Happy Easter!

This past Easter came quickly and we assembled baskets after a couple trips to the store and also with the help of Amazon.  In addition to candy in the baskets (gummy-type candy for Karina, chewing gum and chocolate for Eliana and Gabe, and Xiao Yu likes all types of candy), they also got other gifts.  Xiao Yu got a building set, Gabe got a waffle iron because he is obsessed with waffles, Karina got a dog training/treat belt, and Eliana got a water bottle with a water purifier built into the straw.  She wants to take it backpacking.

Then as per tradition, we started our indoor Easter egg hunt.  As always, each kid has a color "assigned" to them and can only get the eggs of their color, even if they see other eggs around.  

This allows us to hide the eggs with varying levels of difficulty, depending on the kid.

And depending on the height of the kid!  Eliana is quite tall now!

But sometimes no matter what your height, it pays to look down low.

Each egg has a mini-marshmallow and also each kid had a "golden egg" with a dollar inside.

Then it was time for breakfast and Gabe decided to try out his new iron.  

The humans in the Yuen household weren't the only ones who got to enjoy a special Easter breakfast.  The animals also got special treats that the kids wanted to give them.  Karina made the rabbits a special treat made of oats, rabbit pellets, and other ingredients and then pressed them into heart-shaped cookie cutters.

For the chickens, she also melted beef tallow and mixed that with oats, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds to make a "cake" for them.

And then she topped them with beetles.  Elvin has a little mealworm farm going and these are the beetles that the mealworms turn into after they grow into adults.

Of course, the rabbits loved their treat.  

They each got one.

The chickens loved theirs as well.  They especially love the beetles and eat those first.

Lucky also got a special treat too.  It has kibble mixed in with beef tallow and some meat.  Yum!

After all that, it was time to go to church, or rather the backyard of someone's house.  We've been meeting with a couple other families outside during the pandemic.  They have a pretty big backyard full of trees and bushes, and offered to hide lots of eggs for the kids to hunt.

And they're off!

Karina was pretty successful.

This year, Gabe did not want to use his basket but opted for a paper bag instead.

And Eliana made off with some too.  Lucky attends church too, but had to stay close to Elvin.

Afterwards, all the kids examined their loot.  Lots of candy!

In the afternoon, it came time to dye eggs.  We set up a bunch of dunking stations with various colors.

Then Gabe got fancy and was submerging half of the egg in one color and half in another.  

You can see some of the resulting eggs.  They had lots of fun.

So despite the pandemic, the kids had a good Easter and lots of fun!

Trip to Sunriver

The week right after the big snowstorm in Vancouver, we took off for Sunriver in central Oregon.  We had been planning for this trip for a couple of months to be able to go somewhere on a trip for the kids to play in the snow.  However, if we had known that it was going to snow several inches for several days in Vancouver, we probably wouldn't have gone!

We don't have a crystal ball, however, and because our AirBnB was already reserved, off we went!

We brought Lucky along for the ride.  He doesn't like riding in cars and to prevent carsickness we gave him a little dramamine, per the recommendation of his vet.

We stopped a couple of times on the way.  At this stop in Dairy Queen on Mount Hood, it gave Lucky a chance to get out and stretch his legs.

The snow was pretty high on Mt Hood after the previous week's snow storm.

 But we kept on driving south and stopped again at an alpaca farm.  Dogs aren't allowed near the alpacas and so he spent time on a grassy field.

The kids decided to get stuff at the gift store.  Eliana and Gabe got stuffed animal alpacas made with real alpaca fur.  They are super soft.  They are made by folks that live in Ecuador.

And then we finally made it to the rental.  The kids quickly made themselves at home.  Karina and Gabe shared a bed.

Lucky enjoys the snow.  

We thought about renting snow shoes but instead decided to get cross country skis.  

It took a little while for the kids to get used to them but got the hang of it fairly quickly.

Eliana doesn't like downhill skiing but says she loves cross country skiing.

Some tumbles did happen though.

We found a little hill and the kids enjoyed going down the hill for hours.

It was finally time to head back after a whole morning of skiing.

We grabbed a pizza on the way back for a late lunch.

And then tried out the hot tub!  Even though it was about 35 degrees out, the water in the tub was pretty hot.

Lucky came out to check out what was going on.  But had no interest in getting into the water.

Gabe had the idea of grabbing ice and seeing how long it would last in the hot water.

Eventually everyone made it in.  It got a little crowded.

And then it was the evening and time to wind down.

We didn't have a baby gate to confine Lucky to any particular part of the house.  So after lights out, he wandered around a little and eventually settled into the master bedroom to sleep with mommy and daddy.

In the morning, Gabe came in to cuddle with the puppy.

And the kids said they were interested in skiing some more...so off we went!

We found a spot with a hill to go down on.  Eventually the kids took their skis off and started playing in the snow.

Karina ended up making a snow angel.

Eliana built a huge snowman.

It's almost as tall as her!

And there were snowball fights.

We also went to the local park because we were in search of some sledding hills.  Much of the snow had melted so the kids instead played on the rock climbing structure.

Eventually we made our way back home again and while drying off watched a lot of Harry Potter.  In the evenings, we ended up watching the entire movies #6 and #7 of Harry Potter.

The kids usually get to choose an ice cream bar or sandwich at the local sundry store for dessert.  This time, however, we found out that the local ice cream shop had a package deal where you could order two pints of ice cream and it came with a bunch of toppings, chocolate sauce, as well as waffle cones.  

So we had dinner that we had bought a couple days earlier in Costco...

And enjoyed yummy ice cream with sprinkles and other goodies.

And enjoyed the hot tub again.

And then it was time to wind down after a fun two days in Sunriver to return home the next day.

The next morning we packed up and loaded up the car.  But before leaving town, we gathered up all the cans and plastic bottles and stopped by the recycling center.  In Oregon, there is a 10 cent per item recycling fee which the kids love to redeem.  To them, it's free money!

On the drive back, we stopped again at the alpaca farm to visit with the furry creatures.  They are very friendly and also very interested in the pellets that we bought at the gift store to feed them.

There were a couple of babies out there that were just days old.  They get to wear little jackets to help them stay warm.

And, unfortunately, while Eliana was feeding one, it suddenly sneezed on her and slimed the front of her coat!  It was totally gross and almost something out of a movie!

And that was a (un)memorable ending to our fun weekend at Sunriver!