one can dream

Where has the time gone?

Zeke is still growing....I hardly recognize the puppy any more as he is clearly bigger than Zoe. I haven't been as good about taking pictures. We took them out to the dog park this weekend which would have been a perfect time to snap a few updated shots, but I couldn't be bothered with bringing along the camera. Despite his stature, he's still all puppy. There are definitely moments where I swear I'll never have another boy dog. He's shredded too many dog beds to count, still has accidents in the house and harasses Zoe by constantly sitting on her. Sure it's cute now, but I'm so afraid that he'll still be trying to sit on her when he's 80 lbs. Surely you'd think Zoe would let him know to get off, but she just lays there and let's him trample all over her.

We did take them on a little day trip last Saturday to Leavenworth. Mostly a day of driving, but we took the opportunity to check out some vacation cabins. One was in the old mining town of Liberty, population of what seemed like 10. The listing advertised a rustic cabin on 3.5 acres for $119K. As we drove through the one-horse town, it was clear the locals had their eye on us. We weren't from these parts, evidenced by our squeaky clean Subaru, dogs in tow.

We turned onto a snowy, unplowed road and realized we weren't going to get much farther by car. One of the locals pulled up alongside us on his 4 wheeler and Rick told him what we were up to. Really nice gent who owned property down the road from the listing. He filled us in on the area and the "cabin" for sale. If we were going to get a closer look, it was going to be all on foot.

Decked out in running shoes, we leashed up the dogs and walked up the road, trying to avoid the deep snow. It wasn't too far up, maybe a 15 minute walk, but it was clear....this was not a drive-up-and-enjoy-your-weekend kind of cabin. We got to the lot and hiked up the hill to find a decrepit, rotting cabin -- all of about 150 sq ft. There's nothing rustic about it. It was a tear down, under the snow....the yard littered with old tires, appliances and who knows what else. Rick started to have visions of clearing the land, running power (yes, there's no power), and building a quaint yurt on the property. My vision was -- money pit.

We got back in the car and headed north to another getaway destination -- Leavenworth. Just 20 mins north, we came upon a hidden paradise along the Wenatchee River, complete with a cabin community ranging from the very obscure 100 sq ft sleeper to the extravagant over sized log home. All bordering the river. In the winter, it's a snowmobile haven and in the summer it's a waterfront retreat. I really fell in love with the idea of spending weekends in a place like this....that is until the drive home along Hwy 2 -- a dark, windy, 2-lane road.

Of course, now we've got the bug to dream about a weekend vacation home in the mountains, near water. A coworker of mine just bought a place just outside of Roslyn. And with the housing market in the tank, the vacation home market is suffering worse. To seriously entertain taking on a second mortgage, we'd have to get really focused on a budget. No more eating out. Lay low on the home remodeling projects. And yes, cutting back on the big vacations to places like Greece, Italy and other places I have on my "list."

So I guess this brings up another question. "What about the move to Minnesota?" Fortunately we've both come to our senses, and realize we have good jobs, good friends and most importantly good weather here. Why would we want to live in blizzard conditions all winter?

Who knows if we'll actually get a vacation home, but it sure is fun thinking about it. :)