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!

Of course I had to make us a delicious lunch to eat on our excursion!

I didn’t realize my outfit all matched until looking at the pictures.  I feel like quite the snowbunny.

We saw tons of cool shapes of things in the snow.  Unfortunately it was crunchy, frozen snow, but a couple times we hit a patch of fresh snow and I’d yell “Powder!”

Eric was fortunate enough to have the camera when I fell down during our break to remove our coats.  Wait a minute, shouldn’t he have been helping me up instead of taking photos?!

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.

That’s right, this Halloween my family hung out with the McCains.  Eric and I thought that since my parents are so into politics (dad especially) it would be fun to dress up as John and Cindy McCain.

The funniest part was that Eric’s mask was so scary!  The first time he put it on I wasn’t looking at him, then looked up and screamed because of the scary old man standing in my living room.  A lot of kids had the same reaction.  One little boy screamed bloody murder, turned and ran down the driveway to his parents!

Another boy (about 10 years old) started screaming and backing up with arms spread and almost clotheslined his little sister down the steps!  We had so much fun at my parents house scaring the kids and interacting with them.  Some kids asked if he was George Bush or Biden.  That was pretty funny.  Parents really loved it.

Jason also took a turn at playing McCain.  Then a little while later cracked us up by proclaiming that his spleen hurt!  No, he doesn’t know where his spleen is.

We took a nice picture too because Eric looks so handsome in his suit, I couldn’t resist!  And the two things you need to have a great Halloween get together with family?…..

A Cheese Mummy

and Coke!

Thanks mom and dad for a super fun evening!

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)

Then after his nap, he got up and made us a yummy picnic lunch.  He took me to Flaming Geyser Park where we had a lovely lunch by the river.  I love my husband!  Thanks Eric.

September 7 was the First Annual Live Aloha Festival in Seattle.  When we had dinner the previous Friday night at Pac Island, they told us about it.  We always in support of them and of whatever Hawaiian culture we can get here, so we were excited to go after church.

It was really fun to be surrounded by locals, to hear pidgin, see people in slippas and muu-muus, watch hula and smell the local food.  I felt like I was home!  It was also great to get some shaved ice, and Pac Island was even nice enough to give us a discount on food because we’re ohana!  Now that’s Aloha Spirit.

If you want to make some food from Hawaii, my blog’s got an EASY recipe for you.  Make yourself some somen salad.

Ahi Poke!  (Pronounce Poke-ay)  This was a staple for me in Hawaii.  In fact if I was really craving it, I’d drive all the way to the North shore for some amazing poke.  I love shoyu poke, so I just added some shoyu to this and let it soak it up.  Delicious.  Yes, it is raw tuna, and it is amazing.  The first year we were eating there, they didn’t have poke, we’re so excited they added it.  Everytime we go, I wait to hear the magic words (we have poke!).

Now the next thing I’m waiting for them to add, is chocolate haupia pie (they just have regular haupia pie).  So since I couldn’t buy it anywhere, I made my own!  This recipe is from the Star Bulletin.  I made my own pie crust from scratch this time, but you can use a frozen crust, or even those pre made graham cracker or shortbread crusts.  I also used mini chocolate chips because I didn’t have any big chocolate to shave.

Chocolate Haupia Pie

1 9-inch prepared pie crust
7 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
Shaved chocolate, for garnish
>> Haupia:
1 can coconut milk
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake crust until golden, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make haupia: Whisk coconut milk, milk and sugar together in a small saucepan. In a separate bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water. Bring coconut milk mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and whisk in cornstarch mixture, whisking until thickened.

Microwave chocolate pieces on high 1 minute; stir to melt completely. Pour half the haupia into a bowl. Mix remaining haupia with melted chocolate and pour over the bottom of the baked pie crust. Layer white haupia over the top. Cool pie at least 1 hour in refrigerator.

Whip cream with 1/4 cup sugar until still peaks form. Garnish pie with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. Chill another hour. Serves 6 to 8.