Alex, Boo and KK Too!

Chasing the Super Moon For someone who thrives by being away from home as much as possible to adventure, I'm surprised to say that I'm thriving in this new Covid world.  Please understand I don't like anything about small businesses struggling or people getting sick of some people having to pull 250% of the weight of helping the world.  But in the small world of my family I love it.  I love not having to commute twice a day for almost an hour.  I love being able to knock out some work and leisurely get breakfast for the kids done without the stress of getting to the school bus.  I love that each kid can pick their pace for learning.  I love all our evenings together without crazy schedules taking us across town and back several times (well, mostly me because I would be transporting a different kid each time).  I love that we have time to go to the park and watch the moon at night.  I love our evening dog walks as a family.  I love the coo...

The woods As we settle into the new normal, entertainment is becoming very different in the household.  While I generally really don't like to stay home, we're now forced to do exactly that.  During the day I work while the kids do their thing.  Next week that thing will include home schooling, but this week was Spring Break so I honored it. Lucky for us we now have our own dedicated instructor in Primitive Outdoor Skills so the kids have been exploring a small wooded area about a quarter mile from the house.  In there they've found deer bones and brought home the deer skull. Licorice root which was cooked up into tea on an outside fire and all sorts of animal tracks and poop. When you find a bone It's a great reminder that wildlife is still right around us. Blooming Trillium

Preparing my office for a Pandemic and getting everyone working in a safe way was stressful and exhausting.  Add having kids home unexpectedly because schools are closed and its another layer of stress.  So on the weekend I absolutely knew I needed to get out into nature and finish the weekend physically exhausted.  We did it safely by not stopping at any place on the way and got out to snowshoe.  The fun really began when we went off trail and started navigating cliffs, steep hills, and icy patches.  While I've been able to read topographical maps, the reality is when following a trail it's not that critical.  In backcountry you get to really use it. Alex had her first snowshoe adventure and while she was exhausted, she did great.  I think teenagers who are really bored being home from school are more excited to head out on crazy adventures!

After a day of basketball tournament games, Sunday was open for adventure. The easy option is always to ski so the plan was to head up as the lifts were opening. When I checked conditions at 5:30 they were already predicting lift closures and high winds. Given that I hadn’t slept well it was an easy decision to put the phone back down and go to sleep. Once I woke up the idea of an entire day at home felt a bit overwhelming. On the flip side, waking up a teenager to tell them we were going hiking also felt overwhelming. Once I woke her up and told her the plan there weren’t any complaints though.  We headed to the coast and hiked Gods Thumb which was crazy muddy and slippery. A few awkward slips and falls occurred which may be caught on camera but we arrived back at the car in one piece.   Just a lot muddier...

Last year I gave all the kids a calendar of adventure.  An activity each month which, while fun, was a lot of work.  This year we already have 20 adventures lined up so it's funny to think that 12 of them over 12 months was a lot of work.  Clearly it's become part of our DNA. This year I decided to give each of the kids an adventure for their birthday.  KK got a weekend in Bend with a sled dog ride.  I don't think he knew what to expect so of course he was a little 'meh' about the idea but went along with it.  Afterwards he was basically telling me his life plan of becoming a musher. The first night we got there we headed out for a short mountain bike ride by the river.  Since we had a birthday brunch and basketball in the morning it made for a short afternoon in Bend.  At dinner KK created a game with pine cones on the side walk where he jumped from one to the next.  Sometimes one got thrown like a grenade. The next morning ...

When the snow report becomes iffy, it's time for this family to start thinking about back up plans.  The kids had expressed an interest in camping in the winter and with the forecast being cold but not too wet, it became the back up plan for the Weekend. After a double header in basketball, lunch and a grocery store run we decided to enact the back up plan.  Boo took charge of cooking up the ground beef for the nachos, KK took the eggs for breakfast burritos, I packed the gear and within an hour and a half we were packed up and out the door. The boys were total troopers as we arrived in the dark and tried to get food and a fire going. We enjoyed nachos by the fire and snuggled up in sleeping bags reading our book.  I think the cold was a bit of a surprise but we all had a great night of sleep, even if it was a bit tight in the back of the van. Since I recently got a commuter car, our van has officially become the adventure wagon so setting up the be...

We had a surprising blue bird day on the mountain this Sunday.   The kids were excited to ski again and dawn patrol is just part of their life.   The early departure is a bit more of a pain for me as I have to get up early to walk the dogs, make lunches and breakfast before waking up kids and heading out.   Thankfully the car was packed the night before.   With a holiday weekend I knew it would be busy so we were out the door by 6:15 and parked by 7:45.   We ended up parking next to a car we parked next to before and became friends.   The last time one of them had jokingly asked if I would help him get his boots off too after watching my routine of getting kids out of gear at the end of the day.   We talked for about half an hour about taking kids out adventuring.   They nicknamed me Adventure Mama! Alex did her first black diamond run and the boys and I got to watch her from another run that overlooked it.   KK got himself stu...