A place with a view

When Tom was a kid growing up in Cincinnati, he used to visit his grandparents in Utah and would spend time at the family cabin at Sundance. When I was a kid, I used to spend time with my friend, Jennifer, at her family cabin at Sundance. We would hike to Stewart Falls and spend all day exploring. Tom would hike to Stewart Falls and spend his days exploring, too. I wish I had a time machine so that I could see if we were ever in the same vicinity at the same time. Wouldn't that be a kick? Maybe we passed each other on the trail to the falls. I think I would have remembered seeing him, though. He was a pretty cute kid. And he probably would have liked my friend, Jennifer, and not me. But, that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, all this to say that Tom and I both loved escaping to the mountains. So it was always a dream of ours to get our own cabin someday.

When we moved to Washington we noticed that a lot of people we met had a "place" either in the mountains or by one of the many lakes around the area. Of course, their places were large and luxurious but all we wanted was a little place to hang our hats while we explored and hiked to water falls.

We found our little dream cabin at Lake Wenatchee. Well, it wasn't a dream cabin at first. At first it was a nightmare cabin. It looked like this:

Maybe that picture doesn't make it look as bad as it really was, and I promise to go into more detail about the four-year, weekend renovations but it really was a horrible little place. That's all you need to know for now.

It's on 9 acres (all woods and mountain) and was built in 1923. No one had lived in it or visited it for about 30 years except squirrels and mice. In fact, squirrel and mice nests were in every corner and all inside the walls. It was disgusting. But we had a dream. A vision. And we worked hard for many weekends until we got it looking like this:

And here's what the back looked like.

This is what the back looks like now.

It's been an amazing and extremely fun transformation and it has brought so much joy to our lives to work on it together. Actually, Tom has done 99.9% of the work but I was very supportive. We've taken hundreds and hundreds of pictures of each step of the way so there will definitely be more to follow.

And finally, this picture is taken from the corner of the property. We call it "The View". It's about a 10 minute hike from our cabin and we love to take everyone there to see why we disappear from Redmond on the weekends.

A nice Saturday

Tom, Gypsy, and I woke up at 5:00 on Saturday morning and drove up to Lake Wenatchee. It's been raining all week here in Redmond and it was getting to be pretty depressing. Rumor was, it was supposed to be sunny up at the cabin. So we headed up. This is what we saw from the cabin's driveway.

Gypsy and I relaxed while Tom worked on projects around the cabin. Around lunchtime, we decided to go for a hike. We decided to go to Hidden Lake--a three mile round trip. Just perfect for a new puppy.

We must have taken 60 shots of Gypsy but only three of them worked. She is constantly on the move.

I love going to Lake Wenatchee--especially when it's sunny. I think this was one of the top five beautiful days in memory.

Sneakers

This is Sneakers. He was only 7 weeks old when we brought him home and he looked like a little Beanie Baby. The breeder wanted us to be patient and wait a little more before we took him, but it was impossible for three small anxious kids to wait one more day. As a result, I felt Sneakers never really learned how to be a "real" dog. He thought he was human.

This is my favorite picture of Sneakers. I use it as my Google profile picture. I love his soulful look and the little bags under his eyes.

Here is Sneakers at Lake Wenatchee. He never really loved going up there but we would drag him with us many, many, many times. He's such a poser. Loved getting his picture taken.

Sometimes he even smiled for the camera.

This is the last picture I took of him, right after the vet called to tell us his 13 1/2 year old body was falling apart and we needed to put him to "sleep". It was one of the top five saddest days of my life.

I loved everything about Sneakers. The way he slept under the dining room table with his chin resting on the rung of the chair. The way he tried to trick us into giving him treats by pretending he needed to go potty. The way he'd lift his arm for a tummy rub whenever Tom walked by him. I even loved the way he smelled.

Rest in peace Sneakers. I miss you!

Awkward Taylor Family Photos

Well, they're not really AWKWARD, they're just old and kinda funny.

When Tom and I first got married we used to sing that old 1980's song to each other, "Just the two of us, we can make it if we try. . . ."

Then, when Paige came along, we sang, "Just the three of us, we can make it if we try. . ."

And when Eric came along, "Just the four of us. . ."

Then along came Allison and, guess what? "Just the five of us. . . "

Then it went back to four when Paige left for college. Back to three when Eric left. And soon it will be back to two when Allie leaves for college.

Why do they have to leave? Stupid college! That's going to be another post for another time. That's when you're going to have to pick me up off the floor and remind me that there is life after children.

Tom

This is Tom. Otherwise known as Tom the Bomb, Tomas, Dald, Tom the Spiller, and Swatas.

I was a Junior in college when we met at a fireside at his Grandma Celestia's house. I was there with my friend, Lori, and he was there with his brother, John. I had a secret crush on John but he was dating someone else at the time. When I saw that John had a BROTHER, I was immediately intrigued. We didn't talk to each other at the fireside but Tom called me a couple of days later and asked me on a date. I remember screaming out loud when I got off the phone.

I had no idea what adventures we'd have together in the next 29 years. I wish I was one of those people who have perfect memories so I could recall all of them. We've had countless pictures taken together in countless amazing places.

Here's just a sampling:

Gypsy

So I'm going to try to post a picture now.

This is my puppy, Gypsy. Tom would argue that Gypsy belongs to HIM. Allie would love it if Gypsy belonged to her, and Eric calls her, "My dog" even though they hardly even see each other. Poor Pailge has yet to meet this cute little puppy. But I send her pictures about every other day so they'll feel like old friends once they actually meet.

You should start a blog, Malm

I think I've heard this a gazillion times. Seems EVERYone has a blog these days. Even my own malm has a blog called www.eightysomething.blogspot.com. But it's my daughter, Pailge, who has been encouraging me for years to start this new and crazy way to store and share ideas and experiences. I know next to nothing about computers. . . and even less about cameras and how to load pictures onto computers. And I know even LESS about how to format a blog and I don't even know what an HTML is! Uh oh. I'm talking myself out of this already!

Well, I think I should at least finish my very first post and then I'll decide how it goes from here.

Why do I call myself "Malm"? Why is Pailge, Pailge? Why is Dald, Dald? Blame my son Eric. He's 23 now, and has totally outgrown his obnoxious stage (not). But when he was about 12 years old, he started calling me Malm. It's pronounced like Ma'am but with an L stuck in there. It's awkward and not easy to pronounce, but there it is. We don't quite know why he started calling me this and what's even more strange is the fact that it has actually stuck for this many years. Somehow, somewhere along the line, we started sticking "L's" into everything. We like it. It brings us together as a family.

So, I've written my first post. There's more to come. I've got lots to say. Try to keep up!