First Day of '14

We had an excellent start to the year. I went for a run first thing after waking up, and the girls didn't even complain about the lost Ponyville time (at least, not very much). Barb and the girls drew and did puzzles while I ran and showered and got dressed. Then I played Ponyville with the girls while Barb made an awesome Denver scramble with some leftover holiday ham. After some more Ponyville we got out of the house without too little fuss (notable, as sometimes the girls howl like banshees and fight like wolverines when we try to take them out of the house for an adventure). Barb wanted to go to a river to start a New Year's Day tradition of throwing a rock, stick, or leaf into the moving water and saying what thing you want to shed in the coming year.

We went to the park in Sellwood and walked on the beach. It was chilly but not freezing, so of course the girls acted as if it were summer, shedding their coats and digging in the sand without gloves.

After the park it was home for lunch. I took Suzanne for her nap-stroll, which was nice for me and gave Barb and Elizabeth some time together without the presence of an aggressive three year old. More Ponyville followed while Barb went out for some yarn for a new knitting project. When she got back we went to Laughing Planet for dinner, and that pretty much wrapped up a nice day.

If today was a bellwether for 2014, we've got a lot to look forward to.

If our big noggins weren't in the way, you'd see a nice view of downtown.

Suzanne running on a weird modular floating dock.

Notice that Elizabeth is wearing my gloves. This is because her fingers were icy after digging in the cold, wet sand. She looked a bit like Mickey Mouse.

Barb looking nice in one of her latest knitting projects. She dressed appropriately for the weather. He next project is leg warmers for Elizabeth.

Suzanne Larrison: action girl! In reality, she wasn't striking a cool pose, but trying to prevent herself from falling off this tree... while Dad snapped photos.

Elizabeth shimmied up this tree like a gibbon ape. When she was asking for help getting down, I was busy taking pictures and so she slipped and hurt her leg on the stump of a branch sticking out of the trunk. On the plus side, it allowed her to guilt me into carrying her part of the way back to the car.