We planned to go skiing on Saturday, but when we woke up – it was raining at the mountain and in town. We canned the plan to ski and headed to the rock gym. But you can only climb for so long – or The Bigs can only climb for so long. So after lunch – it had stopped raining – so we headed to the park for some basketball,
a game of catch (and some hitting practice),
and a little soccer thrown in for good measure.
Upside to the rain? Flowers. Check out these trees.
Sunday morning it was cold…but the thermometer at the mountain kept climbing – so we packed up the car and headed out for a ski. Jameson met us there. It turned out to be a pretty great ski morning – followed by a soccer game.
This week, Dad made shrimp and chickpeas with chermoula,
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:
The Mother decided we would do a ‘fun’ pi day activity. We measured the circumference and diameter of different size wheels and found the ratio of circumference to diameter was always pi.
Thankfully The Bigs also thought actual pie should be part of the celebration as well.
In preparation for my last race of the season, I waxed my skis.
The race was postponed but we enjoyed endless fresh powder so no complaints from us!
On Sunday morning, the snow report actually caused The Bigs to briefly pause and consider not going skiing!!
They decided going to Mt Bachelor probably wasn’t wise, but we did go out to Skyliner sno park and do some Nordic touring.
Busy week. On Monday, I helped some of The Bigs’ students test a skateboard they built for a ten year old with physical disabilities.
After Nordic on Tuesday, Dad had to go to a work function, so mom took Jameson and me out for burgers.
Dad had another work thing Friday night, so Mom and I went to Pizza Mondo for a Pork-a-palooza pizza.
Afterwards, I used my gift certificate to treat The Mother to gelato.
Before ski practice on Saturday, Jameson and I did some hiking and skiing.
Next up was the award ceremony. I added another gold medal to my collection.
It was warm – check out the snow on the outhouse roof.
A “skimeister” refers to a skier with exceptional all-around skills in various disciplines like downhill, slalom, cross-country, and jumping. If you win a 4 way race, you are named skimeister. I have another 4 way in April and I want to be the skimeister. So today – jump training.
The blinds in The Bigs’ bedroom broke. The Mother found a YouTube video on how to fix it, so she bought the parts and got started. She was very quickly thoroughly confused, so I took over. They aren’t done yet but I am optimistic.
This week, I made lamb chops and Korean salad for dinner.
Lamb was on sale this week, so we also had lamb meatballs with Indian curry sauce
One day this week, Mom and I were early for school. So we stopped for a donut. I sure do love a good maple glazed.
This week I made up a recipe for dinner. The end result? Bell peppers stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, and bison seasoned with salt, smoked paprika, and thyme. They were terrific.
I know my grandmothers have been wondering ‘when is he going to get a haircut?’ The wait is finally over.
Saturday it was sunny and 57 F at the mountain.
I had a GS race. I did not podium and I was not happy.
It was so hot and the race went for so long, The Mother – who we all know is the cheapest human on earth – didn’t bat an eyelash when a post race kombucha cost $10. (I’m not happy with my haircut. The front is too short and I tell The Bigs every chance I get).
The next morning the sunny skies and warm temps were gone and it was dumping yet again (good ole March) but I did not get to enjoy the powder because I had a slalom race. The night before I watched my race video, listened to Dad’s feedback, and watched Mikaela Shiffrin videos. Today, I raced for the podium and the unofficial results have me in FIRST.
I did not go home after my race. Nope. It was time for some biathlon! Jameson I did some exploring while we waited for the start.
Then we got down to business.
Not very many kids showed up so we got to ski lap after lap and shoot to our heart’s content.
