To be a kid again.

We had yet another beautiful fall weekend.  Yay, global warming.  It was the weekend, so of course the kids woke up around 5:30 AM, raring to go.  We've given up on trying to figure out our kids' sleep habits.  Put 'em to bed early, they get up early.  Put 'em to bed late, they get up early. And cranky.  No matter the tweak we try, they get up early.

When they get up early and are tired, after about five or ten minutes of sweetness in the morning, they eventually turn on each other.  Each boy tries his best to irritate the shit out of the other, and each has an admirable success rate.  Our best bet is to keep them busy and on some task once they do get up, so they aren't left to their own devices.

Saturday morning, Mandy went out for coffee with a friend, while I kept the boys busy for a bit.  It was chilly early, and we biked to Borderstar school while it was still in the low 40's.  I stuck a basketball in the main diamond of my mountain bike, and off we went to practice some basketball and play on the playground.

After pushing E on the swing and playing a furious game of b-ball with Noah (who was quickly up 3-0), we played hide-and-seek in the nature maze next door.  We took turns finding each other and "scaring" each other when we did.

After biking home, we packed up some backpacks for a hike in Swope Park again, determined to be more prepared than we were last time. This time, we took a different trail, and headed up towards an  area more saturated with limestone bluffs - perfect for climbing and exploring.  Noah was in heaven, but had a "the grass is always greener" mentality about wherever we were.  The path itself was not sufficient, he had to climb off-path, and explore the possibilities.  This would be ok, if we never wanted to get where we were headed.  Eventually, we did plenty of exploring, and plenty of climbing.

In a busy world, it is frequently difficult to put yourselves back into the minds of your kids, and remember just how fun it is to explore, with no agenda, no timeline and no fear.  Occasionally, you nust need to be quiet, and let them run.

Playing basketball

Pure joy, spinning around

Playing hide-and-seek in the "maze"

Getting ready to scale the cliffs.

Picnic stop

Elliot and his walking stick.

Another snack break

Imparting some brotherly advice

"Bluffy", as Noah would say

Yes, they ignored it, and went down anyway.

November Warmth

This fall has been flying by much faster than even we thought it would.  There are not enough free days to do all we want to when the weather turns this nice, and weekends fill up quickly.   This weekend we decided to avoid any real obligations and just enjoy some family time.  And today was a perfect day for it.  It is atypical November weather - 75 degrees, warm and windy.  Shorts and t-shirt weather.

I made pancakes for breakfast, something I used to do practically every weekend, but haven't in quite a while.  Noah told me, "You're still make the best pancakes, even though you haven't practiced in a long time."  After playing outside for awhile, Mandy suggested a trip to Crown Center's Ice Terrace - an outdoor skating rink open from November to March.  

We thought it would be a good time to try teaching the kids to skate, rather than doing it while bundled up in freezing weather.  Turns out, it was harder than we remembered.  Neither of us had skated since we went did it at the highest outdoor skating rink in the U.S. at Keystone in Colorado, back when we were still dating.  

I was unsteady at first, and never really regained the knack for it.  Mandy was wobbly and unsteady.  Elliot was a hot mess, but still enjoyed trying it.  Noah, our little perfectionist, did better than we expected for his first time but eventually started to get frustrated when he couldn't skate as fast as some of the others did.  Since it was so warm, there was a watery spot on the ice as he entered the rink, and he immediately fell face down, getting soaked.  Didn't phase him any though, and he got out and kept going.

We grabbed a bite to eat at Crown Center afterwards, then decided to do some hiking in Swope Park (whose benefactor also had an interesting history).  Despite it being the 29th largest public park in the U.S., we haven't spent much time in areas other than the Kansas City Zoo and the soccer fields on which Noah plays, but the 1,800-acre park is mostly undeveloped and has several trail systems, which are mostly used for mountain biking. It was a perfect day for it, and we let the boys loose to do some exploring and rock climbing.  After a couple of hours, it was clear the boys were running out of gas, so we headed back to the car.   

Tomorrow morning, a cold front is expected to come through and temperatures will drop to the 30's with lots of rain, and a possibility of sleet or even snow.

Edit: And this morning, we have this: