Hamilton Mtn mama hike

I had a wonderful day hiking with my friends Amy and Mieke. We went up Hamilton Mountain on the WA side of the Gorge, an 8 mile roundtrip past waterfalls to stunning views, on a beautiful, sunny January day. (Photos by the talented Amy, as my camera was out of battery... L had been experimenting with it this week.)

We drove over the I-5 bridge as the sun was rising, illuminating Mt Hood and the Columbia River.

The hike was a steady uphill climb, gaining 2000 feet in 3.5 miles.

There was frost at the top, making for some beautiful pictures.

We ate lunch at the top and then circled back down the backside of the mountain, along the equestrian trail and Hardy Creek, and back to the parking lot. Such a good day.

inauguration day

Wednesday morning was the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We watched the livestream while we ate our waffles and blueberres, and enjoyed the singing (J Lo! Lady Gaga!), the wonderful poetry of Amanda Gorman, and Biden's speech. But Liesl and I, it must be said, most enjoyed watching Kamala Harris get sworn in by Sonia Sotomayor, and seeing Kamala's blended, diverse family. I'm so glad L got to see a woman become vice president during her childhood.

 

Cannon Beach

It was MLK Day, so we had no school, and it was forecast to be 53 degrees and clear skies at the coast. So the kids and I (and Arianna) hopped in the car and drove out for a day of sun and sand, happy to escape our neighborhood and screens for a day. (Okay, so Seb wasn't excited to leave his screens, but he was a good sport and ended up having a great day... and his screens were still here when he returned.)

We started our day at Hug Point, because we love the rock formations and it's quieter than the main Cannon Beach, but the tide and wave level was too high and had covered all of the soft sand. We tried to sneak around an outcropping to the larger beach on the other side, but the waves came in and soaked our feet as we tried, and scared us, so we decided to relocate to the wider expanses of town. There we found sandy beaches and fun dunes, and had a wonderful day.

Sebastian was throwing sand on Jasper, and then I captured this look - a trick of lighting, surely, but the intimation of a glare cracks me up. Seb threw a ball into the ocean for Jasper to fetch over and over, at least 100 times. Jasper loves to run into the waves.

Liesl spent a really long time digging this slide and shoveling out steps to go back up. We spent most of our time today on the dune -- racing up to the top, sliding down, jumping off cliffs, and tackling/wrestling/throwing each other over the edge (that last part mostly me and Seb, which was really fun).

 

 

Jasper rolling in the sand to dry himself off.

After playing for a few hours, we were hungry and wet and sandy, so we stopped at Tom's Fish and Chips for the usual, the candy store for saltwater taffy, and then headed home. The girls were sleepy. Such a good day.

Almost forgot! We saw a herd of elk along Highway 101 as we were turning into town. Crazy! 

more pics from home

From last weekend -- usually the local Boy Scout troop drives around with a pickup truck picking up Xmas trees to be recycled/composted, but they couldn't this year because of Covid. Instead, they had a dropoff spot down near the village town center. So Steve and I picked up our tree and carried it down the hill. Good thing it was downhill the whole way!

Liesl spent some of her Christmas present money buying a really cool marble track.

She also picked up some very soft and moldable clay, by a company that also has an app with easy-to-follow instructions on how to make various creatures. She first made a Christmas ornament, and then moved on to birds and a pterodactyl --

Otherwise, not much to report. We all continue with work and school, and both kids are thriving academically despite the challenges of remote learning. I am proud of their self-motivation and organization, because it's hard to stay on top of so much independent work. Both of them have twice-weekly soccer practices with their teams; Liesl has Zoom dance classes; Sebastian has podschool twice a week. They're both reading a lot, and re-reading (Calvin and Hobbes just got another complete re-read by both), and watching tv shows and playing video games. Any time the sun comes out, I kick them out of the house to play with Wyatt (he and Seb play basketball and soccer, or take Jasper for a walk) and Arianna (bike riding, soccer, playground play, walking Jazz). In truth, January has felt a little dark and damp and depressing.

But I have been running a lot, despite the rain. Anja and I meet up every Sunday at 9 to run the Leif Erikson trail in Forest Park, which is a wonderful chance to talk and connect. I've run with Christie (mom to a 4th grade girl, and my HTC partner) a few times around the Cedar Mills neighborhood. I'm hoping to go for a hike next weekend with Amy. And on Saturday I ran up the Terwilligar Road from Duniway field, where Seb was practicing soccer, and achieved a personal best for the 10k of 51.16 minutes (it's an 8.14 pace per mile). 

Liesl and I got ice cream cones (waffle cones! unheard of treat!) last weekend on our mama-daughter day together; today we got Fill's doughnuts. The Boston cream was pretty special and will warrant a repeat visit. :)

Rube Goldberg machine

Liesl had an optional weekend assignment to build a Rube Goldberg machine. Her class is studying energy transfer in their current science unit. Liesl was really excited about the prospects of making something complicated and cool, and Steve and I were both drafted to help. (My role was to suggest ideas... and then film it.)

We build a treat delivery device for Jasper, and had a lot of fun making and experimenting with it.

Here are four videos from the day, some showing just a couple of our multiple failures, and some showing our eventual success.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/otZ3qscGL7AeS7nT6