On Wednesday, both kids were at baseball/softball practices, with other parents providing rides, so Steve and I took advantage and went to a restaurant called Q. An actual restaurant! It was our first date night since before the pandemic, and it was splendid. The food was delicious -- seafood stew, asparagus, strawberry bruschetta, lamb ragu on pasta, walu with mango -- and having other people make food and clean up was delightful, but it was really nice to just be out together.
Liesl has been very enthusiastic about her softball season - practices twice a week, learning how to fast-pitch, improving at hitting and catching. They haven't had any games, for reasons that are a little mysterious, but it doesn't really matter. Most of her teammates have never played baseball or softball before, so there are a lot of basic skills and rules to learn. I think that practices are probably more fun anyway, and certainly you get a lot more repetition that way. She's also been practicing pitching, both with us and by herself, against the wall of the school (she marked off the distance and drew a chalk line, and then drew a chalk batters box on the wall).
The elementary school asked for volunteers to serve as crossing guards in the morning and afternoon, to make sure that kids crossing Miller Rd are safe. (In normal school years, the 5th-graders serve as crossing guards in teams, under the supervision of the PE teacher.) I have volunteered a few times every week, and have done so with my trusty sidekick. He loves seeing the kids coming up the hill and getting a little love from a few of them.
Sebastian's baseball games and practices have often been at Gabriel Park this spring, in SW Portland. We used to go to that park all the time, to swim at the community center and to play with friends Mary and Rowan, but it's been years since I spent time in it. There's a dog park and tennis courts, a community garden and experimental orchard, baseball fields and basketball courts, and a small but sweet PNW forest with big trees. I've been wandering around the park while waiting for Seb and friends to be finished with baseball, and enjoying the spring. Liesl came with me last Friday night and we walked the loop, let Jazzy play in the dog run, played softball together in the outfield, picnicked on pizza, and re-created a photo from 7 years ago.
Anja and I tackled a hike today that's been on my list for a while: the Elk Mountain to Kings Mountain loop. It's really, really steep, rising 1900 feet in 1.5 miles to the peak of Elk Mountain, then traversing for a few miles before rising again to the summit of Kings Mountain. And then you drop back down 2500 feet in 2.5 miles, before once again traversing (mostly uphill) 3.5 miles back along the Wilson River trail to the parking lot at Elk Creek. About 11 miles altogether; it took us just over 6 hours. But I've never been on a trail as steep as that first 1.5 miles -- just constantly straight up, holding onto rocks and roots -- it felt like the longest mile I've ever walked!
There was not a lot to see from the summits -- just the forests of the Tillamook range -- but the wildflowers were out -- paintbrush and beargrass, camas and violets, bleeding hearts, and even some very late trilliums. Between the summits there was some scrambling, including one section where we had to hold onto a rope to get down a chute. That was pretty fun. All in all, an excellent day.
We had a sweet and low-key Mother's Day and weekend. Both kids' sports activities have picked up, and the week left us all feeling exhausted and in need of downtime. Monday: dance, softball, track; Tuesday: track, baseball; Weds: horseback riding, softball, baseball; Thursday: baseball, birthday playdate, soccer; Friday: baseball; Saturday: gym climbing, soccer. School and work happened too... although I helped Seb with two science homework assignments and got 7/10 on both. 😳
But today was lovely. Steve made a veritable mountain of delicious challah French toast for breakfast, with raspberries and blueberries, and then we went over to play together at the school field. We played soccer and baseball/softball, taking advantage of the nearly empty space to hit fly balls and practice pitching. We meant to go for a family walk after lunch, but it was cold and started raining just as we were driving to Forest Park, so we came back home and played strategy games instead (Sushi Go and Carcassone). But then the sun came out, so we returned to Forest Park -- I ran while Steve, Liesl, and Jasper walked, and we met up. We got takeout Korean food for dinner from a new place, Toki, and it was amazing - dumplings, bibimbap, kalbi, spicy noodles, fried chicken - and then cookies and macarons from Farina.
Steve bought an enormous bouquet of flowers; Liesl drew a card and illustrated a poem, created a clay peacock and crafted a keychain.
Jasper loves spring - the fresh grass (he's like a goat), the flowers (again, goat-like), the smells and sun. He wriggles in joy amid the daisies.
We had a very busy weekend of sports -- Liesl's team played in the quarterfinal soccer game on Saturday, winning 3-1, which was awesome and amazing. She had a great game and her team was so aggressive and spirited on both offense and defense. The semifinal game was on Sunday, against the strongest team in the state, the Thorns' development team. They lost that game badly (10-0), which was a bummer though not unexpected. We remain so proud of her and of her sweet, fun, goofy, hardworking teammates.
After more than a year, Sebastian returned to school on Monday, for 2.5 hours in the afternoon. He'll return again on Tuesday on the same schedule, and otherwise continue with distance learning. It's not ideal, honestly -- such a short amount of time, and only two days a week -- and we're still not sure if there will be instruction in the classrooms or just homework ("asynchronous learning"). I was still excited for him to get on the bus and actually go to school, to meet his teachers and classmates, and be in a different environment for a few hours. He was less excited at the prospect, and the two days this week were not very fun (no friends in his particular class/cohort; sitting at your desk working on your computer). We'll see how it goes and if it gets better.
Amazingly, Liesl's soccer team won their division of the State Cup Tournament, which means they not only qualified for the quarter-finals next Saturday, but they get home-field advantage as the top seed in their bracket. (The State Cup is the highest-level end-of-season tournament in Oregon; 16 teams at each age group are invited and play three round-robin games, with the top two in each bracket advancing to the playoff round.) The team lost to Bend FC 3-0, beat Portland City United 5-0, and on Sunday defeated Capital FC 3-2. It was a thrilling game and the girls showed so much heart, athleticism, physicality, and skill -- it was wonderful to watch and cheer them on. The quarter-final is Saturday at 2:15 pm!
Game video can be watched here. (This links to Liesl's highlights, but the full game, or just the goals, can be watched by clicking on playlists.)
