Going Losting

Since we've moved to the Wenatchee Valley, weekends have changed for our family a bit. Well, a lot has changed, but that's a lovely story for another day. It used to be that we would have a lot more family dinners, parties, get-together's, etc. on the weekends. Now, pretty much every Saturday it is just we four. And, as Frank Castle has a rather stressful job, and works a crazy amount of hours, we feel it is very important to do something that is only fun on Saturdays. So, usually fun in our family involves our Land Rover, and giving it a run for it's money with regards to rocks, hills, threading trees, seeing how tilted we can get the tilt-o-meter on it, (that's not the technical name, but I can't remember it, and you get the picture.) So, we used to get up and tell our girls, "we're going to get lost today!" which did not please them at all. Thankfully, we're still smarter than they are. Enter the power of Dum-Dum's. We call it conditioning. The Land Rover's glove box is now full of Dum Dum's. When we get lost, the girls get candy. Now, they love to get lost, and have entered whole heartedly into the adventure of it all. Over time, they've gotten excited about these trips up into whatever canyon or forest service road Dad wants to explore. Every day when Daddy gets home from work, Debris says, "Daddy, can we go losting now?" It's turned into a great deal of fun. We must look like lunatics. Usually we are all eating dum dums, and singing along with Johnny Cash as we head up into the hills.

So, this last Saturday was no exception. Kiki insisted upon wearing her new shirt and jacket from Uncle J & Aunt A. She is quite pleased with it, because, in her words, it makes her look like a Rock Star. Yeah. Where that one came from is unknown. Daddy was bugging Kiki, and she finally told him she was going to throw him in the Columbia River, where the Sharks would eat him with their forks. Debris interupted this tirade with, "Sharks don't eat with forks, they eat with their HANDS, silly!" And they argued on that point for quite some time. You see why the word "sanitarium" is in the title of this blog. Note to self: Have children watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel next year, that'll clear up the Columbia River, fork, and hand business!

So, first we headed up Blue Grade, which lead to the hills of East Wenatchee.

A lot of what we saw here was burnt to a crisp, due to the Badger Mountain Fire earlier this summer. It was really amazing.

Next, we headed to a lovely fruit stand called First Fruits, and got a box of Elberta Peaches, a box of Gala Apples, and a bag of Honey Crisp apples. If you ever have the chance to try Honey Crisp apples, or Pink Lady apples, you should. They're my new favorite apple varieties. Of course, since the ones I eat just got picked, they probably taste way better than the grocery store version. Hee hee--I love living here. Anyway, then we ate Buffalo Burgers at Tom, Dick and Harry's in Moniter. This further enforced my pipe dream to own a bison ranch someday. It was delish. Sigh. I really want an organic bison ranch. It is an idea that is growing on Mr. Castle, so maybe if we ever end up with an extra couple million dollars, we might be able to swing it. Grin!

Next we headed up into the hills off Burch Mountain Road. Gorgeous, I tell you what. Pictures do not do this drive justice. But, I'll still attach them, just to give you an idea.

Normally I'm as relaxed as Jello no matter what manuever Mr. Castle pulls in this thing, but I thought we were going to die while doing the above manuever, due to the fact that it is quite a plummet to the Columbia River below. And, I'd already unbuckled myself to get out and take a pic. This one, to be precise.

This picture is the Plateau north of East Wenatchee. In the Giant Chasm you can barely see there is the Columbia River. Quite a bit of Zoom was employed with this pic, but that was the only way I could capture the wheat fields. Those things are around 30 miles away from where we were by flight, I'd guess. You have to wind through multiple canyons to get up there.

Here is Mr. Castle, Kiki and Debris, trying to find our house across the river.And, the beginning of autumn... YAY for fall color! Yay for Soup! Yay for Squash! Yay for sweatshirts, and Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Snow and Ice, and Leavenworth in Winter and YAY for cold crisp weather!! YAYYYYYYY!A few pics of my sweeties, enjoying being on top of the world...

Frank Castle and I were enjoying the sights, and we turned around just in time to catch these two adorable mountain goats climbing this rock with a giant plummeting steep hill behind it. I wonder where their mother was.

And, Mr. Castle and me. :-) Aww... We've had this camera for 1 1/2 years, and this was the first time we did the stereotypical couple thing where you take a picture of yourselves, by yourselves. It was slightly awkward. (using the camera in a backwards fashion, not snuggling up to my sweetie!) Note to self: Stop taking pictures of the children, and do silly things with husband here and there. Notice how my giant chin got cut off. Must practice.

Just as a side note, in all our offroading adventures on Saturday, we only saw one other car. Amazing. As we were leaving the last primitive road, we had to drive through a ditch, around a barricade and shortcut through a corner of a field, a pile of river rock and over a sidewalk, due to the fact that there were a couple jeeps parked in the way. We raised quite the cheers and waves from that party. If anyone would like to bring their off road vehicle with them to visit us, we'd love to have you. Then we could really get crazy, as we'd have someone to winch us out of situations. :-)

So, this is what I am sure will be the first of many Land Rover related posts. As Kiki says, when the Land Rover starts slipping and sliding, " March on, Rovey, March on!!!"