The Hazard Chronicles

Hey everyone,

So, I've been SUPER busy lately. I feel like I'm keeping about ten balls in the air at the same time, and some things had to give, and I made the conscious decision to step away a little from the blog. Thing is, I look up every day at our bookshelf that has our past yearbooks all printed out, and a part of me just can't let that go. It's too important. So Rachel is going to help, and some of the kids will help, and I might poke in from time to time. Things will probably resume their normal cadence again sometime in September.

As far as exactly what the "busy" has been, I'll save for a different post. It's kind of a lot of things all at once- good things, but things that deserve more space. For now, I want to focus on our last few weeks, because we've been out enjoying a beautiful North Idaho Summer.

Let's start with last Saturday. Rach and I woke up well before the sun and made a quick breakfast of coffee and oatmeal. We then grabbed some stuff out of the car where we had been sleeping and started up the trail. A few hours later, we were roped up and climbing the beautiful granite of Chimney Rock.

Oh, granite, how I love you! Climbers will get this, but the rest of you are just going to have to bear with me. Climbing on granite- especially in the alpine- requires almost an emotional connection with the rock. To start with, there is the movement- big movements requiring the full body. None of this little grab-and-pull nonsense. No- we're gonna push and pull and squeeze and hug our full body around and then delicately tiptoe into the next bit. It's full-on vertical yoga. And then there is the commitment. Much of granite is featureless, with nothing really to stand on or pull up on. It's more an execution of position- of leaning all of your body weight in one direction, while pushing the other half a different way. It can be scary at times, because it requires total confidence in the rock in order to work. If you hesitate or try and hold something back, then you quickly find yourself some air time. But if you give it everything then it accepts your offering and gives back to you tenfold in the form of security and an amazing experience above the ground. It's an exercise in trust that feels, at times, like the rock itself has a personality. I. Love. Granite.

After the climb we hiked back to the car and made our way to a brewery in Sandpoint in time for lunch. It was a great little overnighter with Rach and we held a continuous conversation throughout the entire time.  What a climb- what a day!

Next, I'll talk about the river trip we did the weekend before. We did this one as a family and I have to say that spending three days on the river with no internet or cell coverage was extremely refreshing. With the exception of one class II rapid in the beginning (which was actually pretty intense in a canoe filled with gear) the river was calm, the weather was perfect, and the vibes were chill. We camped along the shoreline and saw lots of wildlife and for the most part all cooperated well in just spending time together. As our family grows up and people get busier these "together times" become more precious, and this trip was just really good for that.

There is a bunch of other stuff that we could put on here. Maren went to NYC and Washington DC and hopefully she'll get on here are write about that. Sometime soon I'll update my own crazy situation when I get some time. Lindsey had a birthday and Rach brought her and some friends up to the Wallace house for a sleepover and I think they had fun. I'm sure there is other stuff as well. Hopefully we're able to record some of this stuff before it goes down the memory hole.

For now though...


Have a good week!