Don't be a Wallflower... Learn to Polka! -Bob Hope

School was the main focus of this week. Logan has been working hard to keep up with dental school and has been pretty successful, and I started two more classes this week. Last week I finished my one year online program from University of Northern Colorado and I started two new classes this week. The classes are set up to help interpreters prepare for the national certification test. I am enrolled in a prep class for the written test and the interview test. I am officially set to take the written test on December 1st. I am really nervous! Logan and I decided that we would both take our professional tests at the same time (he is taking his national board exams in the beginning of December as well). My classes are much more time consuming than I had expected. They will definitely keep me busy.

Wednesday we went to the park and Evelyn played on the swings for the first time. She had a great time and we took some cute pictures. Then, Logan and I curled up on the grass and read some more of my dad's book. It is an excellent book and we are really enjoying it.

Saturdays are now sacred days for us. These are our days dedicated to spending family time together. We definitely had a great Saturday this week. Cleveland is well known for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but a lesser known gem is The Polka Hall of Fame. We had a fun time at this museum and we learned a lot about the history of polka dancing in Cleveland. As it turns out, Cleveland is very famous for this music style that is officially called the Cleveland polka. We also learned that this form of Polka originated in Slovenia.

On our way out we met a nice man who invited us upstairs to view The Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame. We went up and had a lot of fun because all of the guys who were there were actually in the hall of fame. It was fun to listen to their stories about the 'glory days.' They really enjoyed it and if you are looking for something fun to do, they would love a visit!

After the museum, we went up to Headlands beach and had a picnic with grilled hamburgers. We then headed down to the beach to swim and lay and read together. At the polka HOF they had a wall of recipes from Slovenia and we decided to give them a try to really have the full international experience. For dinner we had potato dumplings, goulash and pineapple baklava (or ba-ka-lava as Logan sounded out as he tried to read the recipe).

We actually had to wait for the baklava because we didn't realize that the pastry had to thaw out for five hours. Oops. We just baked this fine pastry and it tasted great!

Check out our previous blog to celebrate Evelyn's 6 month birthday.

Evelyn could be happy for hours in a swing.

If Evelyn had been awake she would have loved it!

These were really cool bats from the hall of fame. The one in my hand is called a 'sidewinder' (the handle is shaped like a z) and Logan's is called 'the broadsider' and it is shaped like a triangle with flat sides. There was also another bat that was filled with water to give the swing extra power.

The beach is a great place to relax and enjoy life.

We tried tricking Evelyn into sucking a lemon and this was the result (yea...we are great parents!)

A Marvelous Six Months!

Evelyn is six months old today. We love her so much and we have created a tribute to her. Evelyn is a very talkative baby, and I have wanted to catch all of her cute sounds on video.

Here is what a day in Evelyn Kate Hazard's life looks and sounds like.

Logan's Birthday Week

Happy Birthday Logan!

Logan had his 26th birthday on Thursday. We celebrated with a wonderful rib dinner and a great homemade ice cream cake. Our garden has been growing and we decided to try a new recipe. We made fried green tomatoes with fresh tomatoes. The dinner was a huge success. I am so lucky to be married to Logan. He is my best friend and he is a wonderful dad! I love watching him play with Eva and I love how much he enjoys taking care of her. Evelyn and I are very lucky!

On Saturday we walked to the Feast of Assumption in Little Italy. This is a huge Catholic celebration. We are going to go and see the fireworks tonight with Evelyn. She laughed and smiled throughout the whole Fourth of July celebration and we are excited to see that again. The celebration consisted of about fifty food vendors selling Italian food. There was a lot of food and I hear that there is a lot of drinking into the wee hours of morning.

I had an interpreting appointment on Saturday and Logan took Eva to her check up. The doctor was genuinely impressed with her motor development. She is supposed to be able to support a little bit of weight on her legs and she shocked the doctor when stood up completely from a sitting position. She is also sitting up by herself (with someone behind her in case she decides to tip over).

Last night she decided to show off a little bit and she crawled for the first time and she stood unassisted holding on to the coffee table for a few minutes. Today in church she stood on the bench while holding on to the back. It was really cute because from the back her eye poked just above the top of the bench. As you can tell, we are very proud parents.

And now for the pictures!

Here are the fried green tomatoes that we made. Actually, only two of them are green- we also made fried light-reddish tomatoes. The red ones were sort of mushy.

Here's Logan and Eva at the Feast of the Assumption.


Eva likes to have her arms up. The first picture was taken a long time ago. Her new trick, as seen in the second picture, is to roll over on her belly...but she keeps those hands held high! This is her last night in a bassinet. From here on out she sleeps in the crib!

Eva is the cutest baby that has ever been born! (we may be just a little biased though)

Here's Eva showing off some of her "tricks." Apparently she is pretty coordinated for her age. Again, she is the cutest baby ever- according to the proud papa.

Cheap airfare to SLC

I know many people here in school are keeping tabs on airline tickets to SLC so I thought I would post a good deal that I found. On southwest.com the feature destination is Salt Lake City and the fares start at 109 each way. After you put in your dates you can click on a link on the right that will show the whole month so you can scan and find the best prices for the month. I am not sure how long SLC has been the feature destination and it usually lasts just a few days. Hope this helps!

Cleveland Events

I love Cleveland! There are so many things to do here. I have decided to add a new section to our blog that lists some of the upcoming events here in this great place. Most of them are free because that is what we can afford here in Dental school... The events are listed at the very bottom of our blog. Logan has more events saved on his computer, so come back to see what has been added.

Hope to see you there!

Summer wrap up

The great days of summer are comming to a close. We had a great vacation (seet the last two posts), and now we are back and adjusting to normal life again. Logan is going back to school tomorrow and he has a very full schedule, and I am catching up with homework from my online classes. I get to be with Eva all day, and I am excited about that, but I will miss all of the free time with Logan.

I am constantly amazed at the variety of sounds that our little Eva can make. She has a sound for everything. She shrieks, mumbles, coo's, and sings. We are trying to get all of her cute sounds on video so we can always remember them.

This week we went to John and Cathy's house for dinner. They have a two year old son named Ethan. Evelyn and Ethan became fast friends and I think they both have their first crushes. Ethan showed off for Evelyn and gave her plenty of attention (both of his parents say he has never been interested in any babies before). Logan held Eva up nose to nose with Ethan and I heard a burst of uncontrollable cute giggles. I thought it was Ethan, but I looked over and the cute bursts were coming from Eva! We have never heard her giggle before (Logan says her laugh sounds like a baby on helium). The next two days were spent trying to make her giggle again, but to no avail. On Friday we went to a party at the Cowden's. Ethan was there and Evelyn started giggling the moment she saw him. She definately has her first crush.

Evelyn has no shortage of sounds she can make. She has many very definate sounds (see the video below for a brief demonstration of two of them). She has a hard time not talking even while she is eating! This was the first week we introduced solids and she did a great job. Sometimes she is a little bit fussy because I feed her solids half way through her normal meal.

Logan, Eva, and I went to Headlands beach yesterday with about five other families in the ward. This is the best beach that Cleveland has to offer. There were pretty good size waves (not quite big enough for surfing, but good for boogie boarding), very warm water, NO salt in the water, and plenty of sand for building sand castles and digging holes. This beach is perfect for families with kids. Evelyn had a good time playing in the waves with dad.

Life is great and we are excited for another week.

Logan and I think that Evelyn has the cutest little baby body. She also has a cute bum!

This is a picture of Logan's artwork at the beach.

Evelyn is looking so grown up!

Hazard Reunion 2008- Woo Hoo!

One week and only one accident later, we are back from the Hazard reunion. This year it was Greg and Nancy's year to plan the get together and everything was great. We went to a VERY remote place in Colorado and had our reunion on Bart's parent's 10,700 acre ranch. We had four wheelers to play on, a beautiful camp site, and plenty of room to stretch our legs and relax. The activities included; a road rally set up by Bart, ATV tours of the ranch, River trips, fort building, our day on the town, campfire stories, canoeing and playing in the lake, hiking, and the annual Hazard family dance held in a beautiful barn.

Logan is creating a video of the Hazard reunion to be released shortly. Below, we have some pictures and movies to document the event.

Enjoy...

We have over 1,300 pictures and videos from the reunion. I tried to choose some representative ones for the blog. As Rachel said, a video is being compiled and will be mailed to each family when it is ready.

Thanks to all Hazards for being the best family in the world!

Vacation with the Almond's

We have had a wonderful week with Rachel's family up at their uncle's cabin. This week is best summed up in pictures...

This is the "kid killer." It is a giant circular rope swing that swings you out over a pretty tall cliff before bringing you back to safety (or slamming you into the ground). Yes- this is our idea of fun.

It was fun to make s'mores in the backyard fire pit. It was also fun to play with burning sticks and make random words and shapes.

Some time was spent working on the cabin, sanding the deck to get it ready for a new paint job.

Games were a major activity at the cabin. It was nice to have everyone together in one spot to play together. Rachel and I enjoyed learning new games including "Curses"and "Robo Rally." A highlight of the games was Barlow (Shannon's friend) talking like Scooby Doo- Rats Rot Frunny.

And of course, Evelyn was a hit.

We also had an ATV that we rode around the mountain roads where we got a fantastic view of Strawberry reservoir.

Besides spending time at the cabin, we also had a lot of fun with the family in Sandy. We visited Shannon's house, played games, and had a lot of fun visiting and hanging out.

Here is Eva meeting Shannon's cat for the first time.