This has been a fantastic week with Rachel’s family. On Wednesday (Christmas Eve) we went up to their uncle Steve’s cabin on Strawberry Reservoir. To get into the cabin we had to take snow machines up the road for about four and a half miles since everything was snowed in. Kelly, Brandon, and I took a load of gear up first, and then we returned for the rest of the people. Rachel and Eva got to ride in on a trailer that we hooked to the back of the machine. At first we were worried that Eva would hate it and scream the whole way, but instead the exact opposite was true; soon after the machine started she fell asleep and slept the whole way in despite the bumpy trail.

Once at the cabin we had a great time! It was so much fun just having everyone together and we played a lot of games, played in the snow, and played on the snow machines. Actually, the word “play” could pretty well sum up this entire week for us. On Christmas morning we all opened presents and watched “The Grinch.” We made Eva a Build-a-Bear with a little personalized message from Mom and Dad that she became instantly attached to. Rubbing her face in its tummy and giggling provides no end to gleeful fun for her!

Basically, we had a fantastic Christmas and it was hard to leave the cabin when the time finally came. We were there until Sunday afternoon and enjoyed every second of it. There really is nothing quite like being with family for the holidays.

Stay tuned...Rachel will post some picture of our cabin stay.

Merry Christmas!

This week was another wonderful week with my family in Rexburg. My dad, Griffin, and I played a lot of racquetball. Unfortunately, I never was able to beat Griffin. There's always next time! And I did beat him in foosball.

On Wednesday morning Haley flew back to Texas to be with Matt. She had been living at home for a semester to finish school and I'm sure she is very happy to finally be reunited with her husband. They are moving into a new house in a couple of months and will have just enough time to get things ready for the baby that is already on the way. We are very excited for them.

Thursday night we had "Christmas" with my family and exchanged presents to each other. We did this early this year since we won't actually be together on Christmas day.

Really, there's not much more to say- we had a fantastic visit and the time went by all too quickly. On Friday afternoon we drove down to Sandy where we will spend the next couple of weeks with Rachel's family. Yesterday we went to Hunter and Anna Sophia's (cousins) Christmas dance recital and were very impressed. Especially with Hunter; He is awesome and knows how to make dance look cool.

Anyway, we don't have many pictures for this week. We do have some great pictures of Evelyn though- given to us as christmas presents. These are the ones that Haley took at the BYU-Idaho photo studio. There are more that we will post at a later date. Merry Christmas!

We have had an awesome week with my family this week. It was the first time in a while that my entire family has been able to get together and it has been so much fun hanging out with everyone. Instead of writing a lot about our activities, I will tell the story in pictures:


My sister Haley graduated with her BS in Communications. We are proud of her and it was neat to be able to go to her commencement ceremony. Her husband, Matt, flew in from Texas to watch her walk across the stage and receive her diploma and it was fun to hang out with him for a couple of days too.

We went to the gingerbread display at the hospital and saw a lot of cool houses.

Evelyn is feeling much better after we got some antibiotics for her. She has had two breakthroughs this week: first of all she finally learned to crawl- second, she learned how to enjoy a bath. Woo Hoo! She has been a very happy baby even though she has SEVEN teeth coming in. Her mouth looks like it is full of blisters. She smiles and laughs through most of it.




Here's an appropriate video for the season :)

Time for relaxation

Whew! Vacation has come at last. This week has (hopefully) been the last stressful week of the year. And stressful it was. While we were getting ready for our big trip back west we were also madly working on Christmas presents and finishing our gingerbread house (see previous post). Also, we had our tests this week. I took the first part of the National Dental Board Exam on Thursday and Rachel took the first part of the National Interpreting Certification test on Saturday. We are both happy to have those tests behind us. Now it is time to play!

We flew into Salt Lake on Friday morning and spent the day with Rachel’s family. And then on Saturday after Rachel’s test we drove up to Rexburg so that Rachel could go to my sister Haley’s baby shower. While the girls were at the shower, Griffin and I went and played racquetball and he killed me. We will spend the next two weeks here in Rexburg which will hopefully give me a chance to redeem myself. On the 18th or 19th we will head back down to Utah to be with Rachel’s family during Christmas.

The week has taken its toll on Evelyn as well. On the day we left we woke her up at 4:30 am so we could catch our flight. She didn’t sleep very well on the plane, and had a really hard time adjusting to the time change. To add to the misery, she developed an ear infection, a cold, and is having a new tooth come in which is obviously painful. She has done her best to put on a happy face, but there are times when she is very miserable and a little unresponsive. Hopefully these things clear up within a day or two so that she can enjoy being with family (and they can enjoy being with her) as much as we are.

Anyway- Since we can’t very well post pictures of the Christmas presents we are making, the only pictures for the week are in the previous post of our gingerbread house.

Our Gingerbread House

Creating a gingerbread house from scratch is one of our yearly traditions that we started our first year of marriage. Every year the project has grown. This year Logan was the architect and he designed the house from a picture we found on the internet. First, he created a model out of cardboard that was 1/3 the final size. Then we baked for two days to create the gingerbread pieces. Next, it was time for candy shopping! Finally, we spent two days decorating our house. Here is a video that explains the features.

The original cardboard design

Raw material

Here is a tour of the gingerbread house 2008.

Thanksgiving, Gingerbread Houses and Beautiful Trees

The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year! Our traditions continued this week. On Wednesday we went to the Botanical Gardens for the first time. We went to see the gingerbread houses they had on display. We took our camera for pictures of the houses we liked so we could use some of the ideas for our own gingerbread house. Then, we visited the beautiful indoor gardens. What a great place!

This week we spent quite a bit of time focusing on creating our gingerbread house. Logan figured out measurements and created blueprints from a picture of a house we found on the internet. We rolled out each piece and baked them over the course of the last two days. We had a great idea to use parchment paper this year so we didn't have to pick up the individual pieces to transfer them onto the baking sheet. We assembled the house tonight and will decorate tomorrow! We will post pictures soon.

Logan and I will always remember the Thanksgiving Holidays from Cleveland. This year we went again to the annual Thanksgiving get together with many good friends in the ward. Everyone bakes a few items and there is a smorgasbord of food, great company, and fun friends for Eva to play with. She had fun playing with Alta and Rhoda, and Logan ate more turkey than I have ever seen anyone eat. It was quite spectacular.

Of course we went shopping on Black Friday and we were able to finish up our Christmas shopping! We still have a few things to make, but all of the materials are purchased. That counts, right?

On Saturday we drove to Akron for a Christmas tree festival. This is an event that is held every year and all proceeds go to benefit a children's hospital. Individual donors or companies decorate trees, wreaths, or other Christmas decor and sell it for charity. There are also raffle tickets that you can purchase and place in front of an item (or group of items with a similar theme)in hopes of winning the raffle. These probably were worth between five hundred to a thousand dollars each. We had a great time and will definitely be back next year.

Next Friday we are flying to Utah for the whole month of December. We have a lot of things to finish up before we go. This week will be full of fun activity. We are very excited to see our families. Evelyn is pretty excited too!

This is at the Gingerbread display. Here, we received inspiration for this year's gingerbread house, marking this place as a sacred location.

After seeing all the gingerbread we went and explored the gardens. Evelyn didn't quite know what to make of a giant leaf that had fallen from one of the trees.

At the gardens, I found the angriest plant ever. It looks innocent enough at first (top), but underneath all the leaves it exposes its true nasty character.

Here's Rhoda and Evelyn playing their favorite game- "slap-the-chair"- at the ward Thanksgiving party.

Here's Rachel and Eva at the Christmas tree display in Akron.

Eva had her first encounter with the "Man from the North" at the Christmas tree display. I don't think she was too impressed.

This has nothing to do with our week, but I had to steal this picture off my sister's blog of my Grandma on the Harley she keeps hidden in her garage. Who would have known!

It has been quite a week!

This week has been quite a week for us here at the Hazard home. If you have been following the blog lately then you have probably realized that school has taken up a lot of time recently. Well, this week was different. It was my finals week, which meant that I only had to go to school for a couple of hours each day. I did have to study for a little while before some of the tests, but nothing compared to the middle of the semester. So- what did we do with all the free time?

Well, on Wednesday evening Rachel and I went on a fabulous date. We started by dropping Eva off at the babysitter (an important part of any date) and then went to Aladdin's for dinner. After sampling the great Middle Eastern cuisine, we drove downtown to Playhouse Square where we watched Legally Blonde- the Broadway musical. The show was awesome with fun music and good acting. Also, I learned that Playhouse Square is the biggest theatre district in the United States outside of New York. I love Cleveland for all the fun activities that there are around here. We had a great time while we were "out on the town."

On Thursday night Rachel went to see the midnight showing of Twilight. It's that show about vampires that is based on the popular teenybopper book series. Anyway, Rachel had a fun time with her friends and said that the movie was actually pretty good. She got home around 3:30am and the next day she slept a lot.

On Saturday we went to see Squires castle. It's and old castle-like building on the North Chagrin Reservation not too far from here. It was a cool building and the land it was on is amazing. There are trails all over the place, picnic areas, fishing ponds, and hills for sledding. Yes, hills. I know it is hard to believe, but there actually are hills in Cleveland. We will definitely have to go back many times during the next couple of months/years. Also, to make the day even better I filled our car up with gas for under $20, something I have not been able to do since high school. It really has been quite a week!

I brought our camera on our date night out, but was having so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. I guess this poster advertisement will have to do. It really was a fun show.

Here's Rachel and her friends acting like girls.

Here we are at Squires Castle. Evelyn loved being outside until it got a little cold- and then she was not shy about telling us that it was time to go. It is an amazing place though and we will definitely be back.

She was a Good Dog

Last night I received some very sad news from my dad. Our beloved family dog, Cassie, was "sent to a better place" at the vet. It was time. She was old, and had arthritis, and her quality of life here just wasn't very good any more. It was still sad though, and I must admit that I let a few tears leak out. Cassie grew up with me and was, at times, my best friend. To some people it may sound sort of petty that a dog could mean so much to a boy, but those people didn't know Cassie. She was a good dog.

Cassie was a boarder collie- a sheep dog, and that meant that she would heard everything. When she was a puppy she would heard the broom as we swept the house and she would try to heard the sprinklers in our back yard and just get a face full of water. She would also try to heard cars until she was run over one too many times and decided that it was better for her health to allow the cars to roam free.

She loved to play fetch. She would fetch anything- tennis balls, racquetballs, soccer balls, golf balls, soft balls. She had several teeth knocked out from catching baseballs. That didn't bother her though, as long as she got the ball. In the winter time she would play fetch up and down the stairs in the house. She could play for hours. Sometimes I would take her to a big field with a tennis racquet or golf club to try and tire her out, but it didn't happen. She would play with her ball all day if you let her.

She also loved to go on walks. All you had to do was say the word "walk" and she would get all giddy and prance around until you let her out. Sometimes for her walk we would let her pull us on our roller-blades or sleds. It didn't matter to her as long as she was out on a walk.

As the years went by, however, she started losing her eyesight. She could no longer see the balls and could no longer muster the energy for walks. Sometimes she would try to play, only to lay down after just a few minutes and spend the next hour recovering. She was 13 years old. Supposedly that is about 91 in "dog years." I'd say she had a good life. Like I said, she was a good dog. She will be missed.

As I looked around in my old picture box, these are the only pictures of her I could find.

Snow is Coming! Hooray!

Snow storms are one of my absolute favorite things! I am very excited for weather this week. Crazy snow is coming our way, but I learned that we moved to the wrong place! There is a place called the 'snowbelt' here in Ohio and we just missed it. I am kind of jealous of the people that live there... I think we just missed it by fifteen or twenty miles. Am I the only one who looks at weather.com and gets really giddy to see snow warnings, extended snow forcasts, and 90% and 100% chance of snow? Well, weather.com is making me really excited. I have looked at it a few times tonight. I am ready to go to bed so I can wake up to a pristine world blanketed in crystal white snow! Evelyn will learn all about snow tomorrow.

Christmas time is coming (I have not forgotten Thanksgiving, but it requires a lot less preparation)! Logan and I have been hard at work making gifts this year. Well... We purchased the material and have spent one day hard at work. Last year I knitted scarves for all of the girls in both of our families, this year we have an idea that both of us can work on together. We are pretty excited.

School is coming to a close for Logan. He has been working on competencies all week and has finals next week. Then, he does not have school until January 5th! Woo Hoo! We have a long vacation ahead of us. Logan is taking boards on December 4th, we are flying to Utah December 5th, and I take my interpreting national certification test on the 6th. When all of that craziness is over... it's party time!

I had a Shade party on Friday, and it was really fun. I enjoy hosting these parties. I am excited for the next one.

This week has been pretty tame in the Hazard home. Hopefully, next week will hold more excitement.

Here is Rachel modeling a Shade shirt from her party- She makes a pretty cute model! She could have been a cover girl.

Ev woke up to find two of her friends visiting her in her crib. She was VERY excited to see them.

The calm before the storm

This photograph was taken at Crystal Rapid on the Colorado River, and it accurately depicts the way I am feeling right now. The calm before the storm. This week was really pretty mellow. On Tuesday we went to the polling station and voted, but that is about all of the out-of-the-ordinary that happened. Like I said- "The Calm."

This week commences "The Storm". Finals and competencies are starting to hit fast and hard and will require a little bit of planning to keep from going crazy. Also, my national boards test is just around the corner and I don't feel quite as ready as I'd like to. Rachel is equally busy trying to study for her big test, fulfilling assignments for her classes, and working. The nice part is that in just a few weeks it will all be over and we can look back and say "that wasn't so bad," and then look forward to an extended vacation with no worries to think about


PS: A while back my cousin Jake Roecker recommended Google Reader to us for keeping up to date with people's blogs. We just wanted to thank him and pass on the recommendation. It has helped us to easily keep up with the 40+ blogs that we follow. Check it out at www.google.com/reader.

Amazing Rachel

There are so many reasons why I love Rachel. I thought I’d write a few of them here:

She is Fun to Hang Out With
While we were living in Provo she would usually drop me off in the morning at my job. One morning, however, she just drove right by the place where I worked and kept on going out to the freeway. I was confused and a little bit irritated at first, but then she surprised me by saying that she had worked things out with my boss (and hers) for us to go on an extended rock climbing vacation! She had already booked hotel rooms in Las Vegas and packed everything that we needed. The next few days were spent climbing, hiking, swimming at the pool in the hotel, and yes, even a little gambling (I won two dollars). On the way home we stopped at Zion National Park for even more fun.

She is Determined to the point of being Stubborn
On our second date I took her rock climbing. I was encouraging her to try a boulder problem (unroped) but she was a bit hesitant. “Trust me,” I said, “I’ll spot you.” She did trust me after some coaxing, but she shouldn’t have since a few minutes later I was driving her to the hospital with a broken ankle. That did not deter her, however, from rock climbing or from dating me (thankfully). After getting married we went climbing about 4 times/week and she was able to confidently jump on climbs as hard as 5.10 (and un-confidently on 5.11).

She is Smart
When she was in high school she was “diagnosed” with two learning disorders, OCD and ADD, and put on medication to “help her cope.” After taking the medication for a while she decided that she did not like the side effects, and that she could figure things out on her own. A few years later she graduated summa cum laude (4.0) with two collage degrees- one in ASL Interpretation and one in Elementary Education. After graduation she has continued her education via online courses and CE conferences. In one month she is taking a test that was once described to me as “the holy grail of interpreters…it takes Jedi Knight skills to pass.” Well, it looks like I am married to my very own Jedi Knight, because from all indications she is going to do great!

She is Caring, Compassionate and Selfless
She received a call one day from Salem Elementary School asking her to become a spur-of-the-moment 4th grade teacher. A tragic accident had killed one of the teachers and most of her family. It was a devastating blow to the small community of Salem, and especially to her fourth grade class. Rachel had worked in the classroom during her student-teaching and was called in to help. Despite having to put other plans on hold, including a major step in her interpreting career, she accepted the responsibility of the 4th grade class for the rest of the year. She received positive feedback from nearly every parent of the students in that class, thanking her not only for the way she helped the kids to cope with the loss of their teacher and friends, but also for being a fantastic teacher who was able to make a fun, interactive classroom. She had such an impact on the students that some of them still write letters to her 2 years later.

She is Amazing
If it isn’t obvious by now, Rachel is a person who could have chosen to do anything she wanted with her life. Seeing this makes me stand back in awe when I see that she has chosen to make her family the number one priority. Every day I come home from school and the house is clean, Evelyn is well taken care of, and she often has some sort of family activity planned. Evelyn and I are both extremely lucky to have Rachel in our lives. Thanks Mango, for everything you do. You are truly amazing.

Halloween Fun and Eva's First Word!

The highlight of this week was, of course, Halloween night. Rachel and I finished carving our second pumpkins during the week and then decorated the front porch as a “haunted house” for the trick-or-treaters. We had a flashing green strobe light, scary music, lots of spider webs, spooky decorations (skulls, tattered cloth, etc), and of course our pumpkins. Rachel and I both dressed all in black and wore creepy masks.

I am proud to say that the overall effect was scary enough to deter some kids from coming onto our porch. It was fun to see them “daring” each other to go and get some candy from us, and we got a lot of good comments from parents and kids alike. It was fun and something we will have to continue in upcoming years.

Evelyn’s highlight of the week, however, was not Halloween (although she did like to scavenge the floor for bits of carved pumpkin to put in her mouth). Instead, she surprised us all with her first word! I looked at her while I was making a bottle and did the sign for “milk” when she surprised me by signing it back. Since then we have been paying attention, and sure enough, she signs “milk” whenever she is hungry, or when she is eating. So smart (I suppose we are easily impressed).

Here are the second pumpkins that we carved (the first are on last week's post). I did the vampire and Rachel did the Dragon. I think they both turned out great!

Here we are on the porch waiting to give out candy.

Here's Eva signing "milk" with her right hand (pumping motion)

Parties and Pumpkins

The Hazard family fall traditions continued this week. This weekend we carved pumpkins. Logan and I have carved pumpkins together for the past four years. Every year our pumpkins get better, and this year did not disappoint! My pumpkin took five hours to carve, and Logan says “my pumpkin took at least a thousand hours… at least.”

I remember the first time I saw myself without my front tooth. I was horrified! I never thought anyone (besides Logan) would ever see me like that! Well, this week I think our whole ward and most of Cleveland witnessed me without my very important front tooth. I have not been able to put my tooth in for a whole week because my gums have been so sore from the surgeries. I decided that I didn’t want to miss the parties so I went anyway! If I think about it, then I am very embarrassed. I just choose not to think about it!

Friday was our annual ward Halloween chili cook-off party. Evelyn made her debut as a cute little spider witch, and she had a great time with some of the other little kids in the ward. Logan and I decorated a table and handed out candy to the kids. I decided to enter chili in the contest. This was the first time I ever made chili and I have decided that I am perfectly content buying canned chili for the rest of my life! I did, however, end up winning the first prize for the best overall chili! That was pretty exciting!

Saturday we had our CADA carnival. I really enjoyed planning this party with the CADA presidency. It was fun to see all of our ideas put into action. We had about twelve games (lucky duck, pirate treasure, cake walk, etc), a few adult competitions (corn hole, sack races, and basketball), and we had plenty of great carnival food. Everything worked out perfectly and I am excited to make this a tradition while we are in Cleveland.

Evelyn, Alta, and Rhoda played together on the table while we ate. These cute babies were all born within two weeks of each other!

I got a lot of practice smiling with my lips closed!

Evelyn and Anaya played on the floor for a while. Anaya introduced Eva to the exciting world of helium balloons.

This costume was a close second! We got this treasure in a bag of free clothes that came with one of our Craigslist purchases.

Here is Evelyn showing off our 'before' pumpkins.

Logan is absolutely amazing. This is Pinhead from the British horror film Hellraiser.

This is my first pumpkin. My second pumpkin is the scary one! It was difficult to get a picture of the entire pumpkin, so Logan took two individual pictures of the charactors and superimposed the picture of the actual pumpkin (actual sizes) in the center.

Memorable

The above pictures were featured at Andy Warhol's first New York solo Pop exhibit, entitled 100 Soup Cans, and 100 Coke Bottles respectively (He also did 100 Dollar Bills, but we couldn't find that picture on the Internet). So, why the sudden interest in Andy Warhol? Well, it's not really the artist that is important to this week's post, but rather the number 100. You see, on this day we are posting the one hundredth edition of The Hazard Chronicles.

So what did we do this week to celebrate such a momentous occasion? Well, it was actually an expensive week. Our car decided to break down last week and we had the honor of purchasing a new clutch. This was really exciting because we were really glad it wasn't a new transmission. There is always a silver lining!

This week has been one of those memorable weeks for Cleveland Craigslist. Logan and I have a short list of things we need to buy and can be patient enough to find a deal on Craigslist. This week we crossed three of those items off the list. I am the proud new owner of a great schwinn bike! This bike is in pretty good condition, fits me perfectly, and was a fabulous twenty five dollars. The second craigslist steal was a state-of-the-art 140.00 Eva size bike seat for 25 dollars. This bike seat is pretty cushy and has all the extras you can possibly dream of. Adjustable foot rests, comfy lining, and very large storage compartments that are the perfect size for library items or a picnic, and an incredibly easy attachment system that only requires about ten seconds to attach or remove. Not to mention that this seat has a higher weight limit than any others we could find so we can use it for longer. The third craigslist steal was a brand new pack and play for Evelyn. Keep in mind that I have been looking casually for a pack and play for about eight months now. Until last week, Evelyn fell asleep perfectly in her carseat if we were out and about or if she was at the babysitters house. Last week, overnight, she decided she would have no more of that. Hence the need for a pack and play. We found a practically brand new one with a design that Logan and I both like for twenty dollars. Score!

Besides the purchased items, two of the people threw in a bunch of baby cloths after seeing how cute Eva was. In celebration of our new acquisitions we went on our first ever Hazard family bike ride. Yesterday we bundled up our sweet babe and headed to the library. Eva smiled the whole way. As soon as she wakes up we are going on a bike ride to the fabulous Shaker Lakes.

For the last few months our Book of Mormon study habits have left much to be desired. On Monday Logan came up with a new idea for our study time. We have started reading the Institute Book of Mormon study guide side by side with each chapter. We read the information and then we read the chapter. Sometimes we find interesting information and go on a tangent to find out more. This has been so much fun for us. We have quickly become more interested in learning background than finishing a chapter. There is a really cool talk that I would highly recommend about the history of the Book of Mormon. Logan and I learned a lot when we read it. If you would like to find out more... just click on this really long address. http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1982.htm/ensign%20november%201982%20.htm/scriptures.htm?fn=default.htm$f=templates$3.0

On Thursday I set a new record for myself for the longest time spent in a dentist chair. It all started at 9:00 and wasn't over until three thirty. I had three pretty big gum surgeries. I had two apicoectomies and one of my front teeth was pulled (what little I had left of it). My swelling is finally starting to subside a little bit. Yesterday the left side of my face looked like a softball had snuck into my cheek, I couldn't even open my eye! Today it has shrunk down, but is still pretty noticeable. The great thing is that the swelling numbs the pain and my swollen lip prevents people from seeing that I am missing one of my important front teeth! There is always a silver lining... I am still trying to figure out how I am going to interpret tomorrow as there is no way I can put my tooth in by that time... Logan had to take a picture because he got a kick out of seeing me try to smile.

What a wonderful week! We are excited to see what next week brings.

This picture is going in a frame. I love it! Eva is a natural biker.

Here is me trying to laugh after my surgery- Logan had to take a picture!

Eva was so cute while I made zucchini bread this week- she just sat on the counter and played with the zucchini peelings and laughed.

The Autumn Harvest

This week was great because it was "Kaplan Week" for me at school. Basically, it was a week off from the normal routine so that we could focus on studying for part one of the dental licenture exam (which I am taking on December 4- Ahhhhh!) This means that we had no assignments, no projects, no competencies, and no study after school. It also means that we got out earlier than normal on most days. For Rachel, Evelyn, and I this translated into a week of fun!

On Monday we went to a local apple farm and picked a whole bunch of apples. Seriously, we sort of went wild. Evelyn even got in on some of the fun and had a great time playing in the trees. We are hoping that this apple-picking thing will become a Hazard tradition that we carry on through the years. Even if we don't have apples where we are living we can go pick something else around harvest time, like beets or figs. Anyway, because of all the apples, we have also done a lot of baking. Our favorite recipe so far were some delicious apple dumplings that we had the other night.

The next day we started gearing up for Halloween. Haloween is a great holiday because you get to decorate your front porch/yard with scary things, so we planned it all out and took a trip to the local Halloween stores (you know- the dollar store, Wal-mart, etc.) We got all of the stuff we needed, including some cool-looking skulls, a green strobe light, scary music, and of course several pumpkins to be transformed into scary jack-o-lanterns. Stay tuned for the end product on a later post.

On Saturday we went kayaking on the Cuyahoga river with Scott and Kate Homer. Actually, Kate watched Eva and their cute little girl, Sal, while the rest of us did the river. Thanks Kate! The river was mellow due to low flows, but still a lot of fun. Rachel used my boat, so I got to use their giant 16 foot sit-on-top and that was adventure all of its own. Since the boat has about the same turning radius of a small aircraft, it required a bit more planning than I am used to to negociate the rapids, small as they were.

And finally to finish off a great week of fun, our car died. Yup- it's pretty sad. I think it's the transmission, but we won't find out till next week. On the bright side, it allowed us to have an impromptu date night and "go out" to eat at Wendy's while we waited for the tow truck to come. Also, we are so greatful to all the awesome friends we have for helping us out while our car is getting fixed; within a little over an hour from the time our car broke down we had a ride to church the next day, an offer to borrow a car, and someone was on their way down to pick us up from where we were stranded. If any of you guys ever need anything please let us know.

Anyway, despite the less-than-ideal ending to our week, we still had a great time enjoying the great Fall season of Ohio. It is beautiful out here and I can already tell that I will miss it when we leave (someday).





Apple picking was a blast! Evelyn had a lot of fun trying to eat the apples...and the leaves...and the grass...and the sticks on the ground...etc.

Also, check out the video from this week that is on the next post- I promise that you will smile if you do.

She's Cracked!

I don't know what it was that she thought was so funny, but Evelyn really let loose with the giggles today. It was almost as if she couldn't contain all the happiness and just had to let it out.

This is a great video of a happy bug.

Ode to Evelyn

We have our beautiful cheerful baby Evelyn back! She was snatched by the body snatchers for a week and a half! Every day this week was better and better until she was our laughing happy baby again. I dedicate this post to her. As I was taking pictures this week, I realized how grown up she looks and decided to do a post that featured her.

This week we went kayaking again with the Homers. We had a fabulous time playing around in the reservoir. Bring on the rivers

On Friday the ward decided to use the institute building for a football tailgate party. It was advertised as the BYU/Utah game. Logan and I decided to decorate cupcakes with our new decorating set. We had a great time making red and blue cupcakes. When we showed up we realized that BYU was actually playing Utah State. Oops. You can tell we don't really follow football... I just assumed that it was the Utah vs. BYU game. Well, we still had a lot of compliments for our cream cheese chocolate chip cupcakes.

Saturday was the first session of General Conference. In the morning we went to a HUGE 'baby sale.' There was a one dollar admission charge and the whole gym was full of 'vendors' selling their baby wares (the sale was held at a middle school). We bought a lot of cute pants for Eva and some warm pj's. We also got the deal of the century on the cutest Halloween costume ever! You will have to stay tuned for Halloween pictures to see our great find.

Evelyn looks so grown up in this picture!

Her exploring face

Evelyn finds enjoyment and excitement in all of the little things in life. She loves to explore and learn about the world around her. Again, it is amazing the little lessons babies can teach us.

This picture cracked me up because she looks just like Winnie the Pooh

The wonderful baby sale