It was a good week- but before I go on about it I have to share an experiance that happened to me a couple of weeks ago that I didn't post here. Some Facebook users might already know about this so bear with me.

As most of you know, we recently purchased our first home. Among the many things we are excited for, the house has a large, fenced-in yard. Also, a couple of weeks ago we came across a killer deal on Craigslist for a $20 swing-set that was still in pretty good shape. The only thing was that we had to take it apart and move it ourselves. So I took the seats out of the van one afternoon, packed up my tools, and went to work. The disasembly went well, and I soon found myself driving home with the pieces all in the back of the car.

That's when I saw the first wasp. And then the next. And then the next. And then they started streaming out of the pipes of the taken-apart swingset. By the time I arrived home there were dozens of wasps in the car. When we took out the swing-set there were 50-100 more that came swarming out as we moved the pieces into our garage. It was pretty exciting.

So, that's my story.

Anyway, like I said, this week was good. A lot of our activities were focused on Haloween. Rachel has developed a super creative crafty streak and every day when I come home from work I see new creations around our home- Like the egg-carton spiders, or the toilet-paper ghost wreath. Also, we made sugar cookies and decorated them, went to 2 chili cook-offs, had a ward Haloween party, and carved pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

Here we are about to make cookies.

 Here are the finished cookies. Yum!

 This was the kid's favorite activity from the ward Halloween party- eating doughnuts off a string! Addy and Evelyn are wild crazy fairies. Jack is a dragon. The pumpkin next to Evelyn is her best friend, Ava.

 Carving Pumpkins! Addy wasn't too into the mess of it all- She's our little sissy girl. Her favorite thing was taking the lid on and off. Jackson, on the other hand, had no problem diving right in. We shall call him the pumpkin butcher. He made enough mess on his own to account for everyone. I think they'll find pumpkin seeds in all of the little nooks and cranies of this house long after we are gone.

-Check out the blog next week to see how our pumpkins turned out.

I have a confession to make. Today I did something that was totally un-Sundayish. I almost died. And I am an idiot. Seriously. Here's the story:

Right now I am in Las Vegas- the city of sin. I came down for a dental course (LVI for you dental people). Now, a lot of people love Las Vegas for a lot of reasons. Mostly because Las Vegas is one of the very few cities in the world where there are so many different roads leading to Hell. The options seem endless here, and I guess some people are into that sort of thing. But I love Vegas for a completely different reason.

18 miles west of "The Strip" is Red Rock Canyon- one of the greatest rock climbing destinations in the country.

Of course I'm not down here to climb, and even if I were, it is Sunday so I wouldn't be climbing anyway. I had to go see it though. I just couldn't leave Vegas without spending at least a little bit of my time there. So after church I drove myself to a trailhead and started just walking around and enjoying the beauty of the place. And seriously, this place is super beautiful (but it's also very hot and desert-y so I'd never want to live here).

So I went to go for a quiet walk...And those who know me can probably already guess the rest of the story.

I can't just hike next to rocks without doing a little bit of bouldering. I just can't. I think it is literally impossible. And a little bouldering isn't breaking the Sabbath, right? So I started climbing a little bit.

That was mistake #1

It started out easily enough. After a while though the holds started dissapearing and it turned into a friction climb. My thought at this point was- "wow, this would be a great route if I had my climbing shoes and a rope, but I don't so I guess I'll go down now." And then I looked down to discover, to my surprise, that I was about 60 feet up. How did that happen? And then I looked up and I saw the top of the climb about 20 feet in front of me.

I made a judgement call. It would be easier, and more time efficient if I just went up and then walked off the back.

That was mistake #2

The next 20 feet were super hard. They were friction. I was wearing tennis shoes. It was a hot day and my hands were sweating and my legs were shaking. But finally I made it. Whew. I started walking off only to discover...

...There was no way to walk off. Also, there was a crowd gathered at the base of the rock taking pictures of me. Great. I was on a nice little platform of rock with nowhere to go. The only 2 options were to down-climb what I had just done, or to continue upwards (where I saw a definate walk-off area).

You don't down-climb friction. You just don't. It was about 40 feet to the top. The difficulty looked about the same as the stuff I had just done. So I sent up a prayer to heaven- "Lord, I'm sorry I am such an idiot. Please don't let me die today."

And I started climbing- (Don't hate me Rachel. It seemed like a logical thing to do at the time. And I'm still alive to tell about it, so it's okay, right?)

I have to say, I don't think I have ever climbed better. I was totally in "the zone." Nothing mattered except for the next move. Any fear I had seemed to dissapear and, I'm telling you, if I could always climb the way I did today then I would be famous. The moves seemed to just come- one after the other- smooth and measured. There have been very few times in my life that I have been this focused on ANYTHING. Really, it was sort of cool.

When I got to the top, the group of obese spectators all cheered and took more pictures. Seriously. But that's not fair. Not all of them were overweight. Some of them were Asian. 

Anyway, when I came out of my little trance I nearly had a melt-down. All of my energy totally drained and I seriously wondered if I would have the strength to walk off. I later consulted with a climber who had a guidebook. The route I did ended up being a 2 pitch 5.9+ X. Friction. Tennis shoes. Yeah. Scary.

And here's my thought of the week. I had to tie this all in with church stuff so that I can justify the whole experiance. Isn't it interesting though, how Satan lures us along a little bit at a time until it becomes impossible to "down climb" our way out of our prediciment? And isn't it interesting that if we had just "stayed off the rock" to begin with then we would never be in that predicament in the first place? And isn't it great that our Heavenly Father, who knows that we will sometimes be idiots and get on the rock anyway even though we know better, has provided a way out for us in the form of the Atonement? Just some food for thought. Cool stuff.

So, that is my story about how I was dumb and irresponsible. Lesson learned.

Besides this, it has been a great week. The dental thing I went to was awesome. Rachel found cute Halloween costumes for all of our kids. We are moving into our new house next week. Life moves on...

Thankfully.

Here's a pictue of Red Rocks. I am still in Vegas and I don't have our camera. Rachel may (or may not) get on here later and put a few more pictures up after she calls me on the phone and tells me how angry she is with me and how stupid I am and how much she loves me...and stuff.

Until next week!

 Do you ever wonder what it is like eating breakfast at our house? Make a recording of a child saying "more syrup please" and have it repeat every 5 seconds. Now dump half of a carton of milk on the floor. Finally, spread a thin layer of syrup all over the kitchen table so that the entire surface resembles sticky fly paper. In case you haven't guessed yet, the entre is alway syrup. Sometimes we throw in sides such as pancakes, french toast, eggs, or waffles. And there you have it- breakfast at the Hazard's.

Last night we left the kids with a babysitter and we went to see Harry Potter at the discount theater. Also, we ate at Jack-in-the-box. I have three things to say about this date. First, it was great being out with my beautiful wife for some pleasant one-on-one time. We don't get that as much as we'd like. Second, the movie was pretty good, but for some reason it all seemed so new to me. I know I've read the book, but I guess I didn't remember ANYTHING from it. And third, I think I am addicted to Jack-in-the-Box. Seriously, this is the best restaruant ever. Sometimes I have daydreams about eating mini-churros.

Sidetrack- as I was writing this just now Addy made an impressive dive with perfect form from the couch and landed headfirst on the floor. Miraculously, she isn't crying too hard, but she does seem sort-of stunned. I am trying to supress laughter. -Un-Sidetrack.

We discovered a new place this week. It's called Huckleberry Hollow. It's at a local fitness club and it is open free to the public every afternoon. The best way I can describe Huckleberry Hollow is "Mcdonalds playland on steroids." Our kids love it. They played there for over an hour BY THEMSELVES, allowing Rachel and me to have an actual conversation (a rare event around here during the day).

Okay. I have a dilemma. I take Evelyn and Addy on "dates". That is sort of cute- you know the daddy-daughter date concept. But what do I call it when I take Jackson out for some one-on-one? A man date? (that feels weird to me). A guy's night? (even if it is during the day). A "father-son outing?" (that sounds dorky). I don't know. Anyway, we hung out this week- just him and me. I took him to Corban Park and let him explore. He loved the freedom and we chased squirrels, threw rocks in the river, and climbed on things. We also did some serious off-roading in our mini-van (but don't tell Rachel). He is my buddy and it was fun to be with him and get to know his cute little personality a little better. Also, more than any of my other kids, he seems to love, love, love being outdoors. I think we have a bright future together.

One more thing. Evelyn thinks she is the boss of the world and she throws a fit if her authority is not acknowledged and/or challenged. It drives me and Rachel crazy. She has been spending a lot of time in her room or being ignored this week.

Well, here are some pictures.

Kids were crazy grumpy today. It was a long day. I'll leave it at that.

So...The biggest news this week is that we finally closed on our house! We are officially home owners. It's a pretty cool thing- especially when your house is so perfect. We won't move in for another month because the people who sold us the place are renting back from us for October. Actually, as I wrote that I realized that we are also officially "landlords" now that we have renters. Well, that won't last long, but it sounds cool though. When people ask what I do I can say "Well, you know...I'm a dentist but I also have some real-estate property that I manage for investment purposes..." It sounds very sophisticated don't you think? It makes me feel important. Oh- and don't worry. I would never actually say that out loud (I would only think it).

Also, yesterday we went to the Apple Festival. It is officially Autumn and, as always, I love it. As always, the slight chill in the air and the unique smells of the season seem to infuse me with energy and optimism. Autumn is totally MY season. For the apple festival we went to a farm and picked apples and purchased home-made kettle corn and rode on tractors and played on haystacks and stuff. When we got home we baked all sorts of Autumny goodies and we are now in the process of consuming these baked seasonal treats. And through it all we never once took our camera out to take a picture.

So...That's pretty much all I'm going to write this week. Like I said, it's been a long day. I need to relax.

Here are some pictures of Shannon's wedding and our time in Utah from a couple of weeks ago.

Shannon and Tyson- We are excited for you!

Evelyn- the most beautiful flower girl around (not that I'm biased or anything)

Rachel- the most beautiful bride's maid. No bias there...just fact.

The Sandcastle.
Park City

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

Alright. Get ready for a crazy post that is all over the place. This has been a super busy week and I don’t really know where to start.

First, the schedule of events: As we wrote last week, we had driven down to Utah for Shannon’s wedding. I also went to a course where I learned to place dental implants. On Monday I flew back to Post Falls so I could work during the week. That’s a whole other story that I won’t write about here. Anyway, I worked all week and then flew back to Salt Lake just in time for Shannon and Tyson’s wedding. The next day we drove to Rexburg and hung out with my family for a while. We got back to Post Falls on Sunday (actually Monday morning) around 1:00am. I was up bright and early the next day to go to work.

So that's that.

Out of everything, the major event of the week, of course, was Shannon’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding at a gorgeous reception center in Salt Lake City (or somewhere around there). Evelyn was the flower girl and did a great job throwing handfuls of flower petals. The only thing is that when she ran out of petals she took off into the gardens and began picking off more to replenish her supply. I thought that was kind of funny. We took pictures and more pictures, and then we went to eat while Shannon and Tyson took even more pictures. The reception place provided babysitting during all of this and we fully took advantage of these services. Addy, Jackson, and Evelyn (after the actual ceremony) happily played and watched movies while we partied and danced and got reacquainted with family and friends who we hadn’t seen for a while. It was a good night.

After Shannon and Tyson left I was laying on the grass next to the giant fake waterfall with Evelyn and Jackson and looking at the stars. It was a nice quiet moment of reflection after an evening full of noise and activity.
Suddenly, Evelyn looked at me and said “Daddy?”
“Yes, Evelyn.”
“Daddy, this is a very beautiful place.”
“Yes it is, Evelyn.”
There was a small pause then where we just laid there. And then Evelyn turned to me again. “Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Jesus must love me a lot. He made this beautiful place for me.”
I hugged her tight and told her that Jesus did love her a lot and that I did too. I am so proud of my little girl. She is getting it. She is starting to recognize what a gift life can be and much beauty can be found in everything all around us. And now she is starting to remind us of these things. Sometimes being a dad can be so rewarding.

Alright, I’m going to move on to another topic now that has gotten under my skin. Evelyn’s dance class.

First, some background. Evelyn has been in a dance class since she was barely two years old and she LOVES it. So naturally, when we moved to Idaho we looked around for a little dance class to put her in. There are a few studios around here that do classes for kids, but they are super expensive and I think a little over-the-top for a 3 year old. Her other classes were with a bunch of her friends in a pretty laid back type of environment with her teacher being a member of our ward who had some background in dance. It was a perfect place for Evelyn to explore this new medium of expression. Ever since then, any time there is music she will search for a “stage” to stand on and will perform a surprisingly emotional impromptu dance for anyone who is willing to watch. She has no inhibitions and is one of those people who can express herself almost perfectly with just movement. Oh, and did I tell you she loves it? She totally wants to be a ballerina and at home she loves showing off her new moves to Addy and Jack. I think it is amazing (but that also might be because dance is a complete foreign language to me).

Well, we finally found a little 6-week long city-sponsored class (sort of like little-league, but for dance). It was relatively inexpensive, it was close, and since it was a city thing we thought it might be a little more relaxed and fun than an actual studio.

Well, we were wrong on two of those counts (It is close though).

The first red flag came during the first day of class. All the parents were dropping off their kids and getting paperwork filled out and stuff. While I was doing that stuff, I showed Evelyn the dance floor where the other kids were running around and explained to her that it was a stage. She immediately caught on and started into a dance. Suddenly the teacher turned around and explained that there was to be NO DANCING until she told them to. She didn’t want them to develop bad habits. Woah.The next event came when we saw Evelyn dancing barefoot. After the class we asked the teacher where her shoes had gone. She explained to us that she would not allow Evelyn to dance in her shoes because they did not allow her to point her toes in the proper ballet form. We pointed out to her that the class was made up of a bunch of 2-4 year olds, and for many of them this was their first experience in dance. NONE of them were pointing their toes in “proper form.” The teacher wouldn’t budge though. We needed to buy real ballet shoes.

So we grudgingly went to Wal-mart and bought her some shoes.

Yesterday, the teacher informed us that the shoes we had purchased were inadequate.They weren't made out of real leather. They still did not allow proper form. I felt like giving her a piece of my mind: “Look, lady- I get it. You graduated with a degree in dance and had great aspirations to be on Broadway, but now you find yourself in a small town in Northern Idaho teaching dance to 3 year olds. You are bitter and mean and you are taking it out by punishing my daughter. You don’t realize that she is crushed every time you make her take off her dance shoes, telling her that they aren’t good enough. You don’t realize that she goes home and tells us that she doesn’t like dancing anymore because of your insistence on proper ‘form’ and you constantly telling her that she is wrong. SHE IS THREE YEARS OLD! DON’T YOU GET THAT? This could be something really fun for her- and it should be- but instead you insist on using it as a personal stage for your own insecurities. Well, get this. The kids don’t like you. The parents don’t like you. This is not Broadway. These kids are not interested in ‘proper form’ right now. They just want to dance. Period.

It felt good to write that. But of course she will never read this blog, and I will never say that to her (unfortunately). Instead, we smiled and politely asked her what we needed to do to make it so that Evelyn could dance. And she told us. So finally, after spending a total of $80 on ‘proper’ attire which is totally not needed, our daughter is ready to learn how to dance. The only catch- she doesn’t want to any more.

Here’s a story for you. I wasn’t there for this one (thankfully), but here is what Rachel has told me.

Last week she was at a kid store with Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson. Rachel’s friend, Stephanie, also came with her two young children. At the store there was a little play area for children so they left the kids there while they looked around at clothes and stuff (don’t worry, it was a very small store). Well, when they were done looking, Rachel went back to get the kids. As she approached the play area she could smell dirty diapers and she started wondering who needed a change. And then she got there.

Addy had pooped, and then had taken off her diaper. The other kids saw finger paint. You get the picture

Yep. Everywhere.

Stephanie took the kids. Rachel took a package of baby wipes and went to work cleaning up and guarding the area from other mothers who wanted to let their kids play. 45 minutes later she had things mostly clean (as much as you can with baby wipes) and she left the store as the employees were applying Clorox Bleach to everything.

Alright. Next topic.

Yesterday we had a fun morning. First, we dropped off Addy and Jack at a babysitter’s house (who, we later found out has seven children and home-schools. Oops!). Next, Rachel, Evelyn, and I all drove to the doctor’s office where we got to see an ultrasound. Evelyn kept pointing at the screen and saying “Mommy, look. There is a baby. Maybe that is an eye (or arm, or whatever).” It was fun to let her take part in that. And at the very end, we got to find out what we are having.

Evelyn is very excited to announce that she will have a new baby SISTER!

Really, Evelyn is VERY excited about this. Jackson and I are rapidly being outnumbered in this family. As far as names go, we like Maren, so our “bubba” is now our little Maren. I couldn’t be happier.

Well, I better stop there. I could write more but I’ll let it wait until next week. For now, time marches on (or in our case, races on) and we are just trying to keep up with it. Life is exciting.

Oh- also, our camera is still somewhere in the car that we have yet to clean out. Consequentially, we have no pictures this week. Sorry!