Author: becandkyle

For the 4th of July, I made us American flag smoothie bowls for breakfast.

And after a oh-my-gosh-the-fireworks-are-at-10-pm-we-better-have-a-nap nap, I hosted one of my now famous parties.

I had an assortment of drinks and appetizers.

All the guests had fun.

My culinary adventures continued this week with a recipe I found on the internet for cilantro lime shrimp.

We had the shrimp with Grandma Marie’s tomato and cucumber salad. Another great meal!

This is our cherry tree. Maybe next week, I’ll make a recipe that uses cherries.

This weekend we went for a long, hot mountain bike to…

Arnold Ice Cave.

It was awesome. This is the entrance.

This is looking back towards the entrance after you go in.

This was me discovering a little hole full of sunshine at the back of the cave which of course I climbed through.

It lead here.

Here comes The Mother, somehow, conveniently, missing the cave exploration and looking pretty happy about it.

On Sunday we paddled Elk Lake.

It was another gorgeous day complete with lots of jumping in.

This week we made one more new recipe. This one was most certainly not my choice…portobello salad

with crunchy quiona salad topper.

Does anything say summer like watermelon? Yes, cantaloupe… which is my favorite melon… but not the Mother’s so watermelon it is.

I was busy this week. I gave a lot of massages.

Made a gourmet meal of

chicken marbella

and sweet potato mash with lime salsa (Ok, Mom made the veg, no way would I choose that one).

I also did some paddle boarding on Sparks Lake. New this time – no tow from Dad. I paddled all 5 miles myself!

And I unloaded an entire yard of mulch from the truck.

With all that work, I sleep pretty hard – resulting in hair like this.

No one notices my hair though, they are more interested in my power clash clothing choices.

Other food this week included carrot salad with yogurt and cinnamon:

and slow-roasted lamb shoulder with mint and cumin:

I am planning to take over dinner prep one night each week. This week, my first meal was black bean burgers with sriracha mayo, homegrown lettuce, and sweet potato chips.

They were delicious!

This week was tennis camp.

We had a tournament on Friday. I got second place!

Saturday we had a tough mountain bike ride with lots of climbing in the rain and hail. Sunday, we spent the day planting. The Bigs held off planting until now because they know how fickle June is in Bend. For example. Mom went out for a run this past Tuesday morning and slipped on ice! They think it is finally safe to plant…we shall see. I helped Dad plant the hanging baskets on the deck:

We also planted the planters on the porch ( along with more than a dozen new plants in the front gardens):

When I wasn’t helping the Bigs plant things, I was playing with Hadley and Maddie. They are at our house so often The Bigs are starting to wonder if they actually have homes. We made ginger ale:

and had grilled cheeses for lunch:

This past week was the last week of school. We had spirit week. I wasn’t really into it but I tried. Here I am for crazy hat day.

The Bigs kinda dropped the ball and didn’t get any other pictures all week. Mom finally took one today when I treated Dad to a Father’s Day latte.

We had a quiet week. Mountain biking class was cancelled because police had closed the trailhead! The Bigs had already left work early to take me, so we rerouted to a new trailhead and road together. There was much grumbling about paying for 5 classes and only getting 3 (next week is cancelled too!) from the cheap one (Mom), but we did have fun.

I did some gardening this week. I took care of an out of control japanese willow.

I also hiked to the top of Black Butte. There were wildflowers (and people) everywhere.

There were also great views.

The Bigs lost count of how many adults I passed on the hike up today. Let’s just say it was in excess of 10. Mom is a little concerned about being able to keep up with me going forward.

One time with Mt. Jefferson in the background

and one time without.

I’m as tall as the fire tower :).

Last weekend we went to the coast. We played in the sand,

did some dune jumping,

some jetty walking,

and walked the beach for miles.

We camped at Beverly Beach.

I slept by myself in the van.

The real reason for our trip, though, was surfing.

I caught some,

and I missed some.

But the whole time, I had fun.

We went to Local Ocean for dinner one night. The Bigs had deviled eggs, but these were no ordinary deviled eggs. They were deviled with miso, soy sauce, and smoked fish and topped with crispy ramen!

Dad had the special. It was dukkah nut spiced ling cod.

I had the rockfish italiano. I was too hungry to wait for mom’s silly picture. It was panko-crusted rockfish, salami, pepperoni, pickled peppers, mozzarella, and red pepper coulis on a hoagie roll. I devoured it.

Mom had the weathervane scallops. Skewers of petite scallops, grilled asparagus, smoked goat cheese, red onion, and white balsamic vinaigrette.

The trip was awesome and I left a total surfer dude.

This weekend we made our annual trip to the ‘Castle of the Dragons’. This year I rode the entire 16 miles myself.

Here we are at the top.

The Bigs look exactly the same as they did in 2016 (ha ha) but I sure look different.

I’m turning into a real biker, so much so, that I demanded some legit biking shorts. Don’t I look cool.

I was the Scientist-of-the-Week at school last week. I built an electromagnet and demonstrated it for the class.

On Saturday, we went for a mountain bike ride, then went to school for the annual Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament. I went out in the first round.

But I did get to enjoy a Kona Shave Ice:

We had our last ski day of the season this weekend. We skinned up Mt. Bachelor, past Pine Martin Lodge and part way up to the summit. It was sunny and warm below the lodge:

But we skied into some clouds up higher:

This week I took over another of The Bigs’ jobs.

While it is still not easy for me, I’ve come a long way.

This weekend was the Pole Pedal Paddle (downhill ski, nordic ski, bike, run, paddle, and run). Dad did it while I went to my soccer game.

He won his age group and therefore received a much coveted PPP mug.

I also hit Big Skis perogies.

And made Mom breakfast on Mother’s Day.

In fact, I spoiled her rotten with many gifts, including some cosmos.

I had a soccer game today and then both Mom and I headed out on rides.

I hit the pump track and the skills park while she did a road ride.

After our bike rides, we did some horseback riding!

On May 14, 2017, so exactly six years ago, I, with Dad as my assistant, planted a plum and cherry tree.

They looked like sticks.

Now look at them!

Happy Mother’s Day!

The Bigs decided the hops had to go. They attract aphids. Aphids ruin both the hops and the plum tree, so we pulled them out this weekend.

Check out these roots.

Everyone knows The Bigs would not rip out their privacy wall without a plan. The plan is silver lace vine and it has already been planted.

Besides gardening, I played some soccer. I had two games this weekend.

I also got some new sneakers. The sneakers that I have on in this picture, which make me very happy, are not the sneakers The Bigs planned on buying me. They felt they were outside a reasonable price range for a child’s sneaker. We struck a deal. If I paid the difference between what they thought was a reasonable price and the price of the sneakers I wanted, I could have them. I got them.

How could I not get speed laces

and trail running soles?!

I also did a little baking – making some ‘muffins’ for mom,

harvested all the lettuce I grew this month so The Bigs could have huge salads for lunch,

AND NANA IS HERE!

For dinner we made Food Court Singapore Noodles.

This weekend I did another nordic race. This one was 5k. There were 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 year olds competing. Here we are at the start.

Here I am about half way through. Still looking strong.

Here I am with Dad, who also did a race. His was a bit longer.

I beat all the 7, 8, 9, and 10 year old boys, but some of the big kids beat me. I’ll get them next time.

The next day, after my soccer game, we all went backcountry skiing. We skinned up ‘The Cone’.

Dad found these nifty attachments for my downhill skis that allow me to skin up the mountain.

It was a gorgeous day, and we had a lot of fun.

This week we ate:

Steel cut oats with spicy black beans and tofu scramble,

Sichuan eggplant,

and Vietnamese coconut pancakes (which were a total fail, but we tried!).