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!

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!

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...

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

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.

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.

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.