Memorial Day

We are back from our vacation and life has resumed its normal flow again. The day after we got back I began my summer research project at the school. Well...it would be more accurate to say that I tried to begin my project. I am supposed to be using X-ray diffraction (if you don't understad that concept don't worry- neither do I) to look at the properties of a new dental material. It's been a little bit frusterating because nobody seems to have any idea how to do it, and I really have no idea how to do it. Hopefully I can figure it out soon so I can get this project going.

Besides research, we have also started our summer activities here in Cleveland. The weather has been great and we have spent a lot of time out-doors going on walks, grilling meat, sun-bathing, and rock climbing. Yes... we found a place to go rock climbing.

A couple of weeks ago a friend (Josh Howard) told me he was thinking of cleaning up some of the rock cliffs by our house (really, it's about 200 yards away) and setting some routes. I told him I'd be happy to join him. So, on Monday we were able to spend an afternoon at this small climbing area. The climbs are only about 35 feet high, but the wall extends itself for about 100 yards along the creek by our house, so there are a lot of possible routes. It is a beautiful wall with a lot of possibilities. It looks like there will be a large range of difficulty levels. We had fun playing around on the rock, and we hope to develop a nice area.

Also, on Monday night we went to a BBQ at the Mirci's house. There was a lot of good company there, as well as good food thanks to Joe. Coming home after spending so much time away really helped us to realize how much we love it out here despite being so far away from our families.

We had a good time with the Howards on Monday trying to climb the wall by our house.

Here are the womenfolk enjoying some good conversation. Look Diane- you made it on our blog again!

The Memorial day BBQ at the Mirci's house was a lot of fun. After the food was eaten, the kids danced around fireworks.

Shade

We had a wonderful trip and are now back at home in beautiful Cleveland. Eva did much better the last three days of the trip because she figured out her nap schedule and wasn't so grumpy.

I wanted to drop a little note about a Shade party I am hosting. For those of you who don't know, Shade is a company that sells modest clothes and long undershirts and tank tops for layering. They also have swim suits! If you don't have a Shade store close by, let me know if you would like to order anything. The web site is www.shadeclothing.com if you want to check it out. Also, if you are in the area I am having the party on Wednesday, May 28th from 6:30-9:30. You can drop by any time and I have all different styles of clothes and swim suits you can try on. Everyone is invited if you are interested.

Have a wonderful week!

More Vacation

We continued our vacation this week by driving up to Rexburg and seeing my family. Haley and Matt are moving to Texas in a week, so this was our last chance to see them for a while. Luckily, we were able to spend some time with Krystalee too since she is living with my parents. Here are some highlights.

First of all, we’ll mention Evelyn’s behavior. She has sort of been a grump this week. I think that everyone holding her all the time is starting to take its toll as she misses out on her normal nap times. That said, it would be unfair to her to say that she was always fussy. It’s just been a little more than normal. She continues to delight everyone with her smiles and gurgles. Also she fell asleep in Courtney’s arms today, which was Courtney’s ultimate desire for the week.

Rachel, Haley, Allison, and Krystalee (Courtney was in Boise playing tennis) had a girl’s day where they worked out with Richard Simmons videos and went shopping in Idaho Falls. Also, Rachel broke her toe by walking into a parked car, so she’ll be wearing sandals for a while until her toe gets better. Meanwhile, Griffin and I went to the collage and played racquetball and rolled kayaks in the pool.

Broken Toe. Ouch!

On Saturday, we rented canoes from the collage and did a section of the Snake River. It was Eva’s first river trip, but many more are sure to follow. Also, she looks great in a life-jacket! After the river, we made Dutch-oven pork chops, beans, biscuits, and peach cobbler. It was a good way to end a good day.

Visiting Family in Utah

Our families decided that they just couldn't wait to meet Eva, so they pitched in and got plane tickets for us to come and visit for two weeks and introduce the new little Hazard. They have not been dissapointed. Eva (AKA: Turtle-head, Bug, or Smiles) has been a joy to all as she giggles her way into their hearts.

Here's Evelyn with the very-proud Aunt Shannon.

And here she is with Grandma Hill. Evelyn is the 94th member of the family for Grandma. She has 29 grand-children and 33 great-grand-children!

We went to a Utah Blaze arena football game where Marrissa performed a dance at the beginning. It was my first experience with arena football. It was...interesting. As you can see in this picture and video, Evelyn was quite the distraction.

We got to do some fun things for us too. Here's Rachel and me climbing at Ed and Terry wall in Rock Canyon. This was our favorite place to go when we were at school here, and it was fun to get up on the rock again.

Shannon works at 1-800-CONTACTS in Draper. We went to her work for lunch one day and then had fun playing in the gym there. Wendy showed off her hidden ability to play ping-pong as she systematically beat everyone else that was there.

One of the days we went to the park and had a picnic and then played tennis afterwords. It was so fun that we returned to the tennis courts the following day for more. Other fun things we did include archery at the range, kung-fu lessons from Brandon, visiting friends and neighbors, and eating lots of really good food. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me for these things. So sad.

We will be here in Utah with Rachel's family for a couple more days, and then we will be off to Rexburg to hang out with my family. We have been having fun and we are excited to continue our vacation.

It's Summer Time!

Summer has officially started- Let the fun begin! This week was pretty much taken up by me taking finals. Rachel got to work out every morning, and Evelyn smiled and pooped a lot. Here's a funny story (well, at least it was funny after it happened):

So we were at church today and Eva was being a perfect smiley little baby. Then she started squirming and fussing a little bit. Being the good father that I am, I picked her up out of her car seat and held her just in time for her diaper to blow out and splatter poop all over my suit! It was everywhere! I guess that's what a father's love gets you. I spent the next 15 minutes in the bathroom trying rather unsuccessfully to scrub poop off of me, and Rachel spent that same 15 minutes in the bathroom trying to change Evelyn.

Besides pooping, Evelyn has learned another trick- she can now roll over. She doesn't like it very much when we make her do it though so she does this little distress call thing that is way cute and makes it even more fun to watch. Here are some videos. In the first one, she just makes worried noises. After a rousing pep-talk from Dad she was finally able to roll over.




Evelyn is very sturdy on her feet. You can't see in the picture very well, but the only part of her that I am holding is her hand (well, sort of her forearm). She can stay up like this for a long time before toppling over. Sometimes we joke that she will learn how to walk before she learns how to sit up.

When I finished up with finals, Rachel wanted to celebrate the completion of my first year of dental school, so she took me to a very "hip" restaurant known as Hot Sauce Williams. This restaurant is on the way to church so we drive by it every week and wonder what kind of food comes from such a "unique" place. As it turns out, they have awesome fried chicken and ribs with an excellent sauce over the top of everything. I think the retro colors make the food taste better.
The highlight of the week is when we got a piano! Rachel found a killer deal on Craigslist; it took some work to get it to our house, but now we have it and we are excited to become piano maestros (or whatever you call good piano players). It is a nice piano and will serve us well.