Blue Angels and Seafair

If you live near Seattle but have never watched the Blue Angels' Seafair air show, you are missing out on unique experience!  Traffic and crowds can be a genuine challenge, but with some planning and patience, it can be really fun!  It is totally free to walk on to the bridge to watch, so if you can find the patience to deal with traffic, parking, and crowds, it is a great budget-friend and family-friendly experience!

Here are some things to plan for if going to the air show from the east side.
1. Be aware that they do a practice run on Saturday that is the exact same show.  The only difference is traffic and crowds can be somewhat not as awful as on Sunday.
2. There aren't any real restaurants of coffee stands right near the bridge.  However, there will likely be some clever ice-cream stands.  Bring cash for cold treat opportunities.
3. Because it's not easy to buy a cold drink, bring plenty of water for everyone, and pack snacks & bubbles for kids who may get bored while waiting.  We didn't bring bubbles last year, but totally appreciated the family who had thought to do so as it perked our guy up a bit.
4. Bring ear protection if you can.  If you don't have decibel-reducing earphones (they can often be found at home improvement stores near power tools), look for some earplugs at a pharmacy before heading out. The jets fly pretty close and can be loud.
5. Parking and traffic will be worse than you think they will be.  Plan to get there a little early and have a picnic at the park ahead of time to reduce the stress of waiting in traffic for 2 hours and not finding a parking spot before the show actually starts.  Parking strategies below.

Earphones!

It's fun to walk onto the center of the freeway over Lake Washington.

To walk on to the I-90 bridge from Mercer Island on the east side, plan to use the on-ramp near West Mercer Way & SE 24th St. (marked with a star.)  Traffic getting to Mercer Island from Bellevue will be slower than you expect, and getting from the east side of Mercer Island to the west side will be even slower than that.  Plan to get to Bellevue 90 minutes to two hours before the air show starts in order to have sufficient time to deal with traffic congestion, parking, and hiking in.

Some parking options include:
1.  Finding street parking within a half a mile of the on-ramp.  Most people walk around 2 mph, so even if you can find something a half a mile away, you should be able to walk there within 15 or 20 minutes. Wear comfortable shoes.
2. The Mercer Island Park & Ride looks far away on a map, but it's really only a 15 minute walk.  If it fills up, pack some patience and try to find some legal street parking.
3. If your family has bikes, one way to bypass the traffic between Bellevue and the I-90 bridge on the Seattle side of Mercer Island is to park at the Bellevue Park & Ride and bike across the island. Here are some maps with a zoomed out view as well as a zoomed in view.
4. If your family has a kayak or canoe, there is a boat launch on the Mercer Slough that connects to Lake Washington.  Lake Washington will likely be a bit choppy with all of the power boats out watching the show, but if you're comfortable kayaking in Lake Washington, this is another option to avoid parking on Mercer Island all together.  I have some very fond (and maybe somewhat hazy) memories of boating during Seafair while growing up.
5. Since the bridge between Bellevue and Mercer Island can be a frustrating bottleneck, especially on Sunday, consider getting to the island 2-3 hours ahead of time and having lunch at the Islander or another restaurant before hand.
6. Last year we went on Saturday so there was less traffic.  We got to Bellevue about 2 hours before the air show and made it across the island and found parking within an hour.  We then just hung out in the air conditioned mini-van and I put on a video for Jake until about 30 minutes before the show.  It was much less stressful than being stuck in traffic 30 minutes before go time.

If you get through traffic and parking ahead of time, the Aubrey Davis Park has restrooms, a playground, and plenty of comfortable lawn space to hang out.  It can be a nice place to wait until they open the bridge for pedestrians.

Links:

• Videos of Blue Angels performing at previous Seafairs: http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Blue%20Angels%20Seafair 
• News about Seafair: http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Seafair+2017&qpvt=Seafair+2017&FORM=EWRE 
• Official Seafar Weekend site with air show schedule: http://www.seafair.com/events/2017/seafair-weekend 
• Traffic closures: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/northwest/king/seafair/default.htm 

Random Conversation Generator

Jake, the Random Conversation Generator

I love talking with Jake.  When we go out on adventures, the kid can chat for hours  At home, when he has a willing ear, it can be like a pressure valve getting released from all of the ideas swirling around his head.  This is a summary of our conversation between the time he got out of bath (around 7:20 PM) and bedtime (around 7:45 PM.)

Jake: Did you know we had a teeeeeeeeeny, tiny desert in our backyard, but don't now?
Me: I have no idea what you are talking about.
Jake: Our sandbox, you silly! It was like a desert, but smaller. It had sand, like the desert and like the beach.  What makes sand?
Me: Erosion. (I then talked about erosion for about 2 minutes.)
Jake: Oh yeah, so the water and wind hit the rocks and wear them down and make sand. When was the first sand made?
Me:I have no idea.
Jake: Oooooh, I have an idea.  When was the first person?  It was after the dinosaurs, right, because people came after the dinosaurs, but how do we know when people today weren't around then?  How did people become people?
Me: Evolution (I then talked about evolution for about 2 minutes.)
Jake: So people used to have tails?
Me: People generally don't have tails now, but our DNA may still have evidence that people or our ancestors did.  Did you know you have a tail bone?
Jake: *mind explodes* Oh my gosh!  Can I grow a tail?
Me: Unlikely, although you could grow up to become a scientist that studies DNA.
Jake: So I get DNA from your egg and dad's sperm?
Me: Yes.  I think you got my nose and dad's height.  The curly part of your hair is from me and the straight part is from dad. Those crazy double-jointed fingers of yours are all from your dad *shudders.*
Jake: So I got my brown eyes from both of you?  And my long legs from dad
Me: Yup.
Jake: Oooh, I get it!  On my fingers, on the back of my fingers, I have these lines from you...
Me: Wrinkles?  You're saying you get your wrinkles from me? Not cool, man.
Jake: No, I mean the ovals, the what's the word?
Andy: Knuckles?
Jake: Yes!  Wait, no, the oval lines on the top of my knuckles.  I got those from mom.
Andy: (Chuckles that Jake is contributing some finger wrinkles to me)
Me: (Half-amusedly glares at Andy)
Jake: Ooh, and you know how mom and I think a lot and dad doesn't, or puts stuff aside?
Me and Andy: Hey, what?  Daddy totally thinks!
Me: (Chuckles that Jake is calling Andy out for not being with it)
Jake: No, I mean how mom's and my imagination won't stop around scary things, but dad can control his brain with scary stuff?
Me: Yup, daddy is good about being in control about what's real & what's fake while you & I have imaginations that won't stop.
Jake: Oh, and guess what?
Me & Andy: What?
Jake: If a sperm is a Y and the egg is an X, a baby will be a boy, but if the sperm is an X and the egg is an X, it will be a girl.  I bet you didn't know I knew that?
Me: Very true.
Jake: Goodnight, I love you.
Andy & Me: We love you, too.
Jake: Oh, and tomorrow can you teach me the letter number cryptogram algebra?  I think I want to learn that.


Every 15 minutes with Jake can be a wild ride of conversation, and he can ramble from a sandbox in the backyard to evolution to knuckle wrinkles to algebra in the blink of an eye.  He is a bit crazy, but he's the best!

Jennbo is back

I am so excited to start at Harebrained Schemes today!  Here is a little about me:

TLDR: I love shipping games, I took some time with my family, I'm excited to ship games again, and I can't wait to meet everyone at HBS!

More info:
Sorry this may be the longest intro mail in the history of the planet.  I'm excited to be back in games and typed more than I planned on!

I'm a local who grew up on Mercer Island, double-majored in Economics & Environmental Studies at WWU, and started at Microsoft Games Studios in 1998 as a tester on card & board games.  After shipping a ratings system, Bridge 2.0, and Chess 2.0 for an event with Gary Kasparov, I became the test lead for the Windows Internet Games on Win ME & Win XP.

While that project had minimal focus on gameplay, I loved the production aspect of getting our old 1980s game clients (with hard coded strings and everything) compliant with Windows quality gates.  I learned about localization (something the Zone hadn't done previously), STRIDE threat modeling, right-to-left displays, pseudo-loc, high ASCii, double byte character sets, COPPA, accessibility, creating keyboard controls for mouse-dominant games, and working across several divisions. I loved it. I had fun learning Visual Test (which was similar to some Java I had picked up in college) and taking advantage of keyboard access to create some basic black-box test automation.

In 2001 I moved over to the Roleplaying Adventure Technology (RAT) team and helped ship some titles including Nightcaster, Psychonauts, and Shenmue II. After developing a way to automate testing on our Xbox titles, I because an SDET Lead and supported titles like Sudeki, Dungeon Siege, and Kameo.  In the evenings I started teaching classes at Cascadia Community College on test automation.  A group of us gave the first presentation on test automation in games at GDC in 2004, which was fun.

Around that time, several SDET teams merged with some other shared tech teams to become the MGS Tools aND Technology (TNT) Team. I was the Test Lead/Test Manager for the test tools, R1 graphics engine, and the title server backend for Project Gotham Racing 3, a 360 launch title.

Losing interest in the 3-year planning and budgeting marathons of Test Managers, I switched things up and joined the Rare Test Team to focus on developing test tools & automation for titles like Viva Piñata.

When I had the opportunity to join Xbox LIVE Arcade, I took it! It was a chance to get back to my roots of casual games while leveraging Xbox shipping experience.  This is when I met Mitch!  I of course loved the people of XBLA.  I also loved getting to work with multiple 3rd party partners as well as meet some folks in MS Research for Kodu.

At XBLA, one funny conversation happened over South Park.  To my surprise, I was assigned as the Test Lead for that project.While I am OK with the company shipping all kinds of titles, I did not want to have to work on something that featured racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, etc.  I knew South Park prides itself on discriminating against everyone, and claims that neutralizes their jokes.  I am someone who volunteered with Hands Off Washington in college and lost some friends I had had since I was 3 years-old because my heart is committed to equal rights. I am part Native American and my bio mother was born on a reservation. I grew up with a fleet of Jewish friends on the Island.  All of those things that HR nag people about? I actually believe them to my core and have zero tolerance for that kind of crap.

After an impassioned plea to my Test Manager to not have me work on South Park, he said that because he knew he could trust me to not let any stuff slip by that would not represent MS well, he wanted me on the project.  He asked if it'd be OK to have poor jokes, though, because of Kenny.  I was raised by a single mom and still remember the sting of hand-me-down corduroy pants (which are the worst kind of hand-me-downs because worn-down ridges are so visible.)  I sighed and said I'd accept poor jokes with a cringe, if he could guarantee no LGBT, gender, race, or religious jokes.  Deal made.

In 2008 I moved over to work in ACES as the Train Sim Test Lead. When TS was cancelled 10 weeks later, the department was restructured so that everyone started working on a military sim project. Our team focused on ground physics during combat. I learned that when our American soldiers patrolled in Humvees and drove over mines in Afghanistan and Iraq, shrapnel projected up into the vehicles with devastating results.  MRAPs were being deployed, with v-shaped hulls to help shrapnel project away from our soldiers, and part of our job was to take the new design into consideration in the sim. Although the entire studio of 200 people was laid off in January 2009, working on that project was one of the most meaningful projects I ever worked on.

After the studio was laid off, they hired 20 of us back to start a new Flight Live studio, and I was hired on as the new Test Manager.  I helped shut down the old studio (which sucked), start the new studio (which was awesome), and took on some Project Management tasks along the way.

In 2010 I had our first son, so I took some time off.  When it became apparent he needed a little more support than daycare could provide, I decided to officially stay home for a while.

During my time with my family and while learning about sensory processing disorder, autism, ADD, and how crazy boys are in general, I produced an outdoor sculpture show, volunteered with Little Bit (which provided horse riding therapy for children with different abilities), did some volunteer genealogy work, and volunteer taught Hour of Code at our elementary school for 3 years.

I also picked up some very basic PhotoShop skills.  In 2013, some devastating tornadoes struck Oklahoma and killed 24 people.  As I learned about it in the news and heard about how groups of people were organizing to sweep through fields to look for photos, the genealogist in me couldn't stand the idea of family photos being lost forever.  I joined a facebook group created to reunite photo owners with photos, and started helping with digital restoration from afar. Over the past couple of years, here are a couple of restorations I've done for Operation Photo Rescue, a friend, and a tornado victim.

Now that my youngest is 1 and is making eye contact, playing peek-a-boo, and doing all of the typical baby things, I am ready to dive back in to making games!  I am very excited to learn a whole bunch of new stuff, help, and meet the team!

-Jennbo


Boku (in XNA) and South Park and 6 second party titles: Wallace and Gromit, The Maw, King of Campus, The Price Is Right, Universally Challenged, and Cletus Clay



Longest ever:
More info:
I'm a local who grew up on Mercer Island, double-majored in Economics & Environmental Studies at WWU, and started at Microsoft Games Studios in 1998 as a tester.  At the Zone, I focused on card & board games like Bridge 2.0 (This landed me in an emergency conference call with Warren Buffet because the new release no longer supported his Win 3.1 machine. 6 months out of college that was a scary call to take!)  I had fun writing little JavaScript tools to expedite the manual test process.

After shipping Chess 2.0 for a project with Gary Kasparov, I became the test lead for the Windows ME & Windows XP internet games.  While that project had minimal focus on gameplay, I loved the production aspect of getting our old 1980s game clients (with hard coded strings and everything) compliant with Windows quality gates.  I got to learn about localization (something the Zone hadn't done previously), STRIDE threat modeling, right-to-left displays, pseudo-loc, high ASCii, double byte character sets, COPPA, accessibility, creating keyboard controls for mouse-dominant games, and working across several divisions. I loved it. I had fun learning Visual Test (which was similar to some Java I had picked up in college) and taking advantage of keyboard access to create some basic black-box test automation.

In 2001, after the Zone split into 2 departments and after I shipped XP, I moved to the Roleplaying, Adventure, Technology (RAT) team. I joined the Nightcaster team a month after they were supposed to have RTM'd to help them lock things down, get compliant with TCRs, and ship.

After working on a French project for a few months that got cancelled, I moved on to Psychonauts. I loved everything about this title.  Well, almost. The production side felt one part was way too difficult, but the developers did not. During usability testing, my job as QA was to stand next to the white board behind the mirrored glass and draw a tick mark every time someone died. OMG my arm hurt because everyone died all of the time and it totally irritated me.

In investigating if there was a way to automate that process, I was told that it was not possible to do any automation of any kind on Xbox.  I knew no one had done it, but that didn't mean that it wasn't actually possible.  Over the weekend I poured through the Xbox XDK, figured out how to instrument the controller XDK sample with the debug channel XDK sample, and modified the debug channel XDK sample to read and execute batch files.  It was possibly the worst code ever compiled in the walls of MS, but dang if I hadn't shown a proof of concept that worked! I became an SDET Lead.

After shipping Shenmue II (I'm still hoping for a Shenmue III someday), my team focused on figuring out the best way to automate the games of RAT.  I learned so much during these years, including that automation can save time & money sometimes, but it can also have a horrible ROI if not used strategically.  Fully automating walkthroughs of Sudeki looked awesome and shiny, but I think that manual testers are still the smartest use of resources for playthroughs.  Modifying tools to test assets in Dungeon Siege was awesome, though.

Around 2003 my team joined a couple of other SDET teams that had popped up in MGS and we became a shared SDET team. I primarily continued to support RAT titles but I also got to help with Kameo: Elements of Power.  Around 2004 our team merged with some other tech teams around MGS to become the Tools aNd Technology (TNT) team. I took on the role of Test Manager and owned testing for our test tools, the R1 graphics engine from Rare, and the Title Server shipping with Project Gotham Racing 3, a 360 launch title.

While I loved the people and opportunities on that team, I wasn't excited about spending time in 3 year-planning marathons and high-level budgeting plans.  I missed being in the trenches so in 2006 I decided to jump back to being an SDET to spend time actually writing tools for the Rare test team.  On Viva Piñata, I owned tools, automation, and certification because I love owning the endgame shipping process.

When I had the opportunity to join Xbox LIVE Arcade, I took it! It was a chance to get back to my roots of casual games while leveraging Xbox shipping experience.  This is when I met Mitch!  I of course loved the people of XBLA.  I also loved getting to work with multiple 3rd party partners as well as meet some folks in MS Research for Kodu.

At XBLA, one funny conversation happened over South Park.  To my surprise, I was assigned as the Test Lead for South Park. I met with the Test Manager to tell him that pretty much anyone else would be a better fit for that project.  While I am totally OK with the company shipping all kinds of titles, I did not want to have to work on something that featured racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, etc.  I knew South Park prides itself on discriminating against everyone, claiming that neutralized their jokes.  I am someone who volunteered with Hands Off Washington in college and lost some friends I had had since I was 3 years-old because my heart is committed to equal rights. I am part Native American and my bio mother was born on a reservation. I grew up with a fleet of Jewish friends on the Island.  All of those things that HR nags people about? I actually believe in equal rights for everyone and have zero tolerance for that kind of crap.

After my impassioned plea to not have me work on South Park, my test manager said that because he knew me so well, he could trust me to not let any crap slip by.  He needed Microsoft to be represented well, so I needed to go jennbo on anything that would reflect poorly on the company.  He asked if it'd be OK to have poor jokes, though, because of Kenny.  I was raised by a single mom and still remember the sting of hand-me-down corduroy pants (which are the worst kind of hand-me-downs because worn-down ridges are so visible.)  I signed and said I'd accept poor jokes with a cringe, if he could guarantee no LGBT, gender, race, religious, or sexual assault jokes.  Deal made.  For part of my job, I reviewed some South Park episodes for MS (and jennbo) appropriate content.

Easy Snowshoe Hike with a Forest Ranger at Snoqualmie Pass

Have you ever thought about snowshoeing, but have no idea about equipment or where to go?  Try an easy snowshoe hike with a United States Forest Ranger!  At $10 for kids and $15 for adults, a guided hike that includes equipment rental is a great deal and we had a fun time trying something new.

Driving up to Snoqualmie Pass, we took exit 52 and veered to the right at the end of the off-ramp to find the Snoqualmie Pass Visitor Center, which is run by the United States Forest Service.  Luckily for us, both the roads and the sky were clear, setting us up for a spectacular day on the mountain.  After being even luckier to find free street parking about a block away, we made our way to the ranger station.

Right at 1:00 PM, the US Forest Rangers gave an introduction to our crowd of about 20 people, telling the parents how to help kids put on snowshoes, and telling kids that they were welcome to hang out with the ranger at the front of the crowd, once we were on the hike.  Jake was pretty excited about that.

After we all checked out snowshoes, we followed the Ranger across the street and under I-90 to where the Pacific Crest Trail meets exit 52.  Once we were off the road and all on the snow, we stopped to strap on our snowshoes.  I was surprised at how easy they were to put on and at how comfortable they were to walk in.

At what would be the larger parking lot for the Pacific Crest Trail in the summer, the ranger stopped and had the kids gather around.  He talked about some animals that live nearby, including bunnies.  I honestly thought that bunnies were either brown or white, and that white ones tend to fare better in winter and brown ones fare better in summer.  However, I learned that brown summer bunnies actually have some sort of ability to gauge the length of sunlight each day.  As days grow shorter, their hair turns white and as days grow longer, their brown summer fur returns.  The Ranger joked that his mustache turned white when it became winter one year, but for some reason hasn't ever turned back to brown.

Along the way, we stopped several more times to see some bunny prints in the snow, along with bobcat prints nearby.  We also stopped to learn about birds, squirrels, and trees.

Jake points out why we need to stay on the trail.

BEFORE YOU GO:
1. To check out guided snowshoe programs at Snoqualmie Pass, check out availibility and options here: http://www.discovernw.org/store_winter-snowshoe-program-at-snoqualmie-pass_SNOWSHOE01.html.  If you have questions, their phone number is (425) 434-6111.
2. To research other guided snowshoe adventures, check out this page from Washington Trails Association: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hiking-info/basics/winter-skills-courses. It is a great compilation!
3. Check out road conditions at WSDOT: http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/passes/snoqualmie
4. Snowshoes are included in the adventure fee.  Dress in layers and bring a backpack snacks, water, an extra pair of gloves (in case a child takes one off and throws it in the woods without telling you, which is what one little girl did today.  Pro tip: if you have little ones that take off mittens and drop them, try putting a wool sock over their gloves but under their coat sleeve.  This is what I do with Tyler and we haven't lost a mitten, yet.)  I also brought little hand warmer packets, although we didn't need them, despite the 16 degree weather today.
5. Pack chains in your car and practice putting them on before you drive in snow.  Also, pack a plastic garbage back or something to kneel on when putting on chains.  The roads were clear for us today, but it's always good to be prepared in the mountains.
6. Pack a sled for after your snowshoe adventure, if you're inclined.  The Snoqualmie Pass Visitor Center is just a mile or two from the Hyak Sledding Hill.  If we had time and didn't have to pick up Tyler at the Pro Club's childcare, I totally would have taken us sledding afterwards.
7. Bring some cash for parking, just in case.  We found free parking along the street, but we were lucky that someone happened to leave at the right time.  There are some pay lots on the road, and if we started cutting it close to the adventure time, I would have wanted to make sure to have cash on hand for some pay lots.

GETTING THERE:
1. The Snoqualmie Pass Visitor Center is located at 6905 SE Snoqualmie Pass Summit Road, Snoqualmie Pass, WA.  https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbs/about-forest/offices/?cid=STELPRDB5238217
2. To get to the Snoqualmie Pass Visitor Center, take I-90 to Exit 52.  At the end of the off-ramp, veer right.  The Visitor Center is on the right side of the street in about 2 blocks.
3.  Street parking is available along Snoqualmie Pass Summit Road, just past the Visitor Center.
4.  For our hike, we walked without snowshoes on along the street and under I-90 to the Pacific Crest Trail.  Once on the trail, we put on our snowshoes and made a little loop.

Make Ahead Freezer Sandwiches

Did you know you can make sandwiches ahead of time, freeze them, toss a frozen one into a lunch bag in the morning, and have a thawed sandwich ready for lunch?  This is my favorite parenting hack!  This makes getting lunches ready in the morning a total breeze.

Now, whether I pack everything but the sandwich the night before and toss one in in the morning or whether Jake packs his lunch on his own, having sandwiches ready to go makes things so much easier!

 Ideas that have worked well for us:

*Ham & cheddar cheese with mayo

*Turkey & havarti with mayo & mustard

*Peanut butter & honey

*Almond butter & jam

*Grilled cheese sandwich (or grilled ham & cheese sandwich)

*Quesadilla (sometimes with chicken, cumin, and chili powder for extra flavor) 

Tips:
1. Meat, nut butters, jam, condiments, and cheese freeze and thaw well.  Veggies do not.  If you want lettuce or tomato on a sandwich, it's best to pack it in a separate bag and add it to the thawed sandwich at lunch.

2. Hot sandwiches like grilled cheese sandwiches, or even quesadillas, can be frozen.  For hot sandwiches, make sure to let them cool to room temperature before putting them in the freezer, though.  If I make grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, I often make an extra one or two that can be tossed into the freezer once it cools to room temperature.  It just helps add variety.

3. To make sure your family member will have enough time for thawing, do a test run over the weekend.  Take a sandwich out of the freezer around the time you normally leave and try eating it around the school's lunchtime.  This will help assure you your child won't be sadly gnawing on a frozen sandwich at lunch.  If it turns out there isn't enough time for the sandwich to fully thaw, you can always move one from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before.  The bread always tastes a little drier to me when I try that, although Jake never notices.

4. Once you try it out a couple of times, make a batch of sandwiches.  Either make 5 for the week on Sunday or try converting an entire loaf of bread into sandwiches in one fell swoop.

5. Frozen sandwiches typically last a month before the bread becomes kind of stale tasting when thawed.

6. When making batches of sandwiches, using cookie cutters is just as easy as using a knife to cut them.  Plus, it makes the sandwich more fun for the kid!  You could try using certain cookie cutters for certain sandwich combinations or have some holiday theme with the shapes, if you want. I often just use one shape for all of the combos, though, because that's the easiest.

7. On school nights when things are too busy to put together a nice dinner, grab a frozen sandwich and toss it in a pan, microwave, or panini press for a quick hot dinner.  Apparently toasted PB&Js are tasty!

8. I usually get ham-off-the-bone or rotisserie chicken at the deli counter of the grocery store, to avoid overly processed meats.  While there, I keep my eye open for sales.  With frozen sandwiches, it's easy to buy a pound of roast beef or something you may not normally buy, turn it into frozen sandwiches, and sprinkle them throughout the month. That way, you can basically use the sale price over a longer period of time while adding variety to the mix.

9. During the sandwich assembly process, it's easy to get the kids involved so they feel invested in their lunch.  Jake loves to be in charge of using the cookie cutters!

10. When using a cookie cutter, if you can't get a clean cut by pressing the cutter down into the sandwich, try flipping the sandwich over and pressing it down onto the cutter, like the lower center sandwich in the top photo.

Sandwiches assembled & cut

A loaf's worth of sandwiches, ready for the freezer in just 10 minutes!

Sledding Near Snoqualmie

Sledding Near Snoqualmie

Interested in sledding near Snoqualmie Pass? Here are 2 options to check out this winter with some variety in amenities, activities, and cost.

#1 - Hyak Sledding Hill

Hyak Sledding Hill is a great place for sledding.  The parking lot is adjacent to the Iron Horse Trail, which also makes it a great starting point for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and relatively flat hikes on groomed trails.  Here's a trip report from 2 years ago when Jake & I took an easy snowy hike along the Iron Horse Trail & Keechelus Lake: http://dotsonstories.blogspot.com/2015/01/keechelus-lake-iron-horse-trail.html

Features of Hyak include:

1. A sledding hill long enough to be fun for older kids

2. A ski patrol / sledding "lifeguard" at the top of the big sledding hill during peak times to help manage safety

3. A couple of smaller, unofficial sledding hills great for younger kids 

4. A *heated* restroom facility in the middle of the parking lot with running water.  This makes potty breaks so much easier for little ones compared to sanican or no facilities, like most sledding hills.

5. You can bring your own sled, so you can choose what style of sledding or tubing your family prefers.

6. It is very close to I-90, so it is likely that the road will be maintained about as well as any road up at Snoqualmie.

Things to be aware of:

1. While the road to the entrance of the Hyak Sledding Hill is likely to be as drivable as any road in the area, there is a small hill from the road up into the parking lot.  This is not always as sanded or de-iced as I would expect for an entrance to a sledding hill.  Bring chains with you (as with any snowy outing), practice putting them on before going, and be prepared to put them on if needed.  There was a lot of snow in the parking lot, I did not need chains for my Honda Odyssey, and very few cars in the lot had chains.  The heavy traffic in and out kept the road driveable, but if you go on a day where it's been sunny for a few days, which could result in melting & re-freezing, come prepared.

2. Both a Washington State Discover Pass and a Snow Park Pass with Groomed sticker are required.

Permit Details:

To park in this lot, you need both a Discover Pass and a Sno-Park pass with the groomed sticker.  A day pass for the Discover Pass costs about $10 and a day pass for the groomed Sno-Park Pass costs $20.  You can pay on-site via an attendant if the entry booth is staffed or at the pay station in the parking lot.  Both accept credit cards.  An annual Discover Pass runs about $30 and an annual Sno-Park Pass with the groomed lot sticker runs $80, so if you plan on coming more than 3 or 4 times this season, annual passes may be a way to go.  Just to make things a little more complicated, you can also use an annual Discover Pass and just buy a day pass for the Sno-Park pass if you like hiking year-round but only plan on going sledding here once or twice. You can buy both ahead of time at REI and several other retailers.

	Single Day	Annual Pass	More info
Non-Motorized Sno-Park Permit with groomed sticker	$20	$80	https://fortress.wa.gov/parks/ecomm/prod/Store/SNO/SnoChoice.aspx
Discover Pass	$11	$33	http://www.discoverpass.wa.gov
Sno-Park/Discover Combo	$30	N/A	https://fortress.wa.gov/parks/ecomm/prod/Store/SNO/SnoChoice.aspx

Getting There:

Address: For GPS, try entering: 15 Keechelus Boat Launch Road, Snoqualmie Pass, WA 98068. This may not be recognized by all GPS systems, but it may get you close.

Link to map: http://binged.it/1xGDejC 

Directions: 

1. From Seattle/Duvall, take I-90 East and take Exit 54-Hyak.

2. At end of off-ramp, take a RIGHT.

3. In about 20 feet, take IMMEDIATE LEFT.  Look for brown "KEECHELUS TRAILHEAD" sign under a green "Dept. Of Transportation HYAK MAINT. DIV" sign.

4. In about .4 miles, turn RIGHT onto  Keechelus Boat Launch Road.  Look for the brown KEECHELUS TRAILHEAD" sign.

5. Take the first RIGHT into the Hyak Sledding Hill parking lot.

Photos:

Main sledding hill at Hyak

One of the smaller sledding hills at Hyak

Parking pass machine in Hyak parking lot

#2 - The Summit Tubing Center

The Summit Tubing Center is a dedicated tubing slope with more structure than Hyak.  Guests purchase tickets for 2 hour sessions and must use tubes provided.  Prices for tickets range from $5 for children 5 and under and up to $25 per person for 13 year-olds and older, so this route can get pricey pretty quickly.  Their website has all of the info so I'll link to it here: http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/activities/tubing/rates-and-hours 

Getting there: http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/activities/tubing-faq  

Photo:

http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/mountains/tubing

Digital Art - Planets

This digital art project is great for kids as young as kindergarten. The basic skills of this project are just filling in a background color and drawing a circle.  While these two tasks may take a while and require assistance with kindergarteners, older kids will have fun adding all kinds of silly extra details.

Although we use a specific program at school called Drawing for Children, Microsoft Paint installed on all Windows computers can get the job done, too.

Basic Planet
1. To open Microsoft Paint, hit the Windows Key and type: mspaint
2. When Paint opens, change the background color by clicking the paint can that's tipping over.  It's like an entire can of paint is spilling all over the page.  If black isn't selected by default (or if you want a different color for outer space) click one of the color squares to the right.

3.  Next, select a color for the planet.  In Microsoft Paint, select a circle shape and change the fill to "solid color."

4. To change the fill color from the default white to another color, click the "Color 2" square and select a color.

5. If the planet has craters, create smaller circles of the same color within the main planet circle.

6. If the planet has rings, try using a solid rectangle of another color.

This should get kids up and running with a new planet.  Experiment with different colors for the planet or outer space.  Maybe the planet isn't even a circle.  If your kids have access to any drawing program with more features than MS Paint, add a clip art alien or dinosaur to the scene!  Blue scribbles can be a comet, and white dots can be background stars.  Do your kids know any constellations they want to add?  (Jake's favorite constellation is w-opia / Cassiopeia.)


Adding Continents
If kids want to create continents, they should have fairly solid mouse control.  The polygon shape is like a connect-the-dots sort of shape, where the student clicks on various points to create connected lines.  When the end is connected the the beginning, the shape is created.  If a student doesn't have the mouse agility to accomplish this, it can be frustrating for them.  I don't usually mention this to the kindergartners just starting out.  Creating craters is enough planetary detail for them.  If you have an older student who really wants to try this out, find the polygon shape at the top and set the fill to "solid."  Play with the line width and Color 1 for the outline and Color 2 for the color of the shape.

Adding Bands
If the students want to create bands, or lines, on their planet, first try using narrow rectangles.  To look like bands that are a little less solid than a rectangle, try painting or drawing freehand, with a different type of brush.  In Microsoft Paint,click the "Brushes" button near the top.  Select a brush style, like "Crayon."  Additionally, play with line size and Color 1 color.

To create a color different than the default 20 colors, click "Edit Colors."  Click a color in the rainbow box, and make it brighter or darker with the slider bar on the right.  When the custom color box looks to be the right shade, click the big "Add to Custom Colors" button at the bottom of the dialog.

 Example of solid rectangles used for rings, and crayon drawing used for gassy bands.

Pokémon Planet
Have a Pokémon fan in the house?  Here is a step-by-step to creating a Pokémon planet!
1. Create a white circle.  Change the line size to be the widest.  This will help the center rectangle blend with the outer edge of the circle.

2. Create a narrow, solid, and black rectangle in the middle.

3. Change the line size to be a medium width, and create a solid, white circle.

4. Select red for "Color 1" and use the spilling paint can to fill the upper arc.

Microsoft Paint and other basic drawing applications have a limited feature set, which helps prevent kids from getting too overwhelmed and lost.  However, even with a basic tool set, a little imagination can create lots of fun new scenes!

If you want to give kids an opportunity to explore with digital drawing, but don't exactly want them messing up your nice computer, the public library has computers that are free for members to use.  Last I checked, the Duvall Public Library had Microsoft Paint installed.  Before heading down, call to confirm, though.  Especially during rainy days, this can be a fun and free way to get out of the house and try something new!

It is fun to see what they will come up with!