Rampart Ridge at Mt. Rainier

I had an amazing last-minute adventure this weekend - Adrienne organized a one-day, one-night trip to Mt. Rainier, to hike up Rampart Ridge. We left Friday night after dinner to drive the 2.5 hours up, slept in the sweet, old-school Alexander Lodge just outside the park, woke up and drove to Longmire, and hiked a 5 mile loop in the snow. We had packed snowshoes but ended up leaving them in the car. There was very little snow on the lower part of the hike and at the top the trail was completely hard-packed. The weather was absolutely amazing for January - warm and clear blue skies. We were finished with the hike by 12, ate some lunch, and drove home. I even made it in time for Liesl's first basketball game!

 elk tracks in the snow

 At the top of Rampart Ridge, with Mt. Rainier staring us in the face. Amazing.

some very hungry, or perhaps just very aggressive, birds

cleaning house

I know it's in the general air - post-Christmas, with a Marie Kondo decluttering show on Netflix - and I thus feel cliched, but we too have been cleaning out and organizing our home this month. In my mind, January and February are the only months for spring cleaning, because once it's actual spring I want to be outside playing or hiking in the forest.

So, we started with the living room and bedroom bookshelves, moving some books to the kids' rooms and others to a donation pile (to Children's Book Bank).  Our living room shelves are no longer stacked three deep, so that's positive. Sebastian and I spent three hours moving some childhood toys (trains, blocks, cars) into big bins that now stack in his closet, and cleaning up all the assorted other toys. In his various stacks and bins we found the missing pieces of various games and puzzles, pieces of Lego sets, etc., and it was very satisfying to reunite objects. His room looks much better now - the books are organized and age-appropriate, the games and toys are things he is still using. And then we went to Ikea today to buy a new dresser for him, as the old one was falling apart and no longer functional, and then a few hours tonight putting it together. It was surprisingly fun to put the dresser together as a family - hammering, putting in the screws, sliding in the backing - the kids were really into it. (One funny note: we had to put half of the backseat down in the Civic in order to fit the furniture boxes, and I couldn't remember or figure out how to do it. I can't even remember the last time we folded down the backseat to open up the trunk. So I had to Google search it in the Ikea parking lot, to the kids' amusement.)

Liesl and I have also spent 3 hours in her room clearing out old and unused papers, toys, and trinkets. We have not been discarding as many things - she still wants many of the categories (musical instruments, dress-up costumes, pretend kitchen and food, dolls and their accoutrements) - but she is a tremendous packrat. We have filled three garbage bags with just trash and paper recycling. Her room too looks spacious and wonderful.

It's possible that more could be done - our bedroom and closets, for instance - but I am running out of willpower and patience. Maybe next year!

Updated with photos of this weekend's project: the new photo display in our dining room! All pics from 2018 - 

fig bread!

Since we were in California for Christmas, we did not make our traditional fig bread for Christmas breakfast this year. We all agreed that it was fine... change was fine... C&K's waffles were outstanding... we could just have fig bread next year. But then it turned out we were all sad and missing it. I only ever make fig bread for Christmas, usually with my mom, and apparently we couldn't last a whole another year without it. So Liesl and I made fig bread today, and it was delicious and wonderful and everything we'd wanted. It was her first time really participating in the making of fig bread - measuring the ingredients, kneading the dough, spreading the fig filling, fanning the bread - and I was delighted to bake with her and perhaps mutually imagine that some day she too might bake fig bread for her family.

 

Mary Poppins

Our Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Raab was tickets to a show: Mary Poppins! It was staged at Northwest Children's Theatre; we saw the final performance on Sunday night. The show was outstanding in every way - both children were enthralled, and we were so impressed. The quality of the actors' singing and dancing (especially the tap dancing during the Step in Time song) was amazing, the set design was elaborate and very cool, the songs were as memorable and singable as you'd expect.

Both of our kids were really engaged and focused once the singing started, closely watching every scene. I wasn't sure Sebastian would like it, and was delighted that he was so impressed by the choreography, acting, and coolness of the sliding sets. Liesl was transfixed by the whole production but was especially taken with Jane Banks in particular -- she got her autograph after the show. (In the Portland-is-such-a-small-world category, it turns out that the actress playing Jane is the older sister of one of Sebastian's soccer teammates, and we got to see the parents at this final show.)

Steve and I were particularly struck by the whole story thread of the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Banks, with these very rich and timeless questions about what to do with one's life, how to balance financial security and family life, how to keep a marriage alive and thriving -- it's so interesting to watch things as an adult and parent and notice so many details that meant nothing to me as a child, and to be struck by the deep pathos of the emotions felt by the parents.

The show was quite long - 2.5 hours - so when it finished we had a quick pasta dinner at Grassa and then headed home for bed and the start of a regular work/school/activities week. But with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in our heads! Spit spot, best foot forward!

Children's Book Bank

Our GS troop visited the Children's Book Bank in NE Portland this weekend, in order to learn about the mission of the book bank (to collect and distribute books to low-income families with children) and to help prepare books by cleaning them. We erased pencil scribbles, taped pages, used markers to color pages, removed stickers, and wiped clean the covers and board book pages. It was easy but interesting and fun - a good, hands-on first service project.

happy new year!

We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve and Day, mostly unpacking, doing some chores and errands, and getting ourselves ready for school and work on the 2nd. But we did pour some bubbly on New Year's Eve, sing Auld Lang Syne, and watch the London fireworks and New York City celebration in Times Square. And then we woke up and opened the last of our Christmas presents - packages that had been mailed from lovely family members in other places - and that was great.

 

I print out the blog every year and make a hardcover book out of it - both kids immediately started flipping through the pages, enjoying the annual retrospective. Sebastian read through both books entirely, laughing, teasing, complaining (mom!!).

And then Liesl and I took Jasper for a walk in Forest Park - it was cold and sunny, and we had missed our trees and moss while away. Jasper was thrilled to be romping off leash and exploring the forest again.

And then we got cleaned up and headed over to the Bedards for dinner - blackeyed peas for luck - and an enormous apple cake that I baked up in the afternoon. I didn't take any photos, but Sebastian or Liesl must have gotten my phone, because here are Ronan and Mena. :)

And then, as befits a new year, we undertook some sorting and purging work, starting with the children's bookshelves. We cleared them off, picked out quite a few to send to charity, and sorted the rest. Next up: toys....