There are very few times in life where you go through a shift and everything changes. Graduating high school and moving to college is one of those times. Right now, everything Evelyn knows and is used to will soon change. This is definitely an exciting and scary time! As her mom, this is a bit of an exciting and scary time for me as well! As I watch her prepare, I can't help but wonder what she is going to learn, how she is going to change, and how family dynamics will shift. 

Last weekend, Logan, Ev and I went down to Boise for her school orientation. The more I get to know the school and the area, the more I feel that it is a PERFECT fit for Evelyn. Starting with the campus- there is a thriving outdoor club with multiple weekly trips, an active climbing club, a daily bus to Bogus Basin for skiing during winter, an awesome dorm with a great roommate, and a river that runs right through campus. Zoom out to a fifteen minute radius of the school and you will find a thriving music scene, Black Cliffs climbing area, and multiple hikes. Take another zoom out and you can easily make a day trip to City of Rocks, the Sawtooth Range, and Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles. Knowing Evelyn, she is already making plans!

When we were on campus, I couldn't help but feel freaking excited for Evelyn!

As any good parents would do, we naturally had to try out some of the Boise offerings while we were all out together...

We checked out Black Cliffs, the local crag. We approve!

I can totally picture Ev living here!

I had to throw this in there. If you know, you know!

We discovered this gem of a street! Live music in the evening, a variety of restaurants with patio seating, and a pizza eatery dive for college students. It doesn't get much better!

We visited Freak Alley. I chose artwork that reminded me of each of the kids. This was Evelyn's, and it is a perfect fit for this stage of life.

This picture is for Maren. If you know, you know.

Not pictured- During orientation we had lunch at Buster's kitchen. Let me just say that we did NOT eat like that when we were in college(ramen and pancakes). It was a pretty sweet set up with a lot of great options. We also had to try Lime scooters to see if that was a viable option, and Logan and I checked out Hemlock, a downtown restaurant with a smoky vibe, which was offering some Monday night live Jazz. We will definitely be back!

This is Evelyn now, and I wanted to share what I got out of this weekend. First of all, this entire trip has made me much more excited to move to Boise and experience the campus and city. That being said, I am still just as scared to move away from everyone. I will miss having "my people," especially my family, friends, and boyfriend, but I am happy that I get to live in such an amazing area. I get to enjoy the duality of having a cute campus and living in the biggest city in Idaho. The campus itself is amazing, and there are a ton of useful resources. The city is really cool, and there is so much life in it. There is an awesome music scene, as well as a ton of cool restaurants and shops to explore. Outside of the city, there are a ton of options for my outdoor hobbies, and I am really excited for that. This is an amazing place for me to live, and I believe it will be a really awesome part of my life, even if my current chapter is just as cool. 

Ev's pictures will be added here.... if they are not here as of this reading, check back in a few days if you're interested.

Jackson's photo highlight this week. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for Maren's NY/DC writeup. 

Have a great week!

What a crazy week!

Finals are over. Evelyn is officially a high school grad. Lindsey broke her arm and is getting surgery. Maren is in Washing DC and NYC for this whole next week. We had visitors from both sides of the family staying with us, and we did lots of things. And in the meantime, there were quite a few other things happening in the background just to add to the chaos.

It. Was. Nuts.

So...here are some photos to tell the rest of the story. Enjoy!

Honestly, I had no doubt this would happen... but it was pretty surreal.

Grandma and Grandpa Hazard joined us for the graduation

This is one of my favorite pictures of this group!

We had a mini family reunion in honor of Ev

We hiked...

We climbed...

We celebrated with Gooies...

We enjoyed Arbor Crest...

Thank you to everyone who came! It was a great week.

End of year band trip to Silverwood. Addy and Ev both had a great time.

Maren planned a backpacking trip with her friend Ireland.

Lindsey just got out of surgery. She'll be in a cast for a while, which kind of puts a damper on it being her first day of summer vacation.

Have a good week!

It's currently finals week and the stress is real. School is over next week though, and we'll have lots of family in town for Ev's graduation, and then a busy summer. Rachel and I have spent the last few days planning out our limited weekends over the next few months and I think we'll do some cool things.

As for this week, the biggest event was probably going to see Back to the Future (Broadway tour) as a family and watching both the play and the ASL interpreters. It was a fun show and it was done well. We also went to an awards night for the high-school music program where both Addy and Evelyn got their letters for the year, and the band played a few songs for us. Ev got to do Zoot Suit again, and Addy finally did a saxophone solo (hoping to see a lot more of these next year, but Addy doesn't seem convinced). Over the weekend we got a lot of work done on both our home garden and the landscape project at church that we're doing. Yesterday, Maren and Lindsey both sang in a choir concert, and both of them had solo parts. 

Okay- that was a nice list of things. Here are some actual photos. 

"I was aiming for the box and missed"

This is the kind of thing you get in a house full of immature children. I won't tell you who in our family said this, but I will give you a hint. It wasn't one of our kids...

...and it wasn't Rachel.

Back to the Future, the Musical!

Maren's last choir concert of middle school. She had a solo in "Dreams" by the Cranberries, which has some significance to our family, so it was kind of a neat ending for her time in middle school. She has already auditioned for and gotten into the select choir at the high school next year.

Addy with a little flare while playing the sax

This is Rachel and Marissa doing things with bees. Ok, wow.

Have a good week!

Our weeks have been very full lately, and our weekends have been very active. We are approaching the end of the school year, and that comes along with a lot of programing and tests and due dates. Rach and I are both pretty busy at work as well, so it seems sometimes like it never stops. And, to be honest, I kind of prefer it that way.

This last weekend we spent time close to home, hiking, rock climbing, gardening, and barbecuing. Rach and I did a quick jaunt up to the Wallace house on Sunday afternoon to do some little maintenance chores, and the drive itself was kind-of like a date. It's not every day we get to just talk with each other for hours at a time without interruptions. It was nice.

The weekend before that we went a little further off the beaten path. Originally it was going to be a climbing trip, but road closures forced a change in plans and we made a quick pivot to a nearby hiking spot. This was actually a really fun day- especially when the four oldest kids and I climbed a dicey little gully to end up on top of the plateau, and then had to explore our way back down and around to the lake again. I don't think I'll ever get tired of these little side adventures, and it makes me almost hope that the day never comes that everything goes exactly according to plan. So many memorable moments in my life- mostly good ones- come from things going off-script a little bit. 

Here are some pictures.

Evelyn: "This week I went to my school's art show, played our spring concert, and went to a party. It wasn't very eventful because I was dying sick or training most days"

Ok (this is Logan again), I have to admit that I became a little emotional at this concert. It was a Jazz concert. At the very beginning of the school-year, Ev asked and pleaded with the band teacher to do a rendition of "Zoot Suit Riot," a fun little 90s song that we listen to sometimes around the house. He finally gave in, and they performed it, with her on the kit, as the last song of the set on the last day of her getting to play in a high-school concert. Man- I guess context is everything, because didn't know that song could be so dang bittersweet.  

All the seniors in band did a poster presentation on themselves, got special recognition at the end of the concert with short bios and a description of future plans, and were given a vinyl record selected by their friends (Nazareth for Ev, which, if you know her, makes a lot of sense).

This is the party that Ev went to. I asked who's party it was and she said "I don't know, but I was invited because she showed up to my clothing swap." And then she went, and she left with a bunch of new friends.

This is one of the many reasons I don't worry too much about Ev. I was never the person to just show up at a party knowing that I would make friends. Frankly, I still don't even know where I would start if I were to try. The thought alone is terrifying to me. Which, I think, is why the thought of her going down to Boise makes me a little nervous. But then I look at this, and so many other examples, where she just shows up and seems to thrive. She's a cool kid.

Band seniors. Ev is toward the left, holding one of her best friends in her arms. This group!

Traditional after-concert celebration at Denny's. I think.

The art show she went to. These were actually drawn by Ghost- the person in the front of the previous picture.

Addy: "This week I participated at the Youth Water Summit, which was a presentation of a project my friend and I have been working on for the entire school year. It was a ton of fun and definitely a relief to get it done. The fish was the mascot of something. I'm not actually sure. Oh yeah, I had a concert too."

As an end-of-the-year project, Jackson and his class partner headed up a reforestation service project where we planted about 60 trees. It was well-organized and the work went quickly. Pretty cool.

Maren: "This week I went shopping with Mom to buy clothes for my trip to New York. Also, I was kidnapped by my friends to spend a day at the beach and it was really fun."

Maren spent like $40 ordering individually wrapped snacks from Japan...just because. Some of them were pretty good. Some were familiar. Some were definitely NOT very good (like the dried and salted little fish in what was supposed to be a sort of Chex mix).

Just a picture of Maren and Addy on skateboards

Lindsey: "I went to get boba and had a sleepover with Gracie this week."