I had three days off from school this week due to conferences, so Papa came to town to hang out with me. (My conference was very good, by the way.) On his first full day here, we headed to Suttle Lodge for an overnight trip. On the way there we stopped at Diane’s Riding Place for a little ropin’ and ridin’:
Here’s Papa delivering a stuffy from one mailbox to another. Good job, Papa!
Strawberry, stopping for a drink:
Next, we went for a walk along the Deschutes River at Tumalo State Park:
After our hike, it was on to Suttle Lake Lodge. It was awesome.
We got up in the morning, had a banana, and went for a walk around the lake:
On the way home, we stopped at the alpaca farm:
On Saturday, we colored eggs,
and went for a walk at Shevlin Park:
The Mother insists we behave for pics. This is what we do otherwise.
On Sunday, I awoke to find that I had been visited by the Easter Bunny:
Along with some chocolate, he brought me a poster of Marco Odermatt:
I did an egg hunt in the back yard:
After helping Dad remove the studs from the truck, we headed out to the Cascade View Trails, where the Bigs went mtn. biking, and Papa and I went for a 5.5 mile walk (We walked at least four miles every day.):
The Mother finally got to try out her new (birthday gift) mountain bike:
When we got home, I set up one of my famous bars to celebrate Easter and Papa’s last night here:
For dinner, we had leg of lamb, braised leeks:
green bean salad with tahini and quinoa:
spring potato salad with green goddess dressing:
and a loaf of teff bread:
Other food we had this week, smoked salmon and goat cheese omelettes:
The May Day race was this weekend. It is a four event competition. There is a Nordic race, ski jump, and two GS races. I was up and dressed early for the Nordic race.
We alll lined up for the Nordic start. I am on the far right.
I pulled ahead quickly.
Soon I had dropped everyone.
Turns out I had the fastest time for not only my age group but I beat every boy in every age group (8 to 16 years old) there!
Instead of a trophy, I won a cool mug.
Up next, the jump. I won’t lie. I was not looking forward to this event. I ended up jumping 29 feet and being quite relieved it was done. Here I am taking off.
After the race, Dad and I had to run out and buy me a new helmet. Mine was not race sanctioned. We found this bright red one at a ski consignment shop.
It worked well and I had a good first GS race.
After the race, I planted some pansies for The Mother.
I crashed on the second GS so the ski meister award was not to be for this year. We skied some afterwards. It was pretty awesome.
Busy weekend. On Saturday, I had GS training at the mountain all morning, and then we came back down for my first soccer game of the season. It was a beautiful day.
On Sunday, we had our last Mini-World Cup race of the season and end-of-the-season awards and BBQ. Team Österreich (Matthew thinks he is giving me rabbit ears, even though he is about a foot too short – and wearing mittens!):
The race was an untimed dual slalom. We got a ton of runs and had a blast. I even got to race The Mother, though Dad had a camera malfunction, and there is no video evidence. Here I am racing some of my teammates:
After the race we had a BBQ, and then awards. I received a number of awards. First was the Arc City Award, given to the group of Mini World Cuppers that really know how to arc (see photos above):
MBSEF’s values are Commitment, Honesty, Accountability, Sportsmanship, and Excellence – CHASE. Each year, they give the CHASE Award to the skier that best embodies those values. Marti won this year, but I was one of the nominees. The Bigs were very proud of me for this, even though I didn’t even win the award!
Finally, they gave out the overall season awards. I was the 2025 U10 Mini World Cup Champion!
We tried a couple of exciting new recipes this week. Mustardy cheesy cauliflower:
