Heading for the hills

Yesterday Geri, Mark, Talia, Jackson and I headed for the hills.  Or mountains.  We went East of the Mountains (which is a thing in Washington so I capitalized it) to Leavenworth.  Leavenworth is a delightfully kitschy Bavarian village in the middle of the Cascade Mountains.

We wandered in and out of shops and there was the requisite trying on of hats in the hat shop:

I bought the kids each a pre-lunch ice cream cone to buy us a little more shopping time before there was a mutiny.  (I have learned that ice cream cones stave off mutinies.)

We found more photo ops.

a cute goat but we still love Horace best

another cute little goat, somehow eating a big lollipop...

We had lunch, saw a few more shops, then headed home.  On our return trip, we stopped on the top of the pass, where the snow was, and Geri handed out gloves and handed me a stocking cap.  She pulled a sled out of the back of her van.

Within 10 seconds Mark and Jackson were pelting snowballs at each other.

Here's Mark and Talia, beating a hasty retreat from Jackson and his snow bullets (the kid has an arm that can throw):

Geri pushing Mark on the sled, Jackson looking for an opportunity to strike

Grandma was the role Geri was born to play. She excels at it. She's a wonder. I should be taking notes.  Back at the car she had dry socks, blankets, hot chocolate and whipped cream.  I hope these kids know how lucky they are.

(As a side note, all this frivolity yesterday put me over the top in my fight against a cold...or put the cold over the top.  It's winning.  When I take NyQuil at night and I grimace and shudder with the awfulness of the flavor, I feel like a cowboy drinking a shot of whiskey in a saloon.  Yes, I watched a lot of Westerns when I was growing up.  Why do you ask?)