Weekend in Wenatchee

We spent the weekend at Ryan's dad & step-mom's house in Wenatchee. Ryan helped his dad a bit by digging a trench for the irrigation system he is putting in his back yard. This project of course inspired Ryan to do the same thing in our back yard. We were home from our 3+ hour drive home maybe an hour before we all piled back into the car and headed off to Home Depot to buy the materials needed for a drip system and sprinkler system. Good times.

Aside from being chauffeured all over Eastern Washington by my grandpa the summer between fourth and fifth grade this was the longest time I've spent in Eastern Washington. Wait. That isn't true. I forgot that one summer, I think between fifth and sixth grade, my family vacationed in a cabin in Conquinelly in Okanagon County. My brothers and I spent our time swimming in the lake, making friends and killing grasshoppers - there was an abundance of grasshoppers that summer and we would jump from grasshopper to grasshopper. I don't think my mom saw us do that, she wouldn't have approved. Gross.


Gavin was the recipient of much love and attention from his Grandpa and Grandma Jahns. They were the recipient of much drool and a few bites. G's top two teeth are going to burst through his gums any day now. Because of the impending arrival of his upper chompers he has been a little fussier, a lot droolier and way, way snottier which have taken his sneezes from being cute to being really gross. His sleep also suffered. Check that - the whole family's sleep has suffered. Karl & Suzanne didn't hear his screaming at 4:30 in the morning though because their bedroom was downstairs on the other side of the house. That made me feel better.

Kea almost took a header off the cliff behind their house. Ryan saw that she found a way around the sage brush border and had her paws over the edge trying to get a discarded teddy bear on the adjacent property. Gavin won't be allowed outside unless he has at least one set of eyeballs on him at all times.

Other than going for the cliff Kea was mostly well behaved. Karl & Suzanne seemed to really like the dog. I keep forgetting that they like animals because they only recently got two cats. I keep yelling at Kea when she goes and licks Suzanne but Suzanne doesn't seem to mind. Ryan and I lucked out that they like the dog and that their cats tolerate her.

Karl took us on a tour of Wenatchee and the surrounding foothills. I didn't realize how pretty Eastern Washington is. I have always pictured it as a barren wasteland, save the orchards of course. It was the orchards that I thought were so beautiful dotting the mountains and valleys. I couldn't live out there, though. It is too far removed from everything and the weather is too hot or too cold and seldom just right - I don't think Goldilocks would like it either.

On our next trip out there we are going to go on a 10 mile bike ride that Suzanne was telling us about. I love bike rides but Seattle is just way to hilly with way too much traffic for me to feel comfortable riding a bike. Ryan did talk about the Burke Gillman trail, he said there aren't too many inclines so we should do that ride this summer or fall. We will have to rent a special bike or get some sort of seat for Gavin that can attach to Ryan's bike. I don't want to have Gavin on my bike as I am challenged in the grace department.

On our way home we decided to stop in Leavenworth (the former logging town turned into a tourist trap in the stylings of a Bavarian village) because I've never been. I've been harping on Ryan to take me there during the Christmas season because I want to see it all snowy and magical. He laughed when I said 'magical'; I laughed, too. Who says magical, anyway?


Karl and Suzanne followed us to Leavenworth and were gracious to take Kea while Ryan and I wandered in shops - Kea's tail and knick knack shops do not go well together. Since I'm not a big shopper and neither is Ryan we actually only stopped in four stores. The music box store ($$$), the gift shop next to the music box store, the clothing store, the hat store, the Christmas store and the candy store. Das ist alles (that's all). I took three years of German in high school and I can hardly remember any of it. Nicht so gut (not so good). I do remember some of the dialogue we had to memorize in 8th grade German class.


Alice, jermand ist an die tur. (Alice, someone's at the door).
Um die ecke (around the corner)
Ist es noch frei? (Is this free?)

So, so wie ich dich liebe/so, so, liebst du auch mich (so, so, how I love you/ so, so, you love me too) - that was love a song we had to learn. There are so many more lyrics... my favorite is: dir, dir, mit leichten Sinn (you, you with an empty head). It's been 14 or 15 years since we learned that song so I'm not completely confident in the lyrics.


It's been 14 or 15 years! I graduated from High School 13 years ago. Yikes. I feel old. A caregiver, Aretha, at the daycare in my gym was telling a story that her mom told her recently about putting some plastic toys in the microwave and catching them on fire when she was a little girl. My family didn't get a microwave until I was 10, it was a wedding gift for my parents. Aretha was probably in diapers when I graduated.


I may feel old but Ryan will always be older than me. He's a guy so he doesn't care like I do. He's been out of high school for 15 years. Before we know it we are going to be going to his 20 year reunion. Unreal. It seems like we just went to his 10 year reunion.


Back to Leavenworth...


The Christmas store was AWESOME! The employees were really friendly which is a good thing since its a Christmas store but I would go insane working there. I love Christmas and the decorations and the music but only for 6 weeks, tops. I get super peeved when Christmas displays start going up around Labor Day, just ask Ryan. Every year he hears me gasp as we walk into _____ (Lowe's/Home Depot/Target/Bartell's....) and there is a gaudy inflatable snowman next to a gigantic Santa in a snow globe next to the forest of artificial trees all while the sun is still shining bright and warm which in Seattle means it is SUMMER, not winter, not even close. After the gasp I let loose on a tirade about the commercialism of Christmas and how the holiday is cheapened by these displays and so early at that...


So, the Christmas store. Year 'round glitter and carols and cheer. It's a jolly place alright. I bought one ornament, a beaded star that Ryan didn't like, probably because the center bead was gold - he hates gold. I doubt he would turn down a gold brick if one were offered to him. The Christmas store was playing some music that Ryan and I both commented on; it was jazzy and had just a touch of Christmas flare. I asked the clerk what was playing and she showed me the CD. $15 for the CD. I don't think so. Have they not heard of amazon or E-bay? Hello. I bought the CD for $7 ($3 for the CD & $4 for shipping and handling). The CD just arrived in the mail today - that was fast! Now only 5 months before I can play it - the day after Thanksgiving is the official start of the Christmas Season for me. I get really annoyed when Christmas movies are played on Thanksgiving. Why not play Planes, Trains and Automobiles with John Candy? That's a Thanksgiving movie. Or the cute cartoon with the mice pilgrims coming to the New World?