Stehikin

Imagine a place with steep mountains all around except for a 1,000 foot deep lake, only reachable by boat, no phones, no internet, no TV. Well that is Stehikin. Delores organized a trip to this remote town on the edge of Lake Chelan for us, her friend Sandy and some old friends of Matt and Delores', Maureen and Bruce, came along too. We drove up to Snohomish on the day after Christmas. Then we took a 1.5 hour boat ride from the south end of Lake Chelan to the North end. The town has 95 year-round residents and since it is not reachable by car, the boat also brings supplies, mail, groceries, etc so it is a big event when the boat comes. Here is Matt in front of our out-house...just kidding, we stayed in a really nice cabin that was heated by a gas stove but it had electricity and even a dishwasher. I forgot to take a picture of it. Here is the pic from the website. View of the lake and the mountains...I think I could live here...

A cool little area overlooking the Lake to pray or meditate. Beautiful.

Matt and I got a lot of use out of our new snow shoes.

Rainbow Falls was partially frozen. So cool.

Here is the rest of the gang on a little exploration hike of the area. We had such a fun time hanging out with these guys, playing games and eating great food. Thanks for a great adventure, Delores.

bench project

As you can see I'm doing some catch-up blogging.

This was just a little project we did and I don't think I ever posted anything about it. We had an old shelf thingy that we weren't using anymore and I had been wanting a little bench to set things down on when you walk in our front door or to sit to put your shoes on. Well we added some legs and a few cusions and walaaa...an entryway bench.

Christmas at the Craigs

It's been a great Christmas so far. This is us opening of gifts from Mike and Katie and family.

I have recieved a cat calendar from my brother Mike for Christmas for as long as I can remember.

They even remembered Olive. This is her excited face. Can you tell?

I think Matt liked the Cowboys grill. What do you think?

Thank you Mike, Kate, Natalie, Mandie, Shaun and Timmy.

Kathleen's birthday tea

Celebrated Kathleen's birthday by going to tea at the Lavender Tea House in Sherwood. This was my first tea experience and it was quite fun. Scones, girl talk, funny hats and a tasty cake. What a great time. Thanks for having a birthday Kathleen!

Burnt Lake Hike

Back in May we did a hike on Mt. Hood and ran into snow. We never found the Lake because of all the snow on the trail. On the way back we saw some llamas enjoying a ride through town which just struck me as funny....really I find anything having to do with llamas funny. We went back in July with our neighbor dog Cooper and did the hike again. The snow was gone and the lake was found! Beautiful. (clearly, it has been a long time since I've blogged and I cant recall how to rotate the pictures.)

Grandma Lang...

In March I flew back to Rockford to say goodbye to my Grandma Lang. She wasn't doing well and I was glad I made it back in time to see her. She passed away the day after I arrived. My cousins and I agreed she had a way of making every grandkid feel like secretly they were her favorite. Grandma was a believer and I'm sure she enjoying heaven now. It is a great comfort to know I'll get to see her again some day.

Despite the sad circumstances, it was fun to get to see family and friends. I thought I'd share some of the funny/good things that happened:
1) Hearing stories from my uncles about their “wild and crazy” years growing up.
2) Getting to meet Jackson, my cousin Erin and her husband Matt’s little boy, for the first time. What a charmer. He is 2 and speaks in sentences with multi-sylable words.
3) Hanging out with family. My nieces gave me a manicure and Timmy helped Natalie put my hair up with the use of paintbrushes.

4) Getting to seem my good friends Laura and Aaron. We go way back. I’m so excited for them. They are pregnant with their first.

A new car...

Silver (my car) had seen better days so we’ve been praying about a new car. It seems odd that we got rid of our 9 year old car and kept the nearly 20 year old vehicle but they just don’t make ‘em like they used to (say that in your best old man voice). I bought Silver 2 weeks after I graduated from college. I had my degree, my job offer and now all I needed was years of car payments, right? Soo silly:-) I think a little bit differently theses days thanks to our friend Dave Ramsey.


After several hours spent at a dealership one rainy Saturday here’s what we came up with:

What do you think? Is it me? What should we name it? oh, it's a nissan versa by the way.
P.S. Don't get any ideas. The mini van next to the new car is a rental Matt had for work.