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Same Kit, Different Race

 These were all taken this weekend at the SCX Enumclaw race.  

Holler "Weenie"

I just wanted to get that off my chest and BabyCakes is my forum for this kind of thing.

Okay, Kiki!  We had some big plans to get all gussied up in our cowboy finest for Halloween: Kian was going as, yep, a cowpoke, and I was going to be his horse.  If Annie had time on the big night she'd have to go as a damsel in distress, of course.  I already have this big old horse head hat, and so I was going to suit up our Ute bike as the horse body and we were going to hit up the local neighborhoods and rake it in with plans to fill up the front basket and both panniers with loads of candy.  We were going to ride into this town like a tornado, take our spoils and then ride off into the sunset with sachels full of high fructose gold!

Well, forecast was for continued major rain showers and so we decided to revise our plans.  I found Kian a great skeleton suit that he was stoked on so we went with that.  Annie went as a spooky black sort of witch and I found the perfect long black trenchcoat for cheap, put on my black stompers and mirrored sunglasses, slicked back my hair and so I was obviously straight out of Matrix: I think I made a pretty good whiteboy Neo although I would have preferred to go as Morpheus.  We started late but made up for lost time by hitting the same great neighborhood in Greenlake that treated us so well last year. 

Depressing that we have absolutely zero pics of Annie or I, but I managed to click a few off of Kian before we hit the trick or treat trail.  

Minor Randomness

 Kian sporting the hoodie sweather that Grammy knitted him. 

 Kian sporting the football uniform his daddy bought him (almost never takes it off).  

Wearing real cleats too.

 Oh my god, look at that gaping hole in my RV roof, oh no!

 Holy cow, thats a huge tear!

 Wawhat, mercy me that looks like a wooden frame...?

Ah yeah, its a skylight!  

You thank that looks sweet, wait until you see the next Tortuga pics

that have yet to be released into the internets.  Can you say "double bubble"?

Kikicross

Kian has been having a great CX season so far and there hasn't been race that he hasn't worn his trusty Stars and Bars skinsuit.  Pappy bought him that suit when he was 4 or 5 months old and it just goes to show the beauty of lycra-- the stuff is really stretchy and its takes a licking and keeps on ticking.  He's raced that thing for 3 hard seasons now and I'm hoping we get can get another 2 out of it.

This is the first year he's really started to enjoy the racing.  The past few years he's been so overwhelmed by the spectacle that he really didn't ride much and sometimes he felt the stress of competition was too heavy and he just pulled out altogther.  But this year he's loving it and he's biggest complaint is that there hasn't been any mud so far!  Seriously, one race he started crying when he learned that there wasn't any mud on the course.  Didn't last long. 

To start the gallery, here's a great one posted at the MFG site: http://www.mfgcyclocross.com/photos/detail/8065930315/ from two weeks ago.

 Pre-ridin.

 Post-race at Fort Steilacoom.

 The following shots were just last weekend at Silverlake.

My picture above, CX magazines picture below... snapped at nearly the same instant but from a different angle (mine is way better).   http://www.cxmagazine.com/owen-studley-grind-wins-silver-lake-seattle-cyclocross-series

At about this same time I was trying to instruct Kian to grab his bike and lift it over the barrier and his reply: "Me first, dad, then the bike".  

Chiwawa in Fall

I haven't been spending much time on the Chiwawa in Fall during the past few years because of the busy cyclocross season, but its one of my favorite seasons to be up there and this weekend we skipped a race to make it happen. 

I'd succumbed to the bugs that have been going around last weekend and decided that racing was not a good idea on such short order, and because the cabin really needed a good winterizing Kian and I headed over Saturday morning for a quick recon.  Did our share of cleaning and organizing and packing away of the summer outdoor furnishings and reorging of winters firewood, but we had some time to bonfire it up with drinks and gars and get in a hike.  I'd hoped to do some raking because I hate that in spring when the snow melts away to find a rotten layer of leaves, but it was hopeless as the leaves were still raining down non-stop. 

 First stop, Reptile Zoo!  Been by that place a million times, never stopped.

 Snow at the pass!  Snowballs fun!  Brrrrr.

 Scary skeleton man, bwwwaaaahhhhh.