Prairie Chronicles

Tucker’s first 5k.

Tucker ran his first 5k today.   He has been training for it a few weeks now.  This race was sponsored by the Kansas City Trail Nerds, a  local trail running group.   The race was out at Wyandotte County Lake Park.    The park doesn’t look like one would expect Kansas to look like.  It is very hilly, with mature hardwood forests and has a very pretty lake 450 acre lake that at times is fairly clear.

The trails were hilly, muddy in places, with lots of rocks and roots.   So it was a pretty gnarly run.   Just the same, Tucker still was able to finish it in 31:04 which I think is pretty good for an 8 year old.   He is quite competitive and was happy to see that other runners were behind him .   We had a blast and both of us can’t wait until our next race.  I think the key to Tucker enjoying running is to combine it with a borderline extreme sport like trail running.

Harper’s 6th Birthday

Harper had her 6th Birthday today.   We thought we would have had travel approval by now and thus would have been in China so we did not have a big party.  Instead, we just had dinner, cake, and presents at our house.   Harper picked ribs for dinner (and probably ate half a rack herself), and chocolate cake for desert.  Its hard to believe that we have had her for 2 years now.   In May, 2007 we were in Nanchang, China meeting her for the first time.

In fact, here is a picture of her the first time we met her:

This picture was taken in a government office building.  She had just arrived a couple of minutes earlier from her orphanage.  We were in a room full of people who where all meeting their adoptive children for the first time.    Within an hour we were back at our hotel room with her and she was playing with the toys we brought for her.

Its really amazing when you think about it.  We travelled literally to the other side of the world.  Met our new daughter (who did not speak a word of English), and just an hour later she was in the floor of our hotel room playing with us.    A few hours later she spent her first night with us.

When I think back on all of it I just can’t believe that its only been 2 years ago that we met her  - and here we are about to do it all again when we get our travel approval to bring home Harper’s friend from the orphange Zhen Zhen.

Tucker has taken up running.

For the past couple of weeks Tucker has been going out running with me in the evenings.   He has already worked up to being able to run 3 miles.   Of course, being that he is super competitive, he is already asking when he will be faster than most of the other runners in local 5 and 10k races.   Being my normal dream killing realist self, I of course told him that more than likely he would never be fast enough to win some of the larger races like the trolley run here because there are world class runners that compete in those races.   However, I did tell him that if he ran reguarly, he would easily be faster than most of his friends (training almost always beats no training), and he would be in shape for some more strenuous backpacking trips such as in the Colorado high country.   At any rate, in the end its all about being fit and strong.   The more fit and strong you are, the less you will be limited by in the outdoors.   If you sit around doing nothing but watching TV all the time, then a fourteener may as well be Everest.   However, if you exercise regularly (and strenuously), you can look at a fourteener and know you can get to the top of it.    Which is the point, run, bike, do whatever you enjoy doing.

Got our LOA from China on Adopting Zhen Zhen

We finally got our Letter of Approval for adopting Zhen Zhen.  It looks like we will be traveling around the end of June.   This has been a long process and we are all excited that we are nearing the end.   In just a few weeks she should be home with us.

Trolley Run 2009

I kicked ass in the Trolley Run today. Ran the 4 mile race in 20:25 at a pace of 6:21 a mile. Personal best for me in the annual Trolley Run.

http://www.trolleyrun.org/

New Bedrooms

Since our kids were down in Arkansas for spring break, we took the opportunity to redo the bedrooms in preparation for Zhen Zhen coming. We did not tell the kids so they were surprised when we got back from Arkansas.

We moved into Tucker’s room (and repainted it), Tucker moved to Harper’s room (and we repainted it), and Harper moved upstairs where she will share a room with Zhen Zhen. The kids love their new rooms.

Trip to the park in Conway

We went up to see Mom in Conway for the weekend. She had Joel’s kids for Spring Break, so I took our kids, Zoie, and Davis to the park. They tried fishing in Lake Conway (which is essentially a big swamp), but ended up playing in the park and in the sand by the swimming beach.

Backpacking trip in the Ouachitas

Harper and Tucker were on Spring Break this week and went down to Arkansas to spend it with their cousins. Tucker has been itching to go on a backpacking trip all winter long, so I took Thursday and Friday out and drove down to Hot Springs. I tried to get Harper to go with us but as with all things outdoors related, she had little interest in going.

Tucker and I hit the Little Missouri Trail in the Albert Pike Recreation area midday on Thursday. We spent the next two days hiking, climbing mountains (Tucker does not know if he wants to be a Mountain Climber when he grows up or a writer for In Fisherman), fishing, and exploring. This part of the Ouachitas is really pretty. The river looks like a scene out of A River Runs Through It. It’s wild, rocky, clear, and cuts a narrow gorge in the mountains there. 

The only disappointment for Tucker was seeing all the trout in the river that we could not fish for because I did not purchase a trout stamp with my 3 day fishing license. Evidently the state stocks the river every winter with thousands of hatchery trout. This is in the southern part of the state, so most of them die off in the summer. Just the same, Tucker could hardly stand seeing all those fish that he could not catch.

You can see pictures from the trip here: Eagle_Rock_Loop-March09

Finally good sledding snow.

We had a fair amount of cold weather this winter, but not a lot of snow. This was our first good snow all winter. We had about 6 inches or so at the house. Harper, Tucker, and I went sledding on Suicide Hill in Brookside. It was packed with people, there was even a hot dog vendor.

Kansas City Bouldering

We had another very unseasonably warm day today, so while Harper and Tiffani went to a birthday party, Tucker and I decided to go climb some boulders (well really just Tucker, I just watched and made sure he did not fall).

There may not be any mountains in the Kansas City area, but we do have lots of huge rocks. Most of these rocks are a type of limestone called Bethany Falls Limestone that erodes away from hill sides in huge slabs. They can be as much as 20 feet tall and represent one of the few rock climbing opportunities around here. Now that Tucker has climbed the wall at Dicks, he considers himself to be an expert rock climber and he had a great time climbing today.