and back home again

After a fun week of family adventures, we packed up our trusty Civic and headed back home to Portland. We stayed again in Ashland, this time at the fancy-ish Ashland Springs Hotel, right on Main Street, where we had a delicious pre-NYE dinner at the Lark restaurant.

 

 

The children were very excited in the morning to make coffee for me, using the hotel room's little machine. It was supposed to be a big surprise, served to me in bed. It was wretched, of course, but the effort and thoughtfulness were much appreciated! And then Jasper and I headed out into the cold, icy, foggy morning for a trail run. The town was socked in, but once we got high enough on the surrounding hills it was beautiful blue sky.

And then we drove the final leg home, with a brief stop in Cottage Grove to stretch our legs and eat lunch. It was good to be in our home again - I unpacked and started laundry while Steve got some groceries and the kids took Jasper over to romp a bit with his brother. On to 2019!

old Sacramento train museum

On Saturday morning, we had a delicious dimsum at Ming's Dynasty in downtown Sacramento - so fun to have dimsum with a crowd! You can have so many dishes! And then in the afternoon we split up. Kim, Dani, and dad went to an aquarium store to buy more fish for the Avery/Lee's fish tank, an object of much fascination and discussion all week. Roxy and Liesl and mom stayed home. And Sebastian and I borrowed a couple of bikes and set out for the California State Railroad museum in old Sacramento. We had been there before, in 2013, when Seb was a completely train-obsessed 5-year old. But of course he didn't remember it at all and was quite curious to return and see the exhibits. It was fun to return with him and see the exhibits again through his eyes - we especially liked reading about a train that got stuck for three days in a winter blizzard at the Donner Pass.

And these are just photos of some goofy play around the house - punching at paper snowflakes as they dangled over the edge --

 And very enthusiastic karaoke from Carl and the girls.

snow play

On Friday, we drove west along I80 to Boreal snow park for some snowshoeing and play. It was a little colder than expected (25 degrees) and windy, so we were cold out there, but the sun was out and it was lovely to romp in the snow a bit.

Go mom! She snowshoed the whole way with us. (Jasper was very excited to see her when she arrived at our sledding and lunch spot.)

Jasper was very distressed and upset by the the sledding, for reasons we didn't entirely understand. He yelped in a very panicked way every time someone started going down the hill, and tried to block the sled and pull them back.

Me, sledding with snowshoes on, and getting a face full of snow as a consequence.

We were delighted that mom decided to join us in the sledding, making an S turn all the way down to the bottom. It was pretty hard work to get back up the hill, as it was both steep and deep snow.

Enjoying some post-snow play hot chocolate!

Sacramento adventures

We have had a really busy and fun week of activity. On Wednesday, we went climbing together at Pipeworks downtown, where I got to watch the amazing skill and strength of Danica on the wall... and climb some lesser-graded routes with Carl and Kim, which was great fun. We came home for lunch and then drove out to Folsom, where there was an outdoor skating rink in the old town. The rink was a little small and pock-marked, but I loved skating outdoors and the kids did great. They're both definitely improving and getting faster and more confident.

On Thursday, we walked over to the Crocker Art museum to see the exhibits. The kids got really into imitating various works, which was funny, and then each picked out a favorite painting or sculpture to try and re-create on paper at home. We had lunch at a cafe and then played outside at Land Park. Jasper fetched a tennis ball and the aerobie; Carl and Seb played basketball and football; Liesl and Roxy played on the swings, slides, and made chalk drawings; Carl and I threw the frisbee; Danica climbed all the trees. It was a gloriously warm and sunny afternoon. I like to watch my brother and son play sports together and wish we could make it happen more frequently.

 

After dinner, Kim fixed a small hole that had opened up on Bunny Foofoo's head. Phew! We need to keep those brains inside. 

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we sang carols together in the living room - Carl is serenading Jasper in the photo below - and then Carl took over the annual reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas. He brought a lot of dramatic chops to the occasion.

And then we tucked everyone into bed, to await the coming of Santa Claus and his elves. On Christmas morning, the kids were delighted to find lots and lots of presents awaiting them. We opened up stockings/Santa presents first, and then had an enormous breakfast of waffles, eggs, and fruit. Carl made a scavenger hunt for the kids with 20 clues hidden all over the house, and that distracted them while we got food ready. And then they were our elves, distributing presents to everyone's spot, and then the present-opening madness began.