The Hazard Chronicles

There are three big events to cover in this post. Let's get started.

Big Event #1- Easter:

We had a great Easter. We spent the better part of Saturday morning at a local church that was hosting a free BBQ, live concert, and "easter egg hunt." This was awesome. First of all, they had a great band with an old guy who played the guitar in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan (maybe my all-time favorite guitarist), and I seriously could have gone just for the music and had a great time. On top of that though, they had good meat on the grill, crafts and other activities for the kids, and a large bounce house. With hundreds of people taking part in the festivities it really had the atmosphere of a community gathering, and was a lot of fun for everyone. This is especially true since our three older kids are now old enough to run around fairly unsupervised, leaving Rachel and I (and "the youngers") to enjoy ourselves.

Now for the "egg hunt." This was one of those things where they just throw a bunch of eggs onto the field and then blow a whistle and let the kids go wild. And I'll admit- I have not been a real big fan of these events in the past. They seemed contrived and designed in such a way that they would almost always result in tears. But I have to say, I am coming around. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little bit entertained by how serious some of the kids took this contest, and amused at how clueless others seemed to be. Also, I have to give props to the way the church organized this event to minimize the amount of violence and heartbreak that took place. See, when the kids were done, they all went and traded their eggs in for a bag of candy. And they all got the same amount of candy, regardless of how many eggs they had collected. And nobody seemed to care. Candy was candy, right? Nobody is going to cry or complain when a nice old woman trades you a big bag of goodies for nothing by worthless pieces of plastic. I thought it was brilliant.

There was one competitive aspect though that led to some little scuffles. The organizers had cleverly drawn numbers or pictures on some of the eggs, and these marked ones could be traded in for special prizes above and beyond the normal bag of goodies. The marks were small enough that they were supposed to go somewhat unnoticed in the inevitable frenzy of activity. But some kids- Evelyn included- happened to be very good at scanning the field ahead of time for these treasures and planning their strategy accordingly. This led to some pretty remarkable sprints, dives, and dogpiles, and I would not hesitate to place my bets on some of these kids for the future NFL draft. Also, I am proud to say that Evelyn was second to none in this very competitive arena, and that she came away with a very large share of the booty when all was said and done (about one minute after it started). I am even more proud to say that when she saw other kids who did not get as much as her, she was very good at offering, totally of her own accord, to share in the spoils of her hard work. It was one of those parenting moments that make you smile and think that you must be doing something right- or maybe that you just got lucky to be the dad of such an awesome little girl.

Big Event #2- The Bike
After the egg hunt, they also had a raffle. Everyone that was there was issued a ticket at check-in, and those who stayed through 'till the end had a chance to win a variety of prizes. And guess what? Evelyn won a bike! A good one. The only problem was that (and I am ashamed, as a dad, to admit this) she did not know how to ride it. She had never shown much interest in learning, and whenever I would try to teach her it would just end up with her getting mad at me. But that has all changed. The day she got her new bike we went to the park and...voila! She can now ride a bike. I guess the prospect of riding around on a shiny brand new prize was more incentivizing than anything I had been able to do up until that point. Whatever the reason, we now have 3 bike riders in the family, and two more who are eagerly trying to catch up. It's been fun.

Big Event #3- The Date
Rachel is a part of a big group of "CDA Moms that Rock!" It was one of those things that she got involved with a while ago by looking on meetup.com, but since then she has made many good friends and participates pretty regularly in their activities. A while ago Rachel had purchased a new dress while on a shopping trip with some of these friends, and ever since then she has been looking for an opportunity to go out on the town to dance. Well, that time was this week, and it was a lot of fun. Rachel organized the event, and there were 16 people (8 couples) who showed up. We started by going out to a fabulous dinner at Twigs, followed by a brief walk to a downtown piano lounge where we had a VIP section reserved for our group. The musicians were great and took requests and we had a fun time socializing and, of course, dancing. It's been a while since I pulled out my West Coast in public, but it was a good time and I think that Rachel did a good job at making me look good. All this, despite the fact that she broke her little toe (I am being serious) earlier that day and she was wearing heels.

Well- that pretty much sums up how we've been doing. My dad is coming to our house in a few hours, and he'll spend the next several days hanging out with us. Other than that, we are loving the changing seasons and the beauty of North Idaho.

Have a good week!

I had to throw this selfie in. With Spring here, I have been trying to get out more on hikes/trail runs- usually early in the morning on the weekends. This is at a local peak after a 4 mile run- the sun just starting to shine over the mountains. You can see the lake in the distant background. Beautiful.