Author: becandkyle

On New Year’s morning, we did the MBSEF nordic relay race. On their website, they highly recommended costumes. We are not costume people and were pretty put out by this, but we wanted to do the race, so … Thankfully, The Mother had not given away my superhero capes and masks.

As you can see from this picture of the starting line – most other participants were costume people.

Dad started, Mom did the second leg, and I was the anchor leg. Here I am recovering all the time lost by The Mother and then some.

We won. Here are our awards – blow pop bouquets.

It has FINALLY started to snow in Central Oregon. Unfortunately, with snow comes heavy traffic to the mountain. We didn’t want to be late to MBSEF, so Dad made our oats and put them in thermoses so we could leave extra early and then eat in the car when we arrived.

You may or may not be able to tell why The Bigs have made a new rule that I must comb my hair before leaving the house.

Here we are enjoying our second powder day of the season. It is about time!

And the new recipe for the week – Kung Pao sweet potatoes from Veg-Table.

Santa may have been feeling a bit guilty about all the tofu he makes me eat. My stocking was full of meat and candy.

Santa also brought me a bongo board:

We made sure to ski Christmas Bowl on Christmas morning!

I also used the $5 Canadian I got for my allowance this week to buy a ‘sled’ run.

The guy running it let me do five laps instead of the one I payed for.

When we got home, I went to work building my robot.

I wrote some code to make it move.

Ultimately making it dance.

The Bigs made me a t-shirt to celebrate my amazing endurance and grit.

Some of the food we ate this week. Christmas breakfast: homefries, mushrooms and spinach, and eggs with delicious Captain Mowatt’s Greenie sauce. Thank you Cheryl.

Christmas dinner: bison steaks, asparagus, and brussels sprouts.

The Mother took an amazing cookbook out of the library called Veg-Table. This week The Bigs made two recipes from it. Kimichi creamed corn.

Lemon and artichoke yams.

New Year’s eve, we had the traditional pork posole.

The Mother wanted a nice Christmas photo of me. I was accommodating as usual.

We headed to the Great White North for Christmas. It is a good thing we have a minivan because we brought everything…even the air fryer and knives.

Our destination – Silverstar Resort. Same place as last year.

We chose a different condo this year. The Bigs were worried it was a mistake. It was not.

We have lots of room and can cook all our meals – which makes The Mother who is ‘frugal’ (euphemism) happy. The Bigs had concerns about our ‘vacation’ based on my Christmas card to them. The were worried it might not be relaxing.

No naps and alpine and cross country skiing every day!!! Well Day 1. Here we are downhill skiing…

followed by some skate skiing in the afternoon.

I am not even vaguely tired, cruising by the camera so fast I am a blur.

Day 2. Alpine.

Followed by some nordic classic skiing. Don’t worry, I did NOT ride the lift behind me.

After all that skiing, I needed to hit the hot tub.. Perhaps as not as bad as The Bigs…

Next up, I insisted on playing Life, ( I opened a lot of my xmas gifts before we left), thanks Uncle Jim. I feel like Pop played this game as a kid and internalized the message – he who retires with the most money wins.

Day 3. New snow and a sunny day.

I attacked a double black diamond and survived. The Mother is smiling for this picture, but she is crying inside – she is so tired.

I let The Bigs off easy and did not demand a x-country day on Day 3. On Day 4, we fueled up for a big x-country ski at Sovereign Lake. I made my breakfast look like The Mother’s new hat – see pictures later in this post to understand.

Sovereign Lake.

After skiing over 10 miles, I needed to refuel with some poutine. Fries, gravy, and cheese curds. Is there a better combination?

After that quick pit stop, it was time to ice skate.

See The Mother’s new hat? Ear flaps. Guess she is tired of being cold.

After ice skating, the hot tub? Nope. Time to tube.

Let’s just say the tubing was terrifying (for The Mother, at least) in a ‘fun’ kind of way.

While we brought all kinds of food and the air fryer, we decided to try a restaurant while we were here. We went to the Spice House (Indian Fusion). We had

Vegetable Pakoras (vegetable pakoras with mint aioli, mango pickle dressing, papadame and cucumber).

Basmati rice bowl. Tumeric rice, fried onions, radish, mixed greens, tadka dressing, mint aioli, tomatoes, red cabbage slaw, chutney, avocado mix, pickled onions and pumpkin seeds with butter chicken.

Butter chicken (butter sauce with fried onions and chicken thighs, served with naan).

And chana masala (chickpea and cumin curry topped with fried onions and coriander served with rice).

The Bigs have been making some pretty good meals too. For breakfast before our big x-country ski they made an omelet, homefries, and LCLOB bread.

They also made an amazing Xmas eve meal

of broccoli, tuna, shrimp, pita,

and mussels.

Santa was able to find me, despite being 581 miles from home.

Last weekend was our first alpine day.

The Mother stayed home, citing crowds and bad snow as a deterrent.

While she was right about the crowds, the snow was great and Dad and I had a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we all had fun but we got drenched cross country skiing in a downpour.

This weekend, the cross country skiing weather was much nicer.

In other news, I learned about these awesome LED lights Ryan has. I had to get some. Now my room is soooo cool.

This week two former students of The Bigs came to campus to show everyone what they have been working on.

The GMC Hummer EarthCruiser EarthCruiser Upfit. I’ll take one for Christmas please.

It finally started snowing. We headed up to do a tour on Saturday during quite a storm.

Unfortunately, not too soon after we left, it started to rain and hasn’t stopped. Skiing in the PNW. After our ski we took The Mother to the Cuban Kitchen for a birthday dinner.

I had the slow-roasted pork marinated in mojo topped with sautéed onions, moro rice, and yucca fries.

Mom had ropa vieja (Shredded beef slow-cooked in tomato sauce, onions and peppers) with rice and fried plantains.

Dad also had the slow-roasted pork marinated in mojo topped with sautéed onions, moro rice, but he went with fried plantains.

And we got a side of tostones.

This morning I set up a birthday display for The Mother.

Under the sheet were two gifts laid out on a ‘gingham cloth’ (I’ve been watching the Great British Baking Show again).

I made Mom some mixed berry jam and

rye bread.

I also wrote her a card.

Dad made her a fancy breakfast of beet latkes, a fried egg, and fresh fruit.

Then there was the birthday brisket (The Bigs bought a lot of brisket).

And finally, a slice of cheesecake from a food truck dedicated to cheesecake located at Podskis.

It came with some advice.

She had a pretty amazing day.

Busy week. I ran Nan and Pop ragged. We had a day of glass blowing:

We each made a different object. Pop made a green float, Nan made a heart, and I made a paper weight:

We also spent a day at the race track:

Tortilleria Reyes for lunch. Check out the size of my quesadilla:

We played lots of Monopoly:

On Thanksgiving, I hosted one of my famous bars. Here I am opening Pop’s wine:

Thanksgiving dinner was the traditional brisket, of course:

Along with a butternut squash, spinach, onion, and gruyere galette:

And a brussels sprout salad with apples, cranberries, and walnuts:

And, of course, a French apple tart:

Not my plate. I had much more brisket and much less squash.

On Black Friday, we went to the head of the Metolius:

Saturday was Christmas tree day. Sadly, no snow this year, but we found a good tree. I cut it down all by myself:

Pop helped me put the lights on, and I did all the decorating:

Pop made pizza for dinner. I had to jump in and show him how it is done:

Pepperoni:

Cauliflower, fennel, and pesto with pine nuts:

Caramelized onions with goat cheese:

Pop and I played a lot of tennis this week. On Sunday we took on the Bigs in a doubles match:

After tennis, we got fancied up to go to the Nutcracker at the Tower Theater:

This week I did quite a bit of weaving. Nan and Pop are now the proud owners of new pot holders.

This week The Mother made roasted fennel and hazelnut salad.

The Bigs also went to five grocery stores and a farm in order to get all the ingredients they needed for Thanksgiving. In store four The Mother enjoyed this veggie display.

On Sunday we went to Petersen Rock Gardens. From Visit Bend: “Petersen Rock Garden is one of those roadside attractions that defies description. You’ve just got to visit, and you’ll be glad you did. The garden started in 1935 as the pet project of Danish immigrant Rasmus Petersen. Petersen settled on a large piece of land off Highway 97 between Bend and Redmond and set about creating castles with moats, fountains, towers, bridges, even miniature models of famous buildings like the Statue of Liberty, all built from rocks, shells, bits of glass, and other found objects.” It was pretty cool.

And, had a pretty good piece of advice.

I am reading a book called ‘Spy School’. This may or may not be why I am often in disguise these days.

We had a pretty low key long weekend. I hung out with Hunter and one day I went on a hike with The Bigs.

I stopped to climb every tree

and rock…

until I realized the sun was going down and we might have to hike in the dark. Then I took off and had a PR on the final three miles of the hike.

I also went to the Bend Endurance Academy’s open house to check out their new facility.

This week The Mother made vegan ramen

pumpkin curry,

and rye bread

and The Father decided nothing says Thanksgiving more than brisket and has been practicing making brisket all weekend. Take 1 with tomato, cucumbers, chickpeas, and tahini sauce.

Take 2 with applesauce and roasted butternut squash with black garlic and miso.

It was another busy week. We had dinner at Spork.

I had my favorite, the Carnitas Sando. It is carnitas, morita chile sauce, cojita cheese, onion, fried egg, cabbage, radish, yuca chips, cilantro, and chile mole on a toasted roll. Yum.

Then there was trick or treating in my burglar costume.

A trip to an alpaca farm.

And some coding. I am teaching myself to write computer programs in the Python language, using a book I took out of the library. It would be so much easier of I knew how to type…

Here is some of my code.

The Mother went out for a run one day and came back with lots of pictures. I think she is missing the point of a run.

I also did some more archery practice.

I do occasionally sit down. If I do, I am reading. Here I am reading the Terrible Two in my man cave.

And we tried some new recipes this week.

Thai salad with grapefruit and cashews

autumn latkes to go along with breakfast,

and apple and cranberry sauce.

This week I thought maybe I’d sleep under the stars. I set up and did a little before bedtime reading, but decided to go inside after a bug or two scurried over my sleeping bag. I’m still planning on sleeping outside by myself, but I’m thinking I’ll do it in a tent.

On Friday I went to archery and projectiles camp. I am a fan. On Sunday I made everyone come with me to practice shooting.

I made everyone come with me to practice.

We also went for a walk along Mirror Pond.

I had some energy to burn off.

Do you see the face in the underside of this bridge?

We also carved pumpkins.

And I threw one of my famous parties. This time to celebrate Nana’s birthday. I set up a bar and made chicken marbella.

The Bigs made watercress, jicama, and avocado salad and

strawberry shortcake!

I’m not a fan of whipped cream, but I choked some down.