The Greer Family

Another great Christmas. Santa brought the kids Rock Hero. I think the adults may be enjoying it more. We have already ordered another guitar so someone can play the base. Other than that, Christmas was great as always. Everyone got lots of fun things and so far having a good time.

We trimmed the tree tonight. The kids all knew who was supposed to put the star on top of the tree, I had to look it up. I think that this is the first time I didn’t have to hoist someone up on my shoulders to put the star on top of the tree.

The Christmas Parade happened again. We all rode in the TR250 and walked the dogs. Sam actually was in the parade twice. He rode with us then ran back and walked with his Cub Scout Pack. They are always the last thing to go before Santa.

Sam received his Bobcat badge at the Pack Meeting today. Sam loves cub scouts, I haven’t exactly figured out why, but he really seems to love it. He made a “rocket” racer this week and flew it. He did almost all of the work, I put on the propeller. It turns out I put it on backwards. I guess I should have let him to that too.

Another year for the FLL Team. The Exploded Robots this year. Again, I think the kids did better than they scored in the tournament. For example, they got docked for not being excited about science and engineering. However, when Elizabeth asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up, the answers were, “Chemistry”, “Engineer”, and the like.

This year, Margaret talked to the Town Council for the project. The kids met “Citizen Ray”. I think that this was the real value of the program, learning how things work, but that kind of stuff doesn’t seem to count in the tournament. Oh well, I guess our kids will just have to learn stuff and be happy with that.

I took my fancy new camera and took some pictures of Katy diving. I got a few dives at 8 fps and a few HD videos. Katy is getting better at diving. She is also fearless in the eyes of the coach. Lots of the other girls were not doing dives because they were scared. Katy just got right up and did a dive without hesitation. She later told me that it was really scary and she was shaking for 30 minutes after, but she did it anyway. I don’t know what the dives are, but she is loving it. I think the dive she did was a comquat zerflatz, but i could have the name wrong.

Another year, another overdone Halloween on Johnson Ave. This year, Elizabeth created a “Witch’s Kitchen” in the front yard. She was the witch. Luckily for me, this meant that MOST people didn’t come to the front door and bother me. We gave out about 1000 glow bracelets again this year. I think because it was a Saturday and really nice weather, it was more crowded than usual. Sam was Ghost Luigi. Margaret was Alice (in Wonderland). Katy was a fairy. Katy still loves Halloween even though she is getting a bit old for it. She was somewhat disappointed that no one wore their costumes to school this year.

Today was the Halloween parade at the kids school. It is very exciting. The most exciting thing for me was that I finally got to use my new camera a bit.

I drove up to Tahoe today for some work and a meeting tomorrow. Well, I took the Mini, not thinking it would be an issue. You can see what it looks like tonight.

I finally got off my keester and took the kids backpacking. We have been on lots of hikes with the kids and they do really well, I figured it was time to try a little backpacking. (I had taken Katy many years ago).

We got up Saturday morning and drove to the valley (Margaret had never been there) to pick up our backcountry permits and have the rangers help us make the final decision on where to go that night. We picked Sunrise Lakes in Yosemite.

So, Sam, Margaret, and I set off with overloaded backpacks to climb a 1000ft set of switchbacks. The kids did really well. Lots of stops on the climb up. We made it to the first lake and decided that was enough for us the first day. It was fairly crowded there were 5 or so other groups at this fairly small lake. The next day, we did a little bit of day hiking without the big packs and had a good time just lounging around not doing a whole lot. Then the next day we hiked out without stopping. It was easier with lighter packs and going downhill.

After we got back to the car, I took the kids up to see Tuolumne Meadows. I had to make them stop playing with their Nintendo’s so they could look at the scenery. In the end a great time was had by all. We will have to do this more often. Katy is lobbying for a camping trip without all the hiking. I guess we should do that relatively soon.

By the way, the picture above is Sam and Margaret pumping water for us next to our campsite.