Cross Country Skiing for New Years

For New Years we headed to Plain Washington to play in the snow and ski.  We rented an AirBnb in a community called Ponderosa that had ski trails and sledding hills.  We spent a lot of time sledding through the woods on the trails, it was our favorite sledding ever. 

 The fridge had words to create sentences and Alia created this one.  I think she has horror/mystery writing in her future.

 No visit to the area is complete without walking through Leavenworth for the Christmas lights.

 The weather was warm the few days we were there and it was actually raining when we went sledding but it made for really fast sledding.

 Maia had fun running around but was so cold by this point and refused to walk in the large puddles on the road.

 Alia made homemade poppers for our New Year's Eve celebration.  

 Avery sporting his hoo-rag

 It turned out to be a warm day and fast skiing conditions.

 She's becoming quite the skier.

 We spotted a bunch of turkeys crossing the ski trail.  There's one just up a head of Scott.

 The cabin we were at had a Wii.  We really enjoyed being a rock band.

 On the way home we went back through Snowqualmie Pass in search of more snow.  We found lots of feet of snow on the PCT trail by the ski hill.  Maia, who is part Chinese Crested does not like the snow and happily jumped into Scott's arms.

This is the face he made after I threw a snowball at him.

Burying Alia

And Avery

MEL Science

 The kids got a MEL science monthly kit for Christmas this year.  They get 2-3 experiments in the kit each month.  

 Carbon snake growing

 Foam lava

Christmas 2019

 

 Decorating Christmas cookies

 Chuck the duck needed to get in the Christmas spirit too.

 Ginger Chocolate cake using macadamia flour and a caramel bourbon sauce.

 The kids love when Santa leaves matching Christmas jammies under the tree on Christmas Eve.

 Avery made Alia a snail in art class

 Avery made me a clock

 We made Avery work for his gifts this year.  He had to open a puzzle box to get the lock picks to get this open for his gift.

My favorite part of Christmas is sitting in the calm after the gift storm.

We love to go on a night time Christmas walk to look at all of the lights.  This house is on our block and we are always impressed by how many lights he puts up every year.

Orcas!

 I signed up for text alerts when the orcas are passing by Vashon.  Alia and I had the chance to see them recently when they swam very close to Pt Robinson.

Projects

 7th Grade science bridge building project.  Avery made a truss bridge that withstood all of the weight in the classroom tests.  

 He used around 700 toothpicks and 1 bottle of glue.  It was a really strong bridge.

 One of Avery's electives is called Imagine, Design and Create.  So far this year he's made a chair which he is sitting on, a scorpion, a mini golf hole and worked with clay.

 5th Grade robotics course.  Alia and her partner programed their robot to go on rollercoaster.

Hiking Mt Ellinor

We took advantage of another amazing fall day in the PNW and headed to the Olympics.  The last time we hiked Ellinor was 4 years earlier and it has remained a favorite hike.

Same spot four years earlier.  She's a powerhouse hiker!

4 years earlier- Alia age 6 and Avery age 8

Halloween 2019