The Hazard Chronicles

Well, with Rachel's last post it looks like we finally got caught up with our Summer on the blog. Whew! It's been a busy one. There is one last Summer adventure I want to record- one last thing before school started and we fell back into a comfortable and much-needed routine. That thing is the visit from my cousin, Tyson, and his family.

These guys are so much fun to hang out with because we have so much in common. We both have lots of young kids, and we both love this fact (most of the time). We also both go out of our way every chance we get to be active and pursue new experiences. This made for a very full, and very fun weekend.

To start out, we met them at Hiawatha trail-head on the Idaho/Montana border. There's no better way to start out a weekend than a nice, long bike ride through the mountains. Especially when one of the kids has training wheels and another just learned to ride a two-wheeler the day before. This was going to be great!

Well, that last sentence was definitely true. It was great. Things didn't go quite as expected for some people though.

By the end of the ride, Ty was riding with one of his kids on the handlebars, one on his back, three more in the trailer, and two bikes tied on top.

Amri coming through the tunnel. She did great on the ride and was very patient with her bike. I put the chain back on that thing 44 times before someone on the trail had a wrench with them, allowing me to make more permanent repairs.

Hooray for bike trailers!

The day after the ride, we spent the morning playing with cousins at home and then headed out on the boat to one of our favorite spots- Mica Bay. Camping by the water is always fun. We also got a great site- right next to a park, an electrical outlet, running water, a bathroom, and the beach. This is camping, right?

Monday morning was Amri's birthday, and we celebrated with donuts and more boating, swimming, skiing, and tubing. I've also got to mention how this was sort of a weird day on the lake because of all the smoke in the air. Visibility was pretty limited, unfortunately obscuring the customary beautiful views on this lake. It also made driving sort of surreal though- much of the time there was no shoreline in sight whatsoever and the water just seemed to go on forever- like in some sort of post-apocalyptic disaster scenario. At least that's what my imagination thought of.

Let's see how many people this boat can hold! Actually, things were surprisingly comfortable. The older cousins turned the cabin into their "cousin's club" and sat in it while telling stories to each other. I think that friendships were strengthened, and I love that.

Look at all that smoke behind us!

Happy Birthday Amri!

Back to Routine

I really like the busyness and spontaneity of Summer. I think we do well at making the most of it. But I couldn't live that way all the time. I think that part of what makes it fun is that is is different from the norm. Sometimes...especially this year...I found myself just trying to catch my breath though. Because of this, I am happy that school has started and that we are starting to find our feet again.

This year, we have ALL of our kids in school for the first time ever. Also, without the need for a nanny any more, we have been able to hire a housekeeper. These two things have opened up new doors of possibility for Rachel and me as far as career goes, as well as for time together. We have already started the Monday-breakfast-date tradition, and Rachel is getting back into community work (something she hasn't been able to do much of since we lived in Cleveland!). She is also able to volunteer more in the kid's classrooms, and we are both able to have individual time for us, usually resulting in workouts at the gym, one-on-one dates with kids, special projects around the house, or hikes in the mountains.

Here's a little hike that Ev and I did last weekend. It started with some scrambling down through some "caves" until we got to the riverbed. The dam was closed, so we thought we'd explore things a bit.

Right below the dam there were tons of these smooth bowl shaped areas in the rocks where water and sand had worn things away.

Sitting next to the flood gates. To be honest, it was a little eerie.

Hiking down the riverbed (dubbed "Dragonfly Canyon" by Evelyn), we were able to find some secluded natural pools that hadn't evaporated yet. She called this area "Hidden Lakes." It's somewhat enchanting.

All the kids have been loving school. Jack is excited about his homework of reading to his younger siblings each night, and Evelyn and Addy love their "challenge" class. Each of them are also getting involved in extracurricular activities. For Evelyn, this means an art group/class. Addy has started gymnastics at a local gym. Jackson does archery (sort of non-traditional and cool) and a culture/cooking group. And Maren does dance. It sounds like a lot...it is a lot...but it somehow all fits very comfortably into our week and we feel much less overextended this year than we did last year at this time. That's a relief.

Back to school pictures. This one's a little awkward. Fourth grade.

Second Grade

Second Grade

Kindergarten

Oh my gosh, this picture makes me smile every time I see it. Lindsey is sooo excited about preschool.

Another part of routine that I didn't even realize I missed comes from our activities at church. I have started playing weekly in the band again- something I haven't done for at least a couple of months because I was always gone, but which feel natural to me now and is something I look forward to. Also, Rachel and I have been asked to co-teach a class on parenting- a fact which shows that we are good at pretending to be in control while in public.

We don't really do studio pictures much, but the church had professional photographers come in to make their annual directory. Enjoy this, because it's probably the only time you'll see it. Still, I think it turned out pretty good.

In short, things are going really, really well. After this summer I feel like I do at the end of a long race- tired, but fulfilled...and happy to be breathing normally again.

Have a good week!

Oh- and I did NOT forget about Addy and Jack's birthday. There will be a whole post on it next week.