The Hazard Chronicles

2012-01-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I suppose I ought to begin this post with a short apology for not posting last week. I'm sorry. Our kids were a little sick and I was a little tired and, well, I guess the motivation just wasn't there.

But that does NOT mean that it was a slow week. Not by a far shot. Actually, Rachel and I have both been really, really busy lately.

Let's start with Rachel. First of all, and most excitingly (is that even a word?), she got a job! She has been looking around ever since we moved here for an opportunity to get out and put her interpreting skills to work. Finally, she found the perfect place. North Idaho College has hired her to interpret a couple of classes one day a week that a deaf girl is taking. It's the perfect situation for Rachel. She gets to work regularly, but not too much. The timing is predictable so she can find babysitters well in advance. And the pay is good enough to justify paying for a babysitter (though only barely). It is a great set-up for her and I am happy for her. I seriously don't know how she has been maintaining her sanity with nothing really going on in her life except for kids. Sometimes, I think she wonders the same thing. Now, finally, she has a chance to get out once a week and persue something that is exclusively "hers." I think that is important, and I am very proud of her for doing this. I think I'll start calling her "Super Wife."

As for me, as I explained in the last post, I have started my new job. I love it! I have a lot to learn from this place and I think that when I leave (whenever that may be) I will be extremely well equiped to run the kind of office I see myself having. First of all, the business organization of this place is absolutely amazing. This guy (Dr. Loftus) has put a lot of time and money into finding the BEST ways to run a dental office, and the systems he has in place are all so impecably implemented so as to pretty much assure that the business succeeds. Second, the possibilities for growth as a clinician are virtually unlimited at this new job. We are set up to do anything, from the most routine to the most advanced stuff that dentistry has to offer. We have the technology and the training to do some really cool stuff. Dr. Loftus refers out very, very little, and I get to watch him do a lot of this kind of thing. Also, with his mentorship, and the study club that I now get to be a part of (more on that later), I am getting to the point where I don't have to refer very much either. From complicated extractions and root canals to surgical implant placement, bone grafting, and sinus procedures, I am able to pretty much do it all. I love my job!

And then there is the study club. We meet once every two months, and it is a whole weekend affair. I attended my first meeting last Friday and Saturday. The first day is pretty much all just super educational, with cases being shown and talked about, and lectures given by different members. There is also a live demo surgery that we watch and then discuss as a group. The second day is surgery day. This is where I can schedule a patient to come in (at greatly discounted prices to them) and push my limits by doing some of the coolest surgical procedures that there are, all under the careful tutalage and mentorship of over twenty other doctors who have devoted their lives to this kind of dentistry. This study club is limited to twenty members and draws people from all over the Northwest. Once you are in, you are in for life, so it's a pretty exclusive club and hard to get into. Well- I'm in. Like I said, I love this job!

Anyway, now that I have shown my true colors as a through-and-through dental NERD, I suppose I ought to talk about something else that is a little more...cool.

How about FIRE. That's cool.

There's not really tons to say here. We started a new Hazard family tradition. Every January we will now have the annual burn-the-Christmas-tree-day. First we let the tree sit in the garage until it is good and dry. Then we watch it go up in a blaze of glory!

The kids liked this. I did too.

Well, that's about it for us. Everyone's doing well. Rachel has a very large belly, but still gets around alright. Addy learned how to climb out of her crib last night. Jackson is the only one of our kids who understands the mechanics behind throwing a ball. Evelyn lives in a fantasy world full of monsters, princesses, ice skaters, and Clifford, the big red dog. I have not run more than a mile in the past 4 months and I am starting to feel out of shape. Life is good.

Here we are watching the fire burn down. The big blaze-o-glory part is done already. We didn't have the camera for that part. Sorry- I guess you just had to be there to appreciate it.

Evelyn and Jackson found some rather large sticks and decided that they were bad guys who needed to skewer the pregnant mama. It was funny watching Rachel try to run from them while they chased her around the yard. :)

2012-01-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are on New Year's Day. A lot has happened in the last year. Here's a quick run-down:

January: Rachel got NIC certified- a HUGE step in her professional growth.
February: Evelyn turned three. I studied all month and then took the written board exam to get my license.
March: I took my clinical board exam. I flew to Idaho to interview for jobs. My mom found out that she had cancer, went in for surgery, and beat it.
April: I was hired for my first real job as a real dentist- although I still won't start for a few months. We begin to pack up our house for the move.
May: I graduated from dental school- a HUGE step in my professional growth. We moved to Idaho. We visited family in Utah. Rachel had her birthday.
June: We continued to visit family in Utah and in Idaho. We found out that Rachel is pregnant with our fourth child. We took a week-long vaction to Mexico.
July: We stopped visiting family and actually moved into our new rental home in Post Falls. I got my dental license and started my new job. We had a blast exploring our new surroundings in Northern Idaho and instantly fell in love with the place.
August: Continued exploration of our new stomping grounds. We purchased our first house (our dream home). I had my birthday. Family came up to visit us.
September: Addy and Jack turned two- Mom and Dad are terrified. We drove to Salt Lake to attend Shannon's wedding.
October: We spent time with family and friends in Utah. I placed my first implant (a dental thing). We had an awesome Halloween. I made a trip to Vegas to get more dental training and to visit extended family.
November: We finally moved into our new house. We spent most of the month trying to organize all of our "stuff." We had Rachel's family up for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with them. I also got a new job that I will start in January.
December: We went to visit my famly for Christmas and had a great time. I came home from this vacation and quit my job.

It's been a crazy year. Life is busy. Life is good.

Now, for those who read this blog regularly, the events of December may come as a total surprise- so, let's go back and fill in some of the details. First I'll describe our amazing Christmas vacation, and then I will elaborate on the job thing.

For Christmas, I worked a short day on Friday and as soon as I got home we threw the kids in the car and started driving to Rexburg. I nearly froze to death after realizing that, when driving in a car for seven hours in the middle of winter, it IS a big deal when the passenger side heater vents are stuck on A/C. I finally got smart and covered the vents with duct tape- but now our car looks a little trashy. At least I'm here to tell about it though.

Anyway, we had a great time with my family. Griffin and Ashland came up from Oklahoma for the hollidays and it was good to see them and their cute little girl, Zoey. Christmas morning was fun with the kids, who have reached the age where they can actually appreciate it. Also, on Christmas Eve, we had to teach Evelyn about Santa Claus. Somehow, in the middle of all the the chaos, and in our desperate attempts to focus on the religious aspects of the season, we forgot to tell her what the fat guy in the funny costume really does. She could, however, tell you every little detail of the Nativity story. I don't know whether I should feel proud about this or if I should feel like a failure. I'll opt for the former.

On the day after Christmas, most of us piled into the car and drove up to Harriman State Park. My mom and Allison graciously volunteered to stay at home with all the kids. It has been tradition every year to spend a day cross-country skiing at Harriman. This year we took tradition a step further though, and instead of just spending an afternoon, we actually rented a yurt and stayed the night. It was fun to ski into the cozy little hut, and then to use that as a home-base as we explored other areas. It was fun to stay up late (at least it seemed late) playing cards and talking with family in such an intimate and fun setting. It was a fun trip, and although it didn't last long, I think that the memories will trancend the tests of time. That was me, trying to wax poetic. But it's also true.

Okay, now for an explanation of the job thing. First, let's go back a few months. If you have been paying attention to this blog, then you will have noticed every once in a while that I will make a reference to my job. Here are these references, compiled in chronological order, for your viewing pleasure:

July 10: "Actually, I don't think things could get any better. Things are perfect. Perfect job, perfect house, perfect location..."
July 17: "As good as things are, there are still some parts of my job that come with a bit of stress. Most of these come from my obvious youth and inexperiance in 'real world dentistry.' ... after a few weeks I will fit very nicely into the way the practice works."
July 31: "Some people have been asking me how things are going at work. And I have responded that I am learning a lot in a very short period of time."
August 28: "This week can be summed up in two words: FUN and STRESSFUL. As for that last word, we'll just pretend it's not there. We'll get to that some other time."
October 3: "On Monday I flew back to Post Falls so I could work during the week. That’s a whole other story that I won’t write about here."
November 24: " Work has been interesting...more on that later."

Seen all together, these references tell a story. Here, I will fill in the details of that story.

I realized pretty quickly after I started working that things weren't quite what I was expecting. Just to put the comments in context- my official start date for my job was July 13th. It became apparant very quickly that this office practiced dentistry a lot differently than the way I had been taught in dental school. At first this didn't really bother me too much, as I was expecting it to be that way. After all, dentistry is a business and the doctors have to turn a profit in order to stay open. But the more I learned about the practice I was working in, and the more I spoke with other doctors, the more convinced I became, to my utmost relief, that I didn't have to be operating under these philosophies to make money.

Basically, I reached a point relatively early on where I knew that I didn't fit into the practice. Without being too negative, lets just say that I felt like the ethics of the practice, and of the owner in particular, were in need of some serious reform. Also, I question the legality of some of the things that went on, and I was guinely concerned that if the practice ever came under scrutiny that I would be implicated. That, obviously, would be less than ideal for my future plans.

Add to that the fact that I am pretty firm in my own beliefs and ethics, and I drew a disheartening conclusion. If I didn't find another job then the result of my continued employment could only mean one of three things: I would either be forced to compromise my own standards, work would continue to become more and more stressful as the tenuous relationship between myself and the practice owner ate away at itself, thus overshadowing the joy I found in the actual dentistry part of my job, or they would be forced to fire me. I didn't like any of these outcomes, so I started looking for another place in the area where I could work.

I had several opportunities- but none of them seemed right for me. See, for the most part I still loved my job. I loved interacting with my patients and I really loved doing the dentistry. I could truly say that I enjoyed going to work everyday, especially knowing that I was not in a permanent situation with the office policies. So I didn't feel like I had to take the first thing that came along. I looked at some other employment possibilities, and I even considered buying a practice for myself. In the end though, nothing seemed to be right. And that was fine. There is a lot of truth in the saying that the best time to look for a job is while you've already got one. I could afford to be patient. And then I saw the ad for an office in Coeur d'Alene that was looking for a new associate and I gave them a call.

This practice was amazing. The owner is one of the best dentists in the state of Idaho (as least if you are going by credentials) and his practice shows it. They have all the latest technologies and are doing all the coolest stuff. Somehow, I'm guessing through a long process of hard work, trial and error, quality education, and pure luck, this practiced had figured out how to thrive doing dentistry exactly the way I could see myself doing it 5-10 years down the road. They had it all together, and it just "worked." And so I said "yes."

I am excited to work at this new place. I am excited to see what it is about their practice model that works so well. I am excited to push myself clinically to do more advanced procedures. I am excited about the mentoring that I will receive, and I am anticipating that I will learn a lot here that will have a very positive influence on my entire career. I am excited for the interaction I will have with other doctors who are at the top of their field, and to draw from their years of experiance in building myself into the best doctor I can be. I am excited for the emphasis on quality dentistry and predictable, well thought-out treatment planning. I am excited for where this new job might take me.

So on the last day of the year that we were open (Friday), I walked into work and told them I was leaving. It seems fitting, to have this happen at the end of the year- like it's all tied up in a nice little package or something (it also makes it easier for tax purposes). Next year marks the start of a new adventure (with my job, at least), and while I am a little bit anxious, I am mostly just looking forward for what new opportunities might come my way because of this move. Tomorrow is my first day at this new job. Wish me luck!

Here are a bunch of pictures of our Christmas Vacation.

Sledding:

Yoga:

Christmas Morning:

Skiing:

Yurting:

Happy New Year Everyone!

2011-12-20T21:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I just checked the mail and we got a bunch of Christmas letters from friends and family and it made us think that we should probably do one as well. Since we waited so long, however, we are just going to put it up on our blog instead of mailing it to each person individually. Yes, it’s lazy. Yes, it’s cheap.

And yes, it’s very, very efficient (We’re being “green” this year and saving paper. If you feel so inclined, I would encourage you to print out our picture and hang it on your refrigerator for all of your friends to see.)

So, without any further ado, here’s our year in a nutshell:

I worked really, really hard and took a bunch of high-stakes exams, jumped through a lot of bureaucratic hoops, graduated from dental school, and got my dental license. Meanwhile, Rachel was busy being social and stuff, while at the same time raising our three wonderful kids and getting NIC certified (a crazy hard national ASL interpreting certification test). We moved from Cleveland, which was a bittersweet event in our lives, and hung out with family for a couple of months before I started working. During this time we went to Mexico and considered throwing the whole “dental” idea out the window and just living our lives out on the beach in a foreign country. Also, around this time we found out that Rachel is expecting our fourth child- a girl- who is due on February 16th. We’re pretty sure that her name will be Maren.

In June, we moved to Coeur d’Alene, ID (actually Post Falls) where we lived for a stint in a smallish duplex next to a truck stop. That was…noisy, but also a lot of fun as we discovered what a wonderful corner of the country we had moved to- I think that God designed this place with us in mind. Also, I started my job and can honestly say that I love going to work every day. Yes, I am a total dental nerd. After living in our yard-less rental for about three months we finally found and purchased the house of our dreams where we hope to be living for the next several years.

3-year-old Evelyn is finally starting to adjust to her new surroundings even though we’ve been living here for half of the year. The move was actually a little hard on her, and she still asks from time to time when we are going to see her Cleveland friends again. She is involved in pre-school though and is making a lot of new friends. One thing she has definitely caught hold of is the fact that we live in a great place for outdoor recreation, and has taken a strong interest in camping, hiking, swimming, rock climbing, and “campfireing.” She is definitely a daddy’s girl (and I am writing this letter, so I can say things like that).

Adalie and Jackson are two-year-olds in every sense of the word. Cute, lovable, noisy, and curious, they have definitely “taught” us how to baby-proof a house. Nonetheless, they love having the space to run around that our new home offers, as well as the large backyard and swing-set. They are both growing up faster than we are able to keep up with, and it is fun to watch them as they grow into real people. Jackson has a very sweet personality and loves to give hugs, whereas Adalie is spunky and defiant and loves to wrestle. We love both of them.

Well, that pretty much sums it up. For those who are interested in knowing more about our very exciting lives, check out loganandrachel.blogspot.com where a certain person who happens to be a very good writer, father, and husband, shares his thoughts and stories on a weekly basis about family life.

In closing, we wish you all a Happy Christmas. We are so thankful for all of our friends and family who have shared their lives with us, and we pray that 2012 will be a great year for everyone.

God bless,
-Logan, Rachel, Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson

Here is the promised family picture for your printing pleasure.

Illustrated by Evelyn Hazard

2011-12-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we went and got a Christmas tree and decorated it. The next day when I came home from work, Rachel suggested that we put the tree on our front porch, or the roof, or the garage, or anywhere that was out of reach of the kids. Thankfully they have started to do better with the tree and we are all getting excited for Christmas. Rachel's been going crazy with her sewing machine for all of the presents she is making.

So, this week Rachel has had some exciting developments. She is starting to get back into the interpreting world! She met a lot of people around the area who are interpreters, she went to an interpreter's gathering/workshop, she had two community jobs, and she may be starting up more regular work at North Idaho Collage in the pretty near future (but not until after the baby comes, so not too near.) Anyway, I am excited for her. She is a wonderful mom and wife, but she is also so good at so many other things that I am glad she is able to take some time for her own personal and professional development too.

Anyway, it's going to be a quick post today because Evelyn is waiting for me to make peach cobbler with her and we want to finnish before Addy and Jack wake up from their naps. Here's some pictures.

Pajama Party!

I got in on the action too even though I wasn't wearing my PJ's.

This is pretty typical of Addy this week. She is crazy. She is overly dramatic. She cries a lot.
Oh wait- she's a girl!

Real Life

2011-12-11T20:29:00.001-08:00

Well, this week has been awesome but unfortunately I can't write too much about it. Don't worry- it will all come to light in due time. Until then, just be patient and know that life is good. And no, we are not having twins again. That would not be awesome. That would be frightening.

So, besides the awesome part, we also did some fun things. We had our ward Christmas party. We (Rachel and I) went to the temple. We had some friends over to our house for dinner. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary- but just an overall good week.

Since it was a pretty normal week, I want to pull out my soapbox for a little while and write about something that has been bothering me lately (I warned you last week that this was coming). So, what is the thing? Guys. Not all of them, but there is definitely a certain minority that is giving the rest of us a bad name.

Sometimes, I want to walk up to a guy and punch him in the face just to get his attention (and I'm really not a violent person), and then tell him to join the rest of humanity in a little game called "real life." And no- the Xbox is not real life. In fact, nothing with a screen qualifies as "real life" material- not the TV, not the smart phone, and definitely not the computer. Also, real life is not to be found in a book or in a magazine. And it shouldn't be exclusively in the workplace, although it does come into play a little bit.

See, I have noticed that so many people (most, but not all of them, guys), seem to have totally lost connection with reality. Here's a news-flash for you guys- REALITY IS GOING TO HAPPEN- with, or without you. You can't choose not to play- that's not an option. But by pretending that it is, all you are doing is allowing yourself to lose at the game. And that might be okay with you, and that's all fine and good, but it's NOT okay for your wives and your kids.

You made the decision to take on the responsibilities of a family, so step into the game and start playing your hearts out for them. That's what a husband does. That's what a father does. Your families need you to be present- and that means taking an active role in their lives and not just being another piece of furniture that your wives have to clean around and that your kids have to watch out for. And it is sad that while they are sitting there begging for you to notice them, the fake little man on the screen gets more of your attention than they do. Really, it's disgusting. Stop doing it. It makes the rest of us look bad.

Okay, (deep breath). Now I'm going to step down, slide my soapbox back into the closet, and finish this post so I can have the rest of the night to spend time with my beautiful wife.

Have a good week!

Here's Evelyn giving a haircut to Jack. They both really liked this. A lot.

One of the many reasons that I love my backyard. Beautiful.

2011-12-04T15:18:00.001-08:00

Ok- it's been a busy week. We did a lot.

First things first though. I'm sure that the pending results of the gingerbread house contest have been weighing heavily on everyone's minds. Well, here's the bottom line. Team A won. The official count was 21 votes for "A" and only 15 for "B."

Now for the part you've really been waiting for: who was on which team?

Team A:

Team B:

As you can see, it was a guys vs. girls thing. And it shows. I think it is really intersting that, except in a few rare instances, guys voted for team B and girls voted for team A. I also think it is interesting to note that the audience for this blog is mostly female. I'm not trying to make excuses or anything- just stating a fact.

I also think it was interesting that Lindy, one of my dental assistants, said that she thought I was on team B. I asked her why. Her response: "It just looks like it was built by a doctor or an engineer or contractor or something." I kid you not. Those were her exact words. The irony? I, of course, am a doctor. Brandon was a contractor and is also a mechanical engineer. Wesley is going to med school. I think she had us pegged pretty well- but she didn't know any of that when she made the comment.

She is right though. It DOES look like it was made by more "analytical" minds. It was really interesting to listen to the two teams talking as we made the houses. It was something like this:

Team A: Oh- that is such a cute little boat, giggle, giggle. We need to put a person on it!
Team B: So, 39 minus 7 is...alright, and add 4 to that...okay, minus 3. Got it. So there we have the possible dimentions of the exterior walls.
Team A: twitter, twitter- what a funny little marshmallow man!
Team B: Now, structurally, what kind of candy would work well for the internal cross-bracing?
Team A: Oh, oh- I know- we should make a PALM TREE! That would be awesome!
Team B: ...and to reinforce the walls we can use Ritz crackers. Go get a ruler and a level so we can draw a structural footprint.

All said and done, I would say that both teams did a great job and that we had a lot of fun doing it. Thank you to everyone who voted, and thanks to Rachel's family for making our Thanksgiving such a good one.

On to the next subject. "Campfiring." This is Evelyn's word, and it has stuck in our family. On Tuesday night we used left-over graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows to make s'mores. Evelyn loves that we can do this in our back yard and she was very "helpful" in teaching Jackson how to effectively start things on fire using a flaming marshmallow. Addy was grumpy so we put her to bed. She will have to campfire with us a different night.

Also, this week, not to be outdone by the grown-ups, the kids made their own gingerbread houses. Well, technically I made the structures, cheating just a little bit with a hot-glue gun for the sake of time, and the kids decorated them. They all won awards too: To Jackson goes the best decorator award. Evelyn earns the "tell-everybody-else-what-to-do-but-don't-do-much-yourself" award, and Addy gets the award for eating the most candy without allowing it to come anywhere near her gingerbread house. It was a fun activity.

We also made some upgrades to our house this week. The biggest one is that we now actually have some furniture in our family room! WooHoo! Rachel has been searching diligently on Craigslist for couches ever since we moved here, and finally she hit the jackpot. Two matching microfiber couches in great condition, the color matching perfectly with everything else in the room while also being dark enough that you won't be able to notice little stains (not that we'd ever allow that to happen...), and the couches themselves being comfortable enough for me to easily fall asleep on either one of them- Final price: $50 for the set! I have to say, I sometimes make fun of Rachel for speinding so much time browsing the offerings on craigslist, but she did good on this one!

Well, this post has actually gotten pretty long. I was going to step onto my soapbox and rant for a little while about "Real Life," but I guess you'll be spared my personal opinions until a later day when we've had a slower week. Too bad.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy your week!

You'll notice small snowflakes in the first picture. The kids got cold after a while so we came to our other "campfire" in the house instead.

Even with the couches this room still feels massive. We need to get a pool table or something...one day.

Please- we need your help!

2011-11-27T14:46:00.001-08:00

I was hoping the title would get your attention. But it's true. We really do need your help. If nothing else, please go to the bottom and vote (in the form of a comment) on your favorite gingerbread house. Thanks.

What a great week it's been. I'll sort of tell you about it, and then show a bunch of pictures, and then ask a HUGE favor from you as a reader of this blog. First, however, scroll down and read the next post if you haven't seen it already. It is about buying a new car last week. It was pretty exciting.

This week, obviously, was Thanksgiving. This year we decided to extend the invitation for people to come up and visit us instead of us going to them. Family started arriving on Wednesday night, and they kept coming in waves up until yesterday. We actually postponed our big Thanksgiving celebration until Saturday night so that more people could be involved, which meant that on the night when most of the country was sitting down to turkey dinners we were eating pizza and watching a movie.

We did a few different things with family. Of course there was a lot of talking and stuff. On Friday we went to the big Coeur d'Alene Christmas celebration. That was cool- they had a parade followed by an awesome (like, best I've ever seen) fireworks show over the lake and a big lighting ceremony where they turned on all of the lights at the resort. It was a very festive atmosphere with a live band and the weather was pretty nice and it was just a bunch of people having a good time. I think this celebration is something we'll probably go to every year we live here.

Saturday was filled with cooking. There was, of course, the traditional dinner that we all pitched in to make. After dinner we had a dessert cook-off where we broke into teams to make our various different sweet treats. I am proud to say that the unanimous decision among everyone was that Shannon and I literally took the cake (pun intended, ha ha) with our copycat recipe of Chili's Paradise Pie. Oh man- that was good.

Finally, after all the kids were in bed, we had our first annual gingerbread house contest. We broke into two teams. We each had one night to make a gingerbread house. The judges, I am pleased to announce, will be you- my loyal readers. So go to the bottom of this page, look at the pictures, and cast your vote in the form of a comment, either here or on Facebook, for which house you like better. Do not be a fence sitter. I know you have an opinion and you will not hurt anyone's feelings.

Basically, it has been a lot of fun having everyone up here.

Here are the pictures. Don't forget to judge the houses!

The Food:

The Dessert Competition

(The Winners- Go Shannon and Me!)

The Kids:

(This is Evelyn being a superhero)

The Gingerbread Houses:

Team A:

This cozy bungalow is located on prime beachfront property where you can enjoy all of your favorite activities. From sunbathing on the sandy shores to entertaining in the outdoor gazebo, this place has it all! The front of the house is landscaped with lush tropical vegetation that is sure to provide a break from the long Idaho Winters. When you need a place for fun, this is it- but watch out for sharks!

Team B:

This sprawling mansion is sure to catch you fancy if you are looking for a place to settle down in luxury. Nestled in the mountains, you get seclusion and a great view from the upper levels. In addition, you can relax in the security that the house is built to be storm proof, earthquake proof, fire proof, wind proof, volcano proof, tsunami proof, bullet proof, and baby proof. There is nothing that is bringing this baby down!

2011-11-24T14:16:00.001-08:00

I am breaking tradition this week and doing a second blog post. Amazing, isn't it.

The reason I am doing this is that on Sunday I didn't really get a chance to tell about our week, which was actually quite eventful. First of all, my car died. I know, it's very sad. I loved that car. For those of you who don't know, it was a 1990 Honda Accord. The front speakers didn't work, it had no A/C, and the driver's side window was held together entirely with heavy-body dental impression material. The car was great.

But alas, it was not meant to last. We knew this from the beginning, but it was still a sad day when I was driving home from work and suddenly the transmission started making horrible clunking/grinding noises. I pulled off to the side of the road and put the car in park. That was the last time the car shifted gears. It is stuck. The transmission is a mangled mess of gears and twisted metal. The car is a gonner.

It served its purpose though. See, I refuse to have a monthly car payment. I just don't like it. So this car was purchased with the intent that it would get us through to a time when we were a little bit more financially stable and we could buy a better car with cash. In that, at least, it was successful. On Saturday I drove home a new/used Prizm. I like Prizms. I like that they are, by Toyota's own admission, Corollas with a lower price tag. I like looking at all the mechanical parts and seeing "Toyota" etched, printed, or engraved on everything there is.I like that they go forever, are economical, and are even a little bit fun to drive. I like my new car. I think- *hope* that we have a long history together.

There is a story about getting it though. Without going too much into detail, we found ourselves caught in the middle of a family feud where the son, who owned the car, was trying to sell at whatever price he could get. He was looking for quick cash. Apparantly he had just been released from prison and needed to pay for court fines, but his behavior was suspiciously similar to one who needed cash to buy more drugs. He was continuously strung-out on something because he was totally incapable of forming full sentences. Also, he made it very clear to us that he wanted to be secretive about the transaction. He trusted nobody and did not want to let the car out of his sight.

On the other hand, you have loser-boy's father, a man who doesn't speak a word of English, but is excellent at communicating via hand gestures, facial expressions, and voice intonations that he doens't like you and thinks you should go jump off a cliff. Even though the title was not in his name, he was the person holding onto it and was intent on seeing a fair price offered for the vehicle. He also seemed to have trust issues and was not willing to let the car out of his sight.

Then there is us. We wanted the best price possible (obviously). We also wanted to take the car to a mechanic to have him confirm that everything was in good working order.

So we all caravaned over to the mechanic- Us (with all of our kids), Loser-boy, Grumpy old man, Loser-boy's girlfriend, and some young kid who acted as Gumpy's translator. Add the mechanic to the mix, who also had a colorful personality, and we were a sight to behold. There I am, insisting that an admittedly low-ball offer is more than fair. Loser-boy is saying "that sound's good- just show me the money." Grumpy is yelling and screaming like a maniac in a foreign language, and the mechanic is just sort of laughing and stiring the pot at every chance he gets. In the background you can hear our children wailing that they are hungry and cold as if we had just picked them up off the street on our way over.

Suffice it to say that in the end of it all we came out with a good car at a great price.

Well, that's pretty much all that I have to write. Work has been interesting...more on that later. For now you can be thankful (on this Thanksgiving Day) that I updated again and told you this story.

2011-11-20T16:15:00.001-08:00

This post is dedicated to my Dad. Today is his birthday and he deserves to have the best birthday ever. I could not have asked for a better father.

Instead of sending a card, Dad, I’ve been working on a little video. It’s for you. Watch it. Listen to the words- they are so true. As I grow older and begin raising my own family I rely more and more on the example you have set for what a father should be. As I do this, I start seeing myself doing a lot of the things that you did as a Dad. I truly “see my father in me,” and I couldn’t be happier about it. If I can be half the dad that you were then I will have very lucky kids.

Thanks for everything, Dad. You’re the best.

Love,
Logan

By the way- click HERE to see a tour our our house. Remember, it's about 20 min long.

2011-11-13T14:30:00.001-08:00

I’m sittinghere in our new house and looking out of our big back windows at the mountains.The weather is getting cool and there is snow on the peaks but it hasn’t quitehit us yet. This week has been a whirlwind of unpacking and organizing, andfinally I think we are about done with the move. I have to say, we love thisplace!

Just when wewere starting to relax and think that our work was done (2 days ago) wereceived a call on the phone. Would we speak in church this Sunday? I’ll tellyou what- we are totally reliant on technology in the Hazard home. Our internetstill isn’t connected (don’t even get me started) and preparing a talk withoutthe online resources was NOT the easiest thing I have ever done.

We finallyfinished everything, but then last night after we put the kids to bed Rachelrealized that somebody (I’m thinking Addy) got on the computer and deleted herentire talk. Two days of hard, internet-less work went down the drain. Rachelwas devastated. Church starts at 9:00am and she was to be the opening speaker.Not good.

So lastnight I spent driving around town trying to find somebody’s unsecured wirelessline so that I could rip off their internet. It was for a good cause, right? Ifinally ended up at McDonalds and got the stuff I needed before racing home toreport to Rachel. She worked hard, and finally finished last night aroundmidnight. We gave our talks today and all went well. Now we need to take naps.

Last nightwhile Rachel was re-writing her talk I took a part of it, and in order to staveoff the boredom of watching her think, I wrote a poem on a whim. I haven’t donethis since my grade-school days, but back then I was a very prolific writer andI have to say it was sort of fun. I like writing.

Anyway-Rachel wants me to post it, so bear with me. Feel free to skip this next partif you want.

My NamelessPoem That Was Written in the Middle of the Night When I Had Nothing To Do

-By Me

I don’tthink I can handle this

Highschool’s such a drag
Mygirlfriend won’t talk to me
I hate mymom and dad
No oneunderstands me
And I don’thave any friends
Surely whenI move away
I will behappy then.

Now I am incollege

And man,this stuff is hard!
I miss myeasy teenage years
When familywasn’t far
I wish I hadsomebody
With whom toshare my life
I know thatI’d be happy
If I onlyhad a wife.

I’m marriednow, I’ll tell you what

It’severything they say
Exceptnobody mentioned
All thebills I’d have to pay
The rent,the car, and don’t forget
The studentloans and gas
A job wouldbring such happiness
And then Icould relax.

Work, work, work- that’s all I do

My lifeseems all amis
Those daysof college suddenly
Seem easynext to this
My lifeseems unfulfilling now
I’m needingsomething more
I’d be happyif I had kids
We’rethinking three or four.

Crying,yelling, whining, screaming

It’s all Ihear all day
I know thatI’ll be happier
Whenchildren move away.

My kids aregone now, how I miss them

Hour afterhour
I can’t waittill I can visit them
As soon as Iretire.
Then my wifeand I will travel
We will liveout all our dreams
That surelyis the ticket
To happinessit seems.

Turns outwith all that travel

That itsurely took its toll
My bodycannot handle this
I don’t likefeeling old
So I keep onenduring
But I’m nothaving any fun
I’m gladthey say that happiness
Is in thelife to come.

Today I hadmy interview

With God-here’s what he said
“If youweren’t happy during life
You won’t beonce you’re dead”
Turns out Isort of blew it
Alwayslooking for tomorrow
Wish Ididn’t have so many “nows”
So filledwith grief and sorrow
So takeadvice from me, my friend
And chalk itup to learning
Forget thedestination
‘Cause thejoy is in the journey!

The end.

Anyway,that’s my poem. There really isn’t much more to write about this week. Ifinally got the garage cleaned out enough that we can put both cars in there.It is nice not having to scrape the windows in the morning before driving towork.

Oh- and forthose who are interested, be watching for a tour of our house (comming soon...hopefully. This has been so much trouble trying to get it on here. I hope you appreciate it!). It’s about twentyminutes long so make sure you have time to see the whole thing before you startit. Also, I made this on the day after we moved in so things are still kind-ofall over the place. Just know that we really are clean people!

…Most of thetime.

2011-11-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

This week has been super busy...and that is my excuse for not posting until now.

Let's start at the beginning. Monday was obviously Halloween night. We had already carved our pumpkins and made our decorations and the kids were excited about trick-or-treating. When I got home from work that evening our friend Katy and her daughter Ava were already at our house. We had a quick dinner and then everybody got dressed up in their costumes, we turned off our porch light, and we were on our way.

Boy, was this fun! Our kids are naturals when it comes to trick-or-treating. They ran from house to house and held up their pumpkin buckets and even said "thank you" at most of the houses that we visited. Jack got a little bit carried away at first and as soon as the person would open the door he would bolt into the house before anybody could hold him back. He soon caught on, however, that all he needs to do is hold the bucket and the candy will come to him.

After we were done collecting the candy we all went back to our house and enjoyed the spoils of the night. Then Addy and Jack went to bed while we had scones and hot chocolate. We let Evelyn stay up with Ava and pass out candy to the other kids in the neighborhood while the adults enjoyed good conversation and guitar music ;)

The next several days of the week were spent preparing for our big move. Packing, cleaning, organizing, and planning took up pretty much every bit of spare time that we had. In the meantime, I had an awesome week at work- just a little FYI.

Finally, on Friday night Rachel's mom flew into town and everything was ready.

Saturday was crazy. All morning I made trips back and forth from our little duplex to our new home. The goal was to get all of the breakable things moved in before we turned the Elders Quorum (a group of guys from the church) lose on the house. While I was taking trips, Wendy stayed at home with the kids and Rachel stayed at the new house organizing thing. I'd say we did pretty good because by noon she had the kitchen pretty much completed.

Around 1:00 the Elders started showing up. In short, we moved everything in two trips and got the stuff all put into the rooms where it belongs. There was only one casualty- a bottle of laundry cleaner spilled. That's it. Not too shabby. That same day I put the beds together and got the kid's rooms pretty much organized to they way they will be.

On Sunday we all went to church and met our new ward. We like them. We also did a lot of unpacking and organizing.

We are getting close to being done. Our house is looking a lot more like a home and we absolutely love it. Can I say that again? We absolutely LOVE it! The previous owners took very good care of things and made a lot of improvements. Specifically, I love our kitchen. I like cooking and this kitchen is like a cook's dream. The kids love having the space to run around (outdoors or indoors) and we love having the space for them to do it.

You know, it is amazing what space will do. That, along with some thoughtful organization and lots of child-proofing has made our home such an easy place for our family to be compared with any other home we have been in. Our kids can pretty much go anywhere or do anything without us ever having to keep a super careful watch on them. Even in the back yard, our huge windows allow us to look out and make sure they are fine and happy (which they always are) without having to actually go outdoors.

One of the other things that I am really excited about is the ability to do projects. Some people I have spoken with see this as a major downside to owning a home. I think, however, that since this home is already in really good shape, the projects we do will be fun instead of frustrating. Sure, there will be repairs to make along the way and things that don't go exactly according to plan, but by and large I think that the improvements we do will be focused more on making our home into something that is uniquely ours.

And after years of apartments and rental homes, we are finally in a place where we can just "be." No more moving. No more landlords. Just living. What more could we ask for?

Here we are about to leave the house.

Our kids are natural trick-or-treaters.

Reaping the benefits of their hard work.

My pumpkin. I know- I was boaring

Addy's pumpkin. She wanted circles.

Rachel's Skull pumpkin. At least one of us was creative this year.

Jack's pumpkin. He insisted on the off-center nose.

Evelyn's pumpkin- designed entirely by herself. I especially like the teeth- that was all her idea.

The "other" pumpkin.

The ghost wreath that Rachel made with the kids

Egg-carton spiders.

Evelyn's creation. She came and got me and asked me to take this picture. His name is Mr. Square-Head (it was more square before) and he has hair. That's all.

I made a 20 minute video-tour of our house for those who want to see it. We haven't yet gotten the internet at our new house though, so for now we are leaching off of a neighbor's unsecured wireless connection. The connection is sort of spotty though, so I haven't been able to upload this video. I'll post it sometime in the next couple of weeks.

2011-10-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

It was a good week- but before I go on about it I have to share an experiance that happened to me a couple of weeks ago that I didn't post here. Some Facebook users might already know about this so bear with me.

As most of you know, we recently purchased our first home. Among the many things we are excited for, the house has a large, fenced-in yard. Also, a couple of weeks ago we came across a killer deal on Craigslist for a $20 swing-set that was still in pretty good shape. The only thing was that we had to take it apart and move it ourselves. So I took the seats out of the van one afternoon, packed up my tools, and went to work. The disasembly went well, and I soon found myself driving home with the pieces all in the back of the car.

That's when I saw the first wasp. And then the next. And then the next. And then they started streaming out of the pipes of the taken-apart swingset. By the time I arrived home there were dozens of wasps in the car. When we took out the swing-set there were 50-100 more that came swarming out as we moved the pieces into our garage. It was pretty exciting.

So, that's my story.

Anyway, like I said, this week was good. A lot of our activities were focused on Haloween. Rachel has developed a super creative crafty streak and every day when I come home from work I see new creations around our home- Like the egg-carton spiders, or the toilet-paper ghost wreath. Also, we made sugar cookies and decorated them, went to 2 chili cook-offs, had a ward Haloween party, and carved pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

Here we are about to make cookies.

Here are the finished cookies. Yum!

This was the kid's favorite activity from the ward Halloween party- eating doughnuts off a string! Addy and Evelyn are wild crazy fairies. Jack is a dragon. The pumpkin next to Evelyn is her best friend, Ava.

Carving Pumpkins! Addy wasn't too into the mess of it all- She's our little sissy girl. Her favorite thing was taking the lid on and off. Jackson, on the other hand, had no problem diving right in. We shall call him the pumpkin butcher. He made enough mess on his own to account for everyone. I think they'll find pumpkin seeds in all of the little nooks and cranies of this house long after we are gone.

-Check out the blog next week to see how our pumpkins turned out.

2011-10-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make. Today I did something that was totally un-Sundayish. I almost died. And I am an idiot. Seriously. Here's the story:

Right now I am in Las Vegas- the city of sin. I came down for a dental course (LVI for you dental people). Now, a lot of people love Las Vegas for a lot of reasons. Mostly because Las Vegas is one of the very few cities in the world where there are so many different roads leading to Hell. The options seem endless here, and I guess some people are into that sort of thing. But I love Vegas for a completely different reason.

18 miles west of "The Strip" is Red Rock Canyon- one of the greatest rock climbing destinations in the country.

Of course I'm not down here to climb, and even if I were, it is Sunday so I wouldn't be climbing anyway. I had to go see it though. I just couldn't leave Vegas without spending at least a little bit of my time there. So after church I drove myself to a trailhead and started just walking around and enjoying the beauty of the place. And seriously, this place is super beautiful (but it's also very hot and desert-y so I'd never want to live here).

So I went to go for a quiet walk...And those who know me can probably already guess the rest of the story.

I can't just hike next to rocks without doing a little bit of bouldering. I just can't. I think it is literally impossible. And a little bouldering isn't breaking the Sabbath, right? So I started climbing a little bit.

That was mistake #1

It started out easily enough. After a while though the holds started dissapearing and it turned into a friction climb. My thought at this point was- "wow, this would be a great route if I had my climbing shoes and a rope, but I don't so I guess I'll go down now." And then I looked down to discover, to my surprise, that I was about 60 feet up. How did that happen? And then I looked up and I saw the top of the climb about 20 feet in front of me.

I made a judgement call. It would be easier, and more time efficient if I just went up and then walked off the back.

That was mistake #2

The next 20 feet were super hard. They were friction. I was wearing tennis shoes. It was a hot day and my hands were sweating and my legs were shaking. But finally I made it. Whew. I started walking off only to discover...

...There was no way to walk off. Also, there was a crowd gathered at the base of the rock taking pictures of me. Great. I was on a nice little platform of rock with nowhere to go. The only 2 options were to down-climb what I had just done, or to continue upwards (where I saw a definate walk-off area).

You don't down-climb friction. You just don't. It was about 40 feet to the top. The difficulty looked about the same as the stuff I had just done. So I sent up a prayer to heaven- "Lord, I'm sorry I am such an idiot. Please don't let me die today."

And I started climbing- (Don't hate me Rachel. It seemed like a logical thing to do at the time. And I'm still alive to tell about it, so it's okay, right?)

I have to say, I don't think I have ever climbed better. I was totally in "the zone." Nothing mattered except for the next move. Any fear I had seemed to dissapear and, I'm telling you, if I could always climb the way I did today then I would be famous. The moves seemed to just come- one after the other- smooth and measured. There have been very few times in my life that I have been this focused on ANYTHING. Really, it was sort of cool.

When I got to the top, the group of obese spectators all cheered and took more pictures. Seriously. But that's not fair. Not all of them were overweight. Some of them were Asian.

Anyway, when I came out of my little trance I nearly had a melt-down. All of my energy totally drained and I seriously wondered if I would have the strength to walk off. I later consulted with a climber who had a guidebook. The route I did ended up being a 2 pitch 5.9+ X. Friction. Tennis shoes. Yeah. Scary.

And here's my thought of the week. I had to tie this all in with church stuff so that I can justify the whole experiance. Isn't it interesting though, how Satan lures us along a little bit at a time until it becomes impossible to "down climb" our way out of our prediciment? And isn't it interesting that if we had just "stayed off the rock" to begin with then we would never be in that predicament in the first place? And isn't it great that our Heavenly Father, who knows that we will sometimes be idiots and get on the rock anyway even though we know better, has provided a way out for us in the form of the Atonement? Just some food for thought. Cool stuff.

So, that is my story about how I was dumb and irresponsible. Lesson learned.

Besides this, it has been a great week. The dental thing I went to was awesome. Rachel found cute Halloween costumes for all of our kids. We are moving into our new house next week. Life moves on...

Thankfully.

Here's a pictue of Red Rocks. I am still in Vegas and I don't have our camera. Rachel may (or may not) get on here later and put a few more pictures up after she calls me on the phone and tells me how angry she is with me and how stupid I am and how much she loves me...and stuff.

Until next week!

2011-10-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder what it is like eating breakfast at our house? Make a recording of a child saying "more syrup please" and have it repeat every 5 seconds. Now dump half of a carton of milk on the floor. Finally, spread a thin layer of syrup all over the kitchen table so that the entire surface resembles sticky fly paper. In case you haven't guessed yet, the entre is alway syrup. Sometimes we throw in sides such as pancakes, french toast, eggs, or waffles. And there you have it- breakfast at the Hazard's.

Last night we left the kids with a babysitter and we went to see Harry Potter at the discount theater. Also, we ate at Jack-in-the-box. I have three things to say about this date. First, it was great being out with my beautiful wife for some pleasant one-on-one time. We don't get that as much as we'd like. Second, the movie was pretty good, but for some reason it all seemed so new to me. I know I've read the book, but I guess I didn't remember ANYTHING from it. And third, I think I am addicted to Jack-in-the-Box. Seriously, this is the best restaruant ever. Sometimes I have daydreams about eating mini-churros.

Sidetrack- as I was writing this just now Addy made an impressive dive with perfect form from the couch and landed headfirst on the floor. Miraculously, she isn't crying too hard, but she does seem sort-of stunned. I am trying to supress laughter. -Un-Sidetrack.

We discovered a new place this week. It's called Huckleberry Hollow. It's at a local fitness club and it is open free to the public every afternoon. The best way I can describe Huckleberry Hollow is "Mcdonalds playland on steroids." Our kids love it. They played there for over an hour BY THEMSELVES, allowing Rachel and me to have an actual conversation (a rare event around here during the day).

Okay. I have a dilemma. I take Evelyn and Addy on "dates". That is sort of cute- you know the daddy-daughter date concept. But what do I call it when I take Jackson out for some one-on-one? A man date? (that feels weird to me). A guy's night? (even if it is during the day). A "father-son outing?" (that sounds dorky). I don't know. Anyway, we hung out this week- just him and me. I took him to Corban Park and let him explore. He loved the freedom and we chased squirrels, threw rocks in the river, and climbed on things. We also did some serious off-roading in our mini-van (but don't tell Rachel). He is my buddy and it was fun to be with him and get to know his cute little personality a little better. Also, more than any of my other kids, he seems to love, love, love being outdoors. I think we have a bright future together.

One more thing. Evelyn thinks she is the boss of the world and she throws a fit if her authority is not acknowledged and/or challenged. It drives me and Rachel crazy. She has been spending a lot of time in her room or being ignored this week.

Well, here are some pictures.

2011-10-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

Kids were crazy grumpy today. It was a long day. I'll leave it at that.

So...The biggest news this week is that we finally closed on our house! We are officially home owners. It's a pretty cool thing- especially when your house is so perfect. We won't move in for another month because the people who sold us the place are renting back from us for October. Actually, as I wrote that I realized that we are also officially "landlords" now that we have renters. Well, that won't last long, but it sounds cool though. When people ask what I do I can say "Well, you know...I'm a dentist but I also have some real-estate property that I manage for investment purposes..." It sounds very sophisticated don't you think? It makes me feel important. Oh- and don't worry. I would never actually say that out loud (I would only think it).

Also, yesterday we went to the Apple Festival. It is officially Autumn and, as always, I love it. As always, the slight chill in the air and the unique smells of the season seem to infuse me with energy and optimism. Autumn is totally MY season. For the apple festival we went to a farm and picked apples and purchased home-made kettle corn and rode on tractors and played on haystacks and stuff. When we got home we baked all sorts of Autumny goodies and we are now in the process of consuming these baked seasonal treats. And through it all we never once took our camera out to take a picture.

So...That's pretty much all I'm going to write this week. Like I said, it's been a long day. I need to relax.

Here are some pictures of Shannon's wedding and our time in Utah from a couple of weeks ago.

Shannon and Tyson- We are excited for you!

Evelyn- the most beautiful flower girl around (not that I'm biased or anything)

Rachel- the most beautiful bride's maid. No bias there...just fact.

The Sandcastle.
Park City

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

2011-10-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

Alright. Get ready for a crazy post that is all over the place. This has been a super busy week and I don’t really know where to start.

First, the schedule of events: As we wrote last week, we had driven down to Utah for Shannon’s wedding. I also went to a course where I learned to place dental implants. On Monday I flew back to Post Falls so I could work during the week. That’s a whole other story that I won’t write about here. Anyway, I worked all week and then flew back to Salt Lake just in time for Shannon and Tyson’s wedding. The next day we drove to Rexburg and hung out with my family for a while. We got back to Post Falls on Sunday (actually Monday morning) around 1:00am. I was up bright and early the next day to go to work.

So that's that.

Out of everything, the major event of the week, of course, was Shannon’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding at a gorgeous reception center in Salt Lake City (or somewhere around there). Evelyn was the flower girl and did a great job throwing handfuls of flower petals. The only thing is that when she ran out of petals she took off into the gardens and began picking off more to replenish her supply. I thought that was kind of funny. We took pictures and more pictures, and then we went to eat while Shannon and Tyson took even more pictures. The reception place provided babysitting during all of this and we fully took advantage of these services. Addy, Jackson, and Evelyn (after the actual ceremony) happily played and watched movies while we partied and danced and got reacquainted with family and friends who we hadn’t seen for a while. It was a good night.

After Shannon and Tyson left I was laying on the grass next to the giant fake waterfall with Evelyn and Jackson and looking at the stars. It was a nice quiet moment of reflection after an evening full of noise and activity.
Suddenly, Evelyn looked at me and said “Daddy?”
“Yes, Evelyn.”
“Daddy, this is a very beautiful place.”
“Yes it is, Evelyn.”
There was a small pause then where we just laid there. And then Evelyn turned to me again. “Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Jesus must love me a lot. He made this beautiful place for me.”
I hugged her tight and told her that Jesus did love her a lot and that I did too. I am so proud of my little girl. She is getting it. She is starting to recognize what a gift life can be and much beauty can be found in everything all around us. And now she is starting to remind us of these things. Sometimes being a dad can be so rewarding.

Alright, I’m going to move on to another topic now that has gotten under my skin. Evelyn’s dance class.

First, some background. Evelyn has been in a dance class since she was barely two years old and she LOVES it. So naturally, when we moved to Idaho we looked around for a little dance class to put her in. There are a few studios around here that do classes for kids, but they are super expensive and I think a little over-the-top for a 3 year old. Her other classes were with a bunch of her friends in a pretty laid back type of environment with her teacher being a member of our ward who had some background in dance. It was a perfect place for Evelyn to explore this new medium of expression. Ever since then, any time there is music she will search for a “stage” to stand on and will perform a surprisingly emotional impromptu dance for anyone who is willing to watch. She has no inhibitions and is one of those people who can express herself almost perfectly with just movement. Oh, and did I tell you she loves it? She totally wants to be a ballerina and at home she loves showing off her new moves to Addy and Jack. I think it is amazing (but that also might be because dance is a complete foreign language to me).

Well, we finally found a little 6-week long city-sponsored class (sort of like little-league, but for dance). It was relatively inexpensive, it was close, and since it was a city thing we thought it might be a little more relaxed and fun than an actual studio.

Well, we were wrong on two of those counts (It is close though).

The first red flag came during the first day of class. All the parents were dropping off their kids and getting paperwork filled out and stuff. While I was doing that stuff, I showed Evelyn the dance floor where the other kids were running around and explained to her that it was a stage. She immediately caught on and started into a dance. Suddenly the teacher turned around and explained that there was to be NO DANCING until she told them to. She didn’t want them to develop bad habits. Woah.The next event came when we saw Evelyn dancing barefoot. After the class we asked the teacher where her shoes had gone. She explained to us that she would not allow Evelyn to dance in her shoes because they did not allow her to point her toes in the proper ballet form. We pointed out to her that the class was made up of a bunch of 2-4 year olds, and for many of them this was their first experience in dance. NONE of them were pointing their toes in “proper form.” The teacher wouldn’t budge though. We needed to buy real ballet shoes.

So we grudgingly went to Wal-mart and bought her some shoes.

Yesterday, the teacher informed us that the shoes we had purchased were inadequate.They weren't made out of real leather. They still did not allow proper form. I felt like giving her a piece of my mind: “Look, lady- I get it. You graduated with a degree in dance and had great aspirations to be on Broadway, but now you find yourself in a small town in Northern Idaho teaching dance to 3 year olds. You are bitter and mean and you are taking it out by punishing my daughter. You don’t realize that she is crushed every time you make her take off her dance shoes, telling her that they aren’t good enough. You don’t realize that she goes home and tells us that she doesn’t like dancing anymore because of your insistence on proper ‘form’ and you constantly telling her that she is wrong. SHE IS THREE YEARS OLD! DON’T YOU GET THAT? This could be something really fun for her- and it should be- but instead you insist on using it as a personal stage for your own insecurities. Well, get this. The kids don’t like you. The parents don’t like you. This is not Broadway. These kids are not interested in ‘proper form’ right now. They just want to dance. Period.

It felt good to write that. But of course she will never read this blog, and I will never say that to her (unfortunately). Instead, we smiled and politely asked her what we needed to do to make it so that Evelyn could dance. And she told us. So finally, after spending a total of $80 on ‘proper’ attire which is totally not needed, our daughter is ready to learn how to dance. The only catch- she doesn’t want to any more.

Here’s a story for you. I wasn’t there for this one (thankfully), but here is what Rachel has told me.

Last week she was at a kid store with Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson. Rachel’s friend, Stephanie, also came with her two young children. At the store there was a little play area for children so they left the kids there while they looked around at clothes and stuff (don’t worry, it was a very small store). Well, when they were done looking, Rachel went back to get the kids. As she approached the play area she could smell dirty diapers and she started wondering who needed a change. And then she got there.

Addy had pooped, and then had taken off her diaper. The other kids saw finger paint. You get the picture

Yep. Everywhere.

Stephanie took the kids. Rachel took a package of baby wipes and went to work cleaning up and guarding the area from other mothers who wanted to let their kids play. 45 minutes later she had things mostly clean (as much as you can with baby wipes) and she left the store as the employees were applying Clorox Bleach to everything.

Alright. Next topic.

Yesterday we had a fun morning. First, we dropped off Addy and Jack at a babysitter’s house (who, we later found out has seven children and home-schools. Oops!). Next, Rachel, Evelyn, and I all drove to the doctor’s office where we got to see an ultrasound. Evelyn kept pointing at the screen and saying “Mommy, look. There is a baby. Maybe that is an eye (or arm, or whatever).” It was fun to let her take part in that. And at the very end, we got to find out what we are having.

Evelyn is very excited to announce that she will have a new baby SISTER!

Really, Evelyn is VERY excited about this. Jackson and I are rapidly being outnumbered in this family. As far as names go, we like Maren, so our “bubba” is now our little Maren. I couldn’t be happier.

Well, I better stop there. I could write more but I’ll let it wait until next week. For now, time marches on (or in our case, races on) and we are just trying to keep up with it. Life is exciting.

Oh- also, our camera is still somewhere in the car that we have yet to clean out. Consequentially, we have no pictures this week. Sorry!

2011-09-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

This week was an adventure.

Actually, I should rephrase that. This weekend was an adventure.

It all started on Thursday afternoon. When I got home from work the kids were already buckled in their car-seats. I ran into the house and changed my clothes and then ran out. And we were on the road, just like that. I have to say, it was a get-away in record time for us. We then drove for the next seven hours until we got to Grandma and Grandpa Hazard's house (my parents).

Our ultimate destination was Salt Lake city for Shannon's (Rachel's Sister's) wedding. The event takes place next weekend, but Rachel will spend the week here in Salt Lake. I will fly back to our house to work next week, and then catch a return flight to Salt Lake to make it in time for the wedding. Anyway, my parents are in Rexburg, Idaho and on this trip their house made for a very convenient stepping stone on our way down to Utah.

We got to Rexburg at about 1:00 in the morning. Our kids had done pretty well sleeping on the drive and we thought it would be easy to just put them in the beds that my mom had ready for them and hit the sack. Well, that was a great plan. Sometimes, however, even the best laid plans can go wrong.

It wasn't long after we had gone to bed that we started hearing noises from the kid's room. Rachel went out to investigate. As it turns out, Adalie and Jackson both chose this night to debut their new talent of climbing out of their cribs. Now I have a theory that they have been able to do this for a long time, but that they were waiting for the most opportune moment to let us in on their secret. 1:00 in the morning, a long drive, a new house, and a planned early-morning departure seemed to fit their criteria of "opportune moment."

Rachel fought them hard and she fought them well, but together they presented too great a force. Every time she put one kid back in bed, he/she would climb out while she was chasing the other. She even tried laying siege to the bedroom by sleeping by the door- the theory was to allow them to be up as long as they stayed in their room and eventually they would tire out and have to go to sleep. Their response to this, however, was to start taking stuff out of drawers, exploring the attached storage room, and trying to break anything that seemed vulnerable to small hands and a determined mind. It was no use. They had us trapped. What could we do?

I have to make a confession here. For an hour Rachel waged this war alone while I pretended to be asleep. My justification was that Rachel got to sleep in the car on the way down, and I was going to drive in the morning, so this was obviously her responsibility. Well, at the end of that first hour she came in the room in tears and asked if I could help. Neither of us really knew what to do, but she figured that the two of us should be able to come up with something.

And then I had a vision that was probably induced either by sheer desperation or by sleep deprivation- or both. In my mind's eye I saw a very clear diagram from my youth. It looked something like this:

As a kid I had caught many birds and squirrels with such a contraption. The concept is that you put bait under the box and then pull the string from a hiding place when the unsuspecting animal is distracted.

With this picture in mind I turned Jackson's crib upside-down. Then I went and found Jackson and stole his stuffed dog from him. And then I ran. He chased me. I threw the dog under the crib, and when he dove in after it I closed it down and put a large stuffed animal on top to make sure he was trapped. It took a while for him to realize what had happened, but when he did he was NOT a happy camper. Just know that there was much yelling and screaming and gnashing of teeth. But in the end he was caught. No matter how hard he tried he could not get out. I had out-smarted a two-year-old. Yeah baby!

We did the same thing with Addie and then left them there while we went to bed. They cried for a while, but finally settled down and went to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep it read 4:05.

I woke up at 6:00. It's just what my body does. Usually I consider this a blessing. Not today.

That morning we drove the rest of the way to Salt Lake. As soon as we arrived I ran in the house, changed my clothes, and got back in the car to drive up to Heber City. I am getting good at making quick get-aways.

In Heber I attended a fantastic dental course spanning Friday-Saturday in which I got to surgically place my first implant. Since most of the people who read this blog aren't dentists I won't bother you with details, but just know that it was a big deal for me. I am pretty sure that Implant dentistry will be a defining aspect of my career and this was a huge step in that direction. I am stoked.

After I finished the course I got back and hung out with friends and family who were also down for Shannon's wedding. It has been a while since I saw some of these people and it was fun to catch up with them. It has been a great weekend.

Tomorrow I fly back to Spokane. Rachel stays here. Next week is Shannon's wedding. We close on our new home the week after that. Life is moving forward at breakneck speed and it couldn't be any better!

2011-09-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

This week in church we made it all the way through Sacrament meeting without ever having to leave the room. Now, I haven't been keeping track so I could be wrong here, but I am pretty sure that is the first time that ever happened since Addy and Jack were born.

This week was one of those weeks that was just good but not necessarily spectacular. We didn't do anything super special. We didn't have any scary experiences. We just lived life and watched the time go by. It's nice to have a week like that every once in a while. If I ever have more than a few of them in a row, however, I start getting bored.

Well, Rachel doesn't want me to write about the topic I have chosen for today. See, for the past four years we have crafted the blog to depict an elaborate illusion that our family is perfect. Well, I am about to ruin all of that. Right now I am super frustrated at our 3-year-old. And I think that is okay. I am a good dad who loves his children very much (see last week's blog), but who also gets very very annoyed at times by their behavior.

Evelyn- do you ever stop talking? Ever? Seriously, you will talk and talk and talk. And that is totally fine EXCEPT for the fact that you expect us to listen to you all the time. I simply can't do that. It is impossible. Believe it or not I have other things to do in my life besides listening to you and I cannot give you 100% of my time 100% of the time. And when those times come when it isn't your turn to talk it is NOT ACCEPTABLE to sit at the top of the stairs bawling, or in the back seat of the car screaming, or tugging on my hand whining and causing a scene.

But how do I teach you this? I have tried ignoring you thinking that you would learn not to get your way by crying. But you don't learn. You will literally cry for hours at a time. I know this because I have let you cry that long. You aren't "getting it." But the problem is that you won't just go away and do this in your room. Oh no. You follow me around the house forcing me to listen to every agonizing scream and whine until I am at the utter brink of insanity. And just know that while I am pretending to ignore you, I'm not. I can't. It is impossible to focus on anything while you are like that. But I don't want to "give in," as easy as that would be, and let you think that it was the constant barrage of whining that did it. And so I keep ignoring you and you keep crying yourself to sleep and then I keep going up and giving you hugs in your sleep while totally feeling like a bad dad for putting you through all that. Please, Evelyn, just learn to be considerate of other people. Please, for all of our sakes, be just a little bit less annoying.

Okay. Rant over. I hope she goes back and reads that some time in the future and realizes what a pill she could be.

And if that is the case, then I also want you to know, Evelyn, that yesterday I went on a fantastic date with you. We started by going to the "rock climbing park" with Mom and Addy and Jack. After the park just you and I went to Jack-in-the-Box for lunch and ate at a real restaurant. You thought that was very cool and grown up.

After our lunch we went to Tubbs hill and you led the way and we hiked all the way to the top. While we hiked I told you a story about how Mudgy Moose and Millie Mouse became friends. You liked that story a lot. You kept saying that I was like Mudgy and that you were like Millie because we were good friends too. Then you told me a story about an elephant, a giraffe, a horse, and a zebra. Your story had absolutely no plot, but it was fun to see your imagination working and I liked it anyway. The whole time we were out there we also collected several sparkly rocks to bring home and show to Mom. At the end of the day you looked at me and said "Daddy, that was a good date." That totally made my day.

Anyway, I need to go and make dinner. And while I am doing that I am trying to control my frustration level. Sometimes it would be so easy to just turn into a monster and start screaming. But I won't. Instead, I'll just write about it. It's therapeutic. Sorry Rach.

This week we made oatmeal cookie dough. It never made it to the oven.

Very cool, Addy. Very cool. I see you are trying to make up for the cookie-dough picture.

Here's Evelyn at the "rock climbing park." This wall is about 12 feet tall and overhanging. I am so proud of my girl for climbing to the top without any help and without getting scared. She is my monkey.

Rachel wanted me to put this picture up. It is of her at this stage of her pregnancy. I'm not exactly sure what stage that is. She is due in February. You do the math. (17 weeks)

2011-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

I want to share a thought that I had last night. First, we need some context though. Addy and Jackson are two years old now and we decided that it was time to ditch the pacifiers. They have been life savers on several occasions, but the time has come for them to kick the habit. So Rachel and I made the bold and committing move of taking all of our pacifiers and throwing them right into the garbage, never to be seen again. I suppose this is sort of like when people cut up their credit cards or sell a gaming system. It forces you to follow through.

Anyway, Addy and Jack obviously had a rough night. They pretty much screamed for the better part of two full hours before falling asleep. And since we didn't want to subject Evelyn to the totality of their misery we allowed her to fall asleep in our bed. Later, after Rachel and I finished cleaning the house and watching a movie, I carried our sweet girl into her own bed and kissed her goodnight. I also went around to each of the kids, as I do every night, and told them I would always love them and gave them each kisses.

This is when I had my thought. I don't know why it came to me on this night, of all nights, but it did and it hit me hard. Are you ready for it? Here it is- I LOVE BEING A DADDY! I love the stage each one of my kids are in. I love the little talks I have with Evelyn and her surprising depth and insight into life that comes out at the most random times. I love laying on my belly with Adalie laying next to me and reading books and looking for "hidden pictures." I love watching Jackson giggle as he makes new discoveries about his world that force me to see things in a totally new and different way. I love playing with each of them at a park, or giving them high fives, or even just watching them as they interact with each other. My kids are so amazing right now and I just want to hold on to every second and not let it go.

And then I had the bittersweet thought that one day it will all come to an end. I could suddenly see Jackson heading off for a mission, or Evelyn getting married, and I realized that the very special relationship I have with them will evolve into something much deeper, but at the same time something very different than what I have now. Basically, I realized that they are growing up and that I could do nothing to stop that.

Don't get me wrong- there are days when it seems that this can't happen soon enough. And I am excited to watch them as they become more and more independent. But on that night I just wanted them to stay exactly as they were forever. And I went over to each of them and I whispered to Evelyn that she would always be "My Little Girl", and I told Jackson that he would always be my "Little Mister", and I told Addy that she would always be my "Sweetie Girl".

And they will.

For the time being I will just try to hang on to every fleeting moment and enjoy it for what it is. It will be fun to watch them grow up, and I'm sure we have a great budding relationship that is only in its very early stages of development, but in my mind a part of them will always stay little.

Okay. Now that I got that out I can actually let you in on the activities we did this week:

My mom, dad, Allison, and Courtney were here through Labor Day. On Sunday we went to Coeur d'Alene and hiked Tubbs Hill with everyone. The kids loved it. As Evelyn would say- it is a very beautiful place.

Food coloring + Shaving cream + Shower Wall = Tons of Fun and Easy Clean-up!

Addy and Jack turned two! There were two parties- a "friends" party during park day, and a family party later that night. They ate a lot of cupcakes that day. Also, we went to the doctor the next day for their 2-year check up and Jackson has finally made it onto the growth curve. WooHooo!

I thought this picture was funny. I told Evelyn and Jackson to look at the camera. Evelyn thought she could "help" Jackson to pose.

Grandma Almond got Jackson a little Vacuum for his birthday present. Judging from this picture I can't tell who is more excited about this, Rachel or Jack. Seriously though, he loves it. That night he had to sleep with it next to his bed.

2011-08-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend my parents, Allison, Courtney, Colby, and Mykel all came to visit us. We have been having a great time with them and there are pictures to show for it. However, before I show you these pictures I need to tell you about my Evelyn. She is amazing and it is fun (and sometimes instructive) to learn how to see the world again through the eyes of a 3-year-old. Here's two quick stories to show you what I mean:

Earlier this week we walked into a room to find Adalie and Evelyn sitting side by side looking at the scriptures. Evelyn was flipping through the pages and "reading" to Addy, who made for a very captive audience. "Look, Addy- It says right here that Jesus loves you. And here, it says that Jesus loves me! And here it says that Jesus loves Daddy!" Then Evelyn put down the book and looked at her sister very seriously. "Do you know that Jesus loves you Addy? He does. He REALLY loves you a lot."

Wow. Here was my sweet little girl who just reminded me of an important lesson- the central theme of the entire gospel is the love of our savior. Every story, every piece of doctrine, and every Sunday school lesson I have ever had can be distilled down to this one essential concept. "He REALLY loves you a lot." Thank you Evelyn for that important reminder.

Okay- next story. Over the weekend Evelyn and I were hiking around the hills by our house with Colby and Mykel. We had all stopped to look at some of the great rock climbing in the area, and suddenly we heard Evelyn calling us very urgently. "Look, look!" she was saying. We turned around and looked down the trail where it led to a little clearing in the trees, but saw nothing else. I asked her what she was seeing and she replied "Look daddy. It's a beautiful place." I looked again and realized that it was indeed a very beautiful place that she was seeing, and I was again taught that we live in a world full of beautiful places if we will only slow down and "look." But the lesson didn't end there. Evelyn turned to me, totally unprompted by anyone, and said "daddy, we need to say a prayer." And then she knelt down and said a very simple 3-year-old prayer thanking our heavenly father for this beautiful place for us to see.

I was seriously near tears. I don't think she knows how insightful she is, but I have learned a lot from being around her. What a lucky daddy I am.

Anyway, we can move on past the "serious" part of this post now and look at some pictures. It has been a great week!

One morning Rachel went to the doctor for a baby check-up and me and Evelyn stayed home and made puppets. I made the mouths and controlled the hot-glue gun; Evelyn was the master planner and designer. I think they turned out pretty good!

This, obviously, is Adalie sitting on a frog. There's not really a story to go with this picture- I just thought it was cute.

Here are the "3 friends." Allison, Adalie, and my dad. It has been fun for everyone having some of my family staying with us.

We went to the Spokane riverfront park and looked at all the booths and rode the carousel. These statues created a photo opportunity that we just had to take advantage of. Courtney looks like she is pretending to push a stroller or something.

And here's Allison and Jackson. I put this in here to point out that Jack is no longer scared of the horses.

2011-08-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

This week can be summed up in two words: FUN and STRESSFUL. As for that last word, we'll just pretend it's not there. We'll get to that some other time. As for the fun part, well, read on. This post might be a little bit random with a bunch of disconnected thoughts. Just bear with me.

My highlight of the week was the date I went on with Evelyn. We went to a movie in the park, where they bring out a big screen and the audience lays on the grass and eats popcorn and candy. The best part, however, was just before the movie started. They were working out all the technical stuff with the screen and projector and everything and they just had music going through the speakers. After a while Evelyn seized upon the opportunity and asked me if she could dance. Sure- why not? So she ran up onto the stage in front of over a hundred people and got into her "ready" position just as one song was ending. Then she just held it- still as a lamp-post, until the next song began.

And then she totally amazed me and the rest of her "audience" with her amazing dance moves. That girl can dance! Seriously, I have no idea where she gets it from, but she can just feel the music. She did a total of four songs ranging from a heavy techno to a slow ballad, and each of her dances was unique and perfectly in sync with the tone of the music. I was a very proud daddy as I just listened to the reaction of all the people- it was obvious that they thought she was cute and that they were also pretty impressed. I could literally close my eyes and know exactly when she did something especially cute because of the collective "ooooohs" and "awwwwwws."

She is definitely not scared of the spotlight, that is for sure. In a few weeks she will start up her city-sponsored dance classes and she is very excited to meet her teachers. At the end of the year she gets to do a performance in one of the nicer theatres in the area and she is pretty excited about that as well. I love that girl!

On Saturday we took pretty much the whole day to go to the county fair! We went in the morning and checked out all of the livestock and fruits and vegetables and stuff. As it was getting to be afternoon we went to the carnival area and let Evelyn go on a few of the rides. Also, there was a "family fun" area where all of the kids had fun playing with little toys and games. After nap-time we went back to the fair where we ate dinner while watching the North Idaho Rodeo. It had been quite a while since I had been to a rodeo and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed them. There was one scary part though- at the beginning of the rodeo the entire audience observed a moment of silence for two fallen soldiers from Coeur d'Alene. They decided to do this right in the middle of one of Jack's tantrums for more cookies.

So I sat there with my hand over his mouth for the better part of a minute as he squirmed around in my arms and tried to break free. I was thinking that there must be some other kids in the audience who would make some noise too, but no. It was one of those complete silences that are almost audible because of the intensity. Right toward the end I couldn't hold the squirming Jack any longer, but just as he began a shrill shriek of protest the announcer came back on the loud-speaker and thanked everyone for their reverence. Whew. Disaster averted- I am not a social outcast because of my son- although I'm sure that those who were standing next to me were probably sure I was trying to strangle the poor boy. Oh well. Like Rachel said- We have to at least try- the only other alternative is sitting at home and doing nothing and that's not really an option.

Well, I'm trying to think of other things that happened this week. It seems like the week has been so long. Let's see...Rachel took the kids to the beach...we went to a park...We went to the mall to see what all of our new appliances would have cost us if we had purchased them from the store...yeah, overall it was a pretty good week.

Here are some pictures:

The shade-sitters. I took this from the carousel. Addy totally lit up every time we came around. It was so fun to watch her and it took my mind off the fact that the ride sounded like it was going to collapse on us at any second.

I know we have already published enough pictures of Evelyn on a carousel, but this is definitely one of her favorite things. This particular one was quite an adventure for me as well. I called it the carousel of death. The horse Evelyn is sitting on goes up and down, like a normal horse, but the fun doesn't stop there. It also goes left to right and rotates around the pole. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.

Jackson loved this game.

Addy was a fan of the snakes. Evelyn was a little more cautious around them. Jackson tried to squish them.

2011-08-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Evelyn just informed me that her tummy hurts because she ate a nickel. Great.

Anyway...

Last week we made the exciting announcement that we had purchased a house. We are very excited about this house. It first went up on the market about 2 months ago, around the time we were moving into our rental. Now, we weren't originally planning on even looking for a house until October since we are locked into a 6-month lease on our rental place, but when we saw this place we decided we had to at least go on a tour, so we called our real-estate agent up and asked if she could show it to us. Unfortunately, she told us that an offer had just been accepted on the home and that it was no longer showing. Bummer, but oh well. Something else would come along.

Fast-forward now to last Friday when our real-estate agent called and left a message on the phone. Financing for the previous buyers had fallen through and the house was available again. Would we be interested? Well, if it was a few months from now then we would definitely be interested. Would the sellers be willing to agree to some terms that would allow us to avoid the need to pay for a mortgage and a rental contract simultaneously? If so then we would like to see the house. Dorene (agent) called us back a little later and told us the sellers were willing to work with us and we could see the house the next day.

On Saturday afternoon we had planned a babysitter anyway so Rachel could take me to a Brazilian place for my birthday, so it was easy to have the sitter come a half-hour earlier so we could see the house. As soon as we saw it we walked in I fell in love with the place. It was large enough to have a lot of visitors over, our family could grow up in it, and it had an amazing back yard. We made an offer the next morning, got approved for the financing that same day, and signed the papers that night. It had been less than 48 hours since we even found out the house was back on the market, and now it was ours.

We've already posted a bunch of pictures of the house earlier this week. Scroll down to see the next post if you want a full tour.

So now I can move on to this week.

There were two exciting things that happened this week. The first was a work party that was hosted by the practice owner at his newly acquired house. This place was nice! over 5,500 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 5 car garage, a swimming pool, and 5 acres of surrounding woodland with a river running through it. The living room had a super large-screen TV that took up an entire wall. The kitchen had buttons on the sink for hot/cold water, sprite, coke, and "other." The master bathroom had a shower with 12 shower heads, each one being controlled individually for flow pattern, direction, and temperature via an electronic touch pad mounted on the wall. The downstairs had an indoor sauna and hot tub. And here's the clincher- he can control everything, from the air conditioning to the volume on the TV, with a touch of a button on his phone. Again, this place was nice!

But here's the cool part- despite all of this, the only thing Evelyn wanted to do was hike down to see the river. And I was happy to take her. I hope that she stays this way- I guess different families have different priorities, and that is why I could only smile and wave at everyone as they enjoyed the magnificent view from the spacious back deck and slowly got themselves drunk. They left the forest and the river for us to enjoy. And that is okay by me.

The second cool thing we did this week was go to the boat show in Coeur d'Alene. I was excited about this, but not super excited. They were boats. A boat is a boat. Okay- wrong. This was really, really cool. It was actually a wooden boat show, and the boats were beautiful. No, make that gorgeous. Each one had a story of painstaking maintenance and/or restoration behind it, and it was almost as fun to watch the owners as it was to look at the boats themselves. It was obvious that over the thousands of hours that went into the boats the owners had developed an almost emotional relationship with their projects. To watch them instinctively caress the wood as they told the story about how the boat had been passed down for generations, or how they discovered it wrecked up on some old beach, was, for me, nothing short of inspiring. Of course there was also a lot of other commercialized events and exhibits around the place, but I think these stories are what this was really all about. It was a chance for these people to really share a part of themselves with the public through their craftsmanship. Now, I'm not really a boat guy. But you better believe that every year when this event comes around I will have it marked on my calendar.

This was mine and Evelyn's favorite. I missed it in the picture, but the front is pointed making the boat look like a torpedo. I don't think there are any corners or flat surfaces on the whole thing other than the point at the front. It gives it a very streamlined-yet-elegant appearance.

Here's Rachel's favorite. It is sort of like a floating Rolls-Royce. She especially likes the seats in the front and says that they brought back memories for her of sticking her head up in the front of Tiny Dancer (her family's little boat).

And this...is obviously not a wooden boat. This is a $509,000 yacht that Evelyn and I got to tour. Wow. That is all I have to say.

2011-08-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Our New House

Let us take you on a tour

First...The street view
That's pretty huh...Okay, next we'll walk inside. The first door toward the bottom left is the front door- the next one is the garage door. Don't worry, we'll see the garage later. For now, you get to view our lovely living room!

...and another view

Alright. One of the things we like about this place is the open floor plan. From the living room you can easily interact with people in the dining room and kitchen. We also love the nice "partial wall" which will serve well to keep the mess in the kitchen (let's be honest here) hidden from view.

Next, you can see a little close up of the dining room. The sliding glass door goes out to our deck.

...but we'll see the deck a little later. For now, we'll turn around and look at the kitchen! And a beautiful kitchen it is. All of these appliances are new within the past year-an-a-half, as is the beautiful wood floor. What you aren't seeing is the new dishwasher by the sink and tons of cupboard space under the bar.

We had to put this next picture in because about 6 months ago Rachel and I went on a date to Sears (I know- we're real exciting people). While we were there we sort of window shopped for our "dream home appliances." Well, this double oven/flat-top stove/microwave was Rachel's number one pick. I guess it was just meant to be.

This next one is our pantry. That is where we'll keep our food.

So, now we'll take a look downstairs. (There are two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs too. You'll see them later.)

This is our beautiful, HUGE family room. Here is one side of it....

...and here is the other. The sliding glass doors go to the back yard.

Oh- We also have an electric fireplace/heater thing.

This next thing is kind-of a cool/unique feature of this home. This is the closet under the stairs. It is a normal closet, but then there is this little door (where Evelyn is walking through).

This place was obviously meant for more storage- but it wouldn't take much to make an awesome "secret hide out." The little nook to Evelyn's right will be built-in book shelves.

Okay, now we'll show you the bedrooms...at least one of them. They all look pretty much the same. There's four in all- two upstairs and two downstars.

And next you will see a bathroom. The other one is pretty much an exact replica.

So that's the house. Now we'll move on to my favorite part- the outside! First, we'll go back upstairs and out the sliding glass doors (remember the ones in the dining room).

...and we find ourselves standing on our deck.

The deck has a beautiful view. I could sit out here every night and watch the sun go down over these mountains (which are a lot closer for some reason in real life). The nice thing is that we live on a hill, so this view isn't going anywhere.

Anyway, if we turn around on the deck, we can also look down and see the backyard. The structure on the left is my man-cave. We'll see that later too.

We have a lot of plans for this back yard. If you go down the deck and turn around then you can see the back of the house...

Along with the covered patio and fire pit.

The gravel area is the driveway for my man cave. We hope to build a little play house/fort underneath the deck. Also, if you'll remember, the sliding doors that you can see lead into the family room. There is also a little built-in tool shed behind the BBQ (you can see the door if you look closely).

This view shows the back of "The Cave" and will one day be a lush, green garden, complete with the white picket fence to keep out the kids. This area actually gets sun nearly all day long despite the large wall right next to it.

Okay- now we'll look at MY playground.

So, obviously the current owners are using it for some storage before they move out. Just know that there are great plans in the making.

...Another view, this time looking out toward the front.

And this lovely little area will be perfect for my at-home climbing wall (I already have the holds for it too). I am so excited.

I know that most of you are probably getting tired of looking at unfinished wood. Well, I am the one writing this blog, so I get to show what's important to me (if Rachel was doing it then I'm sure you would get a much more intimate view of our kitchen). Anyway, this is our garage. It's big- there's lots of storage- and I like it.

Well, that about wraps up the tour. We brought the kids to see the place today and they love it. Evelyn said her favorite part is the backyard. Also, I had to put this picture up so that I could point out Rachel's posture- it looks like she's been taking lessons from Grandpa!

2011-08-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Okay...It's been an awesome week. Like, really awesome. The coolest part? We bought a house! Yep, you read that right. We are now "home owners."

But that's all I'm going to say about it for now.

I know, it's a little bit mean of me to throw that out there with no follow-up- sort of like laughing at an inside joke without letting other people in on it. But it is what it is. Come back in a few days and I'll have pictures up and everything. For now, however, I want to focus on the rest of the week. It really was a great week and I don't want it to be overshadowed by the whole "house thing".

So, now that I've taken care of that...

On Wednesday I think we found Evelyn's new favorite place. It is a great park in Spokane and it has a CAROUSEL! For those of you who haven't heard yet, Evelyn loves carousels. She was introduced to them at my parent's home in Rexburg and since that time the whole idea has become an obsession to her.

On Friday I had a very active day. If you read the blog last week then you know I am "training" (in a non-commital sort of way) for an ironman race. Really, I think I like the idea of doing an ironman more than the actual thing. Anyway, I woke up and decided to push myself a little bit. I ran 7 miles, ended at the river, and immediately did a 1 mile swim. The run was fine. I am a good runner. The problem, however, is that I think I almost drowned. Well, not really, but anyone who was watching me flail around in the water probably would have thought that. Obviously I have some work to do.

Later that day we went to the beach again with the whole family. It was a different beach that we havn't been to yet and it worked out great for everyone. I was a little self-concious at first, because it was "park day," a social thing for the moms in our ward to get out of the house with their little kids. Rachel convinced me to go and I ended up being the only adult male on the entire beach. It was actually a lot of fun once I got over the fact that I was the only person without a shirt on (don't get me wrong- that is a good thing), and I got to play with the kids a bunch while Rachel socialized with her little group.

That night, for dinner, we went to another cool park that we just sort of stumbled upon while driving around one day. It was seriously one of the coolest play structures I have seen. I can best discribe it as "McDonald's playland on steroids." The kids liked it.

Saturday was pretty much consumed by "house stuff." Again, come back later this week and I'll write more about that.

Sunday was my birthday! I am 29 years old. That's old. For my birthday Rachel helped the kids put together a surprise party for me. Evelyn planned out the games and picked out all the party favors. And even though I'm not really "into" Tinkerbell and jewelry, I had a lot of fun. Evelyn in a great planner and executer. She totally took charge of the party and directed the whole thing.

I am a very happy daddy tonight :)

Tinkerbell cupcakes, party hats, and candy jewelry. Evelyn was very excited about this party that she planned and it was totally contageous. We had a great time!

Evelyn and Jackson totally bonded at the park. They ran around and played with each other for a long time. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see my kids interacting like this. Also, it means that Rachel and I got to just sit on the grass and talk!

Addy was more interested in the food than the play. She sat alone at the picnic table and finished eating all of the Cheetos and hot-dogs that were left over after our BBQ.

Oh- I forgot to write about this. We went to the "Pie Festival" on Saturday. It was like a farmer's market, and they sold pies (among other things), and we got some good pastries and cookies.

Here's just a short video that we took at the park.

2011-08-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

We had beautiful weather all week this week, and the forecast is showing even better next week! The highs are around the upper 80's (although one day we did get into the mid-nineties) and the sunshine is plentiful.

So what did we do? We went camping, of course! Actually, it has been a while since we camped because we have been intimidated by the prospect of 3 kids (but mostly just Jackson) in the wild outdoors with no retaining walls for an extended period of time. You put that boy outside and he just goes crazy! Don't get me wrong, I think it is a very good thing. I am very proud of his adventurous little spirit, but it makes it difficult to watch the other two when our attention is constantly being drawn away by the one.

Anyway, we finally did get out. We went into the National Forest and just sort of drove around the un-paved forest-service roads until we found a spot with a fire ring that looked nice. By the time we got there it was already getting late, but up here the sun doesn't go down until about eleven so we had plenty of time to pitch the tent and explore the area and eat dinner and roast marshmallows before bedtime. It was a lot of fun.

That night, on the other hand, was not so much fun.

I think this is the worst night they have ever had. Ever. Evelyn did great. She slept with Rachel and me in a separate tent. Addy and Jack, on the other hand, were not happy campers. From the time we put them to bed until the time we woke them up there was only an hour-and-a-half that they were both sleeping. The rest of the time at least one of them was screaming- and I do mean SCREAMING- so that it was impossible to get any sleep. In the morning they were cranky and touchy and grumpy. We had breakfast which calmed them down a little bit, but then we left for home not too much later so that they could get some much-needed sleep.

But it was worth it. We will definitely go camping a lot and hope that they just get used to it. I think that maybe they were just scared by the unfamiliar surroundings. That will change and things will get better. I hope. Because Rachel and I love camping, and we're not going to stop, but if things don't get better then we might all end up needing to be institutionalized.

All right

I also have an announcement to make. Are you ready? I am considering doing something that is crazy, and that some would argue passes the line into stupidity.

Every year up here there is a big Ironman contest. You know, one of those triathlon things. It consists of a 2.5 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and ended by a 26.2 mile run. It sounds horrible. Actually, it sounds like self-imposed torture. Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to that. These are the kinds of things that POWs come home from and write books about (okay, that's probably going a bit too far), but the concept is not too far off in my mind. I would ruthlessly mock all those who would even consider that such a thing might be worth doing, but the problem is that there is this small part of me that is drawn- sort of like a moth is drawn to a bug-zapper.

I think the analogy is accurate in more ways in one, but still, if I don't do it then there will always be this question in the back of my mind about whether or not I even could. And I guess that is the allure. This is one of those things you do so that you can prove to yourself that you can. Also, although I hate endurance sports, I always somehow find joy in the pain that is associated with them. It's weird, but I do, and apparently so do a lot of other people (the fact of which is the only piece of convincing evidence that I am not some sort of psychopathic masochist).

Anyway, I have decided that this is a goal I want to pursue. It would be at least a year away, so I have time to train and to learn how to really swim as opposed to just staying afloat (something I am very good at). The prospect intimidates me, and I am still not 100% convinced that I want to give it a go, but I figured that if I posted it up here then it would take me that much farther into the commitment. Also, if I don't end up doing it then I can look back and read this when I get old and feel deep twinges of regret of a missed opportunity.

So...That's that.

Oh- One more exciting thing happened this week also. We got our first ultrasound. We are happy (so very happy) to announce that we are having ONE healthy baby.

We don't know anything else about it yet other than that it is about the size of an avocado pit.

Okay, the rest of these pictures are in reverse-chronological order, so it would be best to scroll down to the very bottom and then work your way up. I am way too tired of this blog right now to care enough to change it.

On the way home- can you tell that nobody got any sleep?

Breakfast.

Yeah- they were tired.

Addy-our girly girl. I didn't bring the brush. Rachel didn't bring the brush. But somehow we found Addy brushing her hair first thing in the morning.

Good morning!

Time to wake up.

The best part of camping for Evelyn was that we allowed her to eat as many roasted marshmallows as she wanted. Yes, we are bribing our children to enjoy the same activities that we do.

Dinner time! Come get it while it is hot!

Our cute little Addy girl...before she went to bed.

Here's a video of Evelyn after we had already put AddyJack down for bed.

2011-07-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

This was a relaxing week. At work, the other two doctors didn't know when my license would be coming in (and neither did I) so they had scheduled some large cases on days when I would be at the office. Since last week was only my second week working they were unable to reschedule those patients for their days, so instead I just didn't have to work. It been sort of nice and is giving me a chance to just ease into my new position as a doctor. Starting this week, however, I will be full-time all the time (which is also sort of nice from a getting-paid standpoint).

Some people have been asking me how things are going at work. And I have responded that I am learning a lot in a very short period of time. I cannot think of any time when I've crammed this much knowledge into my brain except for maybe the first month of clinic in dental school. This is a very good thing. Just in the last week I have done as many root canals as I did during my entire time in dental school, and nearly as many crowns. Some days I do as many fillings as I am used to doing in the course of 2-3 full weeks, and I've done work on a patient here in one hour which would have taken at least 3 visits to accomplish previously. Yes, it's a little bit stressful. But it is also very, very good.

But like I said, this week I had a lot of time off and work was not really a main focus. What we really did was have fun all week. We went to the beach several times, with each time being better than the last. On Saturday we went hiking. Rachel and I carried AddyJack in backpacks for most of the way, and Evelyn walked. We went about 2 miles and the kids did great! Jackson especially. He was born to be outside. I think that if he had his way we would just live outside all the time.

Jackson is especially fond of the water. This boy is fearless. It doesn't matter how cold or how deep the water is- he will just jump right in without a second thought. We put some water-wings on him at the beach and just let him go. He walked right out to where he couldn't touch any more, and then started kicking and swimming all by himself, giggling like a mad man the whole time.

Addy, on the other hand is a sissy when it comes to the water (but she is very brave in other arenas). Instead, she prefers to walk to the swings and stare at them with a forlorn expression until one of us feels bad enough to go and push her.

Oh- also another exciting thing happened this week. Rachel felt the baby move! A lot! It is really early for her to be feeling this and it sort of has her freaked out that we might be having twins again. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world if this were the case, but it would be very difficult. She goes to the doctor tomorrow for her first "I'm pregnant" appointment. Pray for her.

Other than that, things are pretty much just normal (as if "normal" even means anything to us anymore after the past couple of months).

I like this picture! This is me and my Jack sitting by the water and looking at boats at the end of a good day. We had just finished eating hot-dogs and s'mores. Jack and I had been swimming and the girls were at the play ground. We bonded.

Here's Jack the maniac at the beach.

Here's a very flattering picture of Addy at our "P-Party." We went in our back yard and had a picnic of pizza and pickles on pink and purple plates. It was actually a lot more fun than Addy is making it look.

2011-07-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

This week has been crazy. Let's go day by day:

Monday:

I don't have to go to work on some Mondays so we have an abundance of 3-day weekends to plan fun activities. This week we planned on going to the Coeur d'Alene beach and City Park. Ultimately we did get to go and it was great, but the events leading up to it were pretty hectic.

First, Jackson grabbed a giant butcher knife as Rachel was loading the dishwasher. He is so fast, and we didn't even realize he had it for a while, but then we saw him runing wildly around the room holding it by the blade. We tried our best to stop the inevitable, but we keep our knives pretty sharp and it didn't take long for poor Jack to let out a scream and drop the knife. His hand was instantly covered in blood. It was pretty gnarly.

After washing him off we saw the source of the damage, a deep (very deep) slice right in the meatiest portion of his middle finger. I am pretty sure that I saw the bone, but can't be certain since there was so much blood everywhere. The good news is that he could still bend his fingers at will (as evidenced by the fact that he fought us so hard as we were trying to get a look at it), so we decided that if we could stop the bleeding we could probably avoid a trip to the ER.

It took an hour-and-a-half of constant pressure (during which time he was actually very calm), super-glue (actually invented for surgical use), and a lot of paper towels before we had stabalized things to a slow ooze. After we were finally able to get a band-aid on it we wrapped his entire hand in athletic tape so he couldn't pick at the wound and put him to bed.

The good news about all this is that we miraculously avoided getting any blood on our new couches.

After Jack was safe in his crib we took a deep breath, glad that the emergency was over, and went in the play-room to get Addy ready for her nap. She wasn't there. Her diaper was. And so was the poop. Oh, the poop.

Being a parent can be very rewarding, but sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't just be easier to declare myself a total basket case and get admited to an institution.

Like I said, the afternoon was a lot of fun. We went to the beach and everyone (including Jackson) had a great time playing in the water and building sand castles. Oh- and just so you know, Jackson's finger (now, about a week later) is looking very good.

Tuesday-Friday

My first official work-week. I am getting paid to do dentistry. Overall, the transition from dental school to private practice has been a very humbling one. At school I felt like I was on top. Now, it is obvious that I have a lot to learn. This week I had some very good experiances, and some very, well, not-so-good ones, that make it clear to me that I still have a long ways to go. That said, I am super excited about the place where I am working. They will push me to get really good really fast.

Honestly, it's a little bit stressful right now to feel so far behind. The doctors I work with do pretty much everything and it only serves to highlight how basic the level of dentistry was that we actually learned in school. But I am pretty sure that I will learn more in the next six months than I would in 3-4 years in most other settings. This week alone I did bone grafting, molar endo, surgical extractions, Cerec, and impacted wisdom tooth removal (partial bony)...Basically a bunch of stuff that the dental school wouldn't even let us think about doing. It is nice because *most* of the time there is another doctor at the practice with me so I can ask questions if I need to. Sometimes the doctor leaves though...that's when things get stressful. Give me a few weeks though and I'm pretty sure I will be more confident about things.

Saturday

This was a good day, and a nice relief after a somewhat stressful week at work. To start it out we went on a family bike-ride around the area where we live. It is a beautiful area. When we got home we put Addy and Jack to bed and I played with Evelyn. When the kids woke up we all ate lunch and then went to the Post Falls beach which is just 5 minutes from our house (not the same beach we went to on Monday).

Okay- I am in love with this beach. Actually with this whole park. It is called Q'emeln Park (your guess is as good as mine on the pronounciation), but it has a big grassy area, lots of shade, a beach, a playground, rock climbing, fishing, a boat launching area, 3.5 miles of hiking, and lies just upstream of a kayaking play spot. I don't think I could imagine a better place.

Oh, and the beach? It's awesome! The depth increases so gradually that Addy and Jackson can wade out about 15-20 feet before I even need to start watching them closely. Evelyn can go even farther. This makes it so that one adult can easily watch all three kids. As you get further out into the water the depth eventually gets to about 12 feet (for those of us who actually want to swim, kayak, etc.), but it takes a good 200 yards to do it.

That night we got a baby-sitter who came and fed our kids and put them to bed. We went rock climbing. It was pure bliss.

To finnish the day off, Rachel and I went to Paul Bunyan's hamburger joint (a local place) to try out their food. In my opinion it is the best hamburger place I have ever been to-and I'm not just saying that. I don't take these things lightly. The prices were really reasonable too and I think that between this place and Taco Loco I might actually start gaining some weight.

One can always hope :)

Sunday

A welcome day of rest.

I don't have to work again tomorrow so we are planning to go back to the beach. At this rate I might actually get a tan this summer- something I have NEVER done before.

One can always hope :)

Here we are climbing. This particular climb is one that Rachel has been working on. Just above her in the picture lies the under-cling-move-of-death that she has been struggling to get. One day, Rachel...One day.

Just playing at the beach. If you look right above my back you can see part of the play-ground. It is nice because from the same location you can watch kids in the water as well as the ones on the toys without having to move.

Rachel on our bike ride. I had to include this picture because I was riding my bike while I took it and since I wasn't watching where I was going Evelyn and I ended up going over the curb, hitting a large rock, and careening down a steep embankment. I'm proud because not only did I manage to save mine and Evelyn's lives, but I got a pretty good picture as well. Next time I think I'll just get off the bike though.

2011-07-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

After over two months of non-stop vacation we are finally starting to settle down and get back into a routine. It's been a wild ride. We have moved across the country. We have visited lots of friends and extended family. We have had a great time. Our kids think that Grandma and Grandpa Hazard are part of our immediate family (and they still ask when they are going to "come home.") And now, finally, we are in a place where we can stop and take a few quick breaths of relaxation before we move on to the next step.

For me, this week has been interesting as I have been trying to find my place in my new job. I am officially a dentist in Washington now and I have even treated a few patients so far. And I have to say that it is nice (at least to our bank account) being able to start work a little bit earlier than we had originally anticipated. As good as things are, there are still some parts of my job that come with a bit of stress. Most of these come from my obvious youth and inexperiance in "real world dentistry." I am doing my best to be honest and humble while talking with others while at the same time exerting a confidence and poise that I am not sure I really feel. I do, however, feel like things are going well and that after a few weeks for everyone to get "broken in" I will fit very nicely into the way the practice works.

Rachel is also getting used to the new area and is already starting to find fun things to do with the kids. On Friday she went to a play group thing, and on Saturday she took Evelyn to a parade up in Rathdrum. Our kids are slowly starting to understand that this is their new home and that a routine is being established again that will hopefully be in place for a long time.

Here's Rachel and Evelyn at the parade. Evelyn was very excited about her bag of candy (which has now been in our car for over 24 hours and is pretty much all melted.)

Welcome to Post Falls!

2011-07-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

When we moved to Cleveland we did a post about all of the changes that were going on. Well, this week we will do the same. Here is what happened in the last month or so:

I graduated from Dental School

I got my first real job

Rachel finished up her job in Cleveland as an interpreter

We said goodbye to a lot of really good friends in Cleveland

We moved across the country to an area that Rachel had never seen until we drove in with a moving truck.

We are looking for a house to buy

We were homeless for a month as we were waiting to move into our new rental place

We went on a major family vacation to Mexico

We officially became residents of the great state of Idaho

I started work

We found out that we are going to have another baby

What! That's right. We are having another one. We are so excited. Rachel is about 7 weeks along right now. She has been pretty sick with this one, but things are looking better. Evelyn will be turning four around the time they are born so she should be a big help. Addy and Jack will be about two-and-a-half, so they should be able to keep life interesting for us. People wonder if we want a boy or a girl (as if our desires have anything to do with it). Our response: Just one or the other, please. We might end up going crazy if we have twins again!

On a different note, we had a wonderful, crazy week this week. Last Saturday we loaded up our stuff from my parent's house in Rexburg, put everyone in the car, and made the seven hour drive up to Post Falls and our new home. My mom also came with us to help with the move and to hang out with us for the week.

The move itself went very smoothly. Last Sunday we introduced ourselves to our new ward. The next day, 11 guys, 5 trucks, and one 20' trailer magically showed up to help us get our stuff out of storage and into our new place. It took 40 minutes to do the complete move-out and move-in. Amazing.

We spent the next few days playing and exploring our new town when the kids were awake. When they went to sleep we would unpack boxes and clean things up. At this leisurely pace we were able to get the last box unpacked by Thursday morning.

Later on Thursday my dad and Grandma/Grandpa Hazard came up to visit us. We spent Friday and Saturday just hanging out and playing. They will go to Sacrament meeting with us today and then head back to Rexburg. For the first time in about two months, it will be just our family again. I have to say that it has been wonderful to have all of the help and that we have loved getting to spend time with everyone, but I am really looking forward to being just us again.

I have written on here before about how amazing the place is where we are living so I won't go there again. Suffice it to say that we are happy to be here. I think it will be a fun place for our kids to grow up.

Also, on Thursday I started my first day of work! It actually wasn't "work" for me since it was mostly a training day. My license won't come in until next week so I couldn't actually see any patients yet, but it was good to go to the office and become familiar with how everything worked and stuff.

Honestly, I was super nervous to start work. Only part of this came from the fact that I no longer would have the safety-net that the school provided in terms of being able to bail you out of trouble. The biggest thing for me though, was learning to work with a staff. I just graduated from dental school and they have been doing this for years. Yet, when I go into the office I am expected to be "the boss."

After spending time in the office, however, all of my worries were put to ease. The staff is great and I could easily see myself falling right into my role as the doctor. As I was shadowing the other Dr. I actually got really excited about being able to do dentistry again. Things are good. Actually, things are great.

Actually, I don't think things could get any better. Things are perfect. Perfect job, perfect house, perfect location, perfect, perfect, perfect.

...It makes me nervous, but for now we will just revel in the moment .

Last night we went rock climbing. We timed it- the climbing place is exactly 5 minutes from our house. We went at 7:00 and climbed for two hours. I think I am in love with this place.

My dad and Rachel, just enjoying the beautiful weather.

I am proud of this picture that I got of Rachel doing a difficult move. I am a good photographer. Oh- and she is a good climber.

My dad came and belayed the whole time. It was fun to go climbing with my him. He is the one who taught me to love the rock. I have a lot of good memories of climbing with him. And he is the best belayer I have ever had.

Grandpa and Addy on the swing (right after she had fallen off of the swing).

Grandpa Great and Jackson. These two are good friends.

We did the Mudgy-and-Millie trail. This is the statue at the park. I was actually in a lot of pain for this picture. Just before it was taken, Evelyn accidentally jabbed me in the eye with her finger. It was actually enough to send me to the doctor. It turns out she tore my cornea. Thanks Ev. It is now 3 days later and my eye still sort of hurts, but it should be completely healed within the next couple of days.

More pictures of the Mudgy-and-Millie trail. This is a trail that follows a children's story written about Coeur d'Alene. In the story, a Moose and a Mouse play hide-and-seek throughout the down-town area. Bronze statues were erected in each of the places that they went and it provides a nice walking tour of the area.

Here's a video tour of our new house. Also, you can see my new car (a little bit) and our new furniture.

2011-07-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

What a crazy few weeks we have had. I know it's been a while since I did a real post, and now I am pretty far behind. Because of this, I am doing this post in the most efficient way possible. Pictures.

But before we look at them, lets put first things first. Before you read any further, you need to click on these links: (Link 1) (Link 2). They are family pictures. My sister, Allison, just opened her own photography business and I must say she does a great job. While we were in Rexburg she took some family pictures for us and we absolutely love them. Thanks Al.

Okay, the next great even was the two-three weeks we spent in Rexburg. Sadly, we don't have too many pictures of this, but we had tons of fun. From racquetball to swimming to shotgun shooting, every day had some sort of activity that we did. Also, I must mention the carousel. Evelyn loved the carousel. That is ALL that she wanted to do. When my dad told her that he had to go to work instead of take her to the carousel she verbalized her complete understanding in this simple sentence: "You will go to work and make money and so when you come home you can pay for me to go on the carousel."

Spoiled little girl. She loves grandma and grandpa!

And then there's Mexico. At this point I'm going to start getting into some pictures.

So these pictures aren't really in any specific order. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Rachel's family and stayed in a resort hotel and did all of the fun Mexico tourist things. It was seriously tons of fun. In these first two pictures we are seeing Rachel learning how to train and command dolphins. Unfortunately she was not allowed to ride on them because she wasn't feeling well that day, but I think she had a lot of fun interacting with them from the little underwater platform.

Oh- also, she got kissed by a seal. Apparently the breath smelled very strongly of raw fish. Go figure. While Rachel and most of her family were playing with marine mammals, Brandon and I decided to pursue a different adventure: Zip-lilning. I don't have any pictures to offer as proof, but we did a zip-line tour of the nearby jungle. The highest one we did was over 900 feet off the ground, and the longest was just over a quarter mile. We did 14 lines in all and ended up at a nice little Mexican restaurant.

Here's a picture that someone took of our private beach that was attached to the resort. Beautiful.

I had to include this picture even though it is a little bit fuzzy. There was this little restaurant on the resort that sold a full menu of crepes at night time. I know, I know, crepes are hardly considered Mexican fare, but they were pretty good, and it didn't take long for it to become a very popular hang-out for our family. I am pretty sure that somebody (or several somebodies) went there every day of our trip.

This is on our boat tour. It was a small group and on the way out we had the whole top-deck to ourselves (this was also probably due to the fact that they had an open-bar downstairs and we were the only ones who didn't drink alcohol). Well, things got pretty crazy up there without any alcohol anyway.

Here we are on that boat again. It took us out to a beautiful area to go snorkeling and we got to spend sufficient time in the water to see a lot of cool marine life. I love the color of the water here- it is turquoise and clear. After the snorkeling we went to a beautiful beach and swam, lounged, and ate pie. Then the boat picked us up again and we had a good fun lunch on the way back.

One of the days we took a city tour. A bus brought us all over Puerto Vallarta and then we ended up at this Mexican place with awesome-yet-over-priced food.

This picture was taken during the city tour, but in the back you can see the place where we went snorkeling on the mini-cruise that we did.

This picture was taken at the large street-market that lies in the middle of downtown Puerto Vallarta. It was fun to look at all the things for sale and to bargain for those that we wanted. I feel like we did pretty good and we got away with some great deals (no Mexican blankets though :)

On a different day, Marissa, Wesley, Rachel, and I caught a taxi back to this place to spend a full afternoon. We ate at a little Mexican place that was delicious and we had fun roaming the streets of the town. Although I have no pictures of this, I actually consider it one of the highlights of our trip.

Here's a picture that someone took from our balcony (which, by-the-way, had a private swimming pool on it). It's all very nice. My only question- why go to a swimming pool when you have a private beach with an ocean just a few steps further? I'm just sayin'...

Ah- the carousel. I don't think Evelyn even knew we were gone (even though she looks sort of freaked-out in this picture I can promise that she was having fun).

2011-06-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I posted on here and I am sure that all of my loyal readers are just dying to get their weekly Logan-and-Rachel fix. I know- it's a rough life.

However...

I am currently on a lovely vacation in Mexico.

Keep waiting, dear readers. Keep waiting.

Adios!

2011-06-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!

As a father's day present to myself I am not going to spend the time to write our blog this week. After all, what could possibly compare with these pictures?

I am the luckiest dad in the world!

2011-06-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

The sun is glimmering on a warm breezy Fourth of July in Simi Valley California. My dad came out with the kite and a full size American flag so that we could 'fly' the red, white, and blue. The four of us very carefully helped Dad attach the flag to our six foot kite, and all of us very carefully spread out the flag to lift it gracefully in the air without letting any part of it touch the ground. I remember watching that flag and thinking about how cool my family was. I also remember all of us running around like crazy people when we brought the kite/flag down. The good news? The flag never touched the ground, and none of the kids had any major collisions.

Why the kite story? Because this week Logan and I took our kids out with my family and our kites. As the story illustrates, my family does not fly kites like normal families. We still have our favorite six foot kite (it is definitely much smaller than I remember) along with 50 foot streamers that we attach to the back. My favorite kite 'toy' is our homemade parachutes. All you need is a paper clip, bandana, heavy string, and a weight (my family always used spare metal nuts because they already have holes and are easy to attach). Find the center of the bandana and attach the paperclip. Then, tie equal lengths of string to each corner of the bandana. Finally, tie the weight where all four strings meet. Then the fun begins.

Our kite has more string than any kite I have ever seen. This is important for this next part. Now, you take the parachute and attach the paper clip to the string (the paperclip needs to be bent to an upside down V so that it can easily detach itself from the string). Then you walk or run the parachute down the string. Run as far as you want. Stop. Let go. Have the kite flier flick the string. Watch and laugh as your three very small children run in circles like crazy people to catch the parachute. I think my parents created parachutes to entertain their children for hours and to provide even better entertainment for themselves.

Also, our kite flying adventures almost always ended with searching frantically to find something we lost. In this case it was the treasured kite. Yes. The kite detached itself from the string and flew off into the neighborhoods beyond our sight. The good news? Brandon, Wesley and Marissa hunted it down and rescued it. That kite still has many more adventures left.

This week started out in Utah with our impromptu vacation extension. Evelyn, Jack and Addy had a lot of much anticipated one-on-one time with Grandma Wendy. Logan and I also had a great double date with Marissa and Wesley. We went bowling and had a fun time. We played 'skittle' bowling where the color you choose corresponds with how you bowl that frame. Then we went to Yogurt Planet to the frozen yogurt bar (I am now addicted to these places!).

On Tuesday morning we packed up our kids and drove to Rexburg. This was the point that I realized how thankful I really am that Grandma and Grandpa Hazard took our three kids on an airplane so that we did not have to drive across the country with them. It would have been a looong trip...

This week we went to the Rexburg splash park. I recognized something that I haven't quite been able to put my finger on. Adalie has absolutely no fear when she is somewhere that she is familiar with (this probably means stitches or broken bones sometime soon), and Jackson is an adventurer in new situations. He took off giggling and bouncing with his arms going crazy as soon as we put him down. Adalie took tiny tip toe steps over to the edge, then she stood there with a very worried expression and her arms flapping like a nervous bird. Completely different than her normal 'no fear' self. It is so important to not label kids (I recognize that this post goes against that logic, but bear with me). I think it is impossible to not recognize eccentricities and personality traits, but it is important to let these labels be flexible so kids have room to grow, develop and change.

Jackson loves dirt. We planted the garden this week at the Hazard home. Jackson loved weeding, digging, moving dirt, stomping in the dirt, and organizing the plants. All of us got into the action and had a great time planting and playing in the dirt.

Logan and I also took the opportunity to go on a date. We went to see Water for Elephants, then we took a 1.5 hour walk around Rexburg together. We ended our walk at Twizlberry (a frozen yogurt bar of course!). It was a pretty perfect date.

Yesterday we had a great end of the week party at the zoo. For the past 3 weeks Evelyn has been praying that we could go to the zoo, and she has been thanking God for the zoo. Hooray for the Boonshoft pass because the Idaho Falls Zoo was free and we had a wonderful time. Thanks for the encouragement Evelyn.

Time goes by so fast. This week we began a trip down memory lane. We have started the process of writing our first edition of The Hazard Chronicles. We are chronicling our dating, engagement, wedding, and first two years of married life. We decided to create a new blog where we could post these stories. We will be updating frequently for those who are interested. Our blog address is http://www.thehazardstory.blogspot.com/

Isn't this boy cute??? Too bad he doesn't EVER sit still long enough to get a good picture. Many people have followed him around and tried. I mentioned this to Logan and he said 'watch,' and this was the first picture he took. I still maintain that it was easier because he was buckled in place!

Evelyn loves the flamingos. This was the highlight of her trip.

These were some pictures of our gardening adventures. All of the kids were great workers. I think Evelyn was trying to grow a rootbeer tree in the last picture!

My birthday was on May 18th and I was on the road with Logan. We decided to celebrate my birthday with the kids. The kids had no idea what day it was anyway! We had a great time, and I got a lot of presents from the kids that make me think of them (a card with a dog on it from Jack that he refused to put down, a container of three balls from Adalie, and a bright pink purse and a pink flamingo from Evelyn).

Jackson got his first haircut at a real salon because the attachment to our clippers has been temporarily misplaced with the move...

2011-06-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we have been using this blog to create a hardbound book every year titled "The Hazard Chronicles." We created this blog in 2007 and we have hardbound copies of 2008, 2009, and 2010. Logan ordered our 2007 book yesterday. Today we have begun the process of creating a book titled "The Hazard Chronicles: Our Story." This one will be a little bit different. We are looking back and writing about ourselves before marriage, when we met, our dates, our wedding, and the first two years of marriage. We have created a new blog for these stories where we will probably update pretty frequently. Here is the new address

www.thehazardstory.blogspot.com

2011-05-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

I wrote last week's post from the airport in Portland just before I flew down to Utah to be reunited with my family. The flight went smoothly, albeit long (hey, at least the tickets were cheap), and I soon found myself in the car with Wendy and Brandon on the way up to Downey, ID.

Some of you don't know where Downey is, so I will explain: There is a large expanse of nothingness between Pocatello, Idaho and Brigham City, Utah. Right in the middle of this vast area of sagebrush and...well...more sagebrush, there is a gas station. This is Downey.

I went to the city website and found out that the population is 650 and the city tagline is "Welcome to Downey: raising cattle, crops, and kids." No joke. And it makes me wonder if there is anything significant about the order they listed these things in. Oh, and it is also a city where they couldn't find normal wire to run a phone line so instead they used barbed wire fences that were already put in place by the local farmers. Again, no joke.

So why, you might ask, was I going to Downey? Well, remember that gas station? Rachel's dad built it. Actually, the whole family did, and Downey has become a meeting place for the family every Memorial Day where they can all go and talk about how glad they are that they don't live there any more. And it is where Kelly, Rachel's father, has made his final resting place after being struck by a car a few years ago.

And so we went to Downey, and with the rain pouring and the wind howling we paid our respects to those who were passed.

And I hugged my kids.

As soon as they saw me all of my children got the biggest grins on their faces and came running at me with outstretched arms chanting papa, papa, papa, as if I had just scored the winning touchdown of the super bowl. It was a very rewarding moment as a parent, and even more rewarding since every time they saw me again for the next HOUR they cracked up into giggles and came and gave me hugs and begged to be held and started the papa chant thing again. I love my kids. They are amazing.

After we were done in Idaho we all drove back down to Utah to stay with Rachel's family for a while. Most of them were still working or in school, so there was time for us to be able to help out around the house or in the yard while they were busy. While doing this I got totally reved up about owning a house some day that I can work on. Maybe it's a guy thing. Maybe I'm weird. Maybe both. But I really enjoy being able to fix things up and make them look nice- especially when the only difference is a couple of hours invested in good hard work.

We also spent a lot of time at parks. The "hanging monkey bars park," as Evelyn calls it, had something for everyone: a playground for Evelyn to be a "rock climber", trains to keep Jackson mezmarized, and grass for Adalie to eat while making cow noises. Yep, she sometimes forgets that she is a person and goes into cow mode. It really is very strange.

Also slides. Addy LOVES the slides and will dive down them with reckless abandon. She does NOT like it, however, when there is nobody to catch her at the bottom and she is launched face first into the wood chips. She actually did this a few times, which concerns me because I would really like to think she would learn after a while that this is no fun. Also, it turns her into a big, blubbering, whiney heap of tears for the next several minutes.

I liked it better when she was a cow.

When we were all able to be together we played games. This allowed for a lot of good conversation, as well as the chance for me to firmly establish myself as the undisputed loser of Uno Attack. Also, I need to make a special mention here of Brandon's robotic wings he crafted for the costume contest at a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention that was recently held in Salt Lake. They are (offically) cool! He won first place. I guess that's what you get when you let a mechanical engineer enter the world of costume design.

On Saturday evening after the kids woke up from their afternoon naps we all went over to Marissa and Wesley's apartment for a BBQ and pool party. Evelyn took to the water right away and was soon jumping off the edge and pushing off from the wall all by herself. Addy and Jack took a little while longer to warm up to the idea, but after a while they were also giggling and splashing while we carried them in the deep water. I think that we will definately be involved in a lot of water activities as a family.

After the pool party the plan was to drive back to Rexburg to be with my family, but after a brief conversation in the car we decided that we were having so much fun in Utah that we might as well stay a few extra days. After all, what's a vacation if you can't be spontaneous and change plans? So here we are, still in Utah...and loving it.

Here is a screen shot from Brandon's 3-D design software that he used to help make his wings. I'm thinking he might have had the competitive advantage in this contest.

A few pictures of us goofing off at "the hanging monkey bars park."

Group pose after a good afternoon of work. The task at hand: dig a 4" deep hole. Yes, it took all of us.

2011-05-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well, compared with last week this one was pretty boring. Actually, compared to any week, this one was pretty boring. I spent the majority of my time in a hotel room watching Netflix and television.

But first, let's go back to Monday night. On Monday we found out that the landlords of the place we were planning on renting in Post Falls decided that they wanted to change the terms of the contract on us to make us stay for a minimum of one year. Whoa! For a place that originally started out being a month-to-month rental this was a huge change, and not one that we were okay with. See, we are going to (hopefully) be purchasing a home in the near future, and we would rather not be responsible for a rental payment on top of our new mortgage.

So, here we were with only one day left in town and nothing in sight as far as housing goes. This is when we started getting nervous, because in a few weeks we were planning on returning with the kids and we needed a home to move into. We started making a lot of phone calls to everywhere we could think of and asking them if we could do a month-to-month or a 6-month lease. The only place we could find was a single-wide mobile home that looked like a rusted-out bus, smelled like cigarette smoke, and was placed next to a train track that ran every hour (but it did have a grown-over playground next door).

We were stuck. Suddenly we found that our plans were changing and we couldn't do anything about it. Maybe we wouldn't be looking for a home purchase for another year. Maybe we would have to live in a run-down trailer park. Maybe we would have to increase my commute to work every day to over an hour. These were the things we were talking about when we received a call from Geri- the owner of a cute little duplex that we had seen. This was the final place that we had any hope of getting. And she told us...

One year minimum. That was it. The final nail in the coffin, so to speak. We were completely out of options. After a feeble attempt at graveling, Rachel politely told Geri that we weren't interested in a one-year lease and hung up the phone. We could do the trailer. It was only short term. We could drive to places for the kids to play. In fact, we didn't really need to be home at all except for at night time to sleep. There was a nice library in town where Rachel and the kids could hang out all day. And the little park next door wasn't that bad.

But it was no use. We weren't good enough liars to convince ourselves that the next 6 months would go smoothly, and the truth is, we were a little depressed about our situation.

And then, after about 20 minutes of this, the phone rang again. It was Geri. She had a feeling that she just couldn't shake despite her own business training and despite all the advice from friends and despite what was her normal way of doing things. This feeling was that she should rent the duplex to us for a 6-month term.

Of course we immediately accepted the offer before she had time to change her mind.

And this place really is great. Out of all the places we looked at, this one is by far the nicest. I don't have pictures with me, but I will try to put some up next week if I can. We are very excited.

There is one downside. We had to change wards. I guess this isn't really a downside, since I'm sure that our new ward will be fantastic. But I am a little bit sad about it.

I don't know if you have seen the Disney/Pixar movie "Cars." If you have though, then you will remember a part at the beginning when it was introducing Radiator Springs, a small and forgotten town off historic route 66. During this part a couple of lost travelers find themselves in Radiator Springs and the town completely pounces on the unsuspecting "visitors," doing their very best to roll out the red carpet for their new guests. And even though they are only animated talking cars, I always felt a little bit bad for them when the visitors explained that they had no intention of staying.

Well, I feel like Rachel and I were the visitors. The ward we thought we were going to be in totally made us feel welcome, almost killing us with kindness in the process. We had help when we needed it, a free place to stay, and free meals every night. It was amazing. And now I feel like I am turning my back on these new friends and saying "thanks for everything, but we're leaving."

Like I said, it's not really a downside, but it makes me feel a little bit bad.

Anyway- that was the exciting part of the week. Now for the boring part.

On Wednesday morning Rachel dropped me off at the airport and then drove down to Rexburg. I'm sure she has had a lot of fun there, but I can't tell that story because I wasn't there with her. As for me, I arrived in Portland after a one hour flight from Spokane. There, I found the cheapest hotel in town and made reservations. When I got there I found that they had 3 cats living inside the hotel that were allowed to wander around freely, and that the whole place smelled like smoke. But it did have a free breakfast, was right next to a bus stop, and across the street from a Walmart. What more could I ask for?

...On Saturday afternoon I re-took the endodontic portion of the licensing exam (remember the dynamite in the tooth from 3-27-2011?). It only took two-and-a-half hours. I was in Portland for 5 days. Baaaaahhhhhhh (That was me expressing frustration at the sheer amount of boredom I have had to endure). The good part is that the exam went well. And I got to see Portland. There are a lot of weirdos in Portland. Seriously. It's beautiful, but I don't think I'd want to live here.

So here I am, back in the airport waiting for a flight that will take me to Salt Lake City. There, I will catch a ride with my in-laws up to Downey, Idaho, where I will be reunited with my family. I am excited. It has been almost two weeks since I saw my kids. Excited.

Instead of posting pictures this week I want you to go out and hold a cat, find someone to blow cigarette smoke in your face, and find a lame television show to watch. Do it for me.

I'll try to get some pictures of our new place up next week.

2011-05-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

What a week! So much has happened over the past seven days that it is hard to believe that only a week has gone by since I was sitting on my front porch in Cleveland eagerly anticipating graduation.

Let's go day by day.

Monday:
Monday morning our house did NOT look like we were moving out is less than 24 hours. Somehow though, with the help of Allison, my parents, and some friends, we were able to get everything cleaned, packed, and loaded up by the end of the day. The U-haul was totally packed to the point that I began to fear for my life when I opened it lest the whole mound of "stuff" come pouring down on top of me. Luckily it didn't though.

Tuesday:
We woke our kids up early and put them in the van we borrowed from our friends (ours was already on the trailer attached to the U-haul). On the way to the airport Evelyn said goodbye to all of the things she had known in Cleveland. It was a bittersweet feeling to actually be doing this move. It didn't take long to unload our kids and wave goodbye as my parents and Allison took them into the airport. Now it was just Rachel and me.

You know, I've had the feeling for the past several weeks that I can only describe by drawing the connection to something most people have experienced. Roller coasters. Stay with me here, because I have been trying for a long time to figure out how to record these thoughts and feelings, and I think that this works.

So, you get on the ride because you know that in the end it will have been fun. The cart takes off slowly enough and everybody is smiling and having the time of their lives. But then comes the part where you start going up. Click. Click. Click. Higher and higher- way higher than it looked from the ground. It isn't long before you start questioning your sanity for ever stepping foot on this thing because there is no way out now but to ride it through to the end. Click. Click. Click. Higher and higher. And you know that with the last click, you are going to plummet downwards into a series of twists and turns that, to you, is totally unpredictable.

And then, just as the car reaches the crest of the hill, there is a moment when you take a look around and think, how pretty. Let's just stay up here for a while and enjoy the view. We don't need to move forward- that sounds scary. This is comfortable. And you might even start to wish that instead of getting on the roller coaster you had joined the swarms of young children and grandmas that were riding the little trams back and forth across the park. They seemed happy, and they didn't have to risk their lives to do it. How easy would that be?

And you ask yourself for the hundredth time, why do I keep doing this? Why do I always have to find the biggest, fastest roller coaster that there is? Why can't I just content myself with the tram? What's wrong with me? Why can I not help but to think big?

And then your stomach starts rising out of your throat and you realize that you are in free-fall and totally, one hundred percent, out of control. And you scream.

Well, that's pretty much what happened inside of me on Tuesday morning when my kids left at the airport. I was screaming inside.

Over the past several years I feel like we have been slowly moving up, up, up. The view has gotten better and better. And as I tried to ignore the inevitable drop that was looming in our future, I became very comfortable with the easy predictability of life. Last Sunday when I graduated I felt like I was on top of the world. Things had never been so good.

And then my stomach caught in my throat when I realized that for the next several months I would be in total free-fall. Starting Now.

Wednesday:
The good thing about roller coasters is that usually the gut-wrenching feeling of doom only lasts for a couple of seconds. And then you realize that, while the end of the world may someday come- that day was not in the near future (I had to make reference). But seriously, after just a couple of seconds of complete and utter terror, you suddenly realize that you are smiling and that you are actually enjoying yourself, and that the fear you had was more of the drop itself than for the twists and turns that followed. And the drop was over (or at least, almost over), and you were still alive.

That was Wednesday.

I was driving across the country with my beautiful wife, on her birthday nonetheless, and completely loving it. And oh how we drove. I'll just say that we became very familiar with the inside of that noisy, gutless, gas-guzzling truck. When we both got too tired to drive we would sleep in the back of our van where we had somehow fit our queen-sized mattress across the seats, and then we would wake up and drive some more.

Thursday-Saturday:
We arrived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on Thursday at around 11:00 am.

We have spent the past few days becoming familiar with our new town. This place is incredible! I honestly don't think I could design a better place to live. Here's a rapid breakdown of our agenda over these days:

Go to Q'emlin Park (Fact: There is nobody who actually knows the pronunciation of this park) and hike around in the beautiful alpine setting that is just three minutes from where we are going to live.

Go to Taco Loco- a locally owned taco shop that I inexplicably fell in love with from the moment I saw it. Strange, I know.

Go to Wal-Mart and wash up a little bit in their bathrooms since we haven't showered in several days. Sort of gross, I know.

Unload the U-haul into a storage facility. A few members of the local Elder's Quorum came to help us. One of them rents out rooms for a living and offered to let us live in one for free during our time here, and the Relief Society of the area made sure we had dinners for the duration of our stay. I love the church and the instant connections that it provides. Hopefully one day (soon) I will be able to be on the giving end of things.

Hike Tubbs Hill and stare in awe at the perfectness of this place. I seriously think that this may be the prettiest place to live in the whole world.

Hang out at the park by the Coeur d'Alene resort and think about how fun things are going to be when we have kids here.

Look at houses and realize that in the very-near future we will be able to buy a home that perfectly fits our needs.

Go to Corbin Park and see the perfect kayaking play spot that apparently gets a lot of attention in the summer. There is also a swimming hole right next to it and a put-in for a 6-mile class III stretch of river. Again, about five minutes from where we will live. I'm in heaven.

Go back to Q'emlin park in the early morning for some rock climbing. I love this place! We did three different climbs on these beautiful granite cliffs and realized how much we had missed climbing. There are over 120 climbs in this area, with a few more going up every year. Remember, 3 minutes. Amazing.

Get a place to rent while we are in the process of finding a home to buy. I think we may end up paying a bit more than we had hoped for, but that's okay. We will have a fenced-in yard, and that will be great.

Go to another park (I forgot the name- there are a lot of parks around here) and see, what I think, is the most beautiful home I have ever laid eyes on. We looked it up and apparently it is owned by the guy who sits at the top of a big multi-level-marketing (legalized pyramid-scheme) company. At 28,000 square feet (in the main house) I think it would be uncomfortably large to actually live in though.

Go out to dinner at the Olive Garden to celebrate Rachel's birthday.

Look at more homes.

Go to Falls Park (2 minutes) where they have stocked fishing holes for kids and adults, and a view over the waterfalls. The river is totally swollen right now and the falls are amazing. (Fact: It is impossible for anyone with the last name of Hazard to see any sort of whitewater without engaging in a serious discussion about how one would go about running it in a kayak).

Sunday:
We went to church and met our new ward. They are very welcoming, and we were very happy to see that during sacrament meeting there were times when the children were louder than the speaker. We will feel right at home.

You know, as I've been writing this I came to the realization that the other thing about roller coasters is that sometimes they surprise you. Just when you think you have figured out some sort of rhythm to the madness it will suddenly switch directions and take you off-guard. But I came to the realization that this unpredictability, while being a little bit scary, is what makes roller coasters fun. That, I think, is why I love them so much. They keep life interesting. And fun.

And now for the pictures:

You can buy food in bulk! I know it's a dumb thing to be excited about, but in Cleveland you can only buy bags of flour in 5 pound increments.

Oh- the sweet feeling of granite!

Our first view of Coeur d'Alene. This picture does no justice to the magnitude of this place.

This is in Cleveland. After we dropped the kids off at the airport we went to the lake by our house and walked around it and reminisced and cried a little bit and vowed to ourselves that we would never forget how wonderful the past four years had been.

Evelyn's last nap in Cleveland. Actually, I took this picture because I thought it was sort of funny just seeing her little mattress in the middle of an empty room. I'm weird, I know.

2011-05-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

Right now it is early morning and I am the only person awake. I am sitting on my front porch right now and commiserating over the past four years. There is a light rain falling- enough for the sounds and smells of rain but not enough to keep the birds from singing. It is beautiful.

I've been thinking about how great Cleveland has been to us. Rachel and I came here not really knowing what to expect. Actually, the very first time Rachel saw Cleveland was from the train- and she cried. Little did we know that we would totally fall in love with this place.

Part of it has to do with the sheer number of things to do around here. I think we can definitely say that we have "done" Cleveland. Of course there is the Rock and Roll hall of fame and the Cleveland Indians. But we have also gone to all sorts of different festivals, museums, venues, markets, parks, beaches, and attractions that are a little off the beaten path. And just when I begin to think that I have explored every nook and crany this city has to offer another surprise will pop up. That is the cool thing with big cities- they always have surprises. There is always something going on and some place to go. It's been a lifestyle that has worked well for us.

Another major contributor to the love I have for Cleveland comes on a more personal level. The other day I told Evelyn "her" story. I walked with her outside and told her about when we brought her home from the hospital. I brought her into our bedroom and showed her where the crib was, and then into the kitchen and pointed out where she would sit and eat. I showed her pictures of "baby Eva" when she was leaning to crawl and showed her the place where she took her very first steps. We then went back outside and I took her down to the forest at the end of our street and told her about how this was the first "walk" I ever took her on when she was just 2 weeks old.

As I was doing this, it really hit me that Cleveland will always have a special meaning to me because this is where it all started. When Rachel and I arrived here four years ago we did not have any children and our house felt huge! Well, according to some people we are now a large family, and somehow the home we have lived in for the past four years has taken on a much smaller size. I can't say exactly how I know this, but I think that being here for these few short years has permanently effected my family and the people we will all one day become. It's just a feeling I have.

When I think of Cleveland I also feel a certain sense of accomplishment. On the first day of dental school our dean came and gave a speech to our incoming class. At that time he told us to mark on our calendars May 15, 2011 . That was the day that we would become doctors. Well, in case you haven't noticed, that day is today. It's sort of crazy to me that this is the end. I have had this goal for a long time and finally it is happening. Later today I will proudly put on my wizard robes and march up in front of everybody to receive my diploma. And I won't lie- that feels good.

All of these thoughts were going through my head yesterday as we loaded up our truck. The friends, the activities, the living, the learning, the playing. Our house now looks a lot like it did when we moved in- empty. But it's not. Instead, it feels profoundly different. This house is still overflowing with love and with memories (and with people), and even without all of our stuff in it, it is still our home. Cleveland is our home. And we are leaving.

Goodbye Cleveland- it's been fun.

On to different (but not necessarily greater or better) adventures. Life is exciting.

Pictures: Obviously some of these were taken after I wrote the post.

First I'll show all of the obligatory graduation pictures. I like the wizard robes. They make me feel smart.

Here's Evelyn and Luke watching us load up the truck.

Here's Grandma, Addy, and Jackson watching us load the truck.

And here's Evelyn and Rachel- watching us load up the truck. It actually only took us about 20 minutes to load thanks to Rachel's excellent planning. All of the boxes we used were exactly the same size and all of the furniture was already disassembled. I have helped a lot of people move, and let me just say that we were easy. I am proud of that.

Notice Rachel's swollen cheek. Sadly, she had to have a tooth pulled this week. Even sadder- I couldn't be the one to do it because I had to stay home with the kids. Saddest of all- the doctor who did the extraction gave her over FORTY shots! WOAH! Talk about overkill. My jaw hurts just thinking about it.

We spent a lot of time at the park and just hanging out. It has been great having my parents and Allison here. They have been super helpful, and it has also been a lot of fun.

2011-05-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

There is so much going on right now that I am going to use headings to delineate topics on this blog. Before I start though, I need to share a funny thing that just happened. We are going to the zoo tomorrow and Evelyn is excited. Well, just now Evelyn saw a picture of a guy with dread-locks on an advertisement and she pointed to him and said "Momma- Maybe we'll see that animal at the zoo!"

That actually reminds me of another funny thing she said this week (FB users will recognize this). She was "reading" a Disney princess book the other day. Here is her version: "Cinderella has a blue dress and glass slippers... Ariel has red hair like me and a pink dress... Jasmine does NOT have enough clothes on!...Sleeping beauty has a pink and blue dress..."

It's interesting to see what kids pick up on. Anyway, on to the headings.

Happy Mother's Day!
I don't really know how to write about my mom. There are so many experiances and conversations and mental photographs that I have which have shaped the feelings that I have for her today that it is impossible to really express how grateful I am for her. I know she is probably reading this right now and thinking "oh, that's nice," but seriously, I want you to know, Mom, that I love you. Recent events (you know, the cancer scare and miraculous recovery and all) have really helped to put in perspective our relationship. I feel like it is perfect. I enjoy calling you on my walks home from school just to chat. I love how we can do that. I feel like we are friends and I think that is cool.

I love how involved you are in my children's lives even though you live six states away from us. I know you don't feel like it is enough, but I think it is significant that every one of them recognizes your face and your voice, and that Evelyn can cite memories she has of being with you. They know your personality and they love you.

I love your zeal for life and I definitely feel like that has rubbed off on me. You have taught me through your example how to be happy. I know you feel like Dad was the "fun parent," (at least that is what you have told me) but you need to know that you were every bit as involved as he was in infusing me with optimism and passion. When you talk about the things you do, whether it is stories from kindergarten or from a recent vacation, I can see that you totally live life to its fullest and enjoy every moment for what it is. I want to be like that, and I think because of you (and Dad), that I know how.

I could say a lot of other things, but it wouldn't really do them justice. Just know that I sincerely love you and that I think you are the best mother a guy could have. That's all.

Happy Six Year Anniversary!
That's right- it has been six years (on Thursday) since Rachel and I kneeled over the altar in the temple and got married. They have been the best six years of my life.

Someone once told me that when you get married you have your spouse on a pedistal, and that as time goes on you start to realize flaws and quirks that bring them down to a more realistic level. Well, all I have to say is that I feel bad for that person for not having married Rachel. Yes, I think that she was absolutely on a pedistal from the day I met her. And yes, I feel like I know her now better than I have ever known anyone else in my entire life. But the thing is, that in my eyes, her pedistal just keeps getting higher and higher.

I don't think I could have married a more perfect person. We have definitely grown into each other over the past six years, and I think that we are both better people because of it.

She is my best friend in the world.

Happy anniversay Mango- I love you!

"The Move"
Our house resembles an egg packaging facility. Enough said.

Evelyn
Evelyn, Evelyn. This little girl has totally captured and melted my heart.

Evelyn, I have thouroughly enjoyed spending so much time with you this week. You have been a great helper as we are getting ready for this move and I have loved having you alongside me packing boxes. It was fun going to school with you and packing up all of my dental stuff.

I have loved the depth of the conversations we have had. You are such a smart girl and it is fun to listen to you tell me about what you are doing and thinking and feeling. You love coloring and playing with your doll house and we frequently do these activities together while "telling stories."

This morning you came and snuggled with me in bed and we talked for a long time about a lot of things. You are looking forward to moving, but you are also a little bit nervous. You will miss your friends a lot, but you are very excited about getting to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa.

I know that this move is going to be a little bit hard for you. It is even harder for me, knowing that you don't fully understand how tough it's going to be. This week was your last week of pre-school and of dance class and of nursery. Tomorrow at the zoo you will see some of your friends for probably the last time ever. They have all definately been a part of your life and you have stories to tell about each of them. You love your friends. It makes me a little bit sad that you might not even remember some of these people, but at the same time a little bit glad that you are so young and that you will adapt quickly to your new location and make new ones. Don't worry sweetie, you'll be alright.

You, Evelyn, are an amazing dancer. I frequently dance around the house with you and I can freely admit that you are the better dancer between the two of us. When you hear music it's like you can't help it- you just have to move. Your dances are impressively "moody" and full of feeling. It's like you just have this natural ability to express yourself. I'm jealous. On Saturday you had a dance recital and you did great! I am very proud.

Every night after you fall asleep I go into your room and lay in bed with you for a little while. I always ask you if you know that your daddy loves you, and you always nod your head in your sleep. I hope that you really know that. You are truly -My-Little-Girl-

And you always will be.

Adalie and Jackson
I know it's not fair to group you together like this. Well, I have two things to say. First, get used to it. You are twins. You will always be grouped together. Second, I will do everything I can to help people see you as unique individuals.

And you are.

Addy- you are the cuddliest out of everyone. Your favorite thing is to bring me books and then snuggle into my lap as I read them to you. We would do this all day if you had your way. Today at church I got a chance to just hold you and love you for most of sacrament meeting.

You love dogs! Every time you see one, in real life or in a picture book, you totally crack up giggling and you can't stop repeating the words "dog" and "doggy." It is hilarious, and very, very cute. You are My Addy.

Jackson- you are a maniac! I mean this in the best way possible, but it is true. You are everywhere. If you could have your way you would just start running and never stop. Only you wouldn't run in a straight line. Nope. You are very easily distractable and you would end up running around in circles until you got dizzy and fell over. I know this because I have seen it happen.

You also have a very sweet and sensitive side which is starting to emerge and which is very specific to your individual personality. We have spent a lot of time together "figuring things out." You are so curious, and I have treasured these moments. You are my Little Man.

Both of you guys- When did you grow up? Holy smokes! I think that I might have been distracted by school or something, but this week I have come to the stark and kind-of bittersweet realization that you are not babies any more. I love it whenever you see me and you follow me around like little zombies chanting the words "Papa- Papa- Papa..." I am your Papa and I love you so much.

Well, this blog has turned into much more than I thought it would- in a good way. I honestly consider myself the luckiest guy in the world.

My family is my life.

And life is wonderful.

Here's Evelyn and Luke sharing a cup of milk after the dance recital.

My hippie girl. Adorable.

This is Elle, Evelyn's "best friend in the whole world." They are both princesses. Seriously.

Here's Evelyn's dance group.

She is so proud of herself- and she should be! I hope she is always able to stand with pride in herself and in her achievements- just like in this picture. This was taken at the dance recital (obviously).

Here is the video of her recital. In the first dance she is in the front on the far left. In the second, she is in the front on the far right. Enjoy!

2011-05-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

-Before you read this next post, go back to last week and watch the video of Addy and Jack "exercising." I know it has taken a long time, but as promised, I finally posted it.-

For the past 24 years I have been enrolled in formal education. The only break in this learning streak has been the two years that I took off for a service mission in Brazil. Basically, school has been a very large part of my life for as long as I can remember. And I have to say, I think that I have gotten pretty good at it. But now that is all coming to a close.

Friday was my last day of formal education, probably, that I will ever have. I am done with school. It's over. This is as far as I go.

Do you know how bizarrely strange this is for me? Very.

Do you know how absolutely terrifying this is for me? Very.

Do you know how wonderfully exciting this is for me? Very.

Obviously I have some mixed feelings. This isn't the first time I have had these feelings though. When I went to Brazil, I first passed through what we call a Missionary Training Center (MTC). There, we focus most of our time on learning the language (in my case, it was Portuguese). And then after 6 short weeks of intense training, they set us lose on the world. The feelings that I have now are a lot like those that I had as I left the MTC. Yes, there was a certain dread of the unknown, but at the same time I felt like I had reached a plateau in my education, and I knew that unless I took this next step I would never go much farther than I already was.

School has been good to me. I have learned a lot. I have done a lot. But now I feel like I need to move on in order to really progress any farther. And I love learning! I am super excited to start seeing my own patients and putting into practice the things I have learned. I am excited about the experiences I will have that will allow me to go so much farther than I was ever able to in the confines of a learning institution. And I am really excited to never, EVER wear scrubs again (the pajama look, I think, just squashes any degree of professionalism that was ever there).

So here's what I have to say- Look out world, here I come. This is going to be a blast!

On Saturday we went to the park with some friends. Here are some pictures we took. I have the greatest kids in the world.

Oh, this felt good. Even at $4.00/gallon, gasoline has never been more worth it. (Yes, those are the horrid scrubs I have had to wear for the past four years)

Just as a side note, this recent increase in gas prices is coming at a very opportune moment for us. In about three weeks Rachel and I will be driving 2,400 miles in a truck that gets 8 miles (or less) to the gallon. This thought is almost as exciting as sitting and contemplating the loads of student loans I get to start paying on!

Rachel got to have a yard sale. As mentioned in earlier posts (5-30-2010), I am not too into the garage sale thing. Rachel, on the other hand, loves these events. Well, on Saturday, Rachel and a bunch of other people in our ward got together for a big fest of second-hand merchandise. At the rate that Rachel is selling our stuff we may not have to get that moving truck after all!

We were horrible parents and failed to dye eggs last week. I know- this is totally inexcusable and we should be cast into parent prison for our transgression of time-honored tradition. We tried to make up for it, however, by doing it on Monday for Family Night. Evelyn loved it. Adalie loved drinking the colored vinegar. No joke. I tell you, that girl does not discriminate- she will eat (or drink) anything!

2011-04-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

According to Rachel, this week we were "lame-o" picture takers. Sorry.

But it was still a great week (we just don't have any proof). There are three major things/events that happened this week.

First of all, our house is finally starting to look like we are getting ready to move out. Although we still have about three weeks before we actually drive away from Cleveland, we are trying to get an early start on packing to make things easier for us. Also, we are selling a bunch of our stuff on Craigslist. Consequentially, our furniture is slowly being replaced by boxes of stuff and our basement is filling up with already-packed items. It is an exciting time.

The second big thing was my Senior dinner. This is a big "we-did-it" celebration where we get to dress up and go hang out with all our future doctor friends and commemorate a great four years together. Besides the food, there is also a video that the class put together to remember some of the highlights of being a dental student. It was fun to be there and to be able to bring Rachel to see this other side of my life that she isn't super involved with. It was a little weird for me to think that she didn't even know the majority of these people, some of whom had become close friends of mine, and that they hadn't really seen her either.

There was also an award ceremony at the dinner where I was presented with an award from the American Osseointegration Society for outstanding achievement in the field of dental implants. I didn't know this was coming and I was sort of surprised, but I am also excited because I have done a lot of extra work in this area and it's good to see some recognition for it. I also set up my first appointment as a real dentist this week to place an implant as soon as I receive my dental license. This is all pretty crazy. And really cool.

The third noteworthy event this week, of course, was Easter. On Saturday we went to a big community Easter egg hunt. It lasted a total of 15 seconds and was possibly the scariest thing I have ever been a part of. Kids can be crazy. It was sad too, because after all was said and done, Addy, Jack, and Eva were just standing there looking a little bit shell-shocked and wondering what had happened. They had no eggs in their baskets.

They weren't the only disappointed children, so the organizers agreed to have a second "egg hunt," and this time, we got to be in the front of the stampede. Great. Now, besides being sad about not having any eggs, my kids are going to be trampled by their own kind. Awesome.

But Rachel had things totally under control. As soon as the announcer said "Go," she was running full-speed onto the field with a kid bouncing and dangling under each arm. It was really impressive, and I can tell she had been working out. She then started scooping up piles of eggs and guarding them with the tenacity of a mother bear protecting her cubs. I think she even made one little girl cry by growling at her. But it was all worth it because in the end she had created a "safe harbor" for our kids to pick the eggs up and put them in their baskets without running the risk of certain death at the hands of a greedy 5-year-old. By the way, we usually don't believe in sheltering our children, but desperate times call for desperate measures and in the end we came out unscathed and, believe it or not, smiling.

So, that was our week. Like I said before, no pictures. We do, however, have one movie to show you. These are Addy and Jackson's "exercises." They are going to be in great shape if they keep this up! Next Easter they will be ready!

-Movie coming soon. Check back later if it isn't up yet. We'll get to it. I promise.-

2011-04-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

It is 10:15 at night. I have this nagging feeling though, that if I do not do the blog tonight, that it will not get done. Also, this week actually held a few blog-worthy events that I want to make sure I get down before they seem insignificant. So here goes...

First of all, Jackson does an amazingly cute impression of a lion. He makes claws with his hands, puts his arms up over his head, and growls. When he does this he sounds like an old man who has a chain-smoking habit. It's pretty good, and I sure do love my Jackson Man.

Next: Adalie is really good at signing "I love you." It has sort of become our thing. We will look at each other and sign "I love you," and then touch finger to finger, and then run our fingers up each other's arms and tickle each other. I know it sounds super cheesy, and it would be if Adalie were, say, my girlfriend in high-school. But she is my 1-year-old daughter who I cherish and who has found a cute way to connect with her daddy so I will embrace this. I sure do love that girl.

Evelyn got to go on a date with both me and Rachel this afternoon. A friend works for the Cleveland Orchestra and she got us tickets to "Peter and the Wolf." So today after church we put Addy and Jack down for nap time and brought Evelyn to the show. She loved it! She was very good for the whole thing. The wolf music sort of scared her, but at the end she said that the wolf was her favorite character. On the way home we had fun looking for "popcorn trees." I sure do love that girl.

Also, I think I will have the "Peter" theme in my head for the next two weeks. Drat! (I've been looking for an excuse to use that word.

Evelyn also got to host a "Tangled Party" this week. Shannon (Rachel's sister) sent her the movie "Tangled," along with a Rapunzel costume, several Rapunzel accessories, and some candy. Well, it just so happened that this package arrived on the same day that we were babysitting several of Evelyn's friends. So that night we had 8 kids at our house (including ours), and we had a movie night. It was fun, and I actually ended up liking the movie more than I thought I would.

Rachel spent most of her Saturday attending a workshop for interpreting. She had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The most important thing that I think she learned, however, is how good an interpreter she actually is. I am so proud of her accomplishments in this field and I think that it is very cool that she has this part of her that she can develop totally for herself. She does so much for me and the kids that it makes me happy when I see her doing this. I know she loves it, and it makes me love her even more.

As for me, I attended my first deaf performance on Saturday. It was a story-teller, and the tables were sort of turned because this time they had an interpreter there to help the hearing people who didn't know sign language (me) to follow along. It was actually pretty good. I don't think I have ever seen someone be so expressive without using any words before. Pretty incredible. It also looked pretty exhausting.

And that pretty much sums up our week. We have just started packing for this move but we still haven't totally figured out how we are doing it yet. Actually, we don't even know if we will have a place to move all of our stuff too. The next month is going to be very interesting. The next three months, even more so. Life is exciting.

Here's me and Evelyn at "Peter and the Wolf"

The Tangled Party

I just had to put this up. She has been able to say her ABCs for some time now, but I still think it is super cute every time. The dress she is wearing is the one she got from Shannon this week. And yes, Addy and Jack are crying in the background.

2011-04-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

This week was busy. Now that we have a destination and a time frame it seems like the days are going by twice (three times?) as quickly as before. It also seems like we have twice as many things that we need to do every day in preparation for the big move.

One topic that seems to be prevalent in our conversations is exactly how we are going to go about this move. We could rent a moving truck and tow the van. That would be the easiest thing. The other option is that we could pull a trailer with our van which would cut the cost of the move in half. The only thing is that we would then have to sell a bunch of our stuff (a trailer is obviously much smaller than a moving truck) and then re-buy it all when we get to our new home. I've made a spreadsheet and everything, and this option seems to make a lot of sense except for the extreme amount of stress that it would involve. Also, this option is a little less predictable and may end up costing more in the long run. Oh the dilemma. I think we'll probably end up going with the truck, but I am sure that I will be second-guessing myself all the way to Idaho. I just hate it when I know I could be doing something a better way but I am not.

Despite the seemingly busy week we had we were still able to get out for some leisure activity. Yesterday we went to the zoo for the first time of the year and that was a lot of fun. I like zoos. I really am intrigued with the animals there and it is made even better by the fact that we have three children.

Evelyn: Look Jackson, a lion. Lion says raaaaaaarrr!
Addy: Raaaaaaarrrrr! giggle giggle squeal!
Jackson: (frantic wide eyed pointing) duh duh duh duh duh

Very fun.

Have any of you seen the movie Cinderella? You know the part where the mice are bringing the key up the stairs to rescue Cinderella. When Gus (the fat mouse) sees how many stairs he has to climb he does this same frantic noise- "Duh duh duh duh"- as Jackson. I think about this every time our Jack gets excited about something.

Since Rachel and I didn't get a date night this week we decided to create our own. After we got home from the zoo we fed the kids and got them off to bed a little bit early. Then we made a gourmet Italian dinner for the two of us and ate it by candlelight. Afterwords we watched a chick-flick. I have to say it was one of the best "dates" I have been on lately.

Well, I need to go. Evelyn just announced that she made us dinner. "Macaroni and Cheese" made out of nothing but water! This will be interesting. Here are some zoo pictures of our week. Enjoy. Evelyn "Riding on her camel." She says this ALL THE TIME. Ever since her first piggy-back ride. "I'm riding on my camel. I 'm riding on my camel." I have no idea where this came from. I had no idea she even knew what a camel was. But I am her camel when we are playing games, and anything else she can "ride on" also becomes her camel. She is so weird.

2011-04-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while we experience big, life changing events that mark a significant change in our lives. I have had several of these events that have moulded me into who I am today.

The first truly life-changing day of my life was probably the day I got on an airplane headed for Brazil to serve a two-year mission for my church. It was scary and I didn't really know what to expect. I was going into something that was totally new for me. Today I look back on those two years as the time that, more than any other, shaped the person who I am. Brazil is where I learned how to be a grown up. It is where I learned the importance of relationships, how to form them, and how to keep them. It is where I learned how to be confident in myself as well as how to trust in others. It is where I learned how to set goals and how to make them come to fruition. And of course, it is where I truly learned the importance of God in my life and where I made the decision to give Him a very active role in everything else that I do. It was life-changing.

The next big change, I would have to say, came when I met Rachel. We met in a dance class and soon started dating. Rachel was the best friend I ever had. I think that after just a few dates she probably knew and understood me better than others who had been a part of my life for a much longer time. At the same time, I felt like I knew and understood her better than anyone else I had ever met. Our relationship was "synergistic" in that our differences seemed to make each of us better. We always knew that we loved spending time together and that a lot of our interests coincided, but as time progressed it became clear to both of us that we, in a very real way, completed one another as well. And that we loved one another very, very deeply. And so we got married. That was one of the best days of my life.

I would say that my acceptance into dental school marked one of these life-changing days as well. I had applied to several schools and each one of them had invited me to an interview. I was confident that I could get into any of these schools that I wanted, but I was about to put that confidence on the line when we both had the strong impression that Case Western, here in Cleveland, was where we were "supposed" to go. I clearly remember the afternoon that I systematically went through the list of schools and called them saying that I would not be interviewing. I had a clear vision in my head of me, standing in the middle of a circle, with several pathways extending out from it. With every phone call I made, a stone barrier blocked off one of these pathways until there was only one remaining. Case. This is the path we felt we should follow. The only thing is that we had yet to be accepted. And so it was with a little bit of nervousness that I opened the letter that I received from Case on December 1, 2006. Of course that letter held the happy news that I was "in" and that I would one day achieve my goal of being a dentist.

Of course the births of each of my three wonderful children have marked life-changing events for me. As I look back I realize how much my life, up until that point, centered around me. Of course Rachel was there too, but we were so much alike that it seemed the same. When we wanted to go rock climbing, we did. When we didn't want to wake up early, we slept in. When we decided to go on vacation we got in the car and left, sometimes for weeks at a time. Life was spontaneous and fun, but in retrospect, it was also a little empty. Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson have each taught me the amazing joy that can be found in giving your life totally to someone else. Sure it means that we can't do some of the same things we used to, but it is so totally worth it. The other night I was laying on the couch and Evelyn came and put her arms around me and told me she loved me. That in itself is worth all the sacrifice in the world. I have tried before to explain on this blog, but I just don't think that words can do justice to the amazing feeling of happiness that comes from being responsible for another person's well-being. It is truly life-changing.

So you are probably wondering why I am writing all of this touchy-feely stuff. Well, this week we had another one of those life-changing moments. I got my first real job. Here is the story.

Over the course of the last few years Rachel and I have had countless discussions about where we wanted to live. Whether it be Colorado vs. California or Idaho vs. Oregon, we have spend hours and hours comparing different places. And then one day, about 8 months ago, it hit us both at the same time. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The thought that we had was closer to a prompting than and idea, and since then we have had several strong impressions that this is where we were "supposed" to live. So the decision was made. The Hazard Family would be from Coeur d'Alene.

For the past 8 months I have been doing everything I can to network and get my name out to potential employers in this area. There were two major problems to this: First of all, I am currently living on the other side of the country. Second, my target area is small and a little bit saturated with dentists. I started out by sending hundreds (literally) of unsolicited letters and emails to anyone I could find in the area who might be able to give me a lead on a possible job. Obviously, most of these turned out to be dead ends. But a few people actually responded and said that I might try talking with so-and-so. Now that I had a reference, I could call so-and-so and say that I was referred to them by a colleague. This was obviously much better than just blindly sending off letters. And so the process continued. But although I was able to build an impressive contact list from these efforts, I still had very little in terms of possible places of employment.

The whole time we were doing this I was watching graduation arrive ever quicker. I was one of the few people left in my class who still didn't have plans for work, and I was starting to get a little nervous. After all, in 6 months I needed to start making payment on my student loans (which are substantial). Finally, through a lot of correspondence with a lot of people, I was able to plan a trip to the area to interview for three different jobs. One of these jobs was "perfect." The other two were just jobs that would allow me to get into the area (and pay my bills). If we didn't see any results from these interviews then we were going to go to "plan B" and begin looking in other places.

Well, this week we found out the results of these interviews. All three jobs extended offers for me to come and work. We talked about it, prayed about it, and in the end decided to take the "perfect" job. It is actually just across the Idaho/Washington boarder and will be a short 15-20 minute commute from our dream home (that we are still looking for) in Idaho. The hours are great, the dentistry is EXACTLY what I wanted, the location is perfect, and the pay will allow us to live comfortably. I could seriously not ask for anything else. This is life-changing. I have a sense that we are finally settling down. We are looking to buy a home that we will live in indefinitely. We are going to say "The Hazards are from Coeur d'Alene." It happened. After a lot of sincere prayers and hard work it really happened. We are so blessed. Here is a video I put together of the area. I don't know any of the people in this video, but they look happy!

Other things also happened this week. Actually, it was a rather eventful week. The job thing just sort of seemed to overshadow everything else. Here are some other pictures:

We went to a play-gym where the kids had a great time.

This is a picture of a dead motorcycle. I figured it was about time to take it out of the garage after a long winter. After a little bit of work I got it started, and was out on my first ride. I was just remembering how much I love riding motorcycles when I distinctly heard and felt something break in the engine. The bike came to a stop. The engine doesn't respond to the throttle. I haven't really had a chance to look into it yet, but I'm pretty sure this is the end. She was a good first bike.

Rachel took Evelyn on a date! They went and saw Winnie-the-Pooh, the play. The play was spoken and in ASL, and Rachel and Evelyn both had a great time. Afterwords, Christopher Robin gave Evelyn a little stuffed Piglet (she is holding it) and she got to meet all of the characters. So fun.