The Hazard Chronicles

This weekend my parents, Allison, Courtney, Colby, and Mykel all came to visit us. We have been having a great time with them and there are pictures to show for it. However, before I show you these pictures I need to tell you about my Evelyn. She is amazing and it is fun (and sometimes instructive) to learn how to see the world again through the eyes of a 3-year-old. Here's two quick stories to show you what I mean:

Earlier this week we walked into a room to find Adalie and Evelyn sitting side by side looking at the scriptures. Evelyn was flipping through the pages and "reading" to Addy, who made for a very captive audience. "Look, Addy- It says right here that Jesus loves you. And here, it says that Jesus loves me! And here it says that Jesus loves Daddy!" Then Evelyn put down the book and looked at her sister very seriously. "Do you know that Jesus loves you Addy? He does. He REALLY loves you a lot."

Wow. Here was my sweet little girl who just reminded me of an important lesson- the central theme of the entire gospel is the love of our savior. Every story, every piece of doctrine, and every Sunday school lesson I have ever had can be distilled down to this one essential concept. "He REALLY loves you a lot." Thank you Evelyn for that important reminder.

Okay- next story. Over the weekend Evelyn and I were hiking around the hills by our house with Colby and Mykel. We had all stopped to look at some of the great rock climbing in the area, and suddenly we heard Evelyn calling us very urgently. "Look, look!" she was saying. We turned around and looked down the trail where it led to a little clearing in the trees, but saw nothing else. I asked her what she was seeing and she replied "Look daddy. It's a beautiful place." I looked again and realized that it was indeed a very beautiful place that she was seeing, and I was again taught that we live in a world full of beautiful places if we will only slow down and "look." But the lesson didn't end there. Evelyn turned to me, totally unprompted by anyone, and said "daddy, we need to say a prayer." And then she knelt down and said a very simple 3-year-old prayer thanking our heavenly father for this beautiful place for us to see.

I was seriously near tears. I don't think she knows how insightful she is, but I have learned a lot from being around her. What a lucky daddy I am.

Anyway, we can move on past the "serious" part of this post now and look at some pictures. It has been a great week!

One morning Rachel went to the doctor for a baby check-up and me and Evelyn stayed home and made puppets. I made the mouths and controlled the hot-glue gun; Evelyn was the master planner and designer. I think they turned out pretty good!

This, obviously, is Adalie sitting on a frog. There's not really a story to go with this picture- I just thought it was cute.

Here are the "3 friends." Allison, Adalie, and my dad. It has been fun for everyone having some of my family staying with us.

We went to the Spokane riverfront park and looked at all the booths and rode the carousel. These statues created a photo opportunity that we just had to take advantage of. Courtney looks like she is pretending to push a stroller or something.

And here's Allison and Jackson. I put this in here to point out that Jack is no longer scared of the horses.