In this post I want to feature Evelyn. I have to say, I am so proud of this girl. In the past year she has matured into such a phenomenal young woman that it is hard to believe that I get to be her dad. I am not great at gushing, but seriously, she is about as cool a kid as one could ask for.

This is her being inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. To achieve this she has had to maintain straight A's, be in good standing with all school/community rules, and take part in several hours worth of community service outside of school. For Ev, this was a breeze. She does all these things anyway!

I really wish this photo were better quality because I absolutely love her sense of style. She has cultivated a grungy look that fits perfectly with her drumming and skateboarding. Honestly, she could be featured in a music video in the 90s. This year she was the only drummer in the 7th grade, so on most days she had to carry the rhythm section all on her own- a position that I think she both stressed over and relished at the same time. In these photos she is standing in with other grades to help out during the band concert last week (That's why there are other drummers in the pics).
 

She is already looking forward to next year when she can join the more exclusive Jazz band and lead the percussion section on the kit. Besides band, she goes to a weekly anime club and has a tight group of friends that she hangs out with. 

I had to include this photo of her (climber on the right) for two reasons. First, because we hardly ever get her to tie in and this is a unique moment. And second, because I think it shows a lot about her personality. She definitely does her own thing. Most of the time she is very content to explore the area, read her book, take photos, or offer an extra belay when needed. This last week she walked up to a route though, and tied in like it was the most natural thing in the world. She then proceeded to climb the route three times in a row, getting higher and higher each time, until she finally reached the top with no falls. Coming down, she untied without a word and walked away, obviously proud of herself but without doing much at all by way of celebration. I think I managed to get a fist bump out of her before she was off to other things. Cool and accomplished, yet understated. That's Ev in a nutshell.

*****

As for our family, we went camping last week at local area owned by a climber who has developed, in essence, an outdoor climbing gym. He has done tons of development and allows people to camp on his land for free, asking only that they leave things better than when they arrived- something our family tries to do anyway. We had a great time camping and climbing, Jackson belayed a leader for his first time, and Rachel sent her hardest outdoor route to date. Pretty good week.

Hammocks are always a favorite place to hang out. Get it? Hang out? Ha!

Campfire stories and songs

What a beautiful area. If you look really closely (and maybe make the picture bigger) you can see Jackson climbing on the wall by our camp.

We have the coolest family! A lot of the climbing here is on friction slabs, a new style for our kids that is scary to get used to- especially on lead.

Here's me watching Jack do his first leader belay. Addy is the climber that you can't see, but she also did a great job.

Sausage, pancakes, and eggs. Breakfast of champions.

Rachel ugly-crying out of pride after her send

Looking strong!

Well, that's pretty much it. We also did a bunch of scout stuff, but I'll wait for next week to write about that. 

At the top of one of my projects that went down recently. I've still got it!

Have a good week!

 Wow- what a week! As the school year wraps up, a lot of other activities tend to come at the same time and we have definitely been busy parents. Rather than write about this whole week at once though, we will save some things and highlight certain kids individually in later posts. For now, we'll focus mostly on us as a family.

Actually, first we'll focus on Rachel and me. We had heard of a little climbing competition that was happening and we thought we'd check it out. The idea was to see who could do the most routes on a certain cliff in a 48 hour period. Spoiler alert- I climbed every route there in less than 6 hours, sight unseen, and with no falls (onsight). For those who care, that is 24 pitches, ranging from 5.7 to 5.12a in difficulty. I feel good about that. Rachel also led four climbs and didn't take any falls either. It was a fun day of climbing. We gracefully (I think) bowed out of the competition because we didn't think it would be sportsmanlike to stay in, but we kept climbing and made some new friendships along the way with other participants. That night we hung out around a campfire until well past dark, told old climbing stories, played the ukulele, and watched climbing movies. Climbers are cool, and it was a good time.

The next morning we woke up and packed our trailer before heading out to Priest Lake with the crew. A quick drive got us there and it wasn't long before we were exploring, swimming, eating, and just hanging out as a family. There really isn't too much more to say. Camping has become very easy for us, and it seems that there is some sort of mountain magic that makes it so that people just get along better.

Most obnoxious kid ever. Don't even know who he belongs to, but I'm pretty sure Rachel was ready to throw him off the dock and then laugh at him. And she's not a mean person. But this kid...

No more obnoxious kid. Ahhh.

So I have officially been a doctor for ten years now. Wow. That went by fast. 

It was because of this that Rachel and I found ourselves sitting on the deck last week talking about how our family has evolved over the years with distinct milestones along the way. There was the "newlywed" stage. The "dental school" stage. The "hellish-nightmare-of raising-young-children-while-at-the-same-time-trying-to-start-a-career-while-dealing-with-deep-seated-existential-angst" stage. The "we-have-a-built-in-babysitter!" stage. And now, the best stage of them all. The "wow...we-have-a-really-awesome-family" stage. 

This milestone officially hit a few months ago. It was a lovely day at the resort. I had just watched Maren and Lindsey take the lift up, all by themselves, to spend the next couple of hours together with no adult supervision. Meanwhile, Rach and I skied together with no kids to wait on. We would later meet back around a good meal and talk about our days, laughing at each other's wipe-outs. 

This is but one example. 

Almost everything we do as a family is now appreciated and enjoyed by everyone for it's own sake. This is huge! I mean, it's nice to have fun because you like watching your kid smile. Things like going on a slide and saying "wheee" or watching them hold their breath while you count to ten, and then celebrating like they just won the world series. It's great. At least that's what we tell ourselves. But it's really not, and I've never been very good at pretending. I can't sell it. And acting childish or rejoicing in childish things just doesn't seem to do it for me the way it does with some adults. 

You know what I find infinitely more satisfying than this charade that we call parenting? I'll tell you. It is when you have fun because you are actually having fun, and your kid also happens to be there, right next to you, because they are actually having fun at the same time. Or when you are hanging out with a group of friends, sharing ideas, maybe participating in some friendly banter, and then it dawns on you that- holy cow- this group of friends actually consists of your own kids, and you get just as much (or maybe more) out of their company as they do from yours.

Each person in our family has developed a wonderful personality all of their own, and the blend is something that I have come to love. It just seems to work.

Well, most of the time. 😉

***** 

This weekend we drove down to Utah for our annual Hazard Holiday. The kids missed two days of school and we just got to hang out and play together. Some of our original plans were, unfortunately, cancelled due to weather, but we filled in the time with other things that were a little surprising and different for us. Also, I love that our family is old enough now that we don't need to worry about fatuous or hyperactive behavior any more. We were able to go to some nice places and have several in-depth conversations on a broad range of topics, and I really appreciate what the kids were able to bring to the table. They are at a really neat age where they have enough sophistication to discuss mature topics, but from an uniquely innocent perspective with few preconceived notions. It is interesting, and sometimes delightfully insightful to hear what they have to say about things.

Anyway- we don't need to do a play-by-play here. Suffice it to say we had a great weekend. Hazards rock!

Bear World with my parents

Lots of good food. We went a little nicer on this trip than our normal fast food/breakfast restaurant repertoire.

Of course the hotel swimming pool was a hit. I will never understand why.

This was kind of a cool place. A "live action video game" with 15 levels to try and pass. We broke into teams and climbed, jumped, balanced, and problem-solved our way through as much as we could. Neither team was able to make it all the way through, but we had fun trying.

Obligatory angel wing photo

This is from an outdoor "culture festival" that we went to. We like festivals.

Family walk in the International Peace Gardens on the one day we actually had decent weather.

We capped off the trip by seeing a performance of Les Miserables. It was my third time seeing it, but the first time watching it performed in the round. It also might have been my favorite time seeing it, if anything, because I was sitting next to Lindsey, Adalie, and Jackson. Everyone cried at some point during the show, and everyone had great things to talk about afterwards. I think this is the beginning of a long tradition of theater for our family.

Last night, Rach and I were sitting on the deck watching the sun go down. The lawn had been freshly mowed and the hedges trimmed. We were coming off a great weekend of camping, and I had just sent one of my 2-year-long climbing projects earlier in the day. The weather was perfect.

It's a little early in the year, but it felt like summer. I like it.

The major event for our family this week was our camping trip. Lots of hiking. Lots of exploring. Lots of swimming. Some good times around the fire, just hanging out. Stories. Games. Friendly contests. Everyone was involved and everyone had fun. It was a good weekend.

Besides that, I had study club this weekend, which I always look forward to. Good stuff.

Also, today is Rachel's birthday, but we won't celebrate it until later. Happy birthday!

Have a good week!

Since the last post, things have started getting busier for us. This seems to happen every year around this time, like a pitcher winding up for a fast-ball, things begin to move quicker and quicker leading up to that fateful moment with the ball is released into the air- a time known to us as summer vacation.

Most of the past week was spent hosting newfound friends in our house as they looked for a home of their own in this crazy market. We had fun getting to know their family and by the end of the week they had found a perfect place to move into in a couple of months.

Also, spring time means spring cleaning. For us at home, this meant the addition of a new garden area to our backyard. In the broader community, our family has been taking part in several projects to clean up local climbing areas. It's been fun to involve the kids in these projects, and I think we've made some good memories along the way.

Getting things ready

Done! This whole project was somewhat of an impulsive thing. We went to a flower sale at a local high-school just to support the program. This prompted talks though, which prompted trips to various nurseries and landscape stores, which led to this final result about 6 hours later. The kids were great helpers and I can definitely say it was a family effort. Now we'll see if it will actually grow. Apparently, some of these plants will get pretty big.

The two pictures above this caption are from our cleanup of Q'emiln Park. The two below are from Minnehaha.

Before we started things were looking pretty rough. We got most of it off.

You can see Ev in the background with the white hat and sweatshirt around her waist. That "Elephant Snot" paint remover stuff is no joke, and two of our kids came home with minor chemical burns. They took it in stride though, and seem excited for the next time we get to help with stuff like this.

Last weekend we took a trip to Utah for Shannon's wedding (Rachel's sister). It was a beautiful outdoor wedding with a casual feel and everything went perfectly. We were excited to be able to hang out with family, if only for a little while, and the car trip there and back couldn't have gone any smoother. We liked it so much, in fact, that we are driving down again in a couple of weeks just for fun. For those who are counting, that makes three Utah trips in five weeks. I am glad we have awesome kids! This trip featured the play Wicked, and it did not disappoint!  We have officially added it to our list of plays to see with the kids. Did I mention that Broadway announced its reopening? Yeah. That happened this week as well. 

Rach and her sister, Marissa, getting things ready

Jack insisted we get this hat for him, and then he casually "borrowed" a flower from the decorations to put in the brim. This dapper kid has a style all his own, and he pulls it off well.

Just hanging out after the ceremony. The kids had fun putting on shows for us at the amphitheater. 

One more thing- I think I mentioned sometime in the past how the kids have all been running this past month to try and earn awards for Bloomsday. Well, the month came and went, and they all ran enough days to earn a trip to Silverwood for the whole family! Did I mention that we have awesome kids?!

Alright- have a good week!