new home offices

Steve and I have bowed to ongoing reality and upgraded our home offices. I'm tired of sitting at the dining table, especially knowing that I'll be working from home for another 6 months. Steve has been working from home for a long time and will continue to do so indefinitely. So Steve bought a moveable desk that moves from sitting to standing, and a gorgeous piece of wood that he refinished with shellac and wax.

 

Sebastian has inherited Steve's old desk, and has it set up in his room for this year's distance learning.

I got myself a modular desk that assembles in seconds and can also be converted to standing, and has various shelves to prop up my laptop for Zoom calls.

And a new chair to accompany it! Very comfortable, and a nice change.

last day at Timothy

We snuggled in early, around 9, after moving around the sleeping pads to accommodate Stephen (yay!). And then everyone slept relatively well until 6:30 or so, which was a minor miracle. Jasper was his usual very excited self in the morning, but also very disciplined; he waited until we were awake and talking before pouncing on Steve's face and licking him. 

 

We ate breakfast and then hopped into the kayaks to explore the lake in the early morning fog, watching in awe as it slowly lifted around us. I had a lot of fun playing with my camera. 

We returned to the campsite and packed up the tent and sleeping stuff, and then the boys drove home to Portland. Liesl and I stayed to go for another walk along the shoreline, to kayak around our side of the lake, and to once again swim in the cold water. We finished packing up and left around 2, tired and dirty and ready to be home again.

Liesl learned how to skip rocks on this camping trip. On Sunday, she couldn't manage even 2 skips; by Wednesday, she skipped it 5 skips! Woo-hoo!

 

 

A blue crayfish!!

 

Jasper was so tired that he willingly climbed into the kayak and promptly fell asleep in my lap. My sweet 100-lb lap dog. And then when we went swimming, instead of diving in to rescue me, he consented to be "tied" to this baby tree on shore. One good tug and the tree was a goner!

 

Timothy Lake, continued

On Tuesday morning, we decided to drive 30 minutes back to the town of Government Camp. Liesl was hoping to go horseback riding and Sebastian wanted to try mountain biking. As it turned out, the horse people wouldn't answer their phone; the mountain bike rental place was closed and referred us to another place that was also not open; but we found Ski Bowl West and an alpine slide that looked pretty fun. So I bought the kids a couple of rides and up the chairlift they went.

While the kids were heading up for their second ride, the most amazing thing happened: Steve called and said he was in the parking lot! He had come to join us! The kids looked up from the slide and saw him standing there, and they were so happy and excited. We had to take a couple of photos of him in the campsite just for proof that he was actually there.

We told him that the lake was really warm, but it's possible we oversold it a little -- he dived in (head first! and the first in the water! putting us all to shame!) and then came up shivering and declaring that we were crazy.

Jasper, faithful dog, immediately dived in after Steve to save him. He only turned around to return to shore when Steve did the same. (I should note that he left both Liesl and Seb out there on their own, to save themselves.)

After swimming, the kids kayaked across the lake toward the dam, while Steve and I walked along the  trail, frequently spotting the kids and waving at them and meeting them at the various docks. 

Steve napped briefly in our hammock; Liesl and I read our book together; I made bean and cheese quesadillas for dinner.

Seb and I went for a late evening kayak together, tootling around the small bay and enjoying the sun, and then we all tucked in really early (9ish?), happy and tired.