As you can see by the top two pictures, Leavenworth is nestled in a valley surrounded by the most beautiful mountains, most of which still have substantial amounts of snow on them. After we arrived in town, our room wasn't quite ready, so we walked around for an hour doing a little 'sight seeing'. Mark took a break on a bench with Ben while we girls shopped, and in the bottom picture you can see Shelby, Paige and Ellie outside the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory posing with their Bear Mascot! We bought some fudge and a few treats. We are going to spend some more time wandering around tomorrow as we didn't quite get to all the shops. I think our favorite so far was a place called "Kris Kringle". They advertise it as 'All Christmas, All Year Long" and is it ever! Two stories of nothing but Christmas! WHEEEEEEEEE.....I was in heaven and managed to find a really unique snowman statue to add to my ever expanding collection! Mark and I also found a Christmas village that we'd like to start collecting and so we'll have to see if we can find it somewhere a little more convenient than Leavenworth to buy each piece or we'll add hundreds of dollars in gas just to get the whole set! :)

Hugs,
Mark, Jaye and Gang