Running The Cascade Head Trail

Dad and Katie ran 4 miles with me on the Cascade Head trail. We started running down a very steep road for the first mile until we reached the trail head. From there we ran through the beautiful temperate rainforest (above) to the view point. We were able to see both the estuary and the ocean. After a quick break at the view point, we began our descent back to the trail head. When we reached the trail head, we were faced with the hills we had just run down two miles before. The climb was painful, but you felt a strong sense of acheivement when you reached the van.

 

  The scenery was awesome, but the hill was steeper than it looked and the following week I could barely move. 

 

The view was even more amazing without the thick fog. It amazed me that there was an ocean there, let alone one that beautiful.

 

Quotes heard on the run:

• Hannah: You can hear the ocean!
• Katie: No, that's my breathing!

•  Dad: [This road] can't go down forever!
• (Famous last words. The road went downhill all the way, making a not so fun climb back to the van)

 

Multnomah Falls - To The Top

We often stop to see Multnomah Falls on our way through the Columbia River Gorge. However, we are usually in a hurry to get somewhere and don't take the time to climb to the top. This time we had no schedule. We made the climb. Beautiful. Tough on the legs.

Ellie on the landing over the falls. 

We stopped to play in the riffles above the falls.

The Five of Us. Tired legs. Happy hearts.

Looking over the falls. Makes my tummy a little queezy.

Ellie was our photographer for this hike.

Quotes Heard:

-Wow!

-Oooh. I'm worried that person isn't going to make it.

-Ohhhh!  My legs.

-Twelve. More. Switchbacks. To. Go.

Winema Beach - All To Ourselves

After spending hours in the car, our legs were tired and sore and we were very excited to get out of the car. We quickly hopped out of the car, kicked off our sandals and raced down to the water.

Ellie collected shells and wrapped them up in her sweatshirt.

Hannah and Katie had a great time running down the beach and playing tag with the waves.

The sunset was spectacular.

Hannah's Future City Team

I'm proud of Hannah and her teammates. They have been working for months, in preparation for the "Future City" competition. Great scientific thinking. Great research, reading, and writing. They had some of the most innovative and practical solutions for dealing with storm water runoff and energy generation in their invented city.

We appreciate their science teacher, Mrs Ferro, who spent all of our 3 day weekend with the 8th grade "Science Ninjas" last weekend and also spent their "snow day" with the kids, building and revising their project.

The team did an excellent job communicating both verbally and by using visuals such as their model, pictures and diagrams. They made the judges' (engineers) eyes light up.

Postscript:
Their team did not make the final 5 teams at the competition, which surprised us and was a little disappointing.  However, they did win the "Best New Team" award and the "Most Sustainable Energy" award.  We found out yesterday that they also had the highest scores in the whole competition for their presentation.  The presentation was one of 4 parts (Sim City Model, Essay, Model w/ Moving Parts, Presentation).  Her teacher surprised the girls yesterday morning at an assembly with an award and $500 scholarship each form College of Idaho for representing their team so well in the presentation phase.

Apps For Learning On My iPad

These are some of the learning apps on my iPad. My kids and I are great guinea pigs. Almost everything is free. Quite a geeky (but fun) house.

A few highlights:

• Opposites: A vocabulary game in which you try to match opposite words as fast as you can, before it is too late.  Appropriately challenging for fluent readers.  The more advanced levels are even challenging for me.
• Dust Buster: This is a keyboard (piano) practice game.  A fun challenge.  It seems to be addicting.  It keeps adding new popular songs to the repertoire.  They can be purchased with points earned through practice.
• Cargo Bot: Basic programming and logic.
• RoboLogicLE: Program your robot to do simple tasks.  This kind of thinking (planning and sequencing) is essential to future success in many areas.  No coding required.  All programming is visual.  
• Hungry Fish: Early math (addition)
• NOVA Elements: Can you say geeky?  The periodic table comes to life.  They'll go to chemistry someday with a head full  of introductory knowledge already.  It is interactive.
• Numerosity and Scootpad: I'm just dabbling with these two more-structured learning apps.  

A Christmas Experience vs. More Stuff

A few years ago we decided that we wanted to give our family an experience together for Christmas instead of giving more traditional Christmas gifts.  We felt like we all had enough stuff already.  Our hope was that an experience together would bring us together more, would build memories, and would expose all of us to things we don't usually get to do.

Maybe an experience together better matches the spirit of what Christmas is about, as opposed to the drama of getting and giving gifts.  We certainly haven't missed fighting the Christmas crowds in search of bargains on stuff that we really don't need.  Sorry, I'm not much of a capitalist.

Over the years we have done the following, as family Christmas experiences:

• Mountain adventures in the snow (McCall, ID)
• A Staycation in the Treasure Valley, including experiences in the arts, Boise adventures, eating out, cultural activities, etc.
• An urban adventure (Portland, OR)

This year, after much debate and research, our family adventure is to Moab, Utah.  It is a part of Utah we have driven through but we have never had time to stop.  This is Moab's down-season, so bargains abound for housing, making a condo possible.  While there are still plenty of tourists here, the crowds are much more manageable.  The winter experience in the desert is quite different.  It is a different kind of beauty.  

More than the location, the best part is just being together.  We have had fun watching movies, playing games, and traipsing around on snowy trails.  We have a good time with books, science, rocks, and geeky banter.  We have had a good time taking and looking at our pictures.

Favorites on this trip:

• Games: Ticket To Ride, Ruckus, Oh Really!
• DVD: They are all watching the "Emma" BBC mini-series right now.
• Audio Book: Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt (The next selection in NPR's "Back Seat Book Club."

We are looking forward to adventures to come.

Cross Country Skiing at La Sal Mountain

We took at day to try cross country skiing at Geyser Pass on La Sal Mountain.  We had to chain up about 4 miles short of the trail-head and the four wheelers coming down warned us that we wouldn't make it up, as the drifts were quite high.  We, instead, skied up the road and made the most of a beautiful day in the snow.  A good workout.

As you can see in the pics, we were still happy to be in the snow, even after our day of skiing.

Arches National Park

Instead of traditional Christmas gifts, we have given an experience.  This year it is a family trip to Moab, Utah.  One of the highlights of the trip was the two days we spent wandering and gawking at the beauty in The Arches National Park.  A winter experience.  Much smaller crowds.  Sometimes chilling cold.  Hikes are often crunching through snow.  The views are amazing.  I'm going to ask the girls to add comments below the various pictures.