Clear Creek Trail

We've passed this sign countless times on our way to town (which is only like 5 minutes away from our house btw) but we never stop to check out this place until two weeks ago. We had a 3 day weekend in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day but we were pretty much cooped up in the house for the first 2 days since it rained.  I really hope we could get more snow before winter is over. We only got it twice so far. Monday was better though it was cloudy for most part of the day with light showers towards the end  of the afternoon but we just had to get out of the house for awhile to get some fresh air. So we went to this place that turns out to be a pretty nice place for a walk. Actually where we went is only part of the trail called Silverdale Rotary Gateway Park. Based on the map, I think it's a 5-6 mile trail but we only did probably around 2 miles or less.

The trail is wide and easy to walk. As you can see in the pictures, part of the trail is a well constructed boardwalk that continues to a wetland area.

We didn't spot any salmon

Despite the gloominess, it was a nice day for a walk.

The boardwalk is wide enough for kids to run

Apart from these ducks, we spotted a couple great blue herons took off in flight but unfortunately I was not prepared with my camera to take their pictures.

I wanted to check out this place since it looks pretty old but it's on a private property land and this is the closest I could get.

After the boardwalk we came to this paved trail.

Part of the creek

Different views of the trail

Toothless boys

Emir took this picture

Water running through the creek

At first glance, I thought it was a real giraffe but it turns out to be a sculpture.

On the way back.

This is a funny old dog. She kept whining and begging us to play fetch with her. She even went to search for a stick and put the stick in front of us hoping that we would throw the stick somewhere so she could  run and  fetch it We obliged. I mean look at her eyes. Those hopeful eyes. Of course kenalah berhati-hati takut tersentuh bahagian yang basah, kalau tak kenalah samak dulu sebelum sembahyang. Ada pernah dengar sabun taharah. Sabun tu buatnya dari tanah liat. So sebelum datang sini dulu, ada beli a few just in case kalau ada situasi yang memerlukan kita bersamak, at least boleh terus ja samak tak payah nak kutip tanah dulu.

Let It Snow!

We were excited to get our first snow here last week. But with that, came the unexpected - snow storm and power outage... for 40 HOURS (power outage that is)! The temperature inside the house was around 40 something F (8-10C). We even saw our own breath, which was actually fun for the first few minutes before we started to feel extremely cold and grumpy. By we, I mean me in particular. Took some pictures as usual so here you go :-)

Having fun in the snow while waiting for the school bus

Happily off to school. Little did they know the school would be closed for the rest of the week

Stark contrast between winter and fall. Love the colors.

Our backyard. I haven't mulch my garden yet :-(

Rake and my flip flops were still outside. Random pics but I personally think they gave a nice contrast against the white snow.

Playing snowball anyone? This was taken the next day after the storm. The sky was super clear, and the sun was out and the snow started to melt a bit but the power was still out. Darn.

Our neighbors next door are super nice people. I woke up  the next morning and saw them shoveling the snow off our driveway and walkways. They also spread salt over the cleared area to avoid icing. How nice is that?!  They said that since we just moved from Hawaii, they figured that we didn't have proper tools to do the job so they helped. In return I gave them some curry puffs and cupcakes to say thank you.

Fun time outside using socks as gloves to throw snowballs at each other.

We didn't want to stay inside the house as it's too cold so we went to Island Lake instead. Remember Island Lake from my previous entry? It's cold too but at least we're outside with much nicer view to see and enjoy. Plus I want to take some pictures of the lake in winter. This road that we had to take to the lake was very slippery and had a thin layer of ice on it. Going down the hill was pretty tricky and we had to drive really slow but going up was worse. And on the way back, the car kept sliding down so we had to take a different route. Some people had to leave their cars at the road side the night before as it was too dangerous to drive.

This was totally unplanned. We have this tarp in the car for a long time and once we saw this slope, the idea  to use it to slide down the hill just popped up. Climbing up the slope was pretty tricky for the kids though. The boys had fun before they started complaining about their socks cum gloves got wet and didn't want to play anymore.

Pretty views. The lake was partially frozen and some ducks were still in the water

The snow didn't last. Still freezing cold  but back to the ol' rainy day for most of the days

Island Lake Park

This park to me, is awesome (mainly because of the distance from our house to the park is like 2 minutes by car!). It has a playground, a lake with gravel swim beach, paths, a couple BBQ pits with picnic tables, a picnic shelter, fishing dock, lots of  parking  space and most importantly, restrooms.

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago. Ezzat being silly with the dandelions. As long as it's not at our yard, it's fine. Man those dandelions are such nuisance in the garden.

 

Wild blackberries! There're tons of them out there. Just bring your gloves or something to protect yourself from being pricked by those nasty thorns all over the bushes. 

Found some bugs to play with

 Various views of the lake

Some of the permanent residents of the lake

At the playground

Island Lake, Silverdale - Free Slideshow Creator