Our weeks have been very full lately, and our weekends have been very active. We are approaching the end of the school year, and that comes along with a lot of programing and tests and due dates. Rach and I are both pretty busy at work as well, so it seems sometimes like it never stops. And, to be honest, I kind of prefer it that way.

This last weekend we spent time close to home, hiking, rock climbing, gardening, and barbecuing. Rach and I did a quick jaunt up to the Wallace house on Sunday afternoon to do some little maintenance chores, and the drive itself was kind-of like a date. It's not every day we get to just talk with each other for hours at a time without interruptions. It was nice.

The weekend before that we went a little further off the beaten path. Originally it was going to be a climbing trip, but road closures forced a change in plans and we made a quick pivot to a nearby hiking spot. This was actually a really fun day- especially when the four oldest kids and I climbed a dicey little gully to end up on top of the plateau, and then had to explore our way back down and around to the lake again. I don't think I'll ever get tired of these little side adventures, and it makes me almost hope that the day never comes that everything goes exactly according to plan. So many memorable moments in my life- mostly good ones- come from things going off-script a little bit. 

Here are some pictures.

Evelyn: "This week I went to my school's art show, played our spring concert, and went to a party. It wasn't very eventful because I was dying sick or training most days"

Ok (this is Logan again), I have to admit that I became a little emotional at this concert. It was a Jazz concert. At the very beginning of the school-year, Ev asked and pleaded with the band teacher to do a rendition of "Zoot Suit Riot," a fun little 90s song that we listen to sometimes around the house. He finally gave in, and they performed it, with her on the kit, as the last song of the set on the last day of her getting to play in a high-school concert. Man- I guess context is everything, because didn't know that song could be so dang bittersweet.  

All the seniors in band did a poster presentation on themselves, got special recognition at the end of the concert with short bios and a description of future plans, and were given a vinyl record selected by their friends (Nazareth for Ev, which, if you know her, makes a lot of sense).

This is the party that Ev went to. I asked who's party it was and she said "I don't know, but I was invited because she showed up to my clothing swap." And then she went, and she left with a bunch of new friends.

This is one of the many reasons I don't worry too much about Ev. I was never the person to just show up at a party knowing that I would make friends. Frankly, I still don't even know where I would start if I were to try. The thought alone is terrifying to me. Which, I think, is why the thought of her going down to Boise makes me a little nervous. But then I look at this, and so many other examples, where she just shows up and seems to thrive. She's a cool kid.

Band seniors. Ev is toward the left, holding one of her best friends in her arms. This group!

Traditional after-concert celebration at Denny's. I think.

The art show she went to. These were actually drawn by Ghost- the person in the front of the previous picture.

Addy: "This week I participated at the Youth Water Summit, which was a presentation of a project my friend and I have been working on for the entire school year. It was a ton of fun and definitely a relief to get it done. The fish was the mascot of something. I'm not actually sure. Oh yeah, I had a concert too."

As an end-of-the-year project, Jackson and his class partner headed up a reforestation service project where we planted about 60 trees. It was well-organized and the work went quickly. Pretty cool.

Maren spent like $40 ordering individually wrapped snacks from Japan...just because. Some of them were pretty good. Some were familiar. Some were definitely NOT very good (like the dried and salted little fish in what was supposed to be a sort of Chex mix).

Just a picture of Maren and Addy on skateboards

Lindsey: "I went to get boba and had a sleepover with Gracie this week."

This has been one of the busiest and most eventful weeks we have had for a while. A lot of it is personal work related things for both Rachel and me. On top of that though was a track meet, Senior Prom for Ev, and a fun day rock climbing with the family. All the end-of-the-year things are happening at school and our kids are counting the days. We finished a big garden project and re-seeded the lawn and Lindsey lost a tooth (not a big deal anymore around here- our kids have a combined total of 100 baby teeth to lose, and Lindsey is on the tail end of that). It's been a pretty good week. Here are some photos:

Ev and Josh have been together since middle school. It's neat that they got to go to prom together.

The group photo

On Mother's Day we went and spent the day together climbing. Afterwards, we got pizza at one of our favorite places, then went on an impromptu walk at a nearby park.

I promise that this and the next few pictures are completely candid. This is just us being completely normal. It's what we do when we're at a park together. 

Who knew that a wall could be so much fun

Have a good week!

Hello, friends! This is Rachel here to bring you the blog update. We welcomed Nancy and Greg this week to hang out and do life with us. They made the trek up here to watch Evelyn compete in the Solo and Ensemble State competition as she was in one of the five groups that did well enough in the local competition to merit an invite to state.

After they left, Logan and I had a quiet moment where we reflected on what a wonderful visit it had been. There were all of the 'things' we did (shown in pictures below), and there were also continuous good conversations and the comfortable feeling of longtime friends just hanging out. Those moments are priceless.

In addition to the pictured events below, we enjoyed a Backyard BBQ with Marissa's family, breakfast dates, Ev's speech about 'Side Quests' that seemed to make it into multiple conversations, birthday shopping and dessert, an Improv night, lots of gardening, and evening walks. It was a lovely visit, and we are already looking forward to the next one!

These guys rocked their performance. They worked hard for it!

Nancy and Greg were here to enjoy a concert put on by North Idaho College that had PFHS Jazz Band as their special guest performers.

Lindsey competed in long jump and the 100 meter dash in her track meet while G and G were in town

Our current project got a lot of love this week with a few extra hands to help. Thank you for all of your hard work! On Saturday morning Nancy, Greg, and I went to the annual plant sale for New Vision High School. I am excited to put the wide variety of plants into the ground. I have never heard of many of them, and I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of flowers bloom! 

Evelyn has spent a month planning a clothing swap at our house. She set up an army of volunteers, invited all of her friend groups, and advertised on Instagram. 75 or so people showed up, and it was a wild success! Nice work, Ev.

Jackson has been taking a photography class in school. He is loving it! Everyday he brings home very expensive cameras to experiment with. Lindsey is a very willing subject, and I like the feel that he captured in this photo.

Have a good week!

 A couple of years ago, Lindsey was invited by a friend to go to an Irish Dance class. The other mom offered to give her rides, and it was easy for us to just shrug our shoulders and say "sure," without really even knowing anything about it. Irish dance? Like, clicking your heels and the stuff of the Lucky Charms guy? Ok.

Since then, the friend that invited her has moved on to other things, but Lindsey has stuck with Irish through it all. And somehow, even after years of doing this, I have still never really watched her do a full dance routine. There haven't really been any recitals or anything. At the end of the year, the teacher usually puts together a montage video of everyone dancing, but watching it on tv isn't the same.

But then it was announced that the dance school (really, just someone's backyard shop-turned-studio), would be entering an actual, real life competition, and that a select few kids could go. Lindsey was ecstatic and determined that she would be one of them. And she was.

That competition happened this weekend. We drove down to the Missoula county fairgrounds in Montana and it quickly became apparent that I had no idea what I was in for. As soon as I entered the building I saw kids and teams everywhere, leaping around like little forest animals, doing their hair, tying their special dance shoes, and getting ready for their moment in the spotlight. The periphery of the building had vendor booths with Irishy things, and there were food trucks on the lawn ready to serve up our lunch (tamales, so...not Irish). Some of the parents (mostly moms) were coaching their kids. Some of the parents (mostly dads) looked as out of place as felt. After a while, the announcer's voice came across the loudspeaker for the first groups to get ready. It was about to start. Then a foursome (Quartet? Four-hand? Four-leaf-clover?) walked stiffly onto stage, signaled they were ready, and the music began. 

It was actually really, really cool. The mixture of the music, the atmosphere, the movement, the energy- it was just kind of neat. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I know I came away taking Irish dance a little more seriously. The traditional-ness of it added to the feel while at the same time creating a common playing field of sorts for the dancers. The interactions between teams and individuals was always encouraging and fun, and never really competitive. In short, I was genuinely impressed.

As for Lindsey's team- they won first place in their category, and "most creative" overall. The other team from the school won second place in their category. So yeah- not a bad showing for the competitive debut of a new school- especially since the dances themselves were choreographed by the students. The teacher should be proud. Lindsey was very, very excited to be there. And I really enjoyed watching her in her element. Good vibes all around.

Outside of the dance comp, we are still doing a lot of spring cleaning. I got the garage and my gym looking a little better, and we got some garden boxes for the back yard. Rachel and I are also a part of this little landscape project at the church, and we made some progress there, which is fun to see. Evelyn and Adalie actually spent the weekend down in Moscow at a Jazz thing and said they had a good time. They have a concert later this week at North Idaho College that we will go and watch, so that should be good.

Anyway- here are some photos. Have a good week!

With the end of ski season last week we have officially shifted gears into "spring cleaning" mode. Lots of projects around the house and yard. Nice weather. It was good.

The rest will be shared with photos:

I'd say the biggest event of the week was going up and helping with the clean-up of "Craiglandia." It is a private property/climber's crag that some friends of ours own. They had a great turnout, we cut/moved/burned a ton of brush, roasted hot dogs, and had a good time climbing afterwards.

Most of the time we were there was spent loading/unloading endless trailer-loads full of branches and logs

A couple years ago a large fire went through the property, making most of the wood pretty sooty.

Lindsey and her friend ran a 5k last weekend. You can tell how seriously they took it by the jeans and high-top converse shoes.

Coming into the finish line

Lindsey is also on the middle school track team, where she takes things a little bit more seriously. But just a little.

The weather is getting nice enough for tennis. To some of us, this means actually playing the game. To others, it is more about dancing and springtime vibes.

I thought you could enjoy this little video depicting the joy of spring slush. This was a couple of weeks ago. I am clearly having more fun than Addy!

Have a good week!

There wasn't a dry eye among us as we looked around at each other. 

It had been a good day- sunny weather, playful snow. We were dressed in 80s gear, and had danced, more than skied the mountain that day. Lots of encouragement from the lift line and the deck. Good fun. And now the day was over. We sat on the patio with our food and drinks, initially laughing at the antics of the day, but eventually coming to the realization that this day marks an important milestone in our family.  

Because the end of a ski season is always a little bit hard, but this particular season was particularly painful. The end of an era, really. Next winter, Evelyn won't be here. Our ski family is growing up, and the stationary, empty chairlifts were a stark physical reminder of this reality. The road trips. The fighting over who gets the best seats in the car, or who shares beds in the hotel. The seats around the table at the end of the day, eating pizza or Mexican food. The fast runs through the trees, or staring down at something scary, and the looks that say "we've got this." I mean, we'll still do all these things- but it won't be the same.

Here are just a few of my favorite photos from over the years.

These two have been partners forever.

Ev will still go on many ski trips with us. But it will be as a visitor. We're gonna miss her.

*****

Also, I need to post this photo. We went to see the tour of the Tina Turner musical. It was gritty and more intense than I expected. It also had some great music. As an added benefit, we went at a time where we could watch the ASL interpreters at work! Doing shows like this takes a lot of time and creativity, and everyone did a fabulous job.   ;)