snow day

Portland got a record-breaking amount of snow on Wednesday -- 6-10 inches across the city. We had great drifts of it up here, closing the roads and creating a winter wonderland. Jasper and I snowshoed up to the cemetery on Skyline Blvd at dusk -- Liesl went out with friends after school and didn't come home until 8:30 - they sledded, they explored, they made snow angels. Seb stayed cozy for hours but then went outside with Jasper at 11 pm -- the two of them running up and down our street, laughing and enjoying the snow together. I only have my own photos, and none of the children, because they were entirely with their own friends and I didn't want to interfere.

And then Thursday was a snow day off from school for both kids. After working a few hours (meeting students over Zoom), Jasper and I had another snowshoe adventure into Forest Park - up the hill to Skyline, down Firelane 3 to the Wildwood trail - 6 beautiful and exhausting miles. Liesl went out at 9 am  and only returned at 5:30 pm, and then went for a second round of sledding in the dark; Seb went out with friends in the afternoon to sled and play tackle football in the snow.

Entering into Forest Park - we had to almost tunnel under these bowed branches.

x-country skiing at Teacup

The schools were closed today for teacher professional development, so I played hooky and took Liesl up to Mt Hood for a day of cross-country skiing. We returned to Teacup Nordic, the same place we went last year, and had a similarly memorable, amazing day. Liesl picked skiing back up as if no time had passed, and we were thus brave enough to try out the blue intermediate runs. The downhills were just fun for her this year and she sailed down smiling. 

Unfortunately, that meant I got a little over-ambitious and we ended up skiing probably 6+ miles, with the last 1.5 being entirely uphill. Liesl survived by playing music on my phone and quietly (angrily) cursing her mother. :)  

She was amazing. It was fantastic. Such a beautiful place, and a sunshine-y day, and I loved spending time outside with her having fun together.

Road trip vibes: had to stop to charge Tessy, which meant a run on snacks at Fred Meyer's in Sandy.

We had lunch on a snow bank in the sun.

 

Valentine's Day!

It was a school and work day, so Valentine's Day was pretty low-key here. But I made waffles (heart-shaped) and brownies (ditto), and we exchanged some funny and sweet cards.

Jasper's card for Steve: "Is that love I smell?? Or is it bacon??"

Liesl made Valentines for her lunch buddies: Ella, Fiona, Quinn, Raegan, London, Ana.

Breakfast. It snowed!

winter update: Jasper and us

Steve and I are content - work is good for both of us, we're happy that the kids are active and engaged, we're really looking forward to summer travels. We had a delightful Lunar New Year dinner with Anne and Cuong and are hoping to enjoy dinner with them again in a few weeks. Some other old friends also reached out recently and we're hoping to reconnect with them over dinner in the next few weeks -- feels a bit like a post-Covid reentry to social life. The high school had a fundraising party that we attended, which was cool, and we ran into some old friends there that we hadn't seen in years. I climb with Anja and Adrienne on Wednesdays, run with Christie on Fridays, and run with Anja on Sundays; we're starting to ramp up our mileage in preparation for an April half-marathon.

Jasper joins his friends at the neighborhood dog party whenever he can, and continues to be my best walking and running buddy. He loves the cold, wet winter months. 

winter update: Seb

Sebastian has also been busy this winter, with school and soccer. This January marked his first real experience with final exams, with exams and final projects in multiple subjects all scheduled for the same week. He was a little stressed on the day that he had three exams, in geometry, physics, and Spanish. But he did well in second quarter and we're proud of his overall adjustment to high school. He's doing his best and taking school seriously; he's learning how to study and memorize difficult concepts (like Spanish vocab and trigonometry); he's really good at communicating with his teachers and taking the lead on group projects. In English, they're reading Homer's Odyssey -- recently they had an in-class debate in which he had to defend Polyphemus' actions (he ate Odysseus' men). He did well and made some good points, and clearly understood how to refer to textual evidence. He recently forecasted for next year and is hoping for electives in culinary arts, photography, and business marketing, as well as a continuation of Spanish (and obviously English, history, algebra 3-4, and chemistry).

His winter soccer season with PCU has gotten off to a bit of a rough start - they've played four games and only won one. They've been shorthanded in a couple matches, and missing some key players (like their forwards). One of the games was absolutely miserable -- pouring rain, blowing wind, freezing -- but the others have been tolerable, and this weekend was sunny and beautiful. And they won 2-0! Seb is playing well at center attacking mid, and we're so glad he's got this group of teammates. It's a good group, really positive, and it's fun for him to make friends from other local high schools.

 

Another thing of note in Seb's life is his ongoing driving lessons. We've gone out multiple times and he's getting more comfortable navigating streets and intersections and other cars. No highways yet, and not downtown, but it's fun to see him behind the wheel. He's always loved cars; he loves sports cars and super cars, especially Japanese cars, and has an incredible wealth of knowledge about specific makes and models.

winter update: Liesl

We're still here! I haven't blogged in about a month, but all is well. We're just really busy with work and school and sports. 

Liesl's winter schedule has been a little crazy - she has basketball practices and games on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and some Saturdays; futsal games on Saturdays; softball camp on Sunday afternoons, and soccer practices on Monday and Wednesday. Oh, and ballet on Thursday. So there's been a lot of early/late dinners and driving. 

On the bright side, her basketball team has been having a terrific season, and just this week received word that they'd been invited to the state championship tournament on March 3-5 in Redmont. They have an 11-2 record in the Portland Interscholastic League, which means they're in 3rd place in the city. Pretty amazing for a team full of girls who haven't played much basketball before! Two of the girls have played consistently, for club teams, but three of them haven't played since 3rd grade (including Liesl) and the rest have never played for an actual team. Liesl is playing point guard and has gotten steadily better at dribbling and passsing; her shooting could still use some work and her defense is as fierce as ever.

Everything else in Liesl-land seems good -- friends, school, health. She's been having a lot of fun creating /imitating TikTok dances and tricks with friends, and with using CapCut to make short movies. She has art as an elective during the second semester, which is really different and fun. For her geography elective, the first assignment is to memorize 100 countries and be able to identify them on a map (electronically). The first time she tried the practice test she scored 34%; today, after a couple hours of studying and retaking the test, she scored 100% in 3 minutes 50 seconds. (I tried the test: I scored 65% in 15 minutes.)

Basketball will wrap up after March 5th, and then we'll move into soccer season (first game is March 11th) and softball (April-June).