winter break: friend time, mopop, and mount rainier cabin getaway

happy 2024! today is our first day back to reality and let me tell you, it was not fun waking up in the dark, but here we are. i still need to take down all of our christmas decorations, which is my least favorite task. here's the rest of how we spent the second week of the break: 

last tuesday thatcher and azalea had a date to thatcher's office for a few hours. thatcher got some work done while azalea used the ipad and they got lunch together. they have done this over winter break a few different years. ashford and i went out for our own lunch in ballard with rebekah and arlo at 'thai thani' and then arlo came over the for the afternoon. 

wednesday we didn't have any plans. thatcher went to work, i went to the gym in the morning and worked. i've been wanting wireless headphones for the gym for a while and thatcher got some for me for christmas. i love them! 

 azalea asked if we could go to 'mopop' (museum of pop culture at seattle center) in the afternoon. ashford and i have never been and miraculously he agreed, so i bought us tickets. the museum was very busy, but it was fun to experience. it has everything from music history to horror movies to sci-fi to a sound lab.

thursday was a lot of preparing for our cabin getaway. laundry, errands, packing, and cleaning up the lingering christmas chaos (not the decorations, but all the other stuff like boxes, etc). in the afternoon ashford went to arlo's and azalea and i went to the library and fred meyer. 

friday morning i went to the gym and we did the rest of our trip prep. we left after lunch time to drive to ashford, wa (a little over 2 hours away). the vrbo cabin was really cute, and the scenery was beautiful despite the fact that we envisioned snow when we booked it back in august. in reality, it was way too warm this year for that. oh well. we quickly settled into our routine of snacks, hot tubbing, reading, video games, and movie nights. the first night we grilled hot dogs for dinner. i'm all about the easy dinners on these trips. 

i was very excited to see this little christmas tree when we walked in.

saturday morning we all slept in and hung out at the cabin in the morning. we played the 'wordle' board game my mom got us for christmas. 

then we headed to 'copper creek inn' for lunch, which is a cute historic restaurant. good food, but very slow service. not that we had anywhere to be :) 

we relaxed back at the cabin the rest of the afternoon. it was rainy and cool out. don't let this photo of them fool you into thinking there was no fighting on this trip ;) 

thatcher built a fire outside....in the rain. the kids each joined him out there for a while, but i stayed cozy in the cabin reading my book. 

we ended the night with pasta for dinner, time in the hot tub, and watched a movie. 

sunday was new year's eve. we decided to drive into mount rainier national park to go find snow. thatcher had to rent chains for our subaru's tires (just in case, but we didn't need to put them on). we drove to 'paradise' which is at 5,500 ft and there is a visitor center with a big parking lot. it was packed with people playing in the snow and snow shoeing on the trails. i haven't been in the mountains in winter in quite a few years, so i always forget just how majestic it is. 

when we got back, we relaxed back at the cabin for the rest of the day. we went in the hot tub, made frozen pizza/leftovers for dinner. i drank some champagne and got a head start on 2024 reading. the kids insisted that we stay up until midnight. we were all pretty tired/crabby by then. thatcher and i should have just gone to bed. ha! oh well. memories :) 

monday was new years day and our final morning at the cabin. the kids slept in and we got everything cleaned and packed up. we were sad to leave. on our way out of town, we got an updated picture of ashford in front of the ashford sign.

we spent the rest of the day at home unpacking, doing laundry and getting groceries. i love this tradition that we started and i'm already looking forward to next year.