Our "Normal"

This week has been a nice, much needed "normal." It seems like for about the past two months we have been running our lives pretty much week-to-week. With holidays, home office changes, ski trips, sick kids, and family visits, it has sometimes been hard to find our feet. Well, that changed a little this week, and it has been really nice.

So, what does "normal" look like for the Hazard family? I want to record this, because it works well for us. Right now at least, it is pretty much as follows:

Sunday: Church in the morning- I go early for band practice and then Rachel and the kids come and meet me at 9:00. Afternoons are pretty variable depending on the time of year. This week, Rachel and I went out to watch the last Seahawks football game of the year. A lot of times we will head up to go skiing as a family though. In warmer weather, this would probably be a hike or bike ride, or maybe a trip to a local climbing area. Sunday evening typically involves meal planning and an online food pick up order. Rachel enjoys cooking and trying new things. Personally, I would be thrilled to rotate the same 7 dinners for the rest of my life. We typically come up with a nice mix of both.

Monday: I get up early and go to the gym, stopping on my way home to pick up the groceries for the week. Those are all unloaded and put away by about 8:30 and Rachel and I will head off together for our weekly breakfast date. It is almost always either IHOP or Denny's, and both places know our regular orders. I don't know why, but I get a weird sense of satisfaction out of that. Over breakfast we discuss upcoming events, along with any other random topics that happen to come up. We then continue our time together doing something a little more active. Lately, this has meant trips to the climbing gym. Around lunch time we part ways and Rachel goes to work. I go home and have two hours of deep cleaning and laundry-switching to do before kids come home and wreck the place. Me doing this has made housework manageable during the week, since most other days we have limited time. I then make dinner, and Rachel gets home around 6:00 to eat with us.

Tuesday: Kids at school, Rach and I at work all day. She usually finishes around 3:00 when kids are getting home. As soon as I get home I take Evelyn to her weekly drum lesson. When we get back, we have a quick dinner before trying to fight Jackson into going to scouts. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes not. It really depends on if either of us are in the mood to pick that particular battle that night. Either way, I'll usually get a quick workout in at our home gym before coming in and doing bed time. Rachel typically schedules a workout into her workday. One of the many perks of working from home.

Wednesday: Same as yesterday during the day. After school/work we have some running around though: Addy and Maren have dance class, and Evelyn and Jackson go to a youth group at church. Rachel usually works out at the gym during these times and I either work out or climb at our home gym. Between the two of us we are normally able to juggle carpool duties for the kids and still get the things done that we want to for ourselves.

Thursday: Same as above during the day. This is also a day when, besides working, Rachel reserves some time for herself to run small errands. This often means little home projects, working on CDAide stuff (local charity she works with extensively), or helping out in the kids' classrooms.  After school, Evelyn has started having her band- "The Undetermined," come over for practices since we have a plug-and-play audio set-up. When I get home from work, Maren and I are off to do "Schooltastic." This is an hour we have reserved every week to go out to dessert together while talking about "school skills," even though we never actually call it that. When we get home we have dinner and a pretty relaxing evening before kids are off to bed. Also, though not a scheduled thing, this is a day that Rachel and I will very often find ourselves leaving after the kids are down (oh the joys of having kids who can babysit) for a quiet place with drinks, appetizers, and live music. It's a nice time to check in with each other mid-week and talk weekend plans.

Friday: School, work, and work, just like before. There are no after-school obligations on this day, but the weekend often starts as soon as I walk in the door around 5:00. If you follow this blog, you know that we are not averse to a little driving, and that will usually be a Friday thing. If we are staying closer to home then we are laying out climbing equipment or ski gear or something for the next morning. It is rare that we don't have any weekend plans. I also like to get a little workout in at the home gym either on Thursday or Friday- usually depending on what our calendar looks like for the week. Rachel also tries to find at least one day a week for an after school dessert date with one of the kids also.

Saturday: This is the most variable day of the week. If we are home, I will usually go to the gym early and get back for breakfast with the family. That is a big "if" though. I'd say that roughly half of the time (maybe more) we are away- camping, climbing, skiing, visiting friends/family, or doing some other sort of travel. In that case, the day is dictated by events. Also, I try really hard to have at least two hours per week of really pushing myself hard with rock climbing, and I am usually able to fit that in on Saturdays if it hasn't happened yet. For this last weekend, some of us had our best local ski day of the year. The snow was amazing! Since it was just a local thing, we didn't make everyone go if they didn't want to, and those who stayed had a relaxing time at home.

Alright- that's it. Our current "normal." As I read through this, it seems pleasantly full, but not stressful. We are able to eat dinner as a family almost every night, and we are nearly always able to settle down the kids and read books together before going to bed (I usually read out loud while they color or something). Rachel and I typically get two or more dates outside of the house every week, and several more hours together in the evenings after kids are down. We also have a nice morning/breakfast routine that we do together at home before going off to our daily activities. It's comfortable.

Here are a couple of pictures:

This picture, which is obviously not edited in any way, shows how much fun the three of us had skiing together on Saturday. We stayed in a group the whole time and took turns choosing runs. 

Rachel and I went out to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Spokane Broadway series. Hooray for theater finally returning to Washington!

Have a good week!

What a weekend we have had! Crazy roads, lots of family, difficult goodbyes, and some AMAZING skiing were all packed into the last few days. Here's how it went:

Wednesday: Worked half day- got a nice early start and clear weather all the way down to my parent's house in Rexburg. Arrived in time for some evening conversation. They are leaving in a couple of weeks for Germany (LDS mission) and we probably won't see them again for about a year-and-a-half, so we wanted to maximize the time we had together.

Thursday: Woke up early(ish) and, after a quick breakfast, got on the road headed for Grand Targhee ski resort. Conditions looked pretty yucky, but we were determined. That is, until we saw a gate across the road with a cop guarding it. Road Closed. Ugh.

Making the best of things, we turned around and played a little closer to home. The morning was spent at the local climbing gym, and the afternoon was full of tow-sledding (screaming around icy neighborhood streets at 40mph with kids in a sled tied to the back of the car). Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, Rachel and I were both blissfully unaware of this last part until after the fact. No worries- the kids loved it and nobody broke anything, so it was all good. The movies they took were terrifying though!

Addy really likes finding a climb that is hard enough to become a "day project" for her. It usually takes her several tries to figure out the moves and do it cleanly. She often gets frustrated and cries when she makes mistakes- which makes it that much sweeter when she finally sends. I have to say, I really love the conversations her and I have during these moments. I guess I am part coach/part cheerleader to her, but it feels to me like I am able to step away from the "dad" role for a while and just offer support as a friend. It's good.

Left: Just getting started. Right: at full speed. Look carefully- there is a kid behind all that snow that is probably having the adrenaline rush of their lives.

Friday: Woke up early again for a second try at Grand Targhee. We got to the same place as before and the road was still closed, but we were not so easily deterred today. We decided to take a long detour up and around the closure, only to find that after 45 minutes of driving, that road was closed too. There were no cops around though, so we drove around the barricade and soldiered on. Sure, the drifts were high and it was impossible to differentiate between "road" and "potato field," but our front wheel drive minivan has always been up to the task- after all, we had come to ski! After a tense 30 minutes things cleared up a little and we were finally able to make it to the resort.

I have to say, personally, I think it was worth it. I have never skied such amazingly deep and dry powder in my life. Knee-to-waist deep, and light as air, I floated down a number of runs feeling halfway like I was actually flying. 

Unfortunately, not everyone shared in my ecstasy. It could have been the sub-zero degree temperatures. Or maybe it was the 35 mph wind and heavily falling snow creating whiteout conditions. Okay, let's face it- it was a blizzard by any definition. But still, all that new snow and cold weather made for some pretty awesome skiing. Rachel and Addy were game, and we got a few runs in together before meeting up with the other kids who were huddled together in the car with the heater on full blast. Calling it a day, we made the slow drive back home in mostly-good spirits.

This is the only picture we took that day while we were at the lodge. This was taken right before Addy, Rachel, and I headed back up the mountain and the others retreated to the warmth of the car.

That night, my brother and his wife surprised everybody by showing up and spending New-Year's eve with us. We had great food and fun games. I think it was the first time all the kids stayed up until midnight. Playing Bingo for money was probably their favorite part of the whole trip, and the adults enjoyed each other's company into the early hours. What a day!

Saturday: Rest day. After the previous day's adventures and nighttime festivities, most people took it pretty easy. Board games. Legos. Movie theatres. I think a little sledding. I went back to the climbing gym and, instead of belaying kids most of the time, climbed for myself and sent the entire gym in one two-hour session. That was kind-of fun. This was a good day for everyone, but nothing super specific stands out.

Jackson spent most of the day building a Lego city

Sunday: Another early start saw us on the road to Jackson Hole. Unlike previous days, the weather was absolutely perfect. We got to the resort and...well...there aren't many words to describe the day. "Amazing" would be an understatement. I am pretty certain that most people in our family would say this ranked as one of the best days of their lives. Certainly, it was the best ski day we have ever had as a family. The premium resort had something for everyone- steep chutes and big faces for me and Jack, long groomers for Rachel and most of the kids, multiple terrain parks, short lift lines, and plenty of space to explore. Everyone skied continuously until the lifts closed, with just one 30 minute break where we all came together for a quick lunch. The weather was perfect. Nobody got cold. No issues with gear. Basically, it was everything you could ask for in a ski day, and then some. The only regret was that we couldn't stay longer- but I can already see an extended family vacation in the making.

I spent most of the day with Jack. He is a good skier and doesn't shy away from a challenge.

Rachel and I got a little time together also

Can I just say that we have some really cool kids? I am so glad we can all have awesome days like this together.

Monday: A casual breakfast that went by too quickly was followed by a clean-up of the house and loading of the car. After such a great trip we were soon to be on the road back to real life. First, however, we had to say our goodbyes. Everyone loves visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and their absence will be felt over the next 18 months. We are all excited to hear about their experiences in Germany and throughout Europe- but we will also be excited when they get home and we are able to sit around the kitchen table again all together while we laugh and eat and play games and tell stories. It was a great weekend.

Have a good week!