OMSI is one of our favorites so much that we became members this past fall. On the first day of Silas’s winter break we met up with some friends at OMSI and made a day of it. The boys are not only fascinated with the science playground, but also with the science labs. The physics lab had some cool hands-on experiments including a Van de Graaff generator that made the boys’ hair stand on end.

The gingerbread creations at OMSI were impressive! There was a gingerbread replica of Portland: both a night and a day cityscape. Another gingerbread display was a re-creation of the world of Elf, one of our fav Christmas movies.

Back at our house we built four gingerbread houses this Christmas. I picked up a Christmas village gingerbread kit at Michael’s, so each of the kids had their own tiny house to build/decorate. We were also gifted a large, beautiful gingerbread house kit that I had fun putting together. The creations became our table centerpieces.

The Saturday before Christmas we had a chance to experience some real snow, not made of white frosting. We loaded up the Toyota Sienna {thankful for our all-wheel drive} and drove up to Mt. Hood for a snow tubing adventure.

Because the roads aren’t salted, we still had to use our chains, but we made it all the way over to Little John Sno Park. We thought it was a park that rented snow tubing gear, but it was a bring-your-own place. Oops! Thankfully there was a saucer nearby that we borrowed for a few trips down the hill before warming up in the log shelter by the fire.

The kids don’t have enough experience with snow yet to last long in the cold, white stuff. 

The pine trees were heavy laden with snow, and they were magnificent! The snow really changed the shape of the pines, pulling them downward. Stephen and I are used to seeing snowy tree-covered hills, but these mountains had only evergreens for miles and miles. Strikingly beautiful!