Spring Break in the California Redwoods and the Oregon Coast

We spent the first half of our trip in Crescent City California.  Our first day we hiked Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.  It was a great park with so many coastal redwoods. 

This tree had two sets of roots, one on each side and then the branches grew up to find the sun.

Walking among the giants.

 This tree was called The boy scout tree.  It was 24 feet wide and 240 feet tall.  In the next picture Scott looks so small next to it.

We got the kids scooters to enjoy at the campground.

We took an evening walk on the coast called Point St George. 

Yummy, turkey bacon!

Maia all nestled into her nest.

It was a windy lunch, but a good one!

We spent some time at an adventure park called Trees of Mystery. 

A cathedral of Redwoods.  The trees grow this way because a dead stump will shoot up new growth.

This was the brotherhood tree, it's over 2,000 years old, 19 feet in diameter and 297 feet tall.  It made our Fir trees in our yard that were 80 feet seem very small.

We rode a gondola up to the top of the mountain and then hiked a trail down.  The trail was steep and adventurous and we had to use ropes in some of the places.

They had a fun tree top walk in the redwoods.  We've done these walks before but this one was really high!

We found Bigfoot.

After our Redwoods adventures we had to get out of the deep, dark forest and find sunshine.  We drove 30 minutes up the coast and stayed in Brookings Oregon at Harris Beach State Park.

Lots of fun rocks to climb. 

The rocks had lots of cool layers.

We had a great site looking out to the ocean.

Taking in the sunset.

Our favorite hikes were in the evenings when the beach was quiet and the dogs could run free.

 

April Fools

I switched the kitchen drawers around and some of Alia's clothes in her dresser.

I taped the yogurt containers shut.

We put rubber bands on Avery's desk chair.

He hates when the hatch door is open during the day when he's doing online school.  I tied the door so he couldn't close it.

We downloaded a wallpaper to make it look like Avery's desktop computer's screen was broken.

We covered Avery's phone in lots of rubber bands.

Another app on Alia's phone to make it look like the screen broke.

Alia loves to melt chocolate to dip her bananas in so I filled the bag with pasta noodles.

We covered her brush in gel.

Making it hard to find her bananas.

I'd say it was another successful year of catching them off guard.

Happy 12th Birthday Alia!

For her birthday this year she asked if we would redo her bedroom.  When we moved in when she was 5, she chose purple and green walls and a tree decal with owls in it so it was definitely time for a change.  We painted the walls white, added string lights, new curtains and comforter and added the circle decals.  It's a much brighter room now.   

She asked for lemon bars this year.

Alia and Banana age 12.  She grew a lot this year if you compare the pictures from last year with Banana.

Our store added a f'real milkshake machine.  Alia picked mint chocolate chip.

Alia and two friends headed outside to roller-blade.  I was able to find cute skate masks and fun monster socks.  

Yearly Questions

1.  Favorite Color:  Cyan

2.  Favorite Toy:  Ginger my hamster

3.  Favorite Game:  Fortnite

4.  Favorite Food:  Pulled Pork Sliders

5.  Favorite Animal:  Sloth

6.  Favorite Book:  City of Ember Series

7.  Favorite thing to do outside:  Climb trees

8.  Favorite Holiday:  Christmas

9.  When I grow up I want to be a zoologist because I want to work with animals.

10.  Favorite Subject:  Mr Dubois's humanities class.

11.  Least Favorite:  Math

12.  Biggest Accomplishment:  I am learning a lot in the kitchen.  I've made a lot of meals this year and I learned how to make pot stickers and sushi.  

13.  Favorite thing to do:  Draw

14.  Funniest thing that happened this year:  Avery crashing my Google classroom meet.

15.  Favorite Family Tradition:  Game night

16.  Favorite memory this year:  Traveling and camping in the RV.
 

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's playing Jack Box and making gingerbread houses.

 

End of 2020 Covid Numbers

 85,997, 430 confirmed cases worldwide

1,859,129 deceased worldwide

60,450, 137 recovered worldwide

United States numbers 21, 271,151 confirmed cases

361,680 deceased- My Grandpa North is among these numbers.  He fought from December 13- December 30th in a Kansas hospital.  

12, 640, 614 recovered. 

There are finally vaccines available to front line workers and the elderly in care homes. It's been a difficult winter as numbers continue to climb and hospitals are running out of beds.

Christmas 2020

Picking our tree out at Augie's Tree farm.

She really enjoyed chewing on the tree skirt.

Long Christmas Eve covid lines at Thriftway. 

Enjoying a cocoa bomb.

When Avery was little he wanted a transformer.  He didn't ask until much too late and we couldn't find one last minute.  We were able to find a Bumblebee Transformer mask and so that was what he got.  He didn't tell me until this year that he had been disappointed and realized Santa was probably not real.  To make up for it, Santa left him a transformer with a note telling him it was lost in his shop all those years ago and he found it this year.

Christmas morning aftermath.

Alia got a1,000 dominoes and we built a long run.

Christmas Dinner:  Cornish Hen, twice baked potatoes, stuffing, kimchi, asparagus, pomegranates and cheesecake.

 We always look forward to getting Grandma Davis's Christmas bread.