BecAndKyle.com

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.

This week was spring break, and spring has sprung.

As you can imagine, I kept busy. I met Meera for some ice skating.

AND was joined on the ice by none other than the G.U.M. (Great Uncle Martin).

Nana and I have read many books and worked on some crossword puzzles.

We also hit the High Desert Museum. I now have a turkey vulture wingspan.

And we all did some spring skiing and snowshoeing.

Today it was gray and cloudy. The weather is turning and winter is on its way back.

Good thing, because I’ve still got to ski Tumalo.

Monday was Pi day, so we celebrated with chocolate avocado pie:

On Thursday, we were visited by a mischievous leprechaun:

Country of the week: Ireland. Corned beef, potatoes, and sautéed cabbage:

I was a happy little green man:

I sent the bigs on a scavenger hunt for the pot of gold:

Saturday was a snowy day of cross-country skiing. I spent most of the day off-trail in the woods climbing every little hill I could find.

On Sunday, we had a beautiful day of skiing at the mountain.

It was the day of my highly anticipated rematch with Devil’s Backbone. The conditions were much better today.

I showed it who’s boss.

I’ve been reading my way through the bookshelf in the office:

This is a good one. I’m on page 107.

When I’m not busy reading long pictureless books, I’m guiding the Bigs through math lessons:

I have had two loose teeth for several weeks now. These teeth used to be touching each other. Something big must be pushing its way in.

We had a beautiful day of Nordic skiing on Saturday:

Sunday was a powder day! I was Powder Man, skiing black diamonds all day.

Our country of the week was Japan. Yasai-to-tofu-no-misoshiru (hearty miso soup with vegetables and tofu):

and miso yakionigiri (grilled miso rice balls):

Did I like it? No, I did not. It was a bit of a flop. We may need a Japan-night do-over.

Winter happiness salad, on the other hand, was delicious:

My Olympic training continues. This week? Biathlon.

Our country this week was Thailand. We had Pad See Ew:

There were lots of good guesses as to what I was working on last week, but no one got it.

I built a radio.

We had a gorgeous ski day on Sunday. Summit was open. We took our picture at the top like tourists

and enjoyed a picnic in the parking lot.

Looks like I’m helping The Bigs clean, right?

Wrong! I’m curling.

This week we returned to Mexico for Baja shrimp tacos with lime crema, rice and beans, and fried plantains.

I decided to spend my allowance on another soldering kit. Here I am getting started.

This one is going to take a while. Can you guess what I am making?!

We had another powder day today. It was a real Pacific Northwest kind of day. Wet, wet snow. It was tricky skiing. I managed, falling less than The Mother…

and even did another black diamond (Grotto) not once but TWICE.

I have a loose tooth, but it wasn’t the tooth fairy who came this week. The ski fairy came and left a pair of skate skis.

I tried them out on Saturday. We had great conditions and lots of sunshine. Everyone was spent by the end. Here are two videos The Mother took.

On Sunday we had our first powder day since Christmas break. It was pretty great despite the Presidents’ Day holiday crowd.

Here’s another video. That woman just won’t let me do anything without shoving a camera in my face.

All my activities make me hungry. I wanted a ‘small’ snack last night after dinner.

Just in case you can’t see – it’s fruit salad with chocolate chips in a TWO CUP container.

This week our country was Panama. We had Panamanian stew.

We also had a Thai Crunch Salad one night:

Valentine’s Day is coming, so I made a mailbox for school. The Bigs made me put hearts on it. Not sure why.

I made cards for my teachers from a shiitake mushroom:

It has been warm here, really warm, end-of-days warm, but the skiing is still good.

I’m back to skating on my too-short classic skis.

My friend from school, Quinn, came over to play Saturday afternoon. We did some archery, some trapeze swinging, and here we are making lego lugers:

Our culinary travels took us to Greenland (!?) this week. Baked cod loin and hot potato salad:

This week, I made African peanut stew.

The picture does not do it justice, it was very good.

I have some complaints about my wardrobe. My underwear aren’t right, the pants mom bought me are for toddlers, and I am SO over the sneakers without LACES.

That’s better. Now about my underwear…

We did not have school on Friday. Why not? It’s not like The Bigs have jobs or anything. Mom took Hazel and me to the rock gym.

I climbed to the very top every single time.

I did some cross country skiing on Saturday. I said I was tired, but I just kept going.

And then on Sunday, I did some ‘pine.

We were all having fun, until…

I decided it was time to conquer my last lift. NORTHWEST EXPRESS. The Bigs conferred. They felt confident there had to be one reasonable run off the lift. Incorrect.

So, we chose this one.

Oh, yes, it was an icy black diamond.

Even The Bigs admitted it was terrible. They said it was a ‘character building experience’. I guess that is another way to say BAD PARENTING.

I made it down and was all smiles. Maybe, just maybe, they were right.

Some other things we ate this week:

Teff waffles:

and injera bread.