New Year's Eve

Carl and I took the younger girls bouldering at the new PRG location in Beaverton -- so huge! So hard. I am not good at bouldering, but Carl and Roxy are, and it was fun to watch and learn. We were starving afterwards and enjoyed giant bowls of ramen for lunch.

 

Mom and Dad re-visited the Japanese Garden, which was beautiful in the fog.

In the evening, Seb went out with friends, Liesl and Roxy set up a tent on the school field and played games inside it, and the older folks had a 9pm countdown to New Year's -- we popped champagne and exchanged hugs at midnight in New York. And then at midnight, we watched the ball drop again, and counted down, and released the ceiling balloon extravanganza.

 

Happy 2024!

the People's Courts

We had so much fun on Friday at the People's Courts, an indoor sports facility on the other side of town. We played ping-pong, bocce, cornhole, and pickle ball. Carl got really into ping pong and crushed us (first me and then Seb); Popo decided that lawn bowling and bocce were not really equivalent sports; pickle ball at first confused us with the non-bounciness of the ball (we spent a bunch of time admiring other peoples' rallies). It was a great place to spend a few hours.

 

 

 

 

Creo chocolate tour

We went to a chocolate tour and tasting at Creo Chocolates, on the east side of Portland. We learned about how chocolate is grown, harvested, fermented, and prepared, we got to taste ~10 different chocolate varieties, and then everyone had the chance to create their own bar with toppings. It was informative and delicious. 

In the afternoon, all of the girls and women went shopping -- mom and I partnered up to buy her some new clothes; Kim took Danica to find business casual/dressy clothing; Liesl and Roxy roamed and window-shopped. Much success all around.

 

Dad took some portraits for their photo wall and we played the Wordle board game.

escape room and climbing

We've had a few days of fun adventures: on Wednesday, we visited an escape room with a steampunk airship theme. Everyone got involved and helped solve one of the many puzzles, and to our surprise, we escaped with seven minutes to spare.

 

We celebrated our victory with dumplings and noodles at Dough Zone, and ice cream at Salt and Straw. In the afternoon, we lazed around home.

 

Today, we went to Movement to climb with some of my friends - Anja and Luna, Adrienne and Jeff. 

In the evening, Sushi Go and Timeline, more reading and napping, and feasting.