Crown Center

My favorite Christmas tradition: Crown Center!

Before we go outside to play on the toys, we eat dinner at Fritz's and split an oreo sundae.  I tried to talk Hannah into one of the new restaurants at Crown Center  She said, "But we ALWAYS go to Fritz's."  And so we did.

We played at Gingerbread Station inside Crown Center and we saw this real gingerbread village.

We made a quick stop at the toy store to get some more ideas for Santa.  Olive always wants her picture with this guy.

 And finally outside to play on the big wooden toys!  Steve picked them up and put them in a dump truck, then they would get out and he's put them back in.  Fun times!  Someday they will be too old to play, but not this year. :)

St. Louis trip

Steve and Jason have been doing adventure races together for the past few years.  They did Castlewood last year, and this year we tagged along with Steve to make it a fun St. Louis weekend.  More about the race from the Castlewood website:

What is Adventure Racing? A multi-sport, off-road, team event with no marked course. Teams must use a map and compass to navigate their way through a series of checkpoints on mountain bikes, in canoes, and or on foot to reach the finish line. 

What are the distances? Expect to cover 5-10 miles paddling, 10-20 miles biking, and 5-10 miles on foot. Please see the Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of this page for more information.

Race Location: That's a secret! Part of the appeal of adventure racing is charging into the unknown on race day. A course overview will be available closer to race time to help you plan your gear and food. Plan on 5-9 hours of continuous movement through the woods, rivers, and roads of southwestern St. Louis County

Chris, Joffroi, Steve, and Allan- They placed 2nd in their division, 12th overall.

The whole group including Jason and John who were doing a 2 man group.  Jason and John placed 3rd in their division, 6th overall.

While Steve was working from the St. Louis office on Friday, the girls voted to go to the zoo.  I'm not a huge fan of the St. Louis Zoo because it is always super crowded.  I'm not sure if it is because there are just more people in STL than KC or if it is because the STL zoo is free so more people come...it is probably both.  But it turns out nobody goes to the zoo on a weekday in December and we pretty much had it all to ourselves! And it was 40 degrees and sunny so it wasn't too cold.  The girls and I had a great day together and made some fun memories.

These birds made me laugh out loud.  One looked mean and the others looked like somebody squished their heads down.

The St. Louis Zoo definitely has us beat on architecture.

We agreed this is the largest snake we have ever seen!

I love ginko leaves and so I asked the girls to take a picture with them.  They did this:

The next three pictures were taken by Hannah.  

Our favorite exhibit by far was the hippos.  We have hippos in KC, but you can't see them underwater like this.  We watched them for a long time.

 The rest of the weekend we stayed at the Holcombes' house with their three boys.  We haven't seen them much since they moved to St. Louis so it was nice to catch up.  After the race everyone came over for a game night, which is always fun!  Sunday morning we headed to KC. After three weekends in a row of traveling (Jeff City, Chillicothe, St. Louis) we are ready to stay home for awhile. :)

Thanksgiving

It doesn't happen every very often, so I was thrilled to spend Thanksgiving Day at our house.  We watched the parade all morning and the girls helped me make puppy chow.  Since we were doing turkey in Chillicothe, I made the girls' their favorite meal: ham with mac and cheese.  In the afternoon we demolished our upstairs bedroom.  Hannah said, "This is the funnest day of my life."  The renovation deserves another post, but here is one picture: 

That night I was super excited to go to Plaza lighting ceremony.  Steve and I have been there once before, but it was the first time for the girls.  It was actually a good night for it and not too cold.

I wish I had a video of Olive's face light up with the lights came on.  I didn't tell them there would be fireworks, so that was a fun surprise!

I told the girls they can't be real Kansas Citians until they have seen the Plaza lights turn on. :)  Here is some video of it.

 This was our attempt at a family selfie.  We got an owl hat instead of an Olive face.

It was funny to see all the people in the hotel watching the lights.

The whole day was super relaxed and fun.  I love making memories together as a family.  It makes my heart happy. :)  Online Black Friday shopping also makes my heart happy.  That night I scored $85 boots and $100 vivofit for $30 each. Merry Christmas to me!  Friday morning we drove to Chillicothe to have Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  Saturday we visited my great uncle Dale and then saw Steve's side of the family.  The girls had a sleepover with their cousins.  I didn't get any pictures, but I did get my hair done several times when they played hair dresser.  Sunday we headed back to KC to put up our Christmas tree.

I took a couple pictures of Thanksgiving decorations before we took them down.  I found this picture in the guest room closet.  It's hard to remember the girls ever being this little.