Tag Archives: The Chalet Restaurant and Alpine Room

Quality Time Together…

Last Thursday Dear and I loaded up the car and headed East to enjoy some quality time with our kids. Our son-in-law Andrew wasn’t given time off of work to be able to join us and we missed him dearly.

On Friday (Halloween) we had a great hike on and above our son Dan’s property.

Our sons, Dan and Josh.

A Selfie from Josh and Laura.

Our daughter Katie and daughter-in-love, Laura.

Laura took this photo of Katie on our hike with her phone.

We had some great views and enjoyed lots of fall color.

My son shared some apples from his trees with the deer.

We enjoyed hiking, shooting, shopping, eating, and playing games together. We marvel at the world God created for us to enjoy and the people He has put in our lives to love and encourage us on our journey.

Dear and I stayed at a farmhouse close to our son’s home so the kids could enjoy staying up late and sleeping in while Dear and I tucked in earlier and woke up early each day. On Saturday morning all the kids came over to the farmhouse to enjoy a meal that Dear and I prepared for them. We bought some local made sausages and Dear made his fabulous Swedish pancakes and we added eggs to round off the meal.

Later on Saturday Dan and Jamie made us their famous fish tacos with their home made cabbage salsa. Dinner was so delicious. I’ll share the salsa recipe soon on Mennonite Girls Can cook. I’m so sad I didn’t take one photo of all the good eats we had.

We enjoyed three sunsets in Eastern Washington.

Dan and his girlfriend, Jamie.

Before we headed back over the Cascades to Western Washington we enjoyed brunch together.

We consider any time we are able to spend with our kids quality time.

I’m linking this post to ABC Wednesday for the letter Q. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt and the ABC crew.

Q is for Quality time spent together with family.

Country Fun vs. City Fun

Last weekend we traveled five and a half  hours to our son’s home in the northeastern corner of Washington state. We were definitely in the country. There are things that you can do in the country that you are not free to do in the city. We have fun doing those things…

To Chewelah 026We arrived with the sun shining and blue skies.

Chewelah lumixThere aren’t a lot of restaurants to choose from in the country compared to the city but you can still find some real good ones. We had my birthday dinner at The Chalet in Chewelah and we all enjoyed our meals.

Dan's March 002Early on Saturday morning the snow started falling. We weren’t expecting that.

Dan's March 005Thankfully the snow only lasted till noon and then melted nicely. On Saturday because of the cold and snow Dear and Dan did indoor projects.

2014-03-17 Dan's March2In the country you can count on early morning visitors of the 4 legged variety that aren’t dogs or cats.

2014-03-17 Dan's March3They make themselves at home.

2014-03-17 Dan's March4We love the wide open spaces in the country. While walking out on Dan’s land on Sunday morning it was great to hear all the different birds chirping and the creek running.

Dan's March 001

Dan's March 024

Dan's March 031

2014-03-17 Dan's March1Dan is fortunate to have a huge shop where he can work away from the elements. The shop had lots of old tools from the previous owner and Dan displayed some of the older ones on the walls.

Dan's March 022You can’t do this in our city but in the country we got a great bonfire going cleaning up lots of debris around the property. While we worked outside our corned beef meal was cooking away in the slow cooker. When the clean-up for the day was done my family did some shooting. It’s nice to shoot out in the open instead of in a enclosed shooting range.  In the evenings we enjoyed sitting around eating and enjoying each others company.

Parks PassBefore we headed home on Monday morning we drove north into Colville to the National Forest Service office in town to pick up my Senior America the Beautiful lifetime pass and we got a free Military dependent pass for Katie. We joined the locals in Colville for breakfast at Zip’s.

Dan's March 033It was fun sitting and listening to the good ole boys talking about their doings and their take on what happened to that Malaysian plane.

Our 6 hour drive home back to the city was uneventful and that’s the way we like it.

So…are you a country mouse or a city mouse or maybe a little of both?

I’m Melting…

…or the time in between Winter and Spring in Chewelah. There was a lot more snow on the ground at our son’s place before we arrived. I was happy to visit after the fact. I shared Fall scenes from his property and here are some winter scenes.

This was our daughter Katie’s first visit to her brother’s home so we all trekked about the property for her to get a good picture of his property.

We ended our stay with breakfast at The Chalet Restaurant and Alpine Room in Chewelah, a great place to eat.

We had a wonderful time together at Dan’s place. After breakfast we said our goodbyes and reminded each other that we’ll all be together again in late April when we travel to our niece’s wedding in Southern California from 3 different airports. We’re at that stage in life when our kids are a bit scattered and enjoying life as they should apart from us. We always welcome the times we can come together and enjoy each other. Do your grown children live far or near?