Vacation To Leavenworth, WA

Since we've lived in the PNW area, I have always wanted to visit Leavenworth. It's a cute little Bavarian town and around Christmas time they really go all out with lights, festivities, and Krampus' roaming the town. We did not intend to visit this year, but upon learning that the kids' Thanksgiving break is 9 days instead of the usual 3 (what?!), we decided to make a last minute trip.

We stayed for two nights and chose the cheaper hotels at the further end of town, which was fine because it was still close enough to walk to everything and the walking was so refreshing! None of the Christmas lights were up yet because we were a week early but it was still so cool. Just seeing those Bavarian buildings up against the mountains was so breathtaking! The first night we had the best pizza I've ever had in my life. Seriously. Soooo yummy! The first day we walked around all the little shops, had the best homemade pretzels and pastries. Yum. Seriously, all the food we had was so delicious! We rode down the Alpine Coaster a few times which was awesome even though it was cold and boy, what incredible views you could see from the top of the mountain on a clear day! We decided not to do the reindeer farm because it was $50/person to feed/pet the reindeer for 15 minutes. That was bit steep to me. I wanted to dress up in German clothes for family photos but I was the only one. Party poopers. I wanted to ride the horse drawn carriage around town but I was the only one. Party poopers. We got to listen to the alphorns as they lined the streets, they're incredibly talented. On the morning to go home we stopped at the Crepe Cafe and devoured those delicious crepes!

I promise the kids were having a good time despite my many attempts to get them to smile.

Family photo with the German bear

This was the cutest restaurant. When you walk in, you're in the indoor courtyard and the whole building is a gingerbread house.

Crepes!

Family Photos 2025

Cora Turns 12

Happy birthday to my sassy, responsible, caring, bright girl!!! How did she get so big so fast?!

Christmas Concerts

Lance performed again in the Messiah and always does a great job. I love our tradition of starting the Christmas season with that concert.

This year we decided to take all the kids to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We had an extra ticket and since it was on Cora's birthday, she chose to invite Joslyn to go with her. I didn't get a picture of the boys because they were sitting a few rows behind us but it was fun for Kimball to tell Ezra all about it. Cora did OK at the concert - if you were to ask her now how it was, she'd say it was awesome. But in the moment, it was very loud for her and way too long. She had her head down and rocked quite a bit, and kept asking when it was going to be over. I don't blame her, it is a long concert and the electric guitars can be pretty loud. This year they added drones to their show which was super cool!

 

Fall Cleanup

Cora cracks me up. She's always driving some machine - lawn mower, the argo, or the mini bikes. She quite a good driver also, very cautious and not overly adventurous like Kimball is.

Fall cleanup was quite fun. Lance and the kids all worked on raking and filling the tarp up with debris while they hauled it down the lane to be burned. We did approximately 6 loads of pine needles, pine cones, branches, and limbs. We didn't start the fire until 2:30 ish and we were famished. Good thing I had hot dogs in the freezer that we could roast, it was yummy. The fire burned all night and even though it rained, it was still smoldering in the morning. We all enjoyed working together as a family and I think the kids are excited for spring cleanup to go at it again.