Oregon

After many, many weeks, our time on the East Coast was over and it was time to head West.
We were so excited to catch a glimpse of "our" mountains!

We spent our first night in Portland and then drove over the mountains to Central Oregon. We stopped in Sisters for lunch. This is one of our favorite towns. It's kind of sleepy and very small and quaint. Ice cream patrol!

We were of course very excited to see Nimanim and Aunti Cris, but also very excited to see the horses, especially since there was a new one we had never met before! We got right to work doing barn chores.

Horses are sensitive, high-maintenance creatures and there is always something to learn about them. fortunately N & A are experts and always there to answer questions and teach us something new.

Of course people who do their barn chores and muck out stalls and brush then get to RIDE so there's a lot of motivation there! First Aunti Cris has to warm up the horses and get all their wiggles out.

Then Sasha got to head into the arena:

Teddy was next, and then they both got to ride around.

Once the kids got their riding skills back they got to direct the horses themselves. Teddy did a great job after almost a year away from his horses!

And Sasha even got to speed things up and try a trot and a gallop. That's a little scary though so we went back to walking...

One of my fav things to do in Central Oregon is look for "THE" property. I thought I nailed it on this trip. Found 5 acres right outside of Sisters with a perfect elevation that gives you 180 degrees of Mountain Views!

It's an acreage property but there is already a well dug and a little cabin that's made out of a bridge truss. How cute/cool is THAT?? The deck sticks out over the hill side and the views are AMAZING!

The view from the Outhouse is pretty great too. Imagine getting to commune with nature and still look at the mountains! Tim gave it a test drive:

Of course Jeff wasn't there so my intentions of purchasing the property on my return to Korea were promptly VETOED.  It's still for sale though. Anyone who convinces Jeff that we should buy this can stay here for free! Go, start composing an email... get on it!

Lunar New Year 2011

Last year we went skiing up north for Lunar New Year and this year we decided to make it a tradition. (We went to the north of South Korea, not the NORTH). Sasha mastered skiing last year, but Teddy fought it tooth and nail so the goal this year was for Teddy to SKI! Jeff started him out on a little walk-up slope at the base of the resort. Sasha did it too just to be a good big sister and show him the ropes. Of course it's easy to get up the walk-up hill when you have Daddy the human ski lift!

Go Ted!

We took turns skiing with Ted and taking Sasha on more challenging runs. Got her a helmet this year due to her crazy speed!

By the end of the 2nd day Jeff had Teddy doing a pretty good snowplow. Of course being stooped over and hangin' on to Ted's jacket was pretty tiring and there was this one time where Jeff's hand slipped and Teddy went rocketing full speed to the bottom of the hill like a bullet, but other than that the system worked OK. Jeff had plans for improvement though...

The BEST thing about the resort we went to is that they had a HUGE soft-play area with trampolines, ball pits, climbing structures ect. So we skiied with the kids every morning, ate lunch as a family, and then checked them into the kid zone for the afternoon (16$ for 2 kids!!) and then Jeff and I got to go snowboard together for the first time in 7 years!

The Smith's went too! Here's me and my buddy Zoe. About 10 families from the compound all went up to the same pension. We took over the place!

By day 3 Jeff had obtained a rope and was using it as a make-shift ski harness. That worked incredibly well and Jeff didn't have to stoop and hold his jacket.

Jeff and his leashed pupil. Way to go Dad!

So finally we got to the point where Team Stolasz was skiing as a family - What a dream come true!

Sasha and I took the gondola up to try a black diamond.

What a kid! She never got freaked out or lost control. Kept her turns nice and even and got all the way down. You can't really tell from this picture, but that hill was STEEP!

Then we went to lunch. There were pictures on one side of the room and Korean descriptions and prices on another.  Jeff wanted spicy chicken, Sasha wanted shrimp and Ted wanted chicken fingers. I figured we'd err on the side of moderation (a big moment for ME right?) and I'd just share with the kids since they'd never be able to eat an entire serving each. Well I should have known there was a problem when the order came to $52. Hmmm.... Korean food just doesn't cost that much. Of course I had no way to say "Geez, must be some mistake, let's sort this out...do-over!" so I just went back to the table scratching my head. Turns out we ordered 3 family sized meal packs. Aaaaand Sasha's picture of shrimp that I pointed at turned out to be chicken too so we ordered a life-time supply of chicken for lunch. Meal time ordering FAILS are all part of the Wegugin life-style.

Teddy with enough chicken to satisfy a "Biggest Loser" contestant:

The best part of the whole thing was the Koreans we ordered from watching us the whole time like "will they? won't they? I mean we heard Americans eat a lot but this is ridiculous!" I swear money was changing hands as they watched us eat. Half way through one of the watchers walked up and handed Jeff a 1L bottle of coke. We figured that's the freebie throw-in if you buy more than $50 worth of food at the ski restaurant. Jeff had no complaints.....

And someone must have lost money because we didn't even make a dent in all that chicken. We packed it all up and took it home with us. Later that night we all had a pot-luck for my 23rd birthday party and then had a bon-fire later. Guess what I served? CHICKEN!!  It was a fun night and a great opportunity to sneak in an easy B-day party!

Teddy givin' mama a Birthday hug:

Sasha wrapped this present all herself and schemed and hid it and brought it on the trip. She was in kahoots with her Dad and did such a good job keeping it a secret. She is such a sweetheart!

We had a blast and by the last day of the trip Teddy was off the rope and zooming down the runs so fast on his own that we could barely keep up. He finally declared that he liked skiing and wanted to do that run and that run and that run..... but by the time he got to that stage we had 30 minutes left on our lift tickets and it was the last day. Typical TED!!! Oh well, hopefully he remembers how to ski for next year!

Our last few days on the East Coast

 After our trip to Block Island, Jeff only had a few days left and then he had to fly back to South Korea. On his last night we went to a cool new restaurant in town where kids can design their own pizzas. They loved it. C'mon Ted, slap some more cheese on that pie!

Mema and papa live only a few blocks away from this amazing bike path that runs for MILES between Bristol and Providence. We like to walk and bike to downtown for ice cream at the daily scoop or a fresh seafood lunch. This summer I hope to log some serious miles on that bike path training for the Disneyland 1/2 marathon in September.

 2 days before we left Rhode Island the kids and I went back to Boston to meet up with my pal Joe. He is a Geologist that I met in Oregon and is now a professor at UNH. It was so fun to catch up with him. We walked all over the North End and checked out the old buildings and monuments.

 Then we headed to the Boston Aquarium. Everybody do your best penguin imitation!

 We stopped for a mid-afternoon break at the Cheers bar in Faneuil Hall....

 ....and Joe took this pic of the 3 of us. Teddy's gettin' squished!

 Finally we headed over to the Museum of Science to take a Duck-Boat tour. These old WWII Amphibious vehicles tour you all around the city and then drive into the water and head up the Charles river! We said hello to the old T-rex in front of the Museum while we waited to take off.

 Sasha and Ted got the front row in the Duck boat and began their tour with some lobster pops!

 We saw the Old North Church:

 And Teddy didn't think it was very exciting. He fell asleep mid-lobster pop and I had to catch his sucker in mid air as it fell out of his hand!

 In the Boston Commons there was this huge Revolutionary War re-enactment going on. They had an entire battalion camped out to celebrate the history of some famous battle.

 A red-coat? I thought we ran those losers out of Boston centuries ago!!

 Then we drove into the river!

 Teddy woke up just before we hit the Charles River and he thought that driving a street vehicle into the water was the coolest thing ever!

 We drove right past the M.O.S., my old "Home away from Home". I did my Master's project there!

 Then our hilarious driver let Teddy pilot the boat up the river! Questionable judgement to be sure!!

 This is the coolest!

 We were lucky enough to have one of the original old Duck-Boats, not the "fake" modern ones. That's bona-fide!

 At the end of the ride we had an awesome dinner at one of the numerous pubs in the North End. It was such a fun day!