The Hazard Chronicles

Get ready for lots of pictures!

To start with, let me share a couple from our week leading up to Memorial Day:

Maren graduated from preschool on Thursday. She had a lot of fun this year and made some good friends. Next year...more preschool. Yeah, it's sort of anticlimactic. 

Here's one I took of Jack and Maren after bed-time. They were supposed to be sleeping, but Maren was scared so Jack was reading her bed-time stories. It turns out that for all the fighting and bickering they do, they sure know how to take care of each other. I sure love these guys.

To be honest, most of the week was spent getting ready for the weekend. We like it when people come to visit because it forces us to do a little spring cleaning that we have been putting off.

Here's a little secret- our house normally looks like five young and very active children live in it. If you come over and it doesn't look this way, then it's probably because we have just barely cleaned it. No worries- stay around for another ten minutes and it'll be right back to normal!

Well, we got our job-list done and we were ready for them to walk in the door on Friday during our family pizza movie night (less mess to clean up). "Oh, hello! Yeah, we were just relaxing a little bit. You know, it's not like we just spent an entire week getting the house and yard in presentable condition. Nope, we don't worry about stuff like that. It just sort of happens by magic. Come on in!"

Don't lie- we all do it.

It was totally worth it though, because once they got here we were able to put everything else on hold and just enjoy each other's company. We had a great time too! Here come the pictures!

Early Saturday morning, Rachel woke up and went on a fifty mile bike ride. No big deal. She got home right around the time that most of us were waking up.

We then proceeded to load bikes onto the cars and drive up to the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, a beautiful bike path that winds its way through the mountains along the river. I graciously offered to pull the trailer to give Rachel's legs a break. Aren't I a nice guy!

Our kids all did great on the ride, and especially enjoyed the picnic lunch we had at the halfway point. It was a beautiful morning.

After being active for the morning, we had to stop by the resort and get some Gooeys at Dockside. Nothing like a little ice cream to put the calories back on!

It's really too bad that we don't have any other pictures of that evening. We got a sitter for the kids and the adults went out on their own. We had a wonderful waterfront dinner, followed by a production of Guys and Dolls at the Spokane Civic Theater. The actors put on a good show for a bunch of people with day jobs, and it was a very enjoyable night.

The next day started out bright and early for me when I went and ran the Coeur d'Alene half marathon. My dad and Evelyn went early with me to make sure I got started in time, and the rest of the family met me at the finish line. It was a nice run, and a good warm-up for some of the more serious races I have scheduled for later this year. The only disappointment for me was the shirt- in the past they have had really nice ones and this time it was a cheap cotton hoodie thing that I'll probably never wear. Oh well.

The rest of Sunday was spent with church, family walks, a big dinner, and an awesome dessert night thanks to Grandma and Evelyn.

Monday saw us at Farragut State Park where we did a short hike along the shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille. It was another pretty day, and we had a nice snack while throwing rocks in the water and watching butterflies. From there, we ate a quick lunch in the park and then said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa.

That evening we had a campfire in our back yard and did a nice BBQ with roasted marshmallows and everything.

Have a good week!