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.