This is Zhen Zhen’s first Christmas, and Harper’s 3rd Christmas.    Of course, its Tucker’s 9th one.     They were all excited of course and up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa Claus brought them.

Oddly enough, Zhen Zhen think’s Santa Claus comes to China too, she is just wondering who at the orphanage has been stealing her presents every Christmas all these years.   All the kids got what they wanted, but Tucker could not really try his mountain bike out yet because we got a blizzard the night before.    In fact, Kansas City was still under a blizzard warning for most of Christmas day as well.

Later on we ended up braving the single digit temps to go sledding on Suicide Hill.   It was Zhen Zhen’s first time sledding, but as its typical for her, she had no fear at all.   We did not last very long however because of the cold and the wind.

That night we had steaks for Christmas dinner.  I had to take the propane tank in the house for a few hours before going out to grill so the tank would be warm enough to be usable.

Transformation to Midwesterner is obviously complete now.

We had a great Christmas this year.

Tree in the back of the truck.

I trimmed it up in the driveway so we could get it into the house and we decorated it, then redecorated it after it fell over twice.    For a cedar, it ended up being a decent looking tree, but it was kind of full.

Griswold Family Tree

Zhen Zhen and Tucker at the Trailhead

We went down to Arkansas for Thanksgiving week.   Tucker has been wanting to climb Arkansas’ tallest mountain for a while now so I decided it would be a good opportunity for Zhen Zhen’s first backpacking trip.    Since it was Zhen Zhen’s first backpacking trip, and for that matter her first camping trip, we just did an overnighter (instead of the near expedition level trips Tucker usually wants to take).    We found a camping spot on the trail at the northern foot of the mountain.   Zhen Zhen loved cooking outside and spending the night in the tent.  We had nice sunny weather the afternoon we hit the trail, but a cold front came in that night and brought with it over cast skies and temperatures down into the lower 40s the next morning.

Zhen Zhen has a fear of bears (I guess too much Discovery Channel), and was always worried about one eating us.   Luckily she did not notice the rather large Bear Country sign at the summit trailhead.

At any rate, we had no contact with bears at all, and saw no signs of them.   The trail to the top of Mount Magazine is about 3 miles long and gains about 1800 feet in altitude.   The footing on the trail was very precarious at times, so it took us a little more than two hours to make it to the top.  Zhen Zhen had a hard time keeping her balance in a few places and really could have used a good pair of hiking boots instead of just the running shoes she had on.   She was a trooper just the same – despite the fact that we had no way of really conveying to her where we were going or what we were doing walking out in the middle of the woods.   We encountered lots of cool rock formations on the way up, and a couple of small waterfalls.

Zhen Zhen posing in front of a small trailside waterfall.

Zhen Zhen had a hard time with the last leg of the hike up due of the steepness of it.   Because of the thick woods all the way up its kind of hard to know when you are close to the top, and you are basically there by the time you realize it.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker hiking up the final ascent.

We encountered dense fog and much colder temperatures at the summit (2753 feet), so unfortunately there were no big views to be had.   There is a state park on top of the mountain so we did explore it a little bit and then hiked up to a campground to warm up in shower room.

Tucker and Zhen Zhen on top of Mount Magazine at a campground.

After we warmed up we made the hike back down the mountain, broke down our camp, and drove back up the visiter center so the kids could get a souvenir. The fog lifted by the time we drove back up, so we stopped at one of the overlooks so Tucker and Zhen Zhen could see how high they had climbed earlier.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker at an overlook.

Even with the less than perfect weather we had, it still was a nice trip.   I am not sure if Zhen Zhen liked it that much or not.   She says she did, but that could just be because she thinks it is what Tucker likes doing (which it is).   It ended up being a tougher hike than I thought it would be, and was definitely harder than what I would have liked her first backpacking trip to be.    Just the same, she climbed the tallest mountain in Arkansas for her first backpacking trip, so only 49 more state high points to go.

Tucker holding his new Bull Snake Malfoy.

Today we got Tucker a bull snake at the KC Reptile Show.   Tucker has been wanting a new snake ever since his corn snake escaped a year ago, so he chose to get one in exchange for his good test grades.   We did not know when we purchased a bull snake that they tend to be quite aggressive.    In fact, this snake is just flat out mean.  He hisses and strikes at Tucker every time he picks him up.   We are hoping he becomes more docile as he gets older.   That said, even though a snake is kind of a white trash pet, they are pretty easy to keep.  They are really clean and only eat about once a week or so.    Hopefully Tucker can remember to keep the lid on his cage this time.

Tucker was a fisherman (of course), Harper was a cheerleader, and Zhen Zhen was a princess for Halloween this year.   This was Zhen Zhen’s first Halloween so it took her a little while to get the whole ask for candy and get it thing down.   Just the same, they all came home with several pounds of candy each, and that was even after we gave away all the crap to trick-o-treaters.

The night's taking.

Fall color on Indian Creek.

We have lived here in Kansas City for almost 10 years now and this is the prettiest fall color we have had yet.   We had a wet spring, mild and wet summer (for here), and a cold fall.  This made for New England like color this October.   I took Tucker and Zhen Zhen to their weekly Mandarin tutoring down in Overland Park, and while they were there I took Carter out to the Indian Creek bike trail so he could swim.    The Indian Creek Trail is a paved bike trail that runs along the Indian Creek greenway for over 20 miles.   We are blessed with over 100 miles of bike trails in the metro.

Carter Swimming

The colors are peaking now and in a couple of weeks everything will be brown (sometimes white) until spring.

Color on the bike trail.

About to cross the creek for the second time.

Ran the annual Fall Fell trail race out at Kill Creek Park.    It’s a 7 mile race with lots of hills, rocks, woods, and a water crossing.    Running across the creek was fun in 30 degree weather.    There were enough rocks and gnarly sections on the trails to keep the race from being very fast, but I still managed to finish 7th overall with a time of 56:55.

Tiffani, Zhen Zhen, and Harper heading up the trail.

We took the kids out to the Burr Oak Woods conservation area out in Blue Springs today.  Tucker loves going because there is a large area of huge limestone outcrops and boulders to climb on.   Harper is cool with it because it only involves about a mile and a half of hiking.   Once we reached the outcrops, the kids immediately started climbing and exploring.   In fact, Harper actually engaged in what is for her an extreme sport when she jumped across rock crevices.

Extreme Sports for Harper

Tucker and Zhen Zhen definitely like the whole outdoors thing much better than Harper does, but all the kids had a great time.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker on a boulder.

Posing with my "Bronze" Rat for taking 3rd Place in my division.

Ran the 9.5 Mile (15k) annual Sand Rat race in Lawrence this morning.  It was very chilly out, in the upper 30s at the start of the race.   Nevertheless I ended up with a time of 69 minutes, 46 seconds.  That is a pace of 7:10 a mile in which is pretty good for a 9.5 mile race and flying for a trail race.   Ended up taking 3rd place in my age group.

Showing our catch of the day to Tiffani.

Tucker had been wanting to fish the Wakarusa River for a while now so we went out this evening on it in the canoe.   This was Zhen Zhen’s first time in the canoe and she seemed to really like it.   The Wakarusa is not a very pretty river, its basically a typical muddy prairie river.   However, its full of catfish.   We caught this 20 pounder out of a snag within a hour of being out.     Tucker and Zhen Zhen were both very excited as I threw it into the boat.

Tucker and Zhen Zhen posing with the Flathead.

Flathead may not be the prettiest fish out there, but they are one of the best eating.  Unlike channels and blues, flathead only eat live bait.  Their meat is firmer and milder than other catfish as a result.  They rank right up there with walleye in terms of table fare.    As you can imagine, we got a ton of filets off of him.   The kids wanted fish tacos, so this is what ultimately became of him:

Fish Tacos