Category: Uncategorized

Winter Day at the Kansas City Zoo

Who is out at the zoo on a freezing cold rainy weekday in Kansas City? Basically just us and a polar bear!

We parked our car in a nearly empty lot and headed inside. (Both parking and admission for children under 2 are free, so we spent less than $10 on our fun excursion.) First stop, we saw the polar bear passage. Earlier this month Nikita, our male polar bear, relocated to a zoo in North Carolina but you can still see Berlin, who is an older female bear. (local news story)

Next we went to Helzburg Penguin Plaza which is mostly indoors. My one-year-old, Cecilia loved watching the penguins swim and waddle around. I think they liked her too!IMG_3769IMG_3774

We headed to the Tropics which was nice and warm. Then we stopped by the Sea Lions to watch them practice their tricks. Finally we headed to the Discovery Barn for more indoor fun. IMG_3777

January Festive Family To-do List

How has more than a week gone by in January and I’m still struggling to come up with a fun list of things to do this month? Possibly because I find the month of January to be a less than inspiring this year. For some reason I’m not into dieting, organizing or any other traditional New Year’s resolution that I typically tell myself I need to make.

Before I start sounding really negative, I want to share my favorite December moments and how I checked off my festive to-do list last month:

  • Baking holiday cookies! We headed over to my parents house and we all made cookies. I made fun, tasty gingerbread cabins which I wrote about here.
  • Christmas lights. My favorite were the ones we saw on evening walks around our neighborhood. The lights made the walks we take Duncan (our crazy 2 year old golden retriever) on feel like an enjoyable and festive family event instead of a chore.
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Duncan ‘helping’ my husband with the dishes at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Oh, Duncan!
  • Snuggling by the fireplace. We have a Cape Cod style home that doesn’t have the ‘open floor plan’ basically every couple on HGTV is looking for. We fell in love with the cozy (yes, wood paneled) living room with a traditional brick fireplace and I love (repeat love) sitting by the fire. I nearly sit inside it to get warm in the winter. Thank you to my husband for building me several fires last month.

January to-do list:

  • Take Cecy to see penguins at the Kansas City Zoo
  • Cheer on the Chiefs in the playoffs, woohoo
  • Participate in KC Restaurant week
  • Brave the cold – play outside
  • Make something with blueberries in it

 

Gingerbread Cabin Cookies

Making Christmas cookies is a family tradition, but this was my first year attempting gingerbread and I think our little gingerbread cabins turned out great! Okay my cookie decorating skills can use some honing, but the cookies were soft, yummy and fun to make.

I bought a gingerbread house cookie cutter at Target, I also found this similar one on Amazon. We used a decorating set similar to this one.

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Gingerbread Recipe Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger

You will also need icing (either homemade or store purchased) as well as edible decorative items like candy gumdrops.

How to Make Gingerbread Cookies:

Preheat oven to 375
Cream shortening and sugar. Beat one egg and molasses an add to mixture. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Roll out dough (not too thin) with rolling pin on flat surface sprinkled with flour. Use cookie cutter to create dough shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool. Decorate!
Do you have holiday cookie making traditions?

15 Hikes in 2015

We are days away from our final trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in 2015. I was going through our ‘log book’ and realized we went on 15 hikes with our little girl this year in RMNP and surrounding areas. We hiked over 77 miles with her in Colorado and loved (almost) every moment of it.

hiking

I learned a lot about being a Mom on the trail – like how to plan ahead and also how to go with the flow. We made a big commitment to spending a lot of time as a family out in the mountains. For our family it helps us stay healthy, have fun and connect to each other, God and nature.

I’m very thankful when I think back on our list. I hope it’s even longer in 2016. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and an adventurous New Year!

  1. Deer Mountain, 6 miles
  2. Twin Sisters, 7.3 miles
  3. Bear Lake to Bierstadt Lake, 4.4 miles
  4. Indian Peaks Wilderness Area – Brainard Lake/Lake Isabelle, 7 miles
  5. Bear Lake to Emerald Lake Lookout, 6.8 miles
  6. Lily Mountain, 3.6 miles
  7. Bear Lake to the Loch, 6 miles
  8. Cub Lake, 4.8 miles
  9. Bear Lake to Emerald Lake, 3.6 miles
  10. Wild Basin Trailhead to Ouzel Falls, 5.5 miles
  11. Fern Lake Trailhead to Fern Falls, 5.2 miles
  12. Bear Lake Trailhead to Mills Lake, 5.6 miles
  13. Longs Peak Trailhead to Estes Cone, 6.6 miles
  14. Lumpy Ridge Trailhead to Gem Lake, 3.6 miles
  15. Lily Lake/Lily Ridge 1.3 miles

*Miles are approximate