Oregon #2 (22 November-21 December 2013)

22 November: Today our clan (in one car) and Dirk, Soraya, Ella and Reese (in another car) made a trip up to White Salmon to visit Nick, Sarah, Anya and Ari. Wonderful drive along the northern Oregon Cascades over a shoulder of Mount Hood and dropped into the Columbia Gorge. Unfortunately no pics for the day.

23 November: In the morning after breakfast everyone packed into 3 cars and headed off to check out Panther Creek Falls, a waterfall about an hour away on a tributary of the Wind River in Washington state. Before leaving snapped this pic of a wonderful view of the northern aspect of Mount Hood from Nick and Sarah's window!

Here is most of the clan (sans me) at the observation deck in front of Panther Creek Falls.

Another couple of pics of the falls...

Upstream view just above the falls of one of the 2 streams that converge at the drop.

Kids had a great time running around the forest, though it was cold!

We also managed to have heaps of fun in the parking lot because of all the ice!

Some random shots of the older kin...

Nico's 44th birthday is on November 24th, but we celebrated it on the evening of the 23rd.

November 24: We all headed over to a park in Hood River Oregon for a morning play before departing back to Bend. Here is a snap looking over the Gorge with Mount Adams in the background, the 3rd highest peak in the Cascades (~12,500 ft) and nearly as massive in volume as Mount Rainer, though much less known.

November 25 & 26: Over the next several days we decided to get the kids use to snow clothes and being on skis up at Mount Bachelor. Here's a selection of pics to their proper introduction to snow. First on the 25th snow balls...

Then on the 26th their first runs on skis.

November 27: Today was Sam's birthday so first thing in the morning was the initial present opening.

Then up to Mount Bachelor to frolic in the snow. 

Then back down to Bend to the Fun Centre with a bit of bumper car action!

And playing all sorts of games...

And cashing in on game tickets to collect prizes!

And then back to the abuelo's house for a homemade soccer birthday cake!

And some more presents for the evening including a $100 bill from the abuelos.

The cousins from White Salmon also came down to enjoy the evening party and the next day's Thanksgiving feast!

November 28: Another traditional American holiday today, Thanksgiving, a day of feasting. This involved a lot of effort on the part of the abuela, well done! Some welcome assistance to the abuela was provided immediately before serving the meal.

Here is most of the clan around the table at the abuelos feasting away.

Ari's afternoon nap was timed unfortunately to coincide with the afternoon meal. That was OK he ate plenty of leftovers upon awakening.

December 1: Today we ticked off one of our bucket list activities, watching a movie all together, namely 'Frozen' in 3D. Note back in Perth Katherine usually gets all the movie watching with the kids ;).

December 3: Here's a pic of the kids outside of Ponderosa Elementary.

Luca and I on our way to do some shopping whilst snowing.

Luca at her evening gymnastics classes.

Frankie's sleeping complement...

and Luca's sleeping complement.

December 5: Another evening of indoor rock gym climbing for Frankie and Sam.

December 6: Well it snowed more on December 6th in Bend Oregon, here's a pic of me and Frankie during a break in the snow event.

December 7: Here's a pic of the front yard looking across the street after the snow event.

Today we headed up to Mount Bachelor for the kids (Frankie, Sam, and Luca) and their cousin's (Ella) first of three ski school days. Here's a pic of the road on the way up with cloud shrouded Mount Bachelor in the background.

Temperatures were very cold, ca. 10 F (-13 C) without wind chill. Here's a pic of the adults (sans Robsie who was obviously taking the picture) just before heading out after a morning bloody mary...

Snow was fresh, light and fluffy that made for a great day of skiing  with beautifully snow-cladded trees.

December 8: Today's activity was to acquire a Christmas tree in the mountains nearby Mount Bachelor. Here's some of the kids heading down a Nordic ski trail looking for a suitable tree.

The snow was pretty thick, here's Luca sinking in up to her knees.

Frankie and Ella decided it was more desirable to play in the snow than look for a tree.

As did Ramsey!

Dirk then did an assessment on both Ramsey and Marley re: amount of snow they were likely to track into the station wagon, oh well, part of the collateral damage of this venture.

Reese got a toboggan pulling service during the tree finding venture. 

A pic of all five of the kiddos playing under snow-laden boughs.

Having fun...

 And contemplating the meaning of life...

December 10: Today was Robsie's 46th birthday, which we celebrated with Luca (kids at school) and the abuelos at the Deschutes pub.

Then we picked up the kids and had a bit of a frolic in the snow.

And then had an evening birthday cake with all the kids and the abuelos!

December 11: Today was the Christmas concert at Ponderosa Elementary.

 

Afterwards it was Futsal Wednesday with Sam back in full flight under the magnificent lights of the Cascade Indoor sports complex.

The subsequent evening activity was to decorate the Christmas tree.

December 12: Today Robsie and I went up sans kids to Mount Bachelor for a good ole ski, blissful...

December 14: Today was the second of three days of ski school for the kids. Much warmer conditions this time around (28F, -3C), and the kids really got the hang of it this time around.

And a good ole happy dance followed in the evening by the girls and the abeula!

16-18 December: For Robsie's birthday (Dec. 10) present we decided to spend a couple of nights at Timberline Lodge on the slopes of Mount Hood sans kids. This lodge (colloquially known as 'Oregon's people lodge') was built as part of the 'New Deal' suite of government funded programs after the 'Great Depression' to keep people working in the 1930's. A magnificent structure set into a beautiful ski area. Hence, it was wake up, eat, grab skis and off you go! Here's a view of the Cascade peaks to the south of the lodge with Mount Jefferson (2nd highest peak in Oregon) in the forefront about 50 miles away and in the background the Three Sisters which are the proximal volcanoes to Bend Oregon about 100 miles away as a crow flies.

Here's a view of the alpine section of Mount Hood to the north of the lodge above timberline, that's about another vertical mile of mountain. Mount Hood is purported to be the second most climbed and photographed mountain in the world after Mount Fuji in Japan, largely due to its proximity to a major metropolitan centre (Portland). Mount Hood has several technical routes and is a favorite training mountain for American big range (e.g. Himalaya, Andes) enthusiasts. Hence, it also perennially has the highest death rate of any peak in the lower 48 of the US of A.

A view of the lodge with a nice sunset in the background.

A timed pic of us in the centre chamber of the lodge with an enormous fireplace in the background.

Continuing on with our anecdotal climate change theory during our trip, the conditions on Mount Hood were abnormal for this time of year with the lowest recorded snowpack to date. Fortunately, the Palmer Ice Field sits right above the lodge and provides year-round skiing to which we availed ourselves. 

Timberline also was the 'outdoor' location where several scenes in the classic horror film 'The Shining' were filmed.

A view of the peak from the warmth of the lodge.

This lodgepole pine Christmas tree was over 60 feet high in the centre chamber of the lodge, impressive.

The view from the bar was also extraordinary. In short, the snow could have been a bit better, but fortunately we had the Palmer ice field. What a great place in a good snow year, we will be back with the kids as the lodge does have rooms that caters for families.

21 December: Today is the final day of Ski School for the kids. Sam and Frankie ready to go for their 9:30 starts.

And Soraya gratefully assisted us in preparing Luca in the lodge for here 10 am start.

Here's a couple of pics of Luca in action at ski school.

And one with her instructor Kimberley.

Here's Frankie in action during her last day of ski school.

And one with her instructor Josh! 

Unfortunately no action shots of Sam during his last day of ski school as he was gallivanting all around the mountain with his class, but here's one with his instructor Rick.

Robin, Soraya, Dirk and I didn't do any skiing today as most of the runs we were interested in skiing were iced out do a freak-ish ice storm the previous evening. This gives you and indication of the conditions a la weird icicle formation overnight on the radio antenna of a car.

And this poor ice laden tree leaning over (no wind)...

But the weather was sunny in the pub next to the sun windows, so Soraya had her drinks in her purple baselayer... Nice look sister!

So we eventually made it out to the outdoor portion of the pub to cool down!

And a final shot of the ski school area where Luca spent most of her time. Ski school was a great investment for the kids, they were up and going and we look forward to exploring more of the ski runs with the kids in tow!