Lost Creek Village

My friend Shellie and I attended a four day scrapbook retreat at Lost Creek Village on Chinook Pass last week.  We arrived on Thursday and came home this afternoon.  We did not have any trouble driving up to the lodge even though the last 1.4 miles was a very muddy dirt road. We were worried about someone trying to navigate through the mud in a small car, but everyone had SUV's.  The road was grated before we left for home. 

The Union Gospel Mission in Yakima owns Lost Creek Village. The facilities host year-round activities like youth camps, retreats, family reunions and other events. Activities include swimming, fishing, hiking, volleyball, rope courses, archery, pickleball and paintball.  Visitors can rent cabins, rooms in the lodge, or stay in Teepees.

The kitchen had an enormous ice machine and a huge walk-in refrigerator.

We got a little surprise when we got up on Friday morning and it had snowed overnight.

The scenery on Friday morning was just stunningly beautiful!

This is Shellie working on 114 Disney pages - her project for the weekend. The pages were just adorable.

 

Twenty-three people attended this event.

 

One of the great things about attending scrapbook events is that you get to see a lot of tools and learn tricks of the trade. This paper tote was just amazing. You could store a lot of paper, keep it organize and it folded down to a small suitcase size box on wheels. 

 

St. Patrick's Day

Susan and I were both in the baking mood for St. Patrick's Day.  Susan made Irish Soda Bread in the shape of a shamrock. The bread will compliment the Lamb Stew we are having for dinner. 

I made cookies for Susan to take to work tomorrow. Our house smelled wonderful over the weekend!

An Evening with Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot performed at the Capital Theatre last night, just one of the stops on his '50 Years on the Carefree Highway Tour in the U.S. and Canada.

The Canadian singer-songwriter achieved international success in folk, folk-rock and country music and is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 60's and 70's. He was recently inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York.

Some of his most popular songs include: Early Morning Rain, If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown, Carefree Highway, Rainy Day People and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The performance was a mix of both new songs and old favorites and while his singing is not as powerful as it once was, it was great to hear him perform his old hits.

San Tan Flat

Before we left for Arizona one of Susan's co-workers told her that they really liked a restaurant called San Tan Flat and that we should give it a try if we had a chance.  Well, Susan and I went there for lunch one day and liked it so much that we took everyone there the next day for dinner.















The restaurant and grounds are darling. The decorations are so western that there is hay on the ceiling. There are fit pits outside and they have S'more kits on the menu. The place was relatively empty during lunch but packed for dinner. 

This beautiful hand painted bison skin is hanging inside. The walls are full of western artifacts and antiques.

















This unusual instrument is an example of some of the antiques on the walls.















 As you can tell by the look on her face, Charlotte is not sure what to think about sitting on a saddle. 



















Adam would have been thrilled to have a horse under the saddle.

 

Dolly Steamboat

The day before we left Arizona we took a ride around Canyon Lake on the Dolly Steamboat.  Just before we arrived at the lake, we stopped at this vista point.

Canyon Lake was formed following the construction of Mormon Flat Dam in 1925 by the USDL Bureau of Reclamation.  The Salt River Project manages the dam for water storage and power generation. Water stored in this reservoir is collected from the 13,000 square mile Salt River watershed.

 

Recreation opportunities at Canyon Lake include fishing, hiking, swimming, picnicking, boating and water-sports.  Narrated nature tours, like the one we went on, are offered a few times a day and a dinner cruise is available in the evening.

Adam and Charlotte had a great time playing with this wheel while waiting to board Dolly.

The Dolly Steamboat.  As we left the dock, we listened to (you guessed it) Hello Dolly!  What was even funnier was that they played the theme music from the Titanic movie several times during the cruise. 

The Mormon Dam is 224 feet high and 380 feet long. Canyon Lake is 10 miles long, 142 feet deep with a shoreline of 28.3 miles.

During our cruise we saw two bald eagles flying up to their nest.  One of the eagles chased away a hawk and had a small animal in its talons.  The nest was quite a distance away from us and it took every bit of zoom on my camera to see the eagle in the nest. Click on the image for a larger view.

 

Numerous caves are visible in the rocks and some are home to hundreds of bats. 

 

Charlotte was not impressed with the life jacket she had to wear and I do not blame her one bit. It was so bulky that she could not reach her mouth to take a bite of her toast.  By the end of the 90 minute tour she was worn out.

 

Renaissance Festival

We took the kids to the 25th Annual Arizona Renaissance Festival during our visit. Susan and I had been there before but that was several years ago and the festival has grown substantially.

There are many more Artisan shops now, along with bakeries, pubs, shows and, of course, several places to eat. 

 

Adam experienced several new things during his visit to the festival. He has petted a bunny before, but the picture was just so cute that I couldn't resist!

 

As far as I know, Adam had never been on a trampoline like this before. I kind of expected him to back out after they put the harness on, but he had a blast and went pretty high for a 3 year-old.

This was one of my favorite pictures of Charlotte having a blast playing on the grass. She fell and hit her head a few days before and you can see the bruise right in the middle of her forehead. 

Adam and Julie both experienced their first camel ride. 

Adam wanted to pet the goose, which did not surprise me, but when the handler put the goose in Adam's lap I thought there would be trouble. Adam was so gentle; you can tell he is use to being around Luke the wonder cat.

Many people roam through the festival in period authentic costumes.  The festival runs through March 31st and parking is free.

Adam was star struck when he met Meredith. He spent all week playing Temple Run Brave on Susan's kindle.

 

There are several shows taking place on the various stages at the festival. It is getting large enough that a person could actually get lost now.

 

Adam and I rode on the Swan Swing. I was surprise how high the ride got. It weighs 1200 pounds (without people) and two guys push it and keep it going.

Four Generations

Susan and I spent last week visiting Mom and Dad in Arizona.  Julie, Adam and Charlotte joined us from Pittsburgh.  One of the reasons we all met in Arizona was to have a four generation photo taken, which turned out great. 

Mom and Dad had this picture taken with Adam, who is 3 and Charlotte Anne who is 10 months old. The kids did a great job, not just for the photos, but all week long while we were busy seeing the sights. We put 545 miles on our rental car.

A group photo.