The Hazard Chronicles

My, how our lifestyle has changed. I was looking through some pictures the other day and came across one of me and Rachel at Rock Canyon in Provo. I remember days when I would have a couple of hours between classes and I'd call Rachel up on the phone, and 15 minutes later we were walking up the trail to The Green Monster to go rock climbing. I remember when Rachel surprised me with a spontaneous 3 day trip to Vegas for our anniversary. Once, we drove up a canyon in the middle of winter and found some snow caves that were already made (probably scouts or something) and slept in them overnight. We used to keep camping and climbing stuff permanently in the trunk of our car for spontaneous outings like this.

Contrast that with now. As I was brainstorming what to write about in the blog I asked Rach what some of the highlights of the week were. After some thought she replied, "We spilled Cheerios." It's true. We have moved on to a new phase in our lives dominated by diapers and feeding schedules-short walks and trips to the zoo. Our energy is spent in short two-hour bursts because that is when the babies have to eat again. A trip to Walmart is a major accomplishment. We still do what we can to stay active- those who know us can certainly attest to that. But it is definitely different.

As I go back and read this post, I realize that it may appear to some that our previous lifestyle was more desirable. Those people probably don't have children. You see, I couldn't imagine a life without my Evelyn, my Jackson, and my Adalie. I actually look forward to coming home from school and reading books with Evelyn. Pointing things out to her (and the babies) about the world has increased my own awareness of what an amazing place we really live in. And deep down, I really like dancing wildly around my house singing silly songs (it makes me feel like a kid), so it's nice that my children give me an excuse to do this and still maintain my manhood. If going back meant losing this, then I wouldn't even have to think about it for a second.

So overall I'd have to say that things are definitely different, and also that they are better than ever. I won't lie and say that I don't miss the spontaneity and the activity level of our pre-children days. But we'll have all of that back in a few years when they grow up a little. For now, I am just trying to treasure every second I have with these little ones.

Woah- I just got all philosophical and stuff. Don't worry, there won't be many more blog posts like this one, but you've got to understand that we keep these posts as a family history and I wanted to have these feelings recorded somewhere. That said, here are a couple of pictures of our week:

Here are the spilled Cheerios that I mentioned. We gave Evelyn a broom to help clean up. This ended up being a little counter productive. She's learning.

We went to the Children's Museum. I think we have a future doctor in the family- Evelyn wouldn't put down that darn stethoscope!

Also, Rachel went and saw the midnight premiere of New Moon (some vampire movie) with a bunch of friends. That night she only got two hours of sleep. I don't know how she does it.

Look- we're going crazy with the video. Three clips in three weeks. That's good for us. This is sort of a conglomeration of things that we did this week. Nothing too exciting.