Washington Day 6, 7 and 8

 This is sweet Taryn!

When we got into Wenatchee Saturday night she and Matt and Abby (Josh was not interested) went and cavorted around town together for a little bit.  She and Abby worked together at Conservice while Abby was a senior in high school.  Taryn was a good friend and recently moved from Logan, back home to Wenatchee.  When Abby found out we were driving through she contacted Taryn and she invited us to go to her ward with her and then made a lunch for us to eat at the church pavilion before our drive to Idaho.  She is the sweetest!

She definitely took care of us and Abby was so happy to see her friend again!

We had a little bit of a drive ahead of us but we enjoyed seeing all the apple orchards as we drove through eastern Washington.  When we were about half an hour outside of Coeur d'Alene, Andy's dad called and asked if we had heard the news.  There had been a shooting in the foothills.  A man had started a fire and then when the firefighters arrived he shot and killed two of them before killing himself.  Of course, we didn't know all of that at the time but Merill was alerting us to the unfolding story as we drove in and saw the smoke on the hillside.  We also found out that that same day there had been a shooting in Hyrum, the community just to the south of us at home.  Two killed in a SWAT standoff in our quiet little valley.

Our airB&B was comfortable but feeling a little tight after our spacious cabin :)

It had a golf theme since it was next to a golf course but we decided after one night it should have had a train theme.  There was a crossing right outside and trains were going late at night and early in the morning.  Can't believe no one mentioned that in their reviews of the place.  Anyway, other than that it was nice and comfortable.  

These three played a heated game of golf monopoly Sunday night.

Then Monday morning, Andy took them on the Hiawatha Trail.

(Ben and I stayed at the place and he did his usual iPad and t.v. (elmo was the order of the day) while I caught up on my blog to that point.)

These guys had a great time though and are glad they went!

We drove all the way home the next day after stopping at Trader Joe's for snacks :)

Leaving Coeur d'Alene, there were emergency vehicles, people and American flags lining all the overpasses and along the sides of many roads.  We realized there was a procession for the two firefighters that had been killed.  It was quite neat to see the support from the community.

We listened to the last installment of James' Lord of the Rings episodes on his podcast.  It was a six hour commitment so it was perfect for our long day.  We drove through some beautiful country and made it home safely which is always a relief.  Ben was a champ through it all!  What a good buddy he was!

So grateful we took the time to get away as a whole family and see some amazing sites.  We made fantastic memories and are grateful for the time we had together.

Washington Day 5

 The next morning I heard the power come back on at almost 7.  We had been without for almost nine hours.  The hosts were very gracious and after I explained a little of what it was like to be enjoying a luxury cabin and all of a sudden, with no warning, be thrown into a rustic cabin (with nice beds) situation, they offered to refund us for that night.  We were happy with that solution.

While getting ready for my daily tromp through the rainforest, I noticed a doe with her two fawns out in our front yard...

It was so fun watching them!

And then these two appeared out of nowhere...

I took the trail down by the river this last morning.

I saw this cute little family...

And then this cutie surprised me!

I think he must have moved because I wouldn't have seen him otherwise!

Then I caught some woodpeckers at work...

And then I came upon this gentleman enjoying his breakfast of salmonberry.

The day before, Matt had finally gone on a little jaunt and come back with a video of a slug munching on something or other.  It was awesome!  So I stopped and observed this spectacle (and got it on video too:)

3 slugs :)

Knowing this was my last morning in my personal rainforest I took my time and drank in as much as I could to take back with me to the deserts of Utah.

Every day we saw elk out the back doors...

We had a hard time saying farewell to our little haven (AlderMoss Riverside Retreat) near Forks (which we went into for groceries and such...it was funny seeing all the Twilight related tourist things.  Never read the books or seen the movies so I was content to pass it all by :)

We drove north and thoroughly enjoyed the route along the the beautiful and vast Crescent Lake!  That would be another cool place to stay!  We eventually found ourselves approaching a significant delay on our GPS and realized the route we had chosen took us on a ferry across the Puget Sound!  We had not planned on that!  And we had pretty much just missed one and the next wouldn't leave for 45 minutes...hence the delay :(

I was not excited as a large amount of cars all driving onto and being packed into a boat gives me a touch of anxiety.  I stayed put with Ben while the others all got out and stretched their legs for the 30 minute ride.

After finally getting off the ferry and driving a while longer we made it to the quaint town of Leavenworth!  It was something I wanted to experience and everyone else indulged me.

Unfortunately, we got there late enough in the day that some of the major shops and attractions were already closed (such as the nutcracker museum :(

Ah well, it was still a cute little place and we were still able to get in some good souvenir shopping.

The guys were mostly worried about eating so they found a restaurant and I joined them when they were ready to order. 

We had three hours in Leavenworth and then it was time to drive on to Wenatchee where we would stay the night and then attend church in the morning before moving on to Coeur d'Alene Idaho.