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Woo-hoo!  Eric and I had our first hike of the year on Monday.  We went to Twin Falls and did 6 miles in about 2 hours which is way better than I thought I’d do.  Here’s some pictures of our hike.

You have to stretch so you don’t get pulled muscles!  We now call this the stretching bridge.

The entire hike was absolutely gorgeous, the trail was a little muddy in spots but no problem to hike.

There were tons of these little pink flowers everywhere.

The white flowers were only at the top of our hike, where the Twin Falls Trail joins up with the trail parallel to the highway.

This little guy was so well camoflauged that I didn’t even see him and almost stepped on him!

The river was rushing pretty quickly and stunning.

There were lots of fallen trees around (none blocking the trail though) including several in the river that looked bright red.

At the waterfall you can stand on a bridge and look down over part of it.  I got a little dizzy but it was really powerful.  Yes, I had the camera strap on my wrist!

Instead of giving each other “stuff” for Christmas, we decided to buy needs for a local family, some African boys, and for ourselves…do a special experience.  So we rode the snow train to Leavenworth.  It was a magical once in a lifetime experience and you get to share it with us in pictures!

A nice guy offered to take our photo before we got on the train.  We got up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning so we were tired, but way excited.

The view from our train was awesome!  It snowed the whole time and I think I left a few noseprints on the window.

We passed by several gorgeous rivers and waterfalls.  It truly felt like we were on our own special Polar Express.

Eric and I were talking about two of our favorite musicals, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Fiddler on the Roof.  We were singing songs from them when this trio walked into our car and played “If I Were a Rich Man”!  We did the dig-a-dig-a dance

Our breakfast and dinner were provided by Gretchen’s Catering.  We took of the bands to hold our boxes shut and declared we were Gretchen’s Ninjas!  The food was really good and we greatly appreciated it.

The was one kid in our car, a sweet girl named Madison.  This ladies quartet invited her to sing Rudolph with them.

They sold raffle tickets to raise money to build a school in Uganda.  We didn’t really care about winning (obviously since I lost my tickets and we think they called my number but I couldn’t claim it) but were happy to support a good cause.  Our car sold the most tickets so we got these hats as prizes.  We wore ours the whole day instead of our knit caps.  Everywhere we went people said they loved them.

A trio called the Cutters was really good.  Their voices were great together (maybe because they’re a family!) and we were stomping and clapping to their music.  Beautiful, folksy style, I’d really like one of their cds.

The girl playing the violin was named Arwen, which is on our list of girls’ names we like (no, we’re not ready for kids yet, just have our list started!)

We were being so silly when Santa came and pretending we were kids, it was a lot of fun.  Our car was so nice, not only did we get really spacious private seats, but we also had our own attendants who got us whatever drinks or other things we needed.

Our car had a private bathroom lounge.  It was co-ed with two individual stalls (that lock), a bench seat to wait, and not one …

… not two …

… but FOUR sinks!  We think the car is also used for long trips, the seats recline really far back so you could sleep in them and there’s enough sinks and mirrors for lots of people to get ready for bed.

Our car was so vintage, that there was still the sign in the bathroom (in German) saying to please not use the toilets at the station (because they used to just dump onto the tracks!)

When we unloaded from the train, everyone was so excited to be in the snow.  It was really beautiful and we were hopping and skipping around.

The first thing we did when we arrived was find a place to eat lunch.  I packed us a yummy spread of cheeses, homemade crackers and fresh bread.

Leavenworth is a special, beautiful town any time of year.  But Christmas is its forte!  It’s surrounded by snow covered mountains and full of everything you think Christmas should be.

All the buildings and decorations are in keeping with the Bavarian theme.  Even several shopkeepers dressed in Bavarian costumes.

The buildings were covered in icicle lights…

And REAL icicles!

If you go to Leavenworth you have to visit Bob and Donna at the Fudgehut.  They are so kind and friendly and their fudge is delicious and creamy!  We got 3 pounds (peanut butter, rocky road, and coconut almond) and they are half gone.  We need a trip to the gym (or 5 or 6!)

One of the things they do throughout the day is have everyone do the chicken dance in the middle of the road.  It was so much fun grabbing a bunch of strangers and dancing around like little kids!

It’s tough to get a good Christmas light shot when your hands are shaking from the cold, but as hundreds of us sang “Silent Night”, all the trees in the park lit up, it’s quite magical.

Then, we all turned around and counted down and all the buildings lit up!  You really feel like you’re in a magical winter wonderland.  We had an amazing day and created memories that will last a lifetime.

So this post really spans 2 years.  In the first week of October 2006, Eric took me to my very first corn maze.  Here’s the fun we had.

That was absolutely one of my favorite dates ever!  It was my first time carving a pumpkin since I was a kid (and couldn’t actually carve it myself).  We had a really great time and I will always remember it.

Eric has learned over the past couple years that I love surprises (happy ones!) and love it when he plans something for our us day or us time.  So last weekend he told me had a surprise planned for our Monday us day.  I was so excited as he turned into the lot for the corn maze and pumpkin patch!  He even had his cowboy hat in the car to really recreate the date for me!  We had a great time, when we came out of the maze our shoes were so covered in mud it took him an hour to clean them.  We got a beautiful pumpkin, but the funny thing was we were so tired that we decided to carve it another day.

P.S. the key to having a great time at the corn maze (if you’re married or engaged!) is to go on a weekday when no one else is there.  Every time you hit a dead end, reward yourselves with a kiss!

Eric and I love Netflix, we end up getting to see a lot of things we wouldn’t otherwise, like documentaries, foreign films and tv shows.  Our latest pick is the documentary “Young At Heart”.  If you haven’t seen this, you have to!  I laughed the entire movie, except when I was trying not to cry.

It’s about a singing group of elderly people (the average age is 80).  Although their favorite kind of music is classical, opera and broadway, they sing rock and roll!  There is something so much more to the words of songs like “I Wanna Be Sedated”, “Stayin’ Alive”, and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” when they are sung by these beautiful, lively, energetic people who every day face a myriad of health problems and the loss of dear friends.

We really enjoyed it and were so moved by their stories.  I hope I can be that cool when I’m that old!  Be prepared to fall in love with these people, you will feel like they’re your grandparents by the end of it.

WARNING: (There are a few objectionable words, very few, but be forewarned)