Leavenworth

Charlie and I have been together for about 14 years.
I just turned 30.
So, for all you tuning in at home, we started dating shortly after my 16th birthday in 2002.
We broke up between 18 and 20 years old so Charlie could explore his wild side, for lack of a better phrase. I'm really glad that we did, because when we came back together to trudge through the muck of his past and get both our lives back on track, I couldn't imagine having a better tour guide.
I love Charlie and the life we have built together, but I think the most important thing is that I like him, like I really, really like him. We are a great match, especially because he really balances out my RBF; everybody loves Charlie. He makes me look good.
However, there are lulls in our relationship, as with any normal couple, especially because we have been together for almost half our lives.
I think the important thing is to really recognize that and make sure you mix it up a bit.
Therefore, Leavenworth 2016 was hastily thrown together by yours truly.
It had been a pretty stressful couple of weeks so I made the executive decision to pull a few hundred out of our savings and get a sitter for the kids for the night.
We dropped them off at one of the various grandparents constantly vying for a weekend and were off to rekindle in the heart of the mountains.
Charlie grew up on skis and now Steve and Charlie both ski whenever they get the chance. They love it with a fiery passion, a passion that I cannot really get into.
We had decided to stop at Stevens on the way over to Leavenworth. The whole way over there I had a seriously sour attitude, to myself, about the whole thing.

My boots are SO uncomfortable that the last time we went it took 20 minutes to regain feeling in my feet. I was really starting to get concerned. I thought they might have to amputate. Then the tingly feeling started to set in, but it wasn't like a funny tingle when your foot regularly falls asleep, it was a violent pins and needles eruption all throughout my feet. On top of that, I'm just not very good.
I know you need to practice to get better, but I'm too scared of falling to make any big moves. So, I just stiffly and slowly scoot down Daisy while Charlie patiently tells me what to do.
On top of that and that, its so much work. You get up there and wrestle with everything. Boots, gloves, jacket, hat, goggles, pass, phone, money, tuck it all in, zip it up, jam gloves on and trudge up to the lift.
At the point of me trudging up the lift, I was starving and had pretty much already talked myself out of it.
I looked at Charlie while we were standing in line, after all the work we had just done to get up there and said, "I'm just not into it. I'm sorry, I just don't want to."
As soon as the words escaped my huge mouth, I wanted to take them back.
Stop being such a baby and get on the effing lift.
The hard part is over.
Charlie looked at me and with the most disappointed face, I may have ever seen said, "Are you serious?"
"I'm sorry. Ill just go and hang out, there's a lot going on. Ill just wait for you and check it all out."
I awkwardly stepped out of my skis and sat down outside of the lodge and felt mingled regret and relief as I loosened my boots.
He came back down about 10 minutes later, realizing that he grabbed Steve's pass and not his.
All that work to get up here with all this damn gear, was all for naught.
We walked back down to the truck and I'm pretty sure I could hear him muttering in front of me about how shitty this whole thing was and I started crying.
I felt like an asshole.
Skiing is huge for him and I really wanted to share that with him and our 2 children.
It made me feel like we didn't have anything in common anymore and my super wonderful imagination started up.
I cried to myself as we stripped down to our base layers and got into the truck.
After 10 minutes of the silent treatment I blurted out, "I just love you and I'm sorry I don't like skiing!"
After blurting this, I realized that he was over it and really didn't care at all.
Its just me being a girl...really its always just me being a girl.
I cried hysterically to my bewildered husband while he told me I was being ridiculous.
Its fine that I don't like to ski.
Our lives will go on, together, like they have for the last 14 years and they always will.
After that fit of tears and roller coaster ride of emotions coming from Hormones Galore over here, we finally arrived in Leavenworth.
It was warm and the tourists were out in full force.
Getting a hotel is kind of hard, anytime here because there really isn't an off season so I found the cheapest place I could that would facilitate our needs, enter: The Alpen Rose Hotel.
Upon walking in, we realized that it was under construction. Ah, that's why it was so cheap. Its all starting to make sense now.
As we were checking in and the welcome girl was giving us her spiel, which included cheesecake between 6 and 8 in the evening and a pretty legit breakfast, I asked her what was going on with the construction. Wonderfully enough there weren't any plans for renovations for the week and all the rooms were done.
Score!
We walked up to our room (which smelled like fresh paint) and parked our bags and unridden skis.

Charlie went running and I went out on the back porch and did some yoga. It was really refreshing, there was still a little snow on the ground and it felt good to be moving outside. It would have been really perfect, except for the blaring alarm coming from the condos behind the hotel.
Always something, right?

We drove into town and I got some peach rings and Charlie got a chaser for the rum he stowed away.
I'd been craving peach rings since Janet, Heather and I went to see a movie and they had a bulk candy section and Heather got a mix of candy and I stupidly got cookie dough bites and then felt bad cuz A) they had frozen cookie dough bites and I just got the regular kind and B) I ate all of Heathers peach rings because they're just too delicious.
Moral of the story: always get the peach rings.
Anywho, We drove around for a few minutes and I tried to relax and eat my peach rings because I really dislike when Charlie just starts driving around.
Going with the flow paid off this time because we discovered that Leavenworth has a ski hill.
Like a legit ski hill with a lift and everything. It was pretty cool, we poked around for a bit and decided that it was time to eat more than peach rings and shots of rum.

We both got ready and lazily drove the quarter mile to town and even lazier, paid for parking.
South, our fave Mexican restaurant, had a wait for like an hour, which is crazy because we've always just walked in, but apparently this was a busy weekend for the city because everywhere was packed.
We walked around the city while my stomach slowly ate itself and I imagined eating 26 giant burritos and washing it all down with a South Colada.
Finally, a table was ready for us.
"I'll have the South Colada and fish tacos, thanks."
"Oh we don't have coconut milk yet so no coladas."
"WHAT!"

I literally screamed this at the server, then felt really bad, but it was my first reaction. I had been looking forward to it since I booked our room
I recovered a little and realized our once pleasant server was now giving me the stink eye.
Shit.
"I'm sorry, I'll just have a corona then."
Totally dejected I took a drink of my beer and it did not taste like vacation.
I recovered and ordered a margarita instead, making Charlie drink my beer.
The marg was delightful and now I have two boozy options for dinner there.
We wolfed down our food, like we do best and made our way to the Icicle Brewery where they had some live music upstairs.

We sat ridiculously close to the performers, who were pretty legit, and drank our beers, which were super yum and tasted like vacation, not a tropical one, but a mountain one.
We listened and drank and when they took a break between sets, played checkers, which I won and Charlie sorely lost.

We stumbled out of there and went back to our hotel.
As soon as we walked into the lobby, our welcome lady greeted us.
"Good evening, would you like your cheesecake?"
"Um hells yeah we would like our cheesecake!"
"Cherries?"
"Again, hells yeah! Can we score some of these awesome DVD's over here?"
She smirked, gave us our cheesecake complete with cherries and we giggled over the movies.
I picked The Heat, immediately but Charlie was contemplating this decision like his life depended on it.
"C'mon this cheesecake isn't getting any fresher and I doubt we will stay awake long enough for one movie, let alone two."
We scarfed our cheesecake and I realized that I needed some white noise because I sleep with a hibernating bear.
I found a super awesome app and turned up some ocean noises and literally put it on my face to drown out the snores.
The next morning Charlie ran again and I did some yoga.
Around the time that I was about to kill because I was so hungry I realized that I still had peach rings, thank you God or I guess I should say thank you Haribo.
We found a killer breakfast place and sat down to enjoy our coffee.
The place was pretty small so we were shoved next to a table with a disgruntled family complete with a surly looking 22 year old brother and a valley girl 19 year old sister.
"So, my boyfriend is really into hunting. He got me a bow for Christmas and he's going to teach me to hunt and field dress and everything. I think its really important to learn how to do that."
"Wow, what are you talking about? Your boyfriend. Pft. It sounds like he's living the real redneck dream! I gotta go Mom."
As we were walking out Charlie looked at me and said, "Do you think they were brother and sister?"
"Oh yeah, of course they were."

"I would never talk to Shannon like that."
"Well that's exactly how Chaz and I talk to each other and that's probably how Steve and Summer will talk to each other. That's already how Steve talks to Summer."
"What no way! Its only cuz you're a jerk to your brother! Steve and Summer will never do that!"
I just shrugged my shoulders and let him have his dream.
We scored a pretzel with some high quality liquid cheese and packed up all our stuff.
Its nice to reconnect with my favorite person and make sure that he still knows that he is, in fact, my favorite guy.
Even after all this time.
Always.