Getting into the Spirit

The last few weeks have been a little crazy. Lots of things going on and buying a new business and getting started with that have left me a little frazzled and barely even aware of the fact that it is Christmas time.  I feel like I have missed it this year. Friday night we finally took a little time to get into the spirit and headed downtown to visit Santa Land. 

Santa Land at Macy's is a staple for many Portlanders. I know people who have been going since they were kids themselves. We have been a few times but my favorite part is just being downtown and seeing all the lights.

 After our visit with Santa we went outside to visit the Christmas tree. We were with our neighbors and we had a good time looking at the lights and listening to the Christmas music. It was just what I needed to relax and really enjoy the holiday season. Just being downtown at Christmas time can really put me in the mood.

Then  today was gingerbread house day.  Some years I make the gingerbread houses and some years I get lazy and buy a kit. This year was the laziest yet, I bought a kit with the house already built. 

 Luke and Hannah got a little silly with their house. Tyler and Cole stuck with tradition.

I don't really think it matters though. I suspect that they just like building them with the intent to shoot them up with BB guns later. It's another holiday tradition. And you can't mess with tradition.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving we stayed home for a change, something we have not done in probably five years. I love Thanksgiving. It's probably my favorite holiday of the year. It was nice to be at home and to cook Thanksgiving dinner for a change, which I always miss doing when we are not here. Despite the fact that I probably spent two days cooking for a meal that took us 20 minutes to eat, I loved it. It was a nice quiet and relaxing day, we just hung out together, ate plenty and watched Super 8 (loved it!!). 

Julie and the family did come up late on Thursday night and spent Friday and Saturday with us. It was fun to hang out with them for a couple of days. Friday we did some shopping and took the kids to see Hugo. Then on Saturday the boys went up to Brown's Camp to do some target shooting, so the rest of us headed out for a little walk in the woods. We headed out to Noble Woods Park in Hillsboro where we did some letterboxing. We found 3 out of 4 boxes hidden along the trails at this quaint little park.

It's always more fun to take a little hike when you have something to search for along the way! We rewarded our efforts afterwards with some frozen yogurt. Then we said goodbye to our cousins and ended our relaxing weekend. We are now ready to face the holiday season and are getting excited for winter break!

Dressing the Turkey

Tyler had an assignment this week to decorate a turkey. They could dress them up as a celebrity, someone who they would want at their Thanksgiving table, or just make a masterpiece of their choosing. Guess who Tyler chose to dress hers up as?

That's just who I would have wanted at my Thanksgiving table too.

The Fall of Fall

Can it be? It's nearly the end of November already? Fall is nearly over and I'm sensing winter creeping in. It was a beautiful fall here this year. The leaves have lasted an unusually long time. It seems they are usually long gone by now and we still have some fall colors hanging on until the bitter end. In places the streets are blanketed with leaves so thick it looks like snow. Now the rains have moved in and are here to stay it seems.

Soccer is over now. Tyler had a fun season even though she got a new coach this year and half her team was new to her. We spent many a Saturday morning at the soccer field this fall. I'm kind of missing it now it's over.

Halloween was just us girls this year. The boys both went off with some friends. 

Here's Piglet and the M&M.

Roloff Farms Pumpkin Patch

Last week we had a couple of days off school, plus some decent weather, so we decided it was time to hit the pumpkin patch. I love the yearly tradition of going to the pumpkin patch with my kids. It gets me in the mood for Fall and Halloween. Here in the Portland area we have pumpkin patches galore and have gone to a different one each year for the past several years. This year we decided on Roloff farms. It is pretty close by and one we haven't visited yet.

I haven't really watched much of the Roloff family's show on TLC, Little People Big World, but I am familiar with it. I think the farm is geared heavily towards fans of the show, Amy was out taking pictures with fans and we spotted a few other family members milling about as well. Even though my girls don't really know who they are, it was a fun place with lots to see and do and they loved it.

One of the best parts of our visit was the tour of the farm. It is a 25 minute ride that takes you all around their property pointing out all the interesting landmarks, like the house and barns, their private soccer field, volleyball court and basketball court.

Driving by the house they are quick to point out all the cars in the driveway and exactly who drives what. (Did I mention that it is geared towards fans of the show?) Despite all that the property is really very beautiful and they have built on some really fun features to entertain their Halloween guests. The tour stops for 10 minutes at this western town that they have built and it was really fun to walk around and peek in all the buildings. Like the general store, which is complete with bolts of fabric and old tins and glasses. The creepy doll house was filled with old dolls and stuffed animals in various creepy poses.

We also rode past the Goatel (goat hotel), an ark, a 4 story tree house, a pirate ship, a castle and various forts the kids have built over the years. They clearly like building things.

They have a beautiful view of the Cascade Mountain Range, one of my favorite pieces of scenery here in the Portland area.

Oh, yes.... and there were also pumpkins...

Now I am ready for it. Bring on Halloween!

Feeding the Masses

I survived my first pasta feed this week!

Every Wednesday after practice Luke's water polo team goes to a different player's house for a pasta dinner. I have always shied away from signing myself up for things like this, especially after hearing all the stories about how much food these kids can put away. But after several emails looking for someone to fill in Wed. Oct. 5th, I finally relented and offered up our house.

How much can 25 water polo players eat you ask?

5 lbs. cooked spaghetti pasta
3 1/2 batches of my spaghetti with meat sauce
70 breadsticks  (heat and serve from Costco)
some salad
60 snickerdoodles
40 brownies
5 gallons of lemonade

It was a lot of fun. I definitely took some notes for next time. For instance a 3lb. bag of salad was a bit much. Let's just say we will be eating salad for a few days around here. Also, despite Luke's insistence that I make plenty of brownies, 100 was probably overly ambitious. I have been giving brownies away left and right.

The biggest surprise? Breadsticks! Those kids can really put away the bread sticks!

Labor Day Hike to Punchbowl Falls and Tunnel Falls

Labor Day is not my favorite time of the year. It is a rather depressing weekend for me actually because I am dreading the end of summer and sending the kids back to school. I need an activity to distract myself from the impending doom of Tuesday and this year I decided we should go on a hike. I had no idea what I was getting us into but bright and early Monday morning we packed up plenty of food and water and headed east for the Columbia River Gorge and the Eagle Creek Trailhead.

Luke had gone on a backpacking trip last summer for High Adventure on this same trail so I was anxious to see it for myself. The trail cuts through some of the most beautiful area in the gorge with a gradual elevation that follows high above eagle creek and passes dozens of spectacular waterfalls. At times the path was narrow and the drop off is quite steep with cable lines built into the sides of the cliff to hold onto.

After about 2 miles we came to the overlook to Punchbowl Falls, probably the most popular destination along this trail. I couldn't get a good picture of it but found this one online. It is quite a stunning sight  and a side trail leads down a steep hill to lower Punchbowl Falls which is a popular place for hikers to wade in the cold stream and even the more adventurous can jump off rocks into a swimming hole. Here we had a quick rest but decided to save the side trail for later in the day.

Shortly after passing Punchbowl Falls we passed Loowit Falls, followed by High Bridge which crosses eagle creek some 100 feet above the narrow gorge below.  Our intent was to get to Punchbowl Falls and see how much farther we could go. The girls were a little tired by now but the boys were anxious to get to Tunnel Falls, some six miles from where we started.

The path gets a little rocky here but we trudged on and just when I thought the girls could not go any further, we turned a bend and were met with the breathtaking view of the 175 foot Tunnel Falls.

The trail itself passes through a tunnel behind the falls about halfway up and out the other side with a dizzying view from the bluffs to the creek bed below.

Again, the trail here is very narrow with cables built into the side of the cliff for security. From here hikers can continue on to Twister Falls along a part of the path known as "the vertigo mile" because of the steep 200 foot drop off.  Tempting as that sounds (and truthfully I would never take the girls on it, although Luke did it carrying a 30lb. pack on his back) we were ready to head back at this point. The girls had been troopers up to now but were getting tired.

Finally, we arrived back at the side trail to Lower Punchbowl Falls. We were relieved to sit down, shed our shoes and socks and soak our tired feet in the cold water. So cold! But it felt so good!

The view of Punchbowl Falls from below. It was hard to get a good picture as it is kind of dark down here.

In retrospect it was probably an overly ambitious hike to take the girls on, but they did great and did not complain. Not much anyway, there were no tears or tantrums but they did let us know when they were tired and their feet hurt. It was not until we got back to the car that Hannah finally broke down and said "I'm never doing that again!"