rolls), chips, cookies, carrots, and apples. Adam took Claire to a painting class at the Kid's Corner while my dad and Scott stayed with a sleeping Maggie. My mom, sister, and I went to the spa for the most relaxing facials.







We spent a very sweaty twenty minutes at the resort's playground before heading to the main lodge for dinner. The food was delicious but the service was soooooo slow, which of course led to not great toddler behavior. If we stayed here again, I would just order pizza to the condo or bring burgers to grill on the patio.





We did bring supplies to make smores at the condo's fire pit. We all agreed Reese's were the best!



After the girls were in bed, we played lots of Dutch Blitz and called it a night. The next morning, we had cinnamon rolls, bacon, and eggs for breakfast, packed up, and hit the pool again before checking out. We had lunch at a really cute cafe in the nearby town of Roslyn before going our separate ways.



Apparently this town is most famous for the exterior filming of the 90s show, Northern Exposure. The interior filming was actually done in our suburb, right next to Target. Fun! Allison went back to Richland with the rest of my family, while we drove to Seattle with enough time to unpack before 5:00 Mass.