It's that time again- Gingerbread house contest! I'm going to put all the photos at the bottom, so if you are here for that, just scroll all the way down.

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It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving break for us! And it's going to be a photos with captions kind of post. Here we go!

We celebrated the day with Marissa and Wesley's family at our house. Food, conversation, and games. Pretty chill day.

Well...mostly chill. This is that time that Evelyn unexpectedly threw a pie in Addy's face. That happened.

And this is when we went to Higgin's Point to watch the Eagles. Every year there are thousands of dead kokanee salmon that wash up on shore after spawning, attracting hundreds of bald eagles to the area for the feast. It can get pretty cool to watch.

Ev has always wanted to watch a sunrise over the lake. She gathered a group of her friends who she convinced to wake up early and go on a hike with her. 

This was the reward. We live in such a beautiful area.

First day of skiing!    ...ish
Silver was playing with our emotions all week. They were going to open! Nope. Yes! JK- No. Ye..No? The night before- a definite No. The morning of...It's a go! On the bunny hill. Just the bunny hill. But hey, it's sliding on snow. 

It's nice to be out again

The joys of helmet hair

And the joys of Silver Mountain Pizza

We actually made a whole day out of the skiing. Kellogg was doing a big tree lighting ceremony thing with fireworks, and then we went out to a nice dinner, and then up to watch a Warren Miller film with a big group of skiers, and Maren won some ski tickets in a raffle, and then we went to the Wallace House to spend the night. We all agreed that it was a really, really good day.

This was kind of a cool thing. Syringa (the office I work at) is building a new location and we had the ribbon cutting ceremony with the Chamber of Commerce and stuff. It's happening!

These were really big scissors.

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And now for the gingerbread houses! Please vote for your favorite. Put it in the comments of the blog or somewhere on social media where we'll see it. Or call us or text us. Anything really. We do this every year and it establishes bragging rights for the next 12 months. I think we have some really good options this year to choose from.

First, we have The Titanic. 

That's Jack and Rose. And a shark.

Next up: Travel-The-World Candy-Land, featuring Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza, and Stonehenge

Next: The traditionalist and the only actual Gingerbread House, but pretty elaborate. Especially the roof with icicles.

And finally, we have Minecraft. This one is kind of conceptual, as there is a world that was built under the world on top, which I guess is a Minecraft thing?

So there you have it. Teams will be revealed next week after the votes are in. 

Have a good week!

Here's some things we've been up to lately. Also, we've had an extended fall season which is both good and bad- the weather is great and we've had several nice walks on the trail, visits at Arbor Crest, or short stays in Wallace. At the same time, a little snow would be nice so we could finally break out the ski stuff. Anyway- enjoy the photos!

Evelyn and Addy were in a band concert. Ev is always very visible in these since she is running all over stage doing different percussion things.

Addy is not quite as visible

We've seen some performances recently. This was a funny one called "Thanksgiving Play" at Stage Left. They always do a great job and this was no exception.

Rach hosted a Bunko night at our house

The five of us went to the tour of Moulin Rouge for a fun evening out

Maren always draws elephants. Here is her recent drawing called "opening day." Silver Mountain has their first day scheduled on the 28th, so we'll see how accurate this ends up being.

As a family, we've had a few projects in the works for a while now, and this week two of them finally came to fruition. First of all, there are these two:

"Macy's Employee" and "New Yorker" (Maren) standing next to another "New Yorker" and "Charlotte Dennon," the news anchor (Lindsey)

Elf Jr. is a one-hour musical that Maren and Lindsey both played parts in. They have worked SO HARD on this- giving up virtually every weekend for practices, and going mid-week for skill development. It's been kind of a fun journey. This weekend they did three full productions- every one of which was completely sold out. And they both did great. It was fun watching them.

The other project that we finished was the "reflection garden" that Rachel has been working on at the church. At least she was kind-of the quarterback on this one for a committee that also includes me and Ev and a bunch of other people. We were really hoping to get things started before the snow came, and on Saturday morning a bunch of people showed up and we got it done. Phase two will be in the spring, and I think it's going to be very nice.

This used to all be grass. We have some benches and planters that will be installed in the spring, along with more landscaping.

Celebrations all around. It's been a big month for us. The garden, the play, college acceptances, jazz concerts, and lots of beautiful fall weather. Have a good week!

Halloween gets differenter and differenter as we grow up. This year we all spent about an hour hanging out together downtown. Then Evelyn went off to two different parties and was home at 2:00 in the morning. Adalie, Jack, and Lindsey went to different neighborhoods with friends. Maren hosted her own party at our house (well...in our gym) where she was in and out all night. Rach and I sort of had the night to ourselves, where we sat in the living room and talked while handing out candy when the doorbell rang.

Evelyn and her friends were clowns

Addy, the sheet ghost

Jackson was an airplane. He conceived of this costume all on his own, and then made it out of cardboard boxes on Halloween night. It even has flashing red and blue lights on the wings.

Maren and her friends were "old people." A little offensive? But in a funny way, so it's all good? My favorite was when we were walking downtown and there was a person passing out candy next to a skeleton, and she pointed to the skeleton and said "How did my Ex end up down here with you?!" That got a lot of laughs. She has a quick wit.

Lindsey- forever and always the princess

Also, readers of the blog will likely notice that we have been staying pretty close to home lately. That's a little off-brand for us, but I have actually really enjoyed it. Maren and Lindsey are in a play and they have practice every weekend, but it's kind of nice to have that excuse to remove the pressure on myself (imposed by myself) to do other things. Life has been quiet, and that has been good.

The play is coming up this weekend and we are looking forward to seeing them both perform. They had a little "showcase" thing last night where Lindsey was in a Wizard of Oz skit (Munchkin), and Maren was in a vocal ensemble and had a solo part. It's fun to see them doing these things.

Quick little update:

For the last time ever, Ev played on the drumline at her high school. Drums have been a defining part of her life since elementary school when she joined a group of kids banging on plastic buckets. To be clear- it wasn't her last high school performance- just the last football game. Still. We'll miss hearing her cadences when we go to these.

The colors are amazing right now!

I posted this same picture last week, but it is worth noting that Maren is raking in over $100/week with her little earring stand. The manager over at Top This in CDA is so nice to be helping her with this.

This is terrifying. We have another driver in the family. Our car insurance premiums are approaching the cost of our home mortgage.

Maren had a little visit at the ER. All is well, but she's a little banged up after falling on a skateboard at nearly 30mph. Dr: "Do you have any questions?" Maren: "Yes. Has anyone ever died in the bed that I'm laying in?"  Dr: "...  ..."

That might be all for this week. The weather really is beautiful in the fall, and we've loved going on little walks in the mountains around here. Tonight is Halloween and some of our kids are dressing in costume so I'll post those photos next week. 

Have a good week!

 It's been a little bit since I wrote a post, and this deserves some explanation. If you are reading the printed version of this blog, then the prologue in the beginning of the book will fill in some details. In short, we've been very busy and active, but our normal range of travel has been cut down a little bit lately. A big part of this is the role that Maren and Lindsey got in a play that is coming up in November. Rehearsals are on Saturdays, and that keeps us in town. Also, Rachel and I (but mostly Rachel) are in the middle of a landscaping project at our church that requires some meetings on Sundays. To top it off, it turns out that my wrist is actually broken from that little bike thing that happened way back in June (finally confirmed it with an MRI), which is keeping me a little bit sidelined for the sake of recovery. So, yeah- it makes sense that things might seem a little quiet.

Behind the scenes however, we have been more active than ever. I built an office area in my gym and have been taking some online classes just because I'm a nerd like that. We went to a play- White Rabbit Red Rabbit- that is a theatrical experience unlike anything we have ever seen and was really cool. We will be thinking about that one for some time. Rach and I have both spent significant time on the trail (she did a 65 mile ride today). We've done a lot of beautiful hikes in the area (6 miles yesterday on a new trail) and the autumn colors are in full bloom. The Wallace house has seen a lot of use recently, both with Marissa and Wesley's family, as well as with my parents.

Oh yeah! my parents came and visited for several days. Lots of games, walks, window shopping, and good conversations. It's been over a year since they visited and it was nice to have them up for a little bit. We went to the high school football game and watched our team lose miserably to the wonderful soundtrack provided by our kids in the pep band. They were able to see a bit of the play rehearsal, we went out to eat, and, as mentioned, we spent a fun day up in the Silver Valley. It was mostly a pretty good visit. To top it off, as we speak, they are watching Better Off Dead. This movie has become Hazard Family lore, and our kids convinced them to check it out. I consider this a win.

Also- the  most important and exciting news of the week...

Drumroll please....

Evelyn was accepted into Boise State University! 

Not just accepted though. She was accepted in the very first round, on the very first day of acceptances. With scholarships. She's cool like that. For now, she wants to be a CRNA and is going to start down that road with an open mind. She will be applying to other schools, but Boise has the best program for this educational track. Also, Boise is seriously one of my favorite cities and has a really cool vibe and I'm excited to have a reason to go there more often. 

Go Ev! You're pretty cool. 

Ok. That's about it. Have a good week!

Oh- wait. We also bought a couch for the gym and it is apparently the same couch on Full House (remember that show) and our kids are all super excited about it. That is all.

Have a good week!

A hike we went on with Marissa and Wesley's family after an overnight together
 in Wallace

I love the colors and sunsets during the shoulder seasons. This is after a fun evening of pickleball.

Addy took this photo during a class field trip and it totally brought me back in time. When I was in high school I was in a program where we were out in the field 2-3 days/week testing various parameters of Idaho waterways. It was an important time for me. It's neat to see Adalie doing the same things.

It's happening! We are all so excited. :)

Grandma (my mom) and Maren made an apple pie together that was seriously like, one of the best things I have eaten in a long time.

We went on a hike and at the trailhead there was a random piece of exercise equipment. Art? Junk? A nice warmup? Who knows?

Maren made earrings, purchased cardboard backings for them and a rotating stand, and spoke with a local business to get them on the front counter to be sold. This is all so she can earn money to go to NYC and Washington DC at the end of the school year. So far she has made like $60 this week, so it's working pretty well. I think it's neat that she did all of this. Kathy, the owner from Top This, is amazing and you should get all of your fro-yo goodness from her.

Rachel has been a "cyclist" for like ten years now, and this was her favorite ride. Ever. That says something. It is seriously a beautiful time of year up here in North Idaho.