Elsie sports update pt. 2

This weekend Elsie and I went out for what was likely our last day of skiing this season.  Elsie is getting very good!

Here she is in the half pipe:

Oh, and she's playing softball too.  Look out Grandpa Peter!

springing

Elsie took this picture of Theo, unbeknownst to me.  Theo spends a lot of time working on her monkey bar routines and has the callouses to prove it.

Here is Elsie sitting in an odd tree branch during a hike in the Columbia Gorge.

Elsie has also taken up skateboarding, though she resists wearing her pads.  We suspect a good fall will cure that, though we hope it doesn't come to that!

Winter follies

Oh, we love to ski here in Oregon!

Sometimes we don't love having our picture taken...

Above we see Elsie and our neighbor Sigi riding the chairlift.  Below we see Theo and her friend Clara skiing away on Mt. Hood:

The pictures below were taken on our trip to Black Butte, near Sister, Oregon.  The local ski hill, Hoodoo, was "flooded with water" so we stayed on the ranch and played in the woods.

And below are two group pictures from Elsie's gymnastics party.  It happened in February and was for her birthday, which was in December.

signs the girls are growing up...

Theo has been receiving mysterious love notes in her cubby, as evidenced above.  We suspect "Bwent"(Brent), who can be seen below chatting up Theo at the school dance.  Yes, they went to a school dance, and they were very excited by the whole thing, asking me to leave as soon as we got there.  I managed to snap this blurry photo before I did.  

Boys are not foremost on Elsie and Theo's minds however.  They are much more interested in "Monster High Dolls", which are like barbie dolls with vampire faces and pointy ears.  You can see one of them lying on the counter between the two computers below.  Oh yes, they like computers too.  They mostly do their homework on them, though they also like to watch videos of other kids singing the songs from the movie "Frozen".  We'll post a video of our own soon.  They don't like it when Daddy sings songs from "Frozen" even though he does so with much skill and enthusiasm.

We got to see the Blazers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, which was a lot of fun.  Theo and her friend Sara made this sign:

Elsie got her face painted and practiced looking like a bored teenager:

Speaking of teenagers, who taught them to do this?

Good night!

Happy Birthday Emily!

We thought we were late, but actually we are early!

We've been practicing saying "onion" the way cajuns say it...

Vermont, a month or so ago...

Emmett and Wilbur were in attendance and we got lots of snow, which made for lots of outdoor fun.  

What is Theo telling Grandpa Peter here?

See Theo skiing below!

There was lots of playing on the frozen pond with Marina and Grady.  What dangers lurk below its surface?

Two fine pictures of Maggie:

We hung out indoors too, gathering upon the laps of Grandma Susan and Grandpa Peter:

Aunt Laura seems perplexed by this American food eating implement.  Grandpa thoughtfully Peter explains its usage to her: 

Tough guy look from Theo:

We're back!

Some items from the end of 2014...

Elsie after The Nutcracker...and below, Theo considers pulling out a tooth on xmas eve.  She decided not too because she didn't want The Tooth Fairy to scare Santa.

And Elsie turned Seven!

Xmas Treeing

We carefully selected our tree from our traditional hunting grounds...

Pete and Co. were on hand as well.  Pete did all the work...

Back at home the girls hopped to it with the decorations...

Oh come all ye faithful!

Skamania Lodge

Over Veteran's Day weekend Daddy took the girls on a one night sojourn to lovely Skamania Lodge, in Washington State.  Above you see the girls trying out their pouty teenager poses.  Elsie was actually kind of bummed out because she had just re-sprained her ankle for like the fifth time.  That's why she's holding her leg like that.  At least she didn't break her femur like their little friend Lucia, whom we just saw yesterday and she has a purple cast up to her chest!  Below you see Elsie and Theo roasting s'mores over the big fire outside the lodge at night, a task which they enjoy.  That fire pit was surrounded by drunken teachers and school administrators, loudly enjoying their long weekend, by the way.