Going Losting II

Autumn is in full swing around here, and Saturday we took an exploratory road trip around the area to take in the beautiful, vibrant, brilliant, neon (not in a 80's spandex sort of way, but in a breathtaking color only God can create sort of way) autumn around us.

So, we headed up through Oktoberfest-Tourist-Ridden-Leavenworth to Lake Wenatchee, and then back down around through Plain, which for the record is not at all plain, and then stopped by a Pumpkin Patch on the way to our favorite pizza joint in town. It was a fun family day...

Imagine our horror, when on the way up to Lake Wenatchee we spotted someone smoking in the backseat. What nerve!

Fortunately, she had the good grace to be embarrassed about it.

It was very windy and cold, but absolutely beautiful.We took a family picture, just for fun...The second family picture we have in recent weeks where we are all smiling. I think the wind blew our faces that way, and then the cold promptly froze them.

Then we played in the kids play area...

Kiki was very excited about the rock wall, because she loves rock climbing with B and Auntie Ten.

While she's not much on actually climbing at this point, she does enjoy swinging, rappelling and the like. Thank you B for these pics!

Then we went frolicking down a pretty path...

Snuggled up to Daddy so Mommy could take a pic of her three favorite people on the planet...Spotted a wild animal climbing a tree...

The colors were so spectacular, pics just don't do them justice, or capture the depth of the yellows, reds, oranges offset by the green of the evergreen, and the blue of the sky. This was the a shot on the way into Plain, WA--A cute little town in a breathtaking valley. The only actual off-roading we did was up a hill outside of Leavenworth. This is a cool shot of the valley Frank got. Oktoberfest is in full swing, and there are busloads of tourists from "the other side"** all over the place right now. Very annoying. We prefer Leavenworth on Tuesday. Our visit to the pumpkin patch was also abbreviated due to the obscene amount of tourists from "the other side"**. We'll go back on Tuesday, or Wednesday or something.

After Pizza we spotted a fire up near Burch Mountain so Daddy took the camera and the Rover and headed up Badger Mountain to see what he could see. While there weren't any pics of the fire, he got some spectacular ones of the sunset. We love "sunsats", other than the fact that they mean "bednight" time is coming. :-)

Pretty, huh? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kiki and Debris helped Mama make a Pumpkin Cheese Cake Roll. YUM!

DISCLAIMER: We do not approve of smoking, or endorse smoking in any way, shape or form. Our children understand the health risks behind smoking, and are informed of the stupidity of such action. That being said, they are also taught to be respectful of adults who make the choice to smoke. Long disclaimer made short, the action of smoking is not approved in this household, in spite of the pics you see here.

** "the other side" is the term widely used in Wenatchee and Eastern Washington in reference to anyone who lives on 'the other side' of the Cascade mountain range.