snow day!

We woke up this morning to an unexpected sight -- snow! In April! In Portland! The storm started early in the night and continued until noon, very heavy and wet snow accumulating to 3-4 inches in our neighborhood. The poor trees groaned under the weight. Our neighbor's tree fell down and barely missed smashing our car, and our power went out in the middle of the night.

Steve, Liesl, and Jasper went out first thing and tramped around the school field, enjoying the pleasure of being the first to make tracks in the powder. I followed a bit later, and Seb met up with Wyatt at 8:30 to set off on an adventure.

 

 

 

Liesl spent her day with Elia and Arianna, at E's house and at the school field -- they sledded a lot and also made snow cones, brownies, mac and cheese, and watched some movies.

Sebastian roamed the neighborhood, steadily accumulating friends and sledding the hills. All 8 boys ended up here at noon, just in time for the power to be restored, and made themselves hot chocolate and nachos from supplies purchased at the Natural Market. It was pretty much the most civilized thing that he and his friends have ever done. I hid upstairs so they could have the kitchen to themselves. (Steve and I are amused that our house is the smallest, and we don't have a game or family room, and yet crowds of boys end up here in Seb's room on a near-weekly basis.)

Nico and Wyatt made guacamole; Ethan made hot chocolate (supervised by Nathan, Max, and Josh).

Various inappropriate words were created using our fridge letter magnets.

After a cold, wet morning, with minimal food options (trying to keep the fridge closed), it was nice to have power and heat in the afternoon, and internet service, and then the sun came out. Arborists came and cut down the neighbor's tree and removed it.

We might get a second storm blowing through on Wednesday morning, so we might repeat this.

Ancient Lakes trail race

Anja and I ran the Ancient Lakes 25 km/17 mile trail race this Sunday, in eastern Washington near the town of Quincy. The weather was beautiful, the race course covered some spectacular terrain, and we were both so proud of ourselves and our accomplishment. The race consisted of three loops in a cloverleaf pattern, each loop starting and ending at the start/finish line - a 4 mile loop through a basalt-fringed valley, a 6.6 mile loop that featured gorgeous views of the eponymous lakes, and a 7 mile loop that dropped down and ran alongside the Columbia River.

We were very cold at the 8 am start -- the car was covered with ice that had fallen during the night -- and were very glad to be off running on the first loop.

Here we are finishing the first loop (Anja's husband Luna was our race support and photographer).

You can see people - dots of people - heading down this very steep hill, across slippery shale. We walked.

Finishing the second loop, and pausing for a photo with Reiko, such a trooper.

And finally, the third loop, which was very challenging to run at all - narrow trail, encroaching sagebrush, rocky footing, steep downhills with sketchy footing, and a long uphill at the end, when we were most tired. Good thing the river was so gorgeous, as were the snowy hills in the distance.

And then the final mile to the finish line, yay! It took us about 3.5 hours, but there were stops for photos and shedding layers, and some parts were so steep we couldn't run at all. We had a really good time and I'm so proud that we trained for the distance and ran it.

bike adventures

Seb is friends with a couple of girls who live in the Ainsworth neighborhood, and they've met up at Chapman a couple of times to hang out. They play soccer, they go to 4T for boba tea, they rent the motorized scooters that litter the city. It's great to see Seb stretching his wings to go further afield with friends. But it's a pain to drive him all the way there because the Cornell Rd tunnels are still closed for construction, so we've figured out a compromise. I drive him to where the road is closed, and he bikes the rest of the way on the open bike path (that circles around the tunnels). It's a very short drive and then a very short downhill bike ride. But I have to laugh at the visual effect of these photos.

City of Roses baseball tourney

Sebastian played in the City of Roses baseball tournament last weekend -- two games on Saturday, and then single-elimination play on Sunday. They played well on Saturday, with solid pitching and hitting and few errors, and won both games decisively. Seb closed out the first game, getting his team out of a sticky situation in the 4th inning with loaded bases and one out, and then shutting them down in the 5th inning. He was mostly in center field for the second game.

On Sunday morning, they had a tougher time. Seb came at the start of the 3rd inning and pitched fairly well, but his defense had a lot of trouble (so many errors!) and the other team scored five runs. The 4th inning was a lot better, but his arm started to get tired in the 5th, and then he hit his pitch count, so he had to come out. (He drew a crazy mustache on his face for Sunday.)

At the end of the game, with runners on 1st and 2nd, he hit a sweet double to the outfield and scored two runs. He stole 3rd, and then his coach had him steal home when the pitcher and catcher were getting lazy. He slid into home plate under the tag -- pretty exciting. But despite these last-minute efforts, they lost, and we all went home. Oh well. Plenty more baseball to come.