6 Year Anniversary Trip

We left for Leavenworth with a drizzling rain. Thankfully it did not rain the entire trip.

This year the drive was short, but very beautiful as we drove through mountains.

We stayed at a place called the Fox Farm.
This farm house was built in 1916 by a couple of men
who decided to raise foxes (blues and silvers) for their pelts.
It was a pretty successful business for a few years
until the pelt industry took a turn for the worse.
There is still chicken wire throughout the property.
The Fox Farm is 15 miles outside of Leavenworth,
and we all loved being out in the country.
While our stay, I read a book titled "They Found A Valley".
It was a history about the first few settlers of the Plain area
(where the Fox Farm is located). The daughter of the earliest settlers
wrote the book in a way that sounded like "grandma" was telling things
from memory. I really enjoyed the history, and every day would mention to Josh
"In the book..." and "Oh by the way, the book mentioned this..."
and yes, the Fox Farm was mentioned in the book!


A wild flower bouquet that Josh and J.D. picked for me.


My favorite morning at the Fox Farm.
This was a lazy morning for us and J.D. and Lily were both in bed.
There is just something special about kids when they first wake up and in their jammers!

We spent one full day in Leavenworth which was Father's Day. It was also the Annual Accordian Festival and was that place packed! We were lucky to find a parking spot not too far away from the tourist part of town. We walked along the streets and looked at shops trying to find our picture frame for this year. We also ate at a out door restaurant and had a braut burger...the best tasting hamberger ever!

Sandi should appreciate this

Josh got a good laugh out of this sign



A beautiful painting of Neuschwanstein

Of course after we eat, we find a place that hits close to home

And now back to the Fox Farm!

Yummm
A mouth full of hot dog!

J.D. didn't care for the smores...
too sticky

We visited Lake Wenatchee.
We were told it is very windy there, rated 2nd to the george.
However, it was sunny, warm and no wind!
The lake is nestled in among the mountains, and in the rocks along the shoreline
you can find little flecks of gold. We even found a rock for J.D. that
had gold in it.


Lily did not like getting her feet wet in the cold mountain water

She got used to it eventually

J.D. is stuck!

The owners of the Fox Farm have a number of animals including

goats, chickens and the turkey's which are pictured above.

They love to eat grass, which J.D. is feeding them.

A view of Lake Cour d'Alene from a trail we hiked.

This is only one small section of the lake.

Family picture!

Leave it to Josh to get a silly idea
(No he didn't make the hole... it was already there :)

J.D.'s theme for this year was tractor's, train's and dump trucks.
Any time we were on the road that's what came out of his mouth,
whether it was pointing them out or asking for them.
Thankfully we were in farming country most of the time we drove,
so we saw plenty to please him; however when we went
for a long stretch with out seeing one of the three
we tried other things to keep him from being bored.
Mainly singing silly songs. I'm sure Josh got sick of J.D. and I singing
"I like to eat apples and banana's" (J.D.'s favorite song)and the ABC's.

"Speed Cars" as J.D. calls the arcade game.

We never once put a quarter in.

Cuddle time

The Mission in Idaho. This is the oldest building in Idaho's history.
It was built by the Catholics for the Cour d'Alene Indians,

and many of the Indians lived on the mission grounds.

Infact one of the first Indians that was baptized here

is also buried in one of the grave yards.

I wish we had taken a picture of the cemetary itself.

There were probably 10-15 headstones in the entire cemetary.

The mission was a great place to see, but they could have done better in

upkeeping the cemetaries...

This picture and the next shows some graves in the west grave yard

These were the only two grave sites that had

a fence around them. We found one that had none, but that was easy to

spot since it was right along the trail. We have no idea how many graves

we passed in the west cemetary. There was a sign that said that the

majority of the graves in this location was from the early missionaries

and white settlers.

There was a trail at our camp ground. You hiked to the top of the mountian

and if you timed it just right, you could watch the sun set over Lake Cour 'dAlene.
We wanted to see the sunset and started out with high hopes-

however the mosquitoes had another idea.

We didn't make it very far before we started being eaten,

and once the starving bugs started to get to Lily and J.D., we called it quits.

The picture above is the view point of where we stopped.

A quick picture before we ran out of there.

Stone Henge/WWI Memorial on HWY 12

The last stop on the way home.