Walk There: 4T Trail--again!

After we got our Walk There book a year and a half ago, the 4T Trail was one of the first walks we did (here's the blog post from that day) and it was fun to walk it again, this time under very different weather conditions! The first time, it was a gorgeous October day with dramatic colors and mountain views, while this time, it was cool and misty, with a thick fog that swallowed us slowly as we hiked up and up toward the highest point in Portland. I love seeing for miles, but I wouldn't have exchanged yesterday's layers of ghostly trees, glowing moss and squishy ground for anything.

Another favorite part of this hike is the walk through a neighborhood where houses are perched precariously on the steep slopes of green ravines and driveways are short bridges connecting them to the road.






Last time, I took a picture of Eric sitting in this bench.

After "trail", the second "t" is for "tram" which we took from the OHSU campus down to the bank of the Willamette. One has to buy a ticket to go up, but going down is free!


The third "t" is for "trolley," the streetcar which carried us (again, for free) downtown, where we caught the fourth "t", the "train" (MAX) to head back to the zoo, where we had started.


From there we went to Whole Foods to meet Mat, Leah and Freya for dinner, which is always great fun.

And then stopped at REI, where Eric had a gift certificate to redeem. Yay! Freya had a great time hiding in the racks and trying on jackets, shoes, and sunglasses. She wanted all of them.

What a wonderful day!

Super vision!

Last week, during a physical required to continue to the next step in the ordination process, I had to do a vision test. You know the one, where you stand on the tape and read the letters under the giant E, then cover one eye and do it again. Unlike the time in elementary school, when I intentionally did poorly on the school vision test so they'd send me to an eye doctor (I really wanted glasses but they wouldn't give me any!), I tried to do amazing. And, well, I like to think that I did, though the medical assistant seemed bored as she said flatly, "20/15."

"What does it mean???" I asked hopefully! I can never remember which number is which.

Again, an uninterested reply: "Oh, it's good."

So I came home and looked it up. Yes! I was right! I am better than normal. Some might even say amazing.

It all reminded me of one of my favorite musings from Jerry Seinfeld's book, SeinLanguage. If you haven't read it, please go directly to your local public library. Shockingly, 10 out of 10 copies are currently available in my county's library system (how can this be???). I laugh out loud every time I read it, and I've read it many times, one of only a few books that I can say that about! I think one of the reasons I find this part so funny is that it comes pretty close to what I remember actually hoping for when I had my elementary hearing test done (I didn't fake it on this one, by the way).

With any kind of physical test, I don't know what it is, I always seem to get competitive. Remember when you were in school and they'd do those hearing tests? And you'd be listening hard, you know?

I wanted to do unbelievable on the hearing test. I wanted them to come over to me after and go, "We think you may have something close to super-hearing. What you heard was a cotton ball touching a piece of felt. We're sending the results to Washington, we'd like you to meet the President."

Walk There: Fanno Creek Greenway Trail

Since the weather has been a bit warmer (50s and rainy), and since we were headed to Tigard (about half an hour from our house) to pick up a Craigslist purchase anyway, we decided to try the walk along a portion of the nearby Fanno Creek Greenway Trail.

Thinking we wouldn't be able to walk the entire 2.5 mile stretch and back before dark, we planned to walk for half an hour, then turn around. At the half hour point, I said we should keep going, because I'd remembered seeing a bathroom symbol at a park on the map, which was probably just ahead.

When we reached it, that park had a sign for a bathroom, but there was none in sight, so we continued around the bend to the far end of the park--it had to be there! But, alas, no bathroom. Ok, downtown Tigard would be a few blocks down the path and through this neighborhood, which it was but--my goodness! What do people have against public bathrooms?!? We kept walking and walking and finally ventured of the "trail" and down a main road toward a gas station. At this point, we'd been walking over an hour and I really had to go!

After our stop, I was more relaxed and able to enjoy the scenery and conversation than I had been for the half hour before. What a great trail! It wound along with the small but swift Fanno Creek on one side and backyards, parks and woods on the other. Here and there, the grassy areas expanded and there would be a play structure or bench or half basketball court. And though the plants and trees had no leaves, the grass was greener than green from this constant rain.

I sadly forgot my trusty companion, my camera, for this outing, but I did snap one super high quality photo (above) with my phone.

It was dark and our feet were tired by the time we reached our car, but we were happy and quickly re-energized by a stop at a favorite running store (where I found new shoes at 50% off--yee!), and then at a newly-discovered bakery for some samplins and a cookie.

My pedometer goal most days is 7,000 to 10,000 steps, but I ended that day with over 15,000! Not bad, little legs. Not bad.

Pictures that make me smile

The night before Hilary, Scott and Sadie had to fly back to Chicago, we had dinner and stayed at the fabulous and historic Davenport Hotel, a long-time fixture in downtown Spokane with a very interesting history and gorgeous views.

It seemed a fitting place to pose for a rare all-Conklin picture.

Plus a few more...

The brothers Conklin.

Nannie, Em and Sadie Bug.

And here are a few more pictures from the week that I like. Goose and Pops, breakfast, coffee, paper.

We shared cooking duties for the week and we chose Eric's special tofu enchiladas to share. These may have been the best ever.

We spent one morning going through some boxes of Grandma's, which were full of memories and surprises.

I wish we lived closer to everyone, but I feel grateful that we have the time and resources to get together when we do. And I'm super excited that in two weeks, we'll be off to Chicago and Michigan to spend time with my side of the family!! We are privileged.

warning: extreme niecy cuteness ahead

So adult board game time was lots of fun, but the best part of the week was definitely hanging out with our nieces. It was our first time meeting 11-month-old Sadie and she just might be the happiest baby I've known. She is always smiling and she loves to wave in a way that looks like she's unscrewing a light bulb. If you get her really excited, she just might do the two-hand wave. I wish I could have captured the wave on camera, along with her happy pterodactyl-like shriek, and the cute way she would smile when she saw me--by moving her head forward from her body, sticking her chin down, and grinning, all in the same motion.

Playing and chatting with Emerson, who just turned three, is also great fun. She is certainly beginning to exert her own will more often, something that can be frustrating for Mike and Tanya, and easier to laugh at for aunts and uncles who haven't experienced this yet, like us :) Emerson has quite the vocabulary and loves to ask questions. When I showed Emmy some of my facebook pictures, she had a hard time recognizing Eric in some of the pictures in which he was clean-shaven. Me: Do you know who that is? Em: No. I don't know. Me: That's Unckage. Em: But why he don't have his fuzz on?

With Tia Mia's boots on:

Emmy's first french braid and my first attempt in a long time:

Em relaxing in her perfectly-sized recliner:

I think she liked it.

We gave Em a hat like mine for Christmas, and whenever I put it on, she asked me, "Why you have my hat on, Tia Mia?"

Sadie was more fun to play with than whatever was happening on the Wii.

Have I mentioned that I love being an aunt? I'm super excited that we'll get to see Sadie again in a few weeks when we visit Scott and Hilary in Chicago and that we'll see our nephew, Justin, in Michigan! And hopefully it won't be too long before Ms. Em and company come down to visit!

Fun and games

Many hours during our post-kid-bedtime evenings together were spent playing games. These first pictures are from my new favorite game, Telestrations, a hilarious combination of pictionary and telephone. Each person gets a clue and draws it on a page in their erasable booklet, then all pass the drawings to the next person, who has to guess. That guess (not the previous picture or clue) is passed to the next person, who must draw it. I woke up the next morning with sore abs from laughing so hard and so long. The game is perfect for 8 people and I would highly recommend it.

About to play again in our hotel in Spokane:

Ann and Brody gave each other a Wii for Christmas and we had great fun trying out all their games. Archery was a bit hit and many of the boys loved the flight simulator. We also spent (too many) hours, playing team Trivial Pursuit on the Wii. Some were ready to crash once Emerson went to sleep on New Year's Eve, but we ended up in a marathon TP match and stayed up playing until 2:30 a.m.! Eric and I decided that, for next time, we'll have to brush up on our Asian cinema, which played a prominent role in the movie-related questions. Who knows why.

After everyone else headed home, Eric and I tried out Brody's new Pictionary Card Game with him and Ann, and the next night included a few rounds of Sequence, which I love.

Happy gamers:

Gifting

On the third day of Christmas, Emerson donned her Santa hat (which happened to match her footie reindeer pjs perfectly) and sped excitedly around the living room delivering gifts to each person.


The matching hats I made for Scott and Sadie from an old sweater of mine.

Emmy in her entire new scarft set.

With Sadie Bug in the cutest holiday outfit ever.

Emmy Claus in action. I love when, at the end, Scott says "gimme 5" at the same time as Tanya tells her to smile for a picture, and Emmy grins at Scott's hand.