basketball season

Liesl is playing basketball for her middle school again this year. She is obviously not the tallest, and she is still developing basketball-specific skills (like dribbling and shooting), but she is definitely one of the fiercest players on her team. She is all-in on both offense and defense, and if there was an award for most rebounds per inch of height, she would win it. It is my favorite thing right now to watch her compete in their games.

That being said, it's been a tough season, and there are more tough times ahead. They had 14 girls try out for 7th grade, and didn't want to discourage anyone, so they made two very small teams of 7 girls. The idea was to make two equal teams, and they probably did, except that one of the very best players on Liesl's team (both as a point guard and shooter) ended up breaking fingers in both hands during the first two weeks of the season. So now her team has six players, including two who have never played basketball before (or any physically competitive sport), and it's definitely been hard. It's a little discouraging for someone who is trying her very hardest to win, to have teammates who are just standing there watching. On the other hand, Liesl's playing nearly every minute of the games, and is the primary point guard, so she's improving quickly!

 

 

 

 

New Year's Eve

Carl and I took the younger girls bouldering at the new PRG location in Beaverton -- so huge! So hard. I am not good at bouldering, but Carl and Roxy are, and it was fun to watch and learn. We were starving afterwards and enjoyed giant bowls of ramen for lunch.

 

Mom and Dad re-visited the Japanese Garden, which was beautiful in the fog.

In the evening, Seb went out with friends, Liesl and Roxy set up a tent on the school field and played games inside it, and the older folks had a 9pm countdown to New Year's -- we popped champagne and exchanged hugs at midnight in New York. And then at midnight, we watched the ball drop again, and counted down, and released the ceiling balloon extravanganza.

 

Happy 2024!

the People's Courts

We had so much fun on Friday at the People's Courts, an indoor sports facility on the other side of town. We played ping-pong, bocce, cornhole, and pickle ball. Carl got really into ping pong and crushed us (first me and then Seb); Popo decided that lawn bowling and bocce were not really equivalent sports; pickle ball at first confused us with the non-bounciness of the ball (we spent a bunch of time admiring other peoples' rallies). It was a great place to spend a few hours.

 

 

 

 

Creo chocolate tour

We went to a chocolate tour and tasting at Creo Chocolates, on the east side of Portland. We learned about how chocolate is grown, harvested, fermented, and prepared, we got to taste ~10 different chocolate varieties, and then everyone had the chance to create their own bar with toppings. It was informative and delicious. 

In the afternoon, all of the girls and women went shopping -- mom and I partnered up to buy her some new clothes; Kim took Danica to find business casual/dressy clothing; Liesl and Roxy roamed and window-shopped. Much success all around.

 

Dad took some portraits for their photo wall and we played the Wordle board game.