Okay, Last week I said that would be the last post in the Winter Activity series I spontaneously started earlier this year. But this week brought some new experiences! Last Wednesday my husband and I got to try axe-throwing with some of my coworkers. It was fun! We went to Oregon Axe in Springfield, in the Booth Kelly Center. I had no idea what the Booth Kelly Center was. It’s an old mill site that’s been converted into a cool hipster artisan collective. Check it out here: https://www.boothkellymakers.org/
If you haven’t been axe-throwing yet, it’s kind of like darts but with real axes. Chris was definitely better than me at it. We’ll credit his pizza-dough rolling skills. But in my defense, I was paired up in competition with my awesome boss! Not intimidating at all! Just kidding. I’m sure I threw my best. I got in a few good throws that stuck, and my boss got in a good few more. But a couple of my colleagues were amazing at it. The staff there were trying to recruit them for leagues!
So that was Chris’ and my new activity for the week. On Saturday, our kids got one. We took our kids up to the mountains to play in the snow. Only our 10 year old had gone sledding before (while visiting my at my apartment right after a good snowstorm last year, and we walked to a nearby park with a great sledding hill). They loved it! And ate it! A lot! The younger kids were miserable at times with cold and bruises (the 6 year old went flying off a ramp that no one could see and bumped his knee). But they rallied and loved the experience overall. The older ones loved the ramps. And they all loved the speed. “Best roller coaster ever!”
We met up with my friends from Central Oregon there at the Santiam Sno-Park, which has great steep hills for fast sledding. Then all split up to eat and met back together at Belknap Hot Springs to soak in the hot pools. We knew that would make our kids happy, because they loved that place last summer. And it was a great way to get warmed up after the snow.
On the way home, we stopped for pizza at Takoda’s in Rainbow (yes, that’s a town foothills of the Cascades). I’d been in there but never actually eaten there. It was great! Fantastic friendly service, lots of fun souvenirs and things to buy or look at, and even pizza topped with the same pepperoni that Joey’s Pizza uses. Chris told the staff that he works at Joey’s and asked about it, and they not only confirmed which pepperoni it is, but said they call it “Joey’s Pepperoni”! They love Joey’s Pizza! I guess Joey’s has a sister restaurant up in the mountains! They also had great soup and a decent salad bar. They do not, to our 6 year old’s disappointment, have French Fries and hamburgers in their salad bar. But it was good.
We’ve just been relaxing at home for the rest of the holiday weekend. What have you all been doing with yours? Happy Presidents Day!
The Compass Rose Queen 