My Birthday Weekend Getaway

As a consolation prize for not getting to go on the cruise two weeks ago, Darren and I decided to get a group of friends together and rent a cabin close to Stevens Pass.   Fortunately, we had friends who wanted to come and we had an amazing weekend.

• Our Cabin

The cabin was located 25 miles west of Monroe in a tiny town called Index.  It was located right on the Skykomish River about a 2-3 minute walk from the put-in to raft the Skykomish River.  (Details like that are important for Darren and Darin.)  It was a small 2 bedroom cabin and since there were 4 couples total (but only three stayed each night) Darren and I got the bed in the living room.

The view from the deck was really pretty and just down from the deck was a hot tub.  We turned it down to 99 degrees so I wouldn't hard boil baby Austin and spent each night from around 11:30-1:00 am in the hot tub.  It was wonderful...until we had to walk back to the cabin soaking wet at 1:00 am.  That part wasn't so fun.

• The Couples

Darren & Mindy - And Austin because I couldn't bear the thought of leaving him home.
Darin & Tracy - Darren's boy, I mean, best friend and his other wife.
Ben & Laura - Our card playin' and trash talkin' partners in crime.
Travis & Elizabeth - The goofball and his beautiful wife, who is also an amazing writer...more about that later.

• Our Friday Night, aka Quelf, Part One
  

We had dinner at the cabin with Darin & Tracy and then played Cribbage while we waited for Ben & Laura to come.  When Ben & Laura finally got there we started up a game of Quelf.  A journey to the Land of Quelf is an experience unlike any other.  It's like Curses meets Cranium and Quelf is their riotous love child.  At one point in the game every time someone spoke to Darren when it was not his turn he had to play peek-a-boo with them and it was hilarious.  But on top of that when anyone would laugh Darin would have to slap his knee and say, "Wacka, wacka, wacka".  And when it was Darren's turn I would have to cheer on his every move and poor Darin would still be slapping his knee yelling out, "wacka, wacka, wacka".  Ben was in the lead most of the game and whenever you were in the lead you had to say, "tsk" before every sentence.  So if you see Ben around, "tsk" him for me.

• Our Saturday Day

On Saturday morning Elizabeth and Travis joined us at the cabin for breakfast.  Shortly after we ate Travis, Ben, and Darren left to go ski/snowboarding at Stevens Pass.  (Darin was on the disabled list and had to stay behind with the girls....poor guy.)  It was so nice to be out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere with nothing to do expect whatever you wanted to do.  We played games, ate a lot of food, went on walks, and took naps.  No one called me "mom" and everyone got themselves their own glass of milk instead of asking me to get it for them.  It was divine.

The boys had a great time up at the pass going off jumps, falling off small cliffs, and getting run over by 60-year-old Asian ladies.  Darren confessed that he put the truck into 4-wheel drive, even though he didn't need to...he just wanted to test it out.

• Our Saturday Dinner, Fondue-Style
  

To celebrate my birthday we had a three course fondue-style dinner.  We didn't take any pictures, so you are just going to have to imagine it.  The first course was a Ementalier Swiss and Gruyere cheese fondue with baguette bread, corn chips, assorted vegetables, green apples and smoked sausage for dipping.  The second course was a broth fondue with beef tenderloin, chicken, and assorted vegetables for dipping.  Followed, after a short break, by a chocolate fondue that was neither milk nor dark with homemade marshmallows, pretzels, dried apricots, strawberries, bananas, green apples, and pound cake.  It was one of the best birthday dinners I have had since Teatro ZinZanni.

• Our Saturday Night, aka Quelf, Part Two

After dinner and before dessert we started another game of Quelf, this time with all 8 of us.  Here are some of the highlights.  After your turn was over you had to announce in your best Southern Baptist preacher voice, "And all the brothers and sisters said, Amen!"  At one point I drew a card that said end your turn and then look and point at the ceiling until your next turn, also you are not to speak English, only gibberish.  Do you know how hard it is to have something amazing and witty to say and have to say it in gibberish instead of English??  Travis had to do his best touchdown dance which I must say was pretty amazing.  Every time Elizabeth wanted to ask I question she had to raise her hand and say, "Excuse me, I feel a question coming on".  Poor Laura had to stick one finger up (that's right people, up) her nose and sing a song while rolling the die until she rolled three 2's.  I have never ever seen someone roll more 4's, 5's, and 6's before rolling a single 2.  Darren wore lipstick, Ben ran to the kitchen, grabbed a wooden spoon and returned with it in his mouth pretending to be a dog, I donned a toilet paper tu-tu and did a 30 second ballet dance, Darin had a quiet game because every time he wanted to speak he had to ask his foot for permission to speak and then answer for his foot in a high pitched voice "Permission granted".

• Our Sunday

After getting to bed around 2:00 am, none of us were particularly excited about having to be out of the cabin by 11:00 am.  We rolled out out bed around 9:30 and enjoyed Elizabeth's yummy strata for breakfast.  Amazingly enough we actually ate, got dressed, packed up our stuff and cleaned the cabin by 10:58, with 2 minutes to spare.

The cabin had a rock wall where past guests had signed a rock and left it, so we did the same.  It started with just our names on the front and the date.

And then we decided that we needed an awesome quote for the back and Darren suggested, "Intelligence is not meant to be understood by all" and it was done, signed "The Immaculate Haircut".

I wondered how people would know to turn the rock over and read the back.  Ben suggested we write, "business in the front, party in the back" and it was done.

After carefully placing the rock, we took a group picture (minus Darin and Tracy who left the night before) each doing our signature Quelf move.

• The Hike & the Novel
  

After checking out of the cabin we drove east to the tiny town of Baring, crossed the tracks and drive 4.3 miles up a forest service road to a trail head.  After getting to the top, finally, we realized that recreation passes were required to park.  Laura and I graciously offered to stay with the cars and "roll out" with two of them if the ranger came hoping that Travis and Elizabeth's Prius would be spared a ticket because it gets 50 miles to the gallon.  While everyone else was hiking Laura and I sat in the TrailBlazer and read the first 23 pages of Elizabeth's novel.  Her story is amazing and we were so bummed when we got to the end because we were dying to know how it ends.



I have had some awesome birthdays in my 27 years, but this one has got to be one of the best I have ever had.  Thanks to the other 3 couples and my awesome husband for sharing it with me.

Trevor's New Big Boy Room

It's official, my baby is growing up and in honor of him becoming a big boy (and because I need his room and crib for Austin) Trevor got a new big boy room for his birthday.  So scroll down for a tour.

First we have the red wall...

Featuring a desk and chair off craigslist, picture frames from Aunt Cheryll, a string of car lights from a garage sale, a clock from eBay that is an old record hand painted to look like an airplane flying, and a rocking chair my step-mom found by the dumpster that I sanded down and repainted to match the room.

Next is the green wall...

Featuring a high boy dresser we got off craigslist, a train lamp that Aunt Cheryll got at a garage sale, a picture of the Seattle temple, plastic storage bins that Grandma Kay found at a garage sale, and a bulletin board.  You can also see a corner of the road map rug that Aunt Cheryll found at yet another garage sale.

Up next is Trevor's favorite wall, the blue wall...

Featuring a twin size, super cool, race car bed with a built-in bookcase and toy box, handmade checkered flag curtains and car tie backs, and a train coat rack.

The final wall is the yellow wall...

Featuring a puzzle bookcase, Cars night light, coloring book caddy, and road signs coat hanger all from Aunt Cheryll.

As you can see, Trevor loves him new big boy room and bed.

And this afternoon for nap time it only took 30 minutes of him crying and getting out of bed and me calmly returning him to bed without talking to him (the SuperNanny approach) before he gave up the fight and fell asleep.

We're so proud of our big boy!!!