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!)