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!

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!

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.