Jasper and the bunny

Jasper met a pet bunny who was taking an afternoon stroll at the school field. The bunny was remarkably unafraid, and Jasper was so curious. Gah, the cuteness.

basketball tourney

Liesl's team participated in a basketball tournament this weekend. They played four games over Saturday and Sunday, with one more to come on Monday. So far they've won 2 and lost 2. Liesl is having fun, playing hard, getting knocked around by much bigger girls, and playing some tenacious defense. The whole team is showing steady improvement in their skills and knowledge of the game -- more than half the team has never played before, or last played in 3rd grade (pre-Covid).

x-country skiing

I joined Adrienne, Casady, and Allison for a day of cross-country skiing at Mt Hood Meadows Nordic park. The trails were quite flat and easy, and the park was not very crowded, which was perhaps because when we started it was snowing heavily. Fortunately for our comfort, the snow tapered off after the first hour, and then it was terrific to be out enjoying the fresh powder and beauty.

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve in style, joining a large party in the resort clubhouse for a buffet dinner and dancing.

 

 

The party continued, but we decided it was pajama time and returned to our house around 10. Everyone got cozy and we played some board game Wordle, and then at midnight watched the ball drop in Times Square together.

 

All the boys watching the close finish of a college football game on Trish's phone.

And then on Sunday, after a fun morning of further activities, our family said goodbye to everyone and drove south to NYC. Our flight was on Monday and we didn't want to drive three hours, wait two hours at an airport, and then fly six hours home all in one swoop. We stayed downtown at the Dominick Hotel and enjoyed spectacular views of the NYC skyline and one last half day of exploring New York together.

We wandered the West Village to find food -- these slices of pizza, eaten on the street in true NY style, tided us over as we tried to find a restaurant that would seat us immediately.

Breakfast. :)

Woodloch Resort

We spent the second half of our Raab family vacation at Woodloch Resort in the Poconos, in Pennsylvania. It's an all-encompassing, old-fashioned family resort with hundreds of hotel rooms, houses to rent, and an unbelievable number of sports and other activities.

On Friday night, after we all arrived, we played arcade games, bingo, and watched a magic show.

On Saturday, we went ice skating (on synthetic ice), raced go-karts, did some shooting on the rifle range, had an awesome time snow tubing (overlooking the lake), played more bingo (the grand prize was $700!), and swam in the pool. The younger boys also did bumper cars and visited the adventure playground.

Liesl was a little nervous, but agreed to take a couple of shots with the rifle to test it out. Seb was interested but initially struggled to hit the target -- once he figured it out, however, he did well. Steve was a sharpshooter, and I started strong (hit the small target immediately) but then got progressively worse as my arms tired.

The resort made snow and created a fun curved ramp -- snow tubes provided -- it was a good ride.

Family bingo! Everyone was super interested in playing, especially once the size of the actual jackpots became known. Each session had 5 games, so 5 chances to win, with progressively larger jackpots. It was fun to see whole families -- kids, teens, adults, seniors -- hanging out together to play. None of us won, sadly. :)

On Sunday, Steve and I tried trap-shooting with shotguns and he was once again a sharpshooter - hit 6/10 of the traps! I only hit 2. But it was fun to try it out.

Then we did an escape room -- the whole family together! We did not do very well - didn't make it out, even with all the allowable clues and some extra help from the "lady in the sky" (she spoke to us from the control room over an intercom). But we had a lot of fun trying it together, and Liesl in particular was thrilled.

And then there was some gambling on (wooden) horse races, more go-kart racing, more swimming. In the warmer months, there is a disc golf course, tennis, swimming and boating in the lake, archery, horseback riding -- so much. Steve and I had never been to a family resort like it and are happy Mom and Dad Raab suggested it for a family get-together -- it was great to have so many activities and distractions for the kids, and they could run around together without us.