The Hazard Chronicles

Two big events this week. First of all, and most importantly, Maren had her birthday- she is 2! Maren has easily been our most mellow child so far. She likes to cuddle during movies, and is good at pointing out or saying the things she wants so that we don't have to guess too much. The one thing that has been hard since her birthday is that two years old is the official take-away-the-pacifier-time in our family. She is doing better than our other kids did- but it's still sad to listen to her cry and not be able to do anything to help.

The second thing we did this week was upgrade Rachel's Kroc Center gym pass to include the whole family. This is awesome. We have a "gold-plus" membership which basically means that we get all the bells and whistles and everything without having to pay anymore than we already did. This upgrade is totally worth it considering what we are getting. I don't think they were counting on our family when they made the rules. For starters, there is 2 hours of free babysitting for EACH of our kids, EVERY DAY if we want! That is a lot of free babysitting. I think we have a new date-night favorite destination! It's also quality care- every day, besides the nice play area and toys, they have an organized craft that they will help the kids to do. Next, there is a free anytime pass to the climbing gym, which is actually a really good gym with lots of routes. That is important to me. I hope to climb 3 days/week, and I have already started meeting some of the other good climbers around here. Besides this, we get to go to the gym area or either of the 3 swimming pools whenever they are open. This is great for winter times and I think our family will probably go on a weekly basis (at least). Also, since we have the super-pass thing, we get to enroll in most of the classes that they offer for free, and the others at a steep discount. This is important to Rachel because she is all into the yoga and spinning classes. Finally (and this is the main reason we got this in the first place), Addy and Jack get to go to the highly acclaimed pre-school there starting next fall for a HUGE reduction in price. This alone would make it worth it, since the preschool, even including the prices of our pass, comes out much, much cheaper than other schools in the area of similar educational quality. We are all excited about our new recreational opportunities, and I think the Kroc Center is going to become like a second home to our family (at least in winter). It is a great place!

Well...That's about it. Have a great week!