The Hazard Chronicles

Rachel is at the hospital visiting a friend, but will be back in about an hour. Kids are in bed. I am at home nursing my sore jaw (I had a filling done today) and gaining a new level of respect for the patients I see every day who entrust me with their care. It's a quiet night- the best kind for writing a blog post.

You know, the other day I was thinking about an activity I was a part of (I don’t remember when or why) where I was asked to think of the physical trait that I liked most about myself. The answer, at the time, came easily. It still does. Without a doubt, I would say my hands.

This is where I get a little vain. Because no one could deny that these hands are pretty awesome. These are hands that can hang from two fingers on an edge the size of a pencil, or do pull-ups by pinching a 2x4 from below. These are hands that can perform surgeries where the difference between success and failure is measured in tenths of millimeters. These are hands that dance over the strings of a guitar every weekend to make beautiful music for hundreds of people. These hands have strength, grace, and skill. I love my hands, and I am a little bit obsessed with them.

The problem? There is a very real likelihood that I will one day be asking my 5-year-old grandchildren to open cans for me, or that I will have to use large, oversized pencils to sign my name. See, arthritis, especially in the hands, sort of runs in my family. Despite all we know about modern medicine, there is still no good way to prevent it. This sort of sucks.

Of course things could be worse. Because the other fortune that my genetics tell is that, barring accident or injury, I will probably live my entire life with my mind and physical facilities mostly intact. In fact, I will probably not only be able to function in routine daily activities, but in athletic endeavors as well far into my golden years. For this, I am glad.

But my hands.

I’m sitting here trying to find a silver lining to all this, but I can’t really. I guess that’s just part of life, and I better enjoy these hands to their fullest potential while I'm still young.

Is that fact that I am even thinking about this mean that I'm getting old? Who knows. I mean, here I am at the ripe old age of 33, already mourning the loss of my youth. It seems a little bit ridiculous.

But the hands.

Tough.

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Addy and Evelyn both had performances this week for classes they have been taking. Evelyn did hip-hop, and it was so fun to watch. She had the attitude down, and she didn't seem nervous at all. Go Ev!

Front and Center

Addy was in a drama class, and they did a dramatized version of "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. She was super excited before the show, and just a little bit nervous during it. She had a good time though, and is already talking about continuing the classes.

"...You can get so confused that yo'll start in to race
Down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace..."

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This last week I have had fun doing lunch-time activities with the kids.

We went to the park with Lindsey and Maren. They liked chasing the families of geese. I think Lindsey's shoes make her look sort of like a goose when she walks. It's funny.

Evelyn invited us to a "tea party" at her school where she served us treats while the teachers talked about how much progress the kids had all made over the past year. After snack time we went into Ev's classroom and saw some of the projects she has been working on.

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Speaking of Evelyn, as part of her class at school she sends emails to me and Rach every week with updates. They are always good. Her is her latest (Formatting is all hers):

Dear Mom and Dad,

I have had a good week at school today.

Did you like the Spring Tea, if you did why? I liked my poem, did you? Can  I bring something for the food drive, ha, ha, ha, get it, can as in the food is canned, ha, ha, well can I? Recess has been fun. Monday, I get to bring a stuffed animal to school. Tuesday I  get to dress up sportsey. Wednesday I get to wear my pj's to school. Thursday I get to wear my hair up wacky. Friday I get to wear Rainbow close. Now you know I had, and am going to have a good week!

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Addy and Jack have been getting along really well lately. With twins, it sometimes feels like they are tag-teaming you into insanity (the other 3 only add to this). Other times though, and it is just fun to watch them play together and you realize that some pretty strong bonds are being formed.

"Oh boy! This is a tough job. I need a smart boy like Jack to help me!"   -Addy

Here they are playing a game at a church picnic we went to this weekend

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On Sunday we had big plans. After church, we were going to go to a lunch/playdate at a local park with some new friends. We would have just enough time to recover from that when we were going to have company over to our place for a big BBQ dinner. It was going to be a pretty full day.

But then it rained. And rained. And rained. We re-scheduled all the meet-ups and suddenly we were looking at a free afternoon with no commitments. What to do?

Go on a road trip, of course!

Palouse Falls is a place I have always wanted to explore, and it did not disappoint. This place was really, really cool.

Now, before I go on, I want to encourage everyone to get onto Google Images and look up professional photos of the Palouse and Palouse Falls. I'm sorry, but I just can't do the place justice with my little phone camera and amateur photography skills.

Alright- now that you have done that (you did, right?), I can show pictures of our trip:

The trip was worth it for the drive alone. Beautiful!

I really appreciated that there were no fences or anything. They did go through the trouble however, of putting signs up every 50 feet  reminding you that you would be 100% responsible for the financial costs of rescue and/or evacuation efforts. I wonder how many times each year this becomes an issue.

On the other hand, no fences meant some pretty awesome views.

Some of these views were so spectacular that it was almost scary to open our eyes!

For those who wanted to get even closer to the action, there was one of the coolest little day-hikes I have ever been on. It led down into the canyon and along the river right up to the brink of the falls themselves. Some parts were actually pretty technical, especially since the whole trail was slick with the recent rain. Rachel stayed up at top with Maren and Lindsey while the rest of us went exploring.

Goodbye!

Descending into the canyon

Kind-of cool walking next to the huge cliffs

There were tons of little caves all along the bottom of these cliffs. Some of them went back pretty far!

Walking along the river

Almost there

Made it!

What a fun Sunday afternoon! This is definitely a place we will have to visit again.

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Tonight we went out to a fancy dinner for family night and then to the grocery store for the food drives the kids are doing with their classes. For the lesson, the three older kids all got to teach Rachel and Maren what they learned about hiking. Addy said that when it gets tricky or scary you need to just focus on your feet and not look at anything else. Ev talked about how people usually get hurt more on the way back because they think the hard part is over but it really isn't, and their bodies and minds are tired so they are more likely to make mistakes. Jack talked about testing the ground to make sure it is solid before committing your weight to a particular move, and about always thinking about what you will do if you fall so that you can catch yourself before you slip too far.

All good things. Can you tell that our kids are being groomed for the mountains? Yeah- there's a reason for that.

Have a good week!