15 years 124.8 lbs 5' 7.75" tall (*I think he's closer to 5'9)

Beckett is 15 and in his 1st semester of 9th grade. 

Beckett is transitioning into High School smoothly and is taking his first AP class, Human Geography. He is also taking Honors English where they're reading Animal Farm. After starting the year with a list of his classes and their location in his pocket, just a couple days later it was no longer needed as he can easily navigate the halls. 

Beckett is on the XC team and having a really great year. He's been running JV and came in 3rd in the Freshman race at Fort Steilacoom and 1st in the JV Silver race at Hole in the Wall. He is PRing with every race and is so much fun to watch. He seems to feel good physically without shin splints or low energy and his form looks fluid and intimidating ;)

He continues to love watching sports and the Mariners just won the ALDS which is SUPER EXCITING. They begin game 1 of the ALCS against the Toronto Bluejays tonight. For his birthday, he went to a game a couple weeks ago against the Dodgers and we got to see Cal Raleigh in his historic season!!  

The last 6 months' adventures include the following:  

1) Europe (June):  We enjoyed an epic 2+ weeks traveling Internationally between Iceland, England (London), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome & Florence) and France (Paris). Beckett is quite the world traveler having also been on his Caribbean cruise.

2) XC Camp | Steamboat, CO (July): Beckett joined the team for the first time for camp where the team flew to Colorado then took a charter bus to Colorado Mtn College. He had a great week bonding w the team, training and having camp fun. They did karaoke, floated the river, zipped down alpine slides, and went to a rodeo!

3) Blue Lake (July): This year at Blue Lake Beckett tried wakeboarding for the first time. It was challenging and he got up slightly after multiple attempts. Most importantly he gave it a go and tried something new.

4) Road Trip | Canada): He enjoyed a road trip up through Nelson where we took a ferry across the water and did a small hike to a lighthouse. We enjoyed Banff and drove all the way up to Jasper before coming back down to Kelowna. We did some camping where Beckett enjoyed evening fat bike rides around the campsite and even biked over to another campground all by himself for a shower after his daily run.

*He took a small break from daily runs as his thigh was hurting a bit*

5) Methow Man (Aug): This year marked the 10th annual 'Man Week' and they were put to work by papa one day as they fell a tree and spent the day cutting & stacking rounds. They also enjoyed dirt biking, golfing and swimming in Schmekel's pond. 

*He ran everyday despite the warm temps!!*

Beckett is now taller than his dad and almost taller than his brother. His appetite seems to be slowing down a bit and we haven't bought him larger shoes so he may be reaching his full heigh but we'll see what the next 6-12 months hold. 

Beckett has hit quite a few milestones this year . He's done with Middle School, got his braces off (so we're officially done with orthodontist visits -yay!) and starts drivers ed classes next month. We need to get him some driving time behind the wheel in preparation for his 5 drives for class. It's wild to think he'll be driving in 6 months!!

Beckett continues to LOVE sweets although interestingly enough he does NOT want a chocolate on chocolate cake for his birthday. We're going to try yellow cake with cinnamon sugar topping this time. He did want Cinnamon Toast Crunch for his birthday cereal! He still doesn't take a lunch w him to school but has started packing some crackers and bars to eat before/after XC practice.  

His days are definitely more full than in years past. As we expected with classes being a little more challenging and occasional homework, practice after school everyday, he has less time to be in his room on his screen which is GREAT!

It doesn't seem like he has his eye on a girl at the moment but I bet that will change.

It's really awesome to see both boys enjoy a year together in the same school and on the same sports team. Hudson drives him to school and back from practice most days (unless he has Weeple meetings in which case Nick generously brings B home). Hudson is complimentary in B's racing and offers gentle advice and good support.

We love you Beckett-Boo <3

Beckett's Current Favorites:
Colors: Green
Book: Nostalgic for "Archie"

Song/Artist/Genre: Country
Breakfast food: Donuts 
Dinner food: Mexican
Number: 16
Best friend/Buddies: XC Freshman

14 1/2 years 124.4 lbs 5' 7" tall

 Beckett is 14 1/2 and in his 2nd semester of 8th grade. He's still in HiCap Social Studies & English and double accelerated Math (Geometry). He recently registered for his Freshman year classes in the Fall (including Honors English and AP Geo) and attended Future Freshman night at the High School w nana/papa in attendance. Yay! He continues to excel academically getting straight A's. Earlier this year he had a girlfriend named Faith but they have since broken up :(

B transitioned from Track to Band of Brothers this past Winter and most recently wrapped up his XC season with a final meet against Summit Trail Middle School and B came in 1st PLACE!!!! It would appear as though the training regimen his brother has him on is working. For Xmas, Hudson developed a weekly training plan for Beckett to follow in preparation for the upcoming Summer XC training and Fall season. He's been very disciplined and running every day after school as well as longer runs on Saturday's. 

We just had March Madness so there was a lot of basketball games on and the Westlund family did a bracket to add to the fun. Beckett came in 2nd place right behind Josh. Now it's baseball season and we went to a game in Chase stadium in Phoenix while in Scottsdale for Spring Break. Also, there seems to be an immersing interest in Formula 1 Racing. Beckett sure does love sports. Or maybe just being on the couch w something to watch ;) 

The last 6 months' adventures include the following:  

1) Band of Brothers (Nov-Jan) & XC Season (Mar): B participated in the 8th grade Band of Brothers and a short 2 week XC season culminating with a Jamboree at Summit Trail Middle School where he CAME IN FIRST PLACE!!!!!  

2) Thanksgiving & Christmas | Methow (Nov/Dec): We spent the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday at nana/papa's house for the holidays. We enjoyed one day skiing at Loup Loup with Aaron and Justin Douthey. 

3) New Years Eve | Montana (Dec/Jan): We flew to Helena and spent New Years Eve up at Great Divide watching a torchlight parade on the mountain. We did a scavenger hunt around town and had a really good meal at XXX near the ski hill. There wasn't much snow so we spent a lot of time indoors playing games as well. 

4) Mid-Winter Break | Schweitzer): We enjoyed skiing in Idaho for a few days over break. It was a new hill for all except dad. B and mom skied 2 of the 3 days and spent the off day in between going for a walk, playing games, reading and just enjoying some 1:1 time and good conversations. Beckett slept on the pull out and sort of had his own little room. He felt SUPER tired the last day of skiing and was practically falling asleep on the lift but was able to pull it together to rally. There was an Int'l hockey tournament going on so we watched some of that in between playing games, etc. 

5) White Pass "Ski Trip" (Mar): We booked a house in Packwood w Simons in hopes of skiing a new mountain in Washington. As we got closer to the weekend, the weather warmed up to the point that it no longer made sense to even bring our skis. So we still went to Packwood and hung out and walked around the town but there was no skiing. There weren't even tickets available as there was some kind of Spring Festival happening at the mountain. We might try to go again next year. We'll see....

6) Spring Break | Scottsdale (Apr): We just returned from Arizona where we spent a week in one of Gma's RCI properties. We had a great location with a view of the pool. We spent a lot of time next to and in the pool. We went to Top Golf, toured ASU, drove by where the Chambers family farm used to be, and went to a Diamondbacks baseball game. We had Mexican food a couple times, Portillo's, Raisin' Cane's, In & Out and sushi. Beckett ran the first two morning's with his brother but then started to feel some knee pain so took the rest of the week off. We played a lot of games and enjoyed some good R&R away from home and somewhere fun, comfortable and HOT!!

Beckett is now 5'7 falling right behind his dad at 5'8 and Hudson who is 5'9. We all think he'll be the tallest and is definitely going through a growth spurt so we'll see....

He still has braces and we're hoping at each appointment that they tell us, "next time he'll be ready to get his braces off". 

We're all set to sign up for driver's ed in November and just waiting for a text from I5 driving school that we're clear to register after being on the waitlist for several months. We just miss the October session by 1 week since B has to be 15 by the first day of class. But this way, it won't interfere with XC season which is probably better anyway. 

Beckett continues to LOVE sweets. His diet isn't great so we're trying to rein it in a little so that he doesn't form bad habits. He still doesn't eat breakfast before school, doesn't take a lunch with him and says that he's just not hungry. He remains curious about a lot of things and asks a lot of questions which can be exhausting but I hope is a sign of intelligence. He's got his eyes on Dartmouth but that will take a lot of discipline and stellar SAT scores so we'll see. That's quite a ways down the road. 

We're still occasionally playing ping pong on the kitchen table and look forward to the warmer weather so we can hopefully play more pickleball or set up our badminton set. 

It's hard to believe that in less than 10 weeks our little Beckett-boo will be in high school. I think it's been awhile in coming and he's excited w a healthy amount of trepidation. It will be a big year for B. Not only will he be in high school but he'll participate in his first HS sport (XC) and get to finally be in the same school as his brother again, get his braces off and complete driver's ed. WOW, times flies.

We love you Beckett-Boo <3

Beckett's Current Favorites:
Colors: Green
Book: Beckett still detests reading..."all books suck"

Song/Artist/Genre: Country
Breakfast food: Donuts or Beignets
Dinner food: Mexican
Number: 15
Best friend/Buddies: Tommy | Jace |Rithwik | Kabran | Xavier