Per Anya’s request, she and Jan go up to Steven’s Pass for a day of snowboarding. It’s snowing, which should make for a good day. Unfortunately, the day is comically full of setbacks: 1) When we show up to rent Anya a snowboard, the long rental line snakes all the way out of the main building and halfway across the plaza. It takes over 1.5 hours to get through the line. 2) After lunch, Anya discovers that she’s lost her goggles somewhere. We can’t find them anywhere. She was due for new goggles anyway, but we end up spending nearly an hour in the sport shop buying replacements. 3) After finally getting new goggles, Jan can’t find his balaklava headwrap, and we lose more time tracking them down back in the cafeteria, 4) We finally find our groove on the blue runs off the Brooks Chair — and then the snow turns to rain. After a few more runs, our snow gear is soaked through, and we have to call it a day.
Still, it was a good father-daughter day, and the car ride in both directions was fun!
Bree decides that our cats might like to be taken for a walk. Bree, Jan, and Liya put the cats into their carriers (which they like) and walk around the block. Halfway around the block, Mojo begins to wail. Moxie loves being in his carrier, and doesn’t seem to mind. When Bree puts the carrier down on the grass strip by the road, Moxie is completely absorbed in looking at the surroundings.
Bree’s 3rd grade class puts on a musical performance of “The Jungle Book”. Here Bree and a classmate sing to a sulky Mowgli.
Liya’s 8th grade makes their big class trip — to Spain. Angela takes her in the middle of the night to the airport for a very early flight. Her class spends the first half of the trip in Valencia. Their trip is timed to coincide with Las Fallas, a giant multi-day festival focused on a series of huge colorful sculptures which are burned at the festival’s climax. From there, the class spends the second half of the trip in Barcelona, making a tour of La Sagrada Familia and other sights. Liya has a great time.
Jan points out to Liya that his school field trips never went to any locale more exotic than Trenton, New Jersey.
Bree is playing on a school Ultimate team this spring. She has her first game on a cold, drizzly Saturday morning. After the game begins, it starts to rain harder. By halftime, it’s raining steadily, the wind is blowing, and all the kids are soaked and cold. The coaches seem undeterred by the weather, and keep the game going. The game finally ends, and Jan shepherds Bree and her friend Emily to the warm, dry car, where the two slowly warm up on the ride back to our house. (The girl pictured with Bree here is a different friend, Hazel.)
Bree: “What’s for dinner?”
Jan: “Soup, salad, bread, …”
Bree: …
Jan: “… and cake.”
Bree: “Cake?!?”
Jan: “You’re not excited about soup, salad, or bread?”
Bree: “Those sound okay. But go back to the part about the cake.”
Jan and Bree have begun playing “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”. It’s the first such video game Jan’s allowed himself to get into in many years. The game follows the adventures of an elf named Link, who roams a huge open world of encounters with both good folk and bad monsters. The game’s quite beautiful. Jan and Bree play each night a little before reading time — not right before light’s out, because the game’s a little too exciting.