Merry Christmas from Houston

I made it to Houston on Monday night. My flight was only 2 hours delayed. It has been hot and humid in Houston. We had a great Christmas today. My nephews got a Nintendo Wii. I think I was the most excited about it. I had it set up in 10 minutes. Shrayen and I played it all day long. He whooped me multiple times in bowling. Ami, Priya and I return to Portland tomorrow where my family will pick us up and we repeat Christmas in Portland on Sunday.

Here are some pictures of the kids. Priya got all dressed up for her first Christmas and seemed to wonder what all the pictures were about. You think she would be used to the camera by now!

Seriously?

It has been snowing all day.  I woke up to find Buddha in this sad state:

Poor guy.  I went outside to let Sona out and ended up helping dig out my neighbor and get her chains on her Nissan Maxima.  She made it out and about but it was all for not as her son's flight into Portland was cancelled.  I am not about to drive anywhere.  So, I headed out on a walk for lunch.  Here are some pics:

It is awfully nice of the park to make ice cubes for the neighborhood!

I passed more skiers than I did cars.

These pictures sum up why I am not trying to drive anywhere.  So far my flight is on time - scheduled to leave at midnight.  I am about to head out.  I have to walk Sona to the kennel.  Than I am going to catch the streetcar downtown and grab dinner.  The plan is to watch a movie while keeping an eye on my flight info, then catch the train to the airport (which is using a shuttle bus for the last section!).

Wish me luck.

Snowed In!

I made it up to the mountain yesterday for my first day of snowboarding for the season.  Great conditions on the mountain.  Not so much on the drive home - blizzard conditions all the way back to Portland.  When I got home I was greated with 6-8 inches of snow.  I walked with a friend to a nearby brewpub, which was packed.  A lot of people were out, it was great.  

Here are some pictures from last night and this morning.  Ami and Priya are in Houston, so only Sona in these pictures.

I think we got a little freezing rain overnight because the top layer of the snow was frozen over.  This really confused Sona:

We had to go for a quick walk along Lower MacLeay Trail.

That is our street above and Buddha below - who lost some of his face icicles and has been given a nice snowcap!

We are supposed to get freezing rain later this afternoon and more snow tomorrow.  Good times!

Poor Buddha, Happy Fish

Since the temperature has not gotten above freezing since Sunday, the snow and ice are still on the ground.  Plus, it is snowing again today and they are expecting 3-4 inches.  Good times.

The Buddha fountain on the back porch is taking the brunt of the storm.  Here it is at the beginning of the storm on Sunday starting to develop some icicle earrings:

Here it is today.  An ice monster:

Luckily I got the goldfish out of the base of the fountain on Saturday.  Although they are in a smaller temporary home, I am sure they are happier below than they would be above:

Priya is not affected as she plays in front of the windows watching the snow fall.

We are supposed to get snow all day today and more tomorrow.  That will be followed by highs in the 20's Friday and Saturday with more snow/ice on Sunday and Monday.  The only bright spot is I should be able to head up to Mt. Hood this weekend for my first days of snowboarding/skiing.

Hike in the Snow

After warming up and watching a little football, I took Sona out in the snow for a little frisbee session and a hike along Lower MacLeay Park Trail.  Sona loves the snow and was going bezerk.  She also loves the warm jacket Ami bought for her.

Here is an action shot of her catching the frisbee:

The hike along the trail was beautiful as the snow had covered all the trees and rocks along the creek bed.  

Sona managed to stay still long enough for a great shot:

These remnants look like a castle and are often referred to as the witches castle.  In reality it is an old restroom from the early 1900s.

We did the loop that kicks us back out in the neighborhood above our house and stopped for a little more frisbee action.  The hood was presenting some challenges for Sona.

Winter Wonderland

We woke up this morning, a little groggy from our holiday party last night, to see this outside our bedroom window:

It has been snowing all day.  It doesn't snow too much in the city in Portland or Seattle, so it is always a treat.

We packed Priya up nice and warm in her new winter outfit and went for a walk to get breakfast.

Priya seemed to be really enjoying her first snowfall.

We stopped by Wallace Park to see if anyone was sledding down the hill behind Chapman Elementary.

The hill didn't have too much snow on it, but it didn't stop everyone from sledding down it.

Here is the view of MacLeay Park from the bridge.  This is the park that backs up to our house.

Right before heading in to warm up, we couldn't resist letting Priya sit in the snow.  She promptly fell over and made a snow angel.

More pictures to come as we adventure out again later.  Sona wants to run around in the snow too.

Christmas Tree Hunt

We headed out on Saturday to the christmas tree farms to hunt down this year's tree.  Oregon grows the majority of christmas trees for the US and export.  We prefer Noble firs.  We just happened to end up at a great family farm last year with beautiful views of Mt. Hood but forgot exactly where it was.  We headed out in the same direction this year and, what do you know, we managed to find it.  We also got lucky with a beautiful sunny day.

Priya found a tree just her size.  We got to enjoy a beautiful view of Mt. Hood while we searched for the perfect tree.

Priya, as always, was enjoying being outside.  Below, I get to working on bringing down our pick.  I think I sporting a little plumbers crack.

We got our prize tied to the top of the Subaru, with Sona looking on from the back.  She had a blast running around the farm, leaving "gifts and fertilizer".

More Thanksgiving pictures

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.  Another sunset with Priya:

Priya flying at the beach.

To the right of the birds in the background is a dorsal fin of a dolphin.  Beautiful sunset.

Our friends Shree and Ashok moved to Sarasota a couple of years ago.  It was nice to see them and have Priya meet Shail.

Thanksgiving Trip

Sorry for the lack of posts lately (in case anyone actually reads this blog!).  We were gone for almost two weeks over Thanksgiving.  We spent a few days in Houston on our way to Florida to spend time with the Wallace family in Sarasota.

Although the weather was cooler than normal, we still had some wonderful sunshine and several nice days at the beach.

Pappy helped Priya dip her toes in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time.  She has now been to the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf.  It was a little cold and she quickly learned to lift up her feet when the little waves rolled in.  Smart girl.

My parents live across the street from the beach so we tried each night to watch the sunset.  We had several nice ones and Priya seemed to really enjoy watching them.

Uncle Chris is getting better at holding his niece.

Here we just finished off some ice cream on St. Armand's Circle - Sarasota's version of Rodeo Drive?