BecAndKyle.com

Since last Friday, we have only had ONE day that broke 65 F. Five days were less than 60 F. Plants in our planters died from the cold. It seems like it’s raining all the time. Everyone is grumpy. It was so cold on Mom’s run the other morning, there was ‘steam’ coming off the river.

The day I had mountain biking class, it was moderately warm, but not warm enough for our usual end of class popsicles.

On Saturday it was so cold and rainy we went climbing. Thanks, Papa.

Thankfully it cleared up for Oliver’s summer kickoff party.

This is the view from Oliver’s house. Fancy!

Every year ODOT plows Mackenzie Pass but does not open it to cars for a few weeks. Everyone in Central Oregon makes sure to get over and ride the pass while it is car free. We do it every year and this year we waited and waited for nice weather. It never came, so we bundled up and went today.

Our goal was the Castle of Dragons (AKA the Dee Wright Observatory). I made it no problem, riding almost all 20 miles myself, despite other riders passing me and yelling at me. They would holler things like ‘Nice job, kid!, Wow, buddy!, Good job, little fellow!’. You’d think I was the only 6 year old riding or something.

Enough of the picture taking. Let’s get going.

It was a very rainy weekend. Good gardening weather. I planted petunias:

the planters on the porch:

and the hanging baskets on the deck:

I spent a particularly rainy afternoon building Knex contraptions:

and learning to wax the skis before we put them away for the summer:

It was graduation weekend. I got all dressed up for a party for the graduating engineering students (the were impressed):

I wrote a letter to the Bigs during after care this week:

A few new dinners this week. Brown rice pasta with chickpeas and za’atar:

Rice noodle salad with cucumber and sesame seeds:

Baked rice with confit tomatoes and garlic:

Last week was spirit week at school. Monday was crazy hair day.

Tuesday was dress all in blue day, Mom forgot to get a picture of that. Wednesday was safari – dress like an animal day – so the lion suit came out of retirement. It was 70 out. I was hot.

Thursday was perhaps the BEST DAY ever. Dress like your favorite book character. I was Harry Potter of course.

And Friday was school spirit day. I wore all my DSM gear.

It was also the day we left for the coast. The weather forecast was NOT promising. Driving rain, gale winds, and 50 degree temperatures, but we had to make a reservation months in advance so we were going. There was much grumbling from The Bigs. We drove about half way on Friday and the first night we stayed along the North Umpqua River. No rain.

On the drive Saturday morning it was raining and the wind was so strong, the car got pushed into the other lane. Here we are eating lunch in the car

because it was pouring and the picnic table at our campsite was under water.

After lunch, we threw on our rain coasts and headed to the beach. Did we get wet? Nope. It maybe sprinkled on us. We walked and played and enjoyed the beauty!

And when even managed to make a fire.

The next morning I helped make breakfast.

Then we headed out for a hike where rhododendrons

and irises grew wild.

Again, despite a horrible forecast – no rain.

After all that walking, I needed a snack. A chocolate chip cookie at Bandon Coffee hit the spot.

Then it was off for a walk on the jetty.

Then skipping stones on the beach.

After a long day, we kicked back with some roasted marshmallows

and then watched the sunset.

The next day we walked from the campground to the mouth of the Sixes River…

where these guys found us almost as interesting as we found them.

Did we get wet? Nope. Did we have fun? Yup.

Now that I have the forward roll mastered, I’ve moved on to backward rolls. These are not coming as easy.

At actual gymnastics class, we moved on to the high bar. The real high bar. It is very high.

Last weekend we went to Portland.

We rode the metro.

Went to the zoo.

Swam in the hotel pool.

Went to see the Oregon Children’s Theater’s production of ‘Last Stop on Market Street’. The Bigs let me pack my own bag. I felt a suit was the appropriate choice for going to the theater. They ignored me when I complained I did not have a nice pair of dress shoes.

After the play we went for dinner at Butterfly Belly Asian Cuisine. It was SO GOOD. Plus it was Uncle Chris’s treat, so it was free! Dad had pho, I had teriyaki,

and Mom had the Ginger Delight.

The next morning, it was back to the pool,

and then on to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. They had an exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci that was amazing – but they would not allow photographs! Here I am using the harmonograph in the physics lab:

This weekend was our last weekend to ski. We had fun day of crust skiing on Saturday. Here I am attacking a hill on the way back to the car.

Afterwards we went to the Midtown Yacht Club. I gave Mom a gift certificate there for Mother’s Day (wink, wink, Pop).

This morning we enjoyed our first porch breakfast of the year.

Then we enjoyed an amazing day of spring skiing.

For our VERY last run of the year, we decided to hike the cone.

It was AWESOME!

I made the mistake of complaining that we always eat the same thing these days. So we had lemon shrimp pasta with fried capers. That wasn’t too bad, but…

the seaweed spaghetti and sesame salad with tahini dressing and thai sticky rice with crispy ginger, chile, and peanuts was NOT my favorite.

I am making a snack for school here. Mom wants to know if all 6 year olds decide to saute apples and cinnamon in butter to take with their school lunch.

This is me doing rings at gymnastics this week.

Here we were supposed to try and hang straight upside down.

I really like gymnastics and want to do it all the time, so while The Bigs were making dinner, I made my own parallel bars.

I use my trapeze to practice some of the things I learn too.

Someone forgot to tell Mother Nature it is spring. We did a snowy ski tour on Saturday.

I skied up and down every steep thing I could find.

And enjoyed a powder day at Bachelor on Sunday. This is me skiing the Cone!

Sunday was, of course, the Day of the Mother. The Mother was special today at two meals and even an afternoon snack. Breakfast:

Mom’s Mother’s Day wish was for a bagel with cream cheese:

This week I started gymnastics. My favorite thing was the parallel bars.

I wasn’t happy with my forward rolls at practice, so I set a goal of doing 10 per day until I got them down (no, The Bigs did not force me into this – or even come up with this plan – this was all me).

I can roll right up to my feet now. Easy peasy.

On Saturday it was snowing hard. Heavy, wet snow. Come on already spring!

Now, this is more like it. Skiing with 40 degree temps and sunshine.

A perfect day to tackle the BACK SIDE of Bachelor.

There was a bowl,

and some tree skiing.

It ended well.

Do I look different?

See anything missing?

That’s right. Another tooth gone.

I did a watercolor this week. Rainbow lion.

I also did some skiing.

Including skiing the Cirque BOWL.

It was hard (it was a double black diamond – Mt Bachelor double black – so take that with a grain of salt) but fun.

I also practiced some lacrosse…with a butterfly net and hacky sack. Why not?

The Bigs normally do something special for Earth Day. This year nothing. I don’t know what their problem is lately, but I don’t have the time or the patience for their issues, especially on such an important day, so I took over. I made a special dessert. I melted chocolate chips, topped it with peanut butter, chopped apples, and cinnamon.

Delicious!

I also organized an Earth Day activity. We made a planter man.

Mt Bachelor got 46 inches of snow in the last 7 days. We had an awesome powder day on Saturday.

Will you stop taking pictures and start skiing Mom?

Just leave her Dad…

I got my own water bottle holder for cross country skiing for Easter. Maybe because I always drink The Bigs’ water on them?

We had a snowy egg hunt.

But I found them all pretty fast.

I tried my first ever Peep. Yum!

Papa is here! We’ve been having lots of fun all week doing things The Bigs don’t do. We we drove bumper cars, saw a MOVIE, ate at restaurants, went to the trampoline, did some climbing,

went to the laundromat (The Bigs’ washing machine broke and no one will come fix it),

and did some good hikes.

I started a bouldering class this week,

worked on my cursive,

practiced catching baseballs,

and did some skiing.

The Sunday snow report for Mt Bachelor included: ‘whipping winds whirling about the mountain this morning gusting 60-100 mph at mid-mountain. These winds are coming from the west so various lifts at West Village and some at Sunrise will start the day on hold’. So, we decided maybe it wasn’t a great day for the resort and instead, it was time to knock another thing off my goal list. A backcountry ski to Todd Lake.

I am a what you call and backcountry adventurer.

This week I went to my first ever soccer practice. We did some dribbling.

I also worked on my basketball dribbling. I find wearing rainboots improves my technique.

There is still plenty of skiing to be had…

and I decided it was time for another challenge. The park…

What? It’s not like I was going to knock out my front tooth. It fell out already!

This week we had spaghetti squash with sauteed chard and toasted walnuts.

Every week, we have Ethiopian stew. It calls for berbere spice. Mom mixed up a new batch. It calls for 12 different spices.