Month: February 2024

It snowed, so I was able to try out my snow plow. It didn’t work great. I’ve made some improvements and there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow morning, so I am anticipating speedy snow removal in the AM.

Monday was President’s Day. There was no school for me, but there was school for The Bigs. So, I went to college and I did The Mother’s work for her – again. I built a photogate for her lab class. It kind of acts like an electronic eye.

We had a bluebird, warm day on Saturday.

While I was training slalom, Mom and Dad met up with some former students and did some laps. I guess not all their students hate them.

On Sunday, my goal was to ski to the summit of Bachelor.

When we got to the Pine Marten Lodge, we saw that the summit route was closed due to an impending storm. So, we skied down and climbed back up to the lodge a second time, for a total of 2,766 vertical feet. We ran into my pediatrician skinning to the lodge at the same time we were. She was more than a little impressed!

Things we ate this week:

Peanut butter ramen, absolutely delicious but a little orange. We put orange bell peppers, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Next time we will use red peppers and maybe add something green!

Sauteed mushrooms, spinach, and walnuts with avocado and soft-boiled eggs on a bed of COTTAGE CHEESE. Weird? Yes. Yummy? YES.

Valentine’s Day is my 1/2 birthday, so we decided to go out and celebrate. We went to Mountain Burger. I definitely ate more than The Mother and I may have eaten more than The Father too. I had a strawberry shake to start.

I ‘built’ my own burger: lamb patty, jack cheese, smoked bacon, pickles, and ketchup. YUM!

The waitress also brought us some chocolate covered strawberries – on the house – probably because I’m so cute. I ate most of them.

Saturday was stormy. There was a lot of skiing without really being able to see.

There was also a lot of powder. I don’t get done with MBSEF until 2:30 and then I always want to do a run with The Bigs, so we all skied from 9 am – 3:00 pm. I went to bed at 8:30 pm. The Mother went at 8:31 pm.

I am skiing great and getting confident. Watch me launch off this jump.

Nailed it.

On Sunday we went backcountry skiing. Due to an amazing traffic jam, we left from the Swampy Sno-Park and headed to Vista Butte (we had planned to park at the Vista Butte Sno-Park, so this change probably added 4 miles to our trip).

I am the Manimal, so this did not bother me at all and I was all smiles and positivity the whole way.

If you look carefully, you can see The Mother trailing behind me in the distance, bet it will be another 8:30 bedtime for her again tonight.

She may be behind, but at her pace, she sees things we miss. Like this poor guy.

We finally all made it to the top of Vista Butte and when the clouds clear there was a Vista!

Ready to attack the hill.

There was about a foot of mash potato like powder. I handled it no problem.

After our ski, we had a picnic in the parking lot. Some of you may remember this picture from a January picnic. The Bigs have fancy Cliq chairs and I am sitting on the ground. Well…

Nan and Pop thought this was not OK. So now I have my own Cliq chair. Much better.

It’s not all skiing all the time…I’ve been doing a lot of shoveling lately – inspiring my latest invention – the scooter snow plow.

It was a big race weekend with a slalom on Saturday and GS on Sunday. I have made it a goal to get on the podium (top 5 men). Here I am on the slalom course.

I had to go second to last, so a LOT of kids went before me. There were some big ruts when it was my turn.

I handled it, no problem, and came in 9th overall out of 65 (7th out of the men – 2 away from the podium). It was a gorgeous day.

I blew off The Bigs and went to hang out with my friends in the afternoon. They were ecstatic I preferred to eat lunch with my friends and had themselves a nice little Cliq chair picnic in the sun.

We finished my Valentine’s Day cards – I was able to write my signature on The Mother’s computer and she inserted it into the cards – so I didn’t have to sign 28!

We put all the kids names around the Antelope.

Here I am at the start of the our GS race on Sunday.

The weather was quite a bit different than Saturday.

I skied well, finishing 10th out of 58 overall ( 6th out of all the men, ONE away from the podium), despite a rowdy fan that sounded a lot like The Mother.

We had two days off from school this week. Why? Good question. If you find out, The Bigs would like to know. They had to work both days, so I helped them out. Here I am fixing one of Mom’s circuits. When I wasn’t helping, I was watching movies or going to the coffee shop to pick them up coffees.

We took a break on Friday and went out for lunch. We went to Parrilla. I haven’t been since Pop took us when I was 4 months old! I had a Nashville Wrap: spicy fried chicken, tots, pickles, vinegar slaw, comeback sauce. YUMMY.

We also stopped by the library for some books. As this blog is being typed, I have already finished three of the books that are in that pile.

And, we went for a much needed haircut. Before.

After.

On Sunday I decided it was time to try and make my goal of skiing to the Cinder Pit at Meissner. Here I am ready to go.

Attacking the hills.

I left the snow park and I’m going to the Cinder Pit, so it should take 4.5 miles, right?

Or is it 5?

It ended up being 4.88 miles to the Cinder Pit and no problem for me. Here I am ringing bell (A must do for everyone who reaches the pit).

Ah, everyone looks so happy, but there are 4.88 miles until we get back. Will we make it?

Of course…because I am a manimal.