Anniversary Weekend.

Our anniversary fell on a Monday this year.  I suppose that will happen as the years go by and the anniversaries begin to fall midweek.  But we didn't let that stop us and we decided to simply turn it into a three day weekend.

Before anything was planned, Peter kindly asked me if I wanted to be a part of the planning process or if I wanted it all to be one big surprise. For those who know me, you know I am not a huge fan of surprises. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love surprising other people, but I think it's the control freak in me that keeps me from fully enjoying surprises for myself.  I mean I don't mind like surprise flowers or surprise notes, but it's the surprise events that I'm not a huge fan of.  Plus, that's a lot of pressure for the husband to plan a whole weekend without any wifely input.  Thus, we planned it together, and we decided that the only stipulation was that we wanted to go somewhere we had never been before.

We had heard fabulous things about the Methow Valley - so we decided to venture across the North Cascades for the anniversary weekend.  And our final destination was a beautiful cabin just outside the tiny, tiny town of Mazama.

It took us about 4 hours to get there with all the stops and what not.

one of our stops - Diablo Lake.

And soon after our arrival we decided to embark on a 9 mile hike around the river, in what seemed to be the heat of the day!  We had one water bottle and no food, which was a terrible idea now looking back on it. And I don't know what we were thinking.  After 2 hours we both just wanted to GET BACK to the house and we still had like another hour to go!  It wasn't even that the hike was hard - it was just SO long!

And we were hungry - we made it home around 7 and ate a delicious steak dinner.

And then on Sunday we made a delicious egg filled breakfast and rode our bikes to Winthrop - a total of 30 miles round trip.  Please do keep in mind that I am not a biker nor do I own bike shorts, thus let's just say I was sore for days!  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy riding my bike, on trails, not so much on a highway, nor do I enjoy riding my bike in the wind.

But we made it.  And it took us a little less than an hour, and I was pooped.  We found a spot to eat our little packed lunch, walked around the town a bit, and then got back on our bikes and rode home.

in Winthrop - before beginning the journey back!

And I think it was even windier on the ride home.  I was DYING!  It was so windy that we were having to peddle on the down hill - umm??  I didn't like that at all.  It was definitely NOT ideal simply because I love resting while coasting down those hills I previously had to ride up.  It's like my reward to myself.  But then when it's windy you have to keep peddling just to keep moving.

There was even a point during the ride where I told Peter I wasn't going to make it.  In fact, I wanted him to ride home and get the car so that he could come back and pick me up!  That was at mile marker 10 and I still had 5 miles to go.  He said he would do that if it was really what I wanted.  So off he went, and I panicked and realized I didn't have any water left and it was HOT people.  So I yelled for him at the top of my lungs - PETER..PETER!!  It makes me laugh so hard now looking back on it.  He somehow heard my cry amidst the wind lapping against his ears.  And he stopped and after a lot of moaning and groaning on my part, we proceeded to ride home together.

The ride home from Winthrop was definitely not one of my favorite moments from the weekend, but it was funny, and I made it!  What an accomplishment.  I think the last time I rode that far was last year!

That night we rewarded ourselves with a delicious pizza dinner.  We had dinner per a recommendation at East 20 Pizza.  And this time we decided to take the car to Winthrop!

We left fairly early on Monday morning and I think we stopped at every single viewpoint on the map!  Thus, it took us AGES to get home.  All in all, it was a fabulous weekend and a wonderful way to start another year together.  And we will definitely be back - we loved this area and we loved all the outdoorsy stuff the valley had to offer.