no poles

It was kidfest extraordinaire last weekend in Sunriver. Three families: six adults and eight kids ranging from six months to 15. I wish I had taken pictures of us all skiing. Joel and I had to switch off between sitting in the lodge and hitting the slopes because they wouldn't let Joel on the lift with Lucy strapped in the bjorn. (I admit, I was secretly glad for this.) Liam and Milo blew past me on their skis, but I loved following them down the mountain and watching them zoom straight down with no poles and no fear.

Jack carried Lucy all the way home from Goody's ice cream shop. Jack loves Lucy, in a way you don't expect from a 13 year old skateboarding eighth grader. He is very sweet with her.


Liam, drinking a milkshake that cost $6.75. Really. I don't know why I agreed to it. Probably the same reason I agree to the long shaggy hair. He's very persuasive.

Lucy in the back of the car in the parking lot of Sunrise Lodge at Mt. Bachelor. She was excited because she thought she'd get to go skiing, but as it turned out, she spent the rest of the day in the lodge, eating bananas and watching the skiers

yes we can

Milo starred as the adult Barack Obama in a school play about Obama's life yesterday. Each February the boys' school puts on a play at the library to celebrate Black History Month. I guess Obama was the obvious choice for a subject this year...

The play was featured on the evening news, and was in the local paper this morning too. Check out the video. (Hang in there through the R-G add, it's worth it to see Milo's interview.)

Here's Milo, playing Barack as a college student, speaking about international injustices.

Liam played a 70s era college student. You can tell by the sunglasses.


Milo memorized an amazing number of lines and only had to be prompted once in two back-to-back plays.

Kitty Piercy, our mayor came to see the play. She was Joel's preschool teacher back in the day.

We don't have any pictures of the audience, but there were probably 100+ people there for each performance. Milo said he wasn't nervous.

Happy Valentines

Sending you love and pink cookies!

beautiful day

I am fortunate to be part of a group of seven amazing women who get together periodically for cocktails in celebration of birthdays, and who come running when someone has a baby, a wall to paint, or a crisis. Our ages span over 11 years, and we all have different life situations - some with kids, some without; some with busy professional lives, some raising kids full time (some attempting to do both...). For the past three years we've put our regular lives aside for a couple of days on a mountain somewhere. This year it was only one day, but it was a beautiful day on Willamette Pass.

Rohanna snowboarded for the first time in 14 years. She shredded.

We all felt a little looser after our requisite

half-time pints in the lodge.

And here we are later, wearing our ninja gnome t-shirts. Yes, I did say ninja gnome. (A testament to the amazing things you can find on the internet.) Over the years, one of our number has gifted each of us with a garden gnome to watch over our yards. Another of us has been absent for a couple of months lately getting chemotherapy and radiation treatment. We have become self-styled "cancer ninjas" in support of her efforts. So now we're ninja gnomes, I guess. This is us, making idiots of ourselves at a restaurant, so we could make Jess laugh. Somewhere we heard that laughter is good medicine.

(No, we said, we're not a team. Or a cult. It's...well, its' complicated.)

papa

A girl and her grandpa.

Portland

We spent last weekend in Portland with some dear friends. It was kidfest extraordinaire! Shay and I have known each other since our drama class in the fifth grade, and it's amazing to realize that now our children are friends and they're approaching the age we were when we met.

We did a lot of relaxing.

Bathing together

Hanging around in our pjs

Walking around the neighborhood for breakfast and the best latte I have ever had

And just generally being cute.