They were all yellow

Yellow! Note that due to lack of supply they were given the same size uniform in November. So high-waters and a double roll are the two things we contend with.

HHS freshman girls' bball.

Matt (their dad) coaches so they got to join the team huddle

Olin has been helping teacher Samuel check chemical levels in their school fishtank. I didn't realize they sold kid-sized nitrile gloves.

Upcoming chess tournament. This tournament has the dreaded over-800 rating ("Open") section, so the kids will be playing in that category again. Right now Olin is the only K-2 player registered in that category. haha. Should be interesting. 

Indoor Soccer, Chess, Lounging, DQ

Into a book at Olin's tennis

DQ

Olin's indoor team made it to the semi-finals. They celebrated even after they were eliminated, at DQ.

Playing UNO Flip at Chess tournament. This was the first tournament where none of the kids came home with a trophy. They all ended up placing at their usual spots (I think Olin placed 1st or 2nd in second grade, and I think Christian placed 1st or 2nd in fifth grade) but this tournament only gave out trophies for the top few kids in sections K-3 and 4-6. I'm kind of glad  - it'll make the kids more excited when they get a trophy again :)

Nice little ninja park in Kennewick. It opened 3 months ago and it is a nice idea but the only problem is that kids want to run through the entire course and get 'timed', but there are other kids loitering about on the play structures which makes it next to impossible. We will have to go some early morning in the summer.

Cute loungers

The Saga of tooth #R

The story of tooth #R:

• lost it in Tae Kwon Do
• lost it (literally) in the car on the way home from Tae Kwon Do
• wrote note #1, the orange one
• tooth fairy left a dollar coin, but it was nowhere to be found the next day (after thorough search through sheets, pillows...)
• wrote note #2, the pink one
• woke up and said "mom, the tooth fairy didn't leave anything". I asked "are you sure? Check all around your bed"
• Finally found a dollar coin propped up against the bed on the carpet
• No idea where 1) tooth or 2) first dollar coin are

The End

Beautiful Days in the Neighborhoods

Another 2 hour delay. They built this snowman for the sole purpose of shooting it and beheading it...

Honey stand at Pike Place Market

Handing over his $1 for two honey sticks

Downstairs

Magic Store

RV show at Tacoma Dome. I was the one looking forward to this the most. I am most interested in Sprinter camper vans that have a bathroom.

Olin tired. Christian still truckin'

Seattle Bouldering Project. They had some great runs (runs?) this time around!

Il Corvo Italian restaurant. Huge line even 45 minutes before they open. Handmade pasta, only open 11-3 monday through friday. It was delicious!

We got each of the 3 pastas (Pappardelle and Fusilli were really good) and the top 4 Antipastis

First Snow Day, 2020

We had a 2 hour school delay. Kids said "Yay! We get to shovel the driveway!"

Big Weekend Plans...

...we did not have.

So we/I did the following:

1. Went to Hobby Lobby to buy supplies to make beeswax candles. 2 pounds of beeswax, wicks, and containers

2. Made them. We added essential oils to three of them. Peppermint, Eucalyptus, and a Blend

3. They are burning decently, but they are tunneling a bit. I read about how to avoid that but I forgot the key points.

4. Organized all my DermaPen stuff in to this new Ace tackle box. It feels so much better to be organized. :)

5. Made Chocolate Chip Cookies from Annie's box mix.

New Passport Photo

Christian's passport expires in June 2020 but we have a trip to Spain scheduled for April 2020 so I don't want to risk the passport not being valid for long enough during the April trip. So we went to Costco and got his passport photo on Thursday.

Central Oregon Overnighter

Shaniko - former ghost town that I remember visiting as a kid and now has population of 36 people. The height of its population was in the early 1900's prior to 1910 when it produced lots of wool and had a population of 600 people I believe. Then they diverted the railroad and the population rapidly declined.

Richardson's Rock Ranch in Madras. This used to be a digging site where you could dig for thundereggs but they closed the digging in 2019 and now it just has tons of rocks you can buy.

The purpose of our visit was to meet with a fellow vascular resident from OHSU and see how his vascular lab is run in Bend. They live about 15 miles outside Bend in an area with lots of land. Their house is really pretty.

Olin badly wants a hedgehog for a pet. We told him if he shows his responsibility for 6 months (doing chores, doing a body check whenever he leaves the house or a restaurant or anything to make sure he doesn't leave his jacket, gloves, shoes) he MAY get a hedgehog. He wrote this note for himself "Chores and self body check for hedgehog"