Thank you, Mr. Nintendo--and Happy Bday, Jack and Annie

Just finished the Annual Birthday Vacation Family Adventure road trip. Jack turned 8 on the 1st and Annie turned 10 (!). Every year we go somewhere new on vacation rather than having birthday parties and this year it was to Silverwood, an amusement/water park in Northern Idaho. Great weather and lots of fun, we spent three days there and then drove to central Washington for three days and stayed in Wenatchee.

We took a day trip to a little town called Leavenworth, which is famous for its Bavarian-style buildings. It's surrounded by mountains and you'd almost think you were in the Alps. We also took a tour of the Aplets and Cotlets factory, okay--not too exciting, but there were free samples. Aplets and Cotlets, if you've never had them are kind of a firm jellied candy made of (surprise) Apples and Apricots and walnuts, then covered in powdered sugar. They are pretty good, though it's the kind of candy I always associate with my grandma. One of the best days on the trip was the day we did practically nothing, except play in the hotel pool all day.

And seven hours one way in the car would have been much worse without those Nintendos. It didn't stop all the "are we there yet"s but made the trip bearable (mostly). Here are some pictures.