This last week has been more "normal" for us, which is actually kind of cool. "Living the dream" is something that applies well to this stage of our lives. We climb. We ski. We see lots of live entertainment and eat lots of good food. We have cool jobs and cool kids. Really, what more could you ask for?

As for this particular week, we did all of the above. Rachel and I did some of the hardest onsite climbing of our lives. We skied with the family on both weekends and I got a chance to pull out the "race skis" due to some good luck with conditions and the happy little accident of locking my other skis on the rack and losing the key. It was a race ski kind of day though- one of the best, actually, so it was all good. Rachel and I had two nice nights out- one to Arbor Crest Cellars with its delectable cuisine, and the other to Stage Left Theater where we saw Corpus Christi- one of the best performances I have ever seen them put on. We spent Saturday afternoon as a family taking in the art galleries in downtown Coeur d'Alene and reminding ourselves once again what a cool place we live in.

Like I said- what more could you ask for?

I also have to admit to a "this too shall pass" mentality that I have always had. I can't get around it, and it serves me well when things aren't so good. That's not now though, and as much as I want it to always stay this way, I am sure our family will go through a lot of ups and downs as time goes by. We already have. In fact, the first fifteen minutes of almost any outing has us questioning our decisions and often makes us want to turn around and head back home. Children are sometimes childish, kids will be kids, and yucky moods can't just be flipped off like a light switch. But then it gets better. It's a crazy wild ride, and we just happen to be in a particularly "up" moment right now. That's all. It's fun.

Enjoy some photos! Not all of these are from this week. A lot of them are ski photos that didn't make the cut in previous weeks at our local resort. This place is so familiar to us that it starts seeming repetitive when I mention it, but we have seriously had SO many good times here. Skiing together has become a part of our family's DNA. I have a feeling that we will all grow out of this place soon- some might argue that we already have- but the memories here will last forever. Well...at least until we get old and get dementia. But that's what the pictures are for! 

Lindzo is getting so much more fun to ski with! (She is getting a lot better at skiing)

Skiing with friends

Maren's weird ritual of laying out her ski clothes the night before we go

Some of the coolest ladies on the hill

Jackson is getting pretty good at ripping through moguls

Pizza on a day that just the three of us went up to the hill

Obviously not our family. This is the cast of Corpus Christi, which makes it on our blog because Rachel and I didn't take a picture with the playbill. I still have the playbill by the way, just in case you want to take one and put it here instead. Otherwise, this awkward picture stays in! ( I say the awkward picture stays! Just  for fun. Maybe we could edit ourselves in??? -Rach)

Look what I found- here is an actual picture of us watching Corpus Christi! (It might be a bit more believable if we were actually watching to play! -Rach)

I'll leave the last one up though, because now everyone else gets a peek behind the scenes of how the blog is written. I know people wonder about these things. To be clear, I usually write it and then Rachel edits it before it goes live. (ie Logan does the hard work, then I make it socially acceptable! -Rach)

Just hanging out downtown. What a crew- love these guys!

This last weekend we went skiing in Utah.

Though true, that last sentence was possibly the most reductive and inaccurate statement I have ever made.

Yeah- we went skiing. But it was way more than that. The skiing itself was amazing, and we each had our own victories. We also have a lot of "remember that one time..." stories that will be live on long after the feeling of wind in our hair and adrenaline in our veins has settled. Maren and I will remember the intimate hillside talk we had. Addy and Evelyn will laugh about a certain wipeout experience. Lindsey is still talking about the stories we told in the car during our drive, and Jackson will always know that he capable of overcoming his own fear. 

From chatting about school and friends on the lift, to encouraging each other to "do hard things," I feel like skiing has been a really positive thing for our family. It isn't just about sliding down a hill on a couple of sticks. Along with climbing and biking and camping and running, it is more a lifestyle thing. A way of thinking about the world. An attitude. A way of being. 

Anyway- I don't think I can say a whole lot more about that. A blog post is fine for sharing pictures and telling stories, but unless your last name is Shakespeare, Dickinson, or Poe, it is extremely difficult to communicate that level of emotion in just a few words.

And so, without further ado...here are some pictures and stories:

Before the stories, can I just make a remark about how absolutely beautiful this canyon is? Wow! We went to two different resorts (Alta and Snowbird) that are right next to each other, and skiing aside, the views were absolutely stunning. At several moments I found myself just standing in the middle of a run, oftentimes alone, and just taking in the majesty of the area. It is easy to feel small in the mountains and it lends perspective to other things in life. To borrow words of Dickinson, when in places like this, "I'm kneeling-still." (Ah, Teneriffe!)

This is kind of a funny story: Lindsey was shedding layers and wanted Rachel to carry a spare neck gaiter. Rachel told Lindsey to put it in her own pocket, to which Lindsey replied "I can't! That's where I keep my peas!" She wasn't kidding either- she actually had a pocket full of peas. We have no idea where she got these peas from, but she apparently carries them to snack on throughout the day. Go figure.

Along with skiing, our family has gotten pretty good at tailgating. Sometimes it is with tables, chairs, and camping stoves. Sometimes it is a little simpler, like here, where we are eating chips and hot dogs. Either way, these scheduled lunchtimes have been a fun way to regroup, maybe change up partners, and catch up with the latest happenings on the hill. 

This picture is only notable because of "Bananas." That is all I know. Apparently, Evelyn liked the name of the run when she saw it on the map. They set off to find it, and that simple search turned into an expedition-sized quest that led them all over the mountain and on all sorts of adventures. Bananas, it must be said, was one of the favorite runs of the day. Worth it!

These two were skiing together. Addy fell and her ski came off. Evelyn took off down the hill, chasing it with an abandon that is uncharacteristic to her more cautious style. The ski must have gotten scared, because it saw Ev and kept on going, and going, and going. More than a quarter of a mile it slid before Evelyn was able to catch up with it. Addy, meanwhile did most of the run on one ski. Suffice it to say, it was a happy reunion!

Jack and I split off for a while to do some of the steeper runs- and when I say steep- I mean STEEP! Below is a photo showing two of our runs. We also did one off the other side, and one a little further down. Icy conditions made for big drops and mandatory turns over no-fall zones. On the first run, the guy who dropped in right before us actually missed one of these turns, went off the edge, and slid down the mountain a couple hundred feet. He ended up being carried home in a stretcher and won't ski again until next year. Watching that accident made us hesitate a little bit, but we were both confident so we went for it. And we both agree that these were some of the best and most memorable runs of our lives. 

This trip wasn't just about skiing. We also got some time with extended family, and we all enjoyed the comedy show we went to on Saturday night. Here is Maren and Adrian with their fabulous hats.

Alright- that's about it. Have a good week!

This is a good place to mention that on these ski days, ALL of us opened and closed the lifts. About 20 minutes were spent on a lunch break, but the only other breaks were on the lifts ready to carve our next run. After Adalie plopped in the snow we asked if she wanted a break. She held up a hand and responded, "Give me 30 seconds and I will be ready to go!" I can honestly say that every one of us loves this amazing sport, and we will be creating memories together for many years to come.

Our "Normal"

This week has been a nice, much needed "normal." It seems like for about the past two months we have been running our lives pretty much week-to-week. With holidays, home office changes, ski trips, sick kids, and family visits, it has sometimes been hard to find our feet. Well, that changed a little this week, and it has been really nice.

So, what does "normal" look like for the Hazard family? I want to record this, because it works well for us. Right now at least, it is pretty much as follows:

Sunday: Church in the morning- I go early for band practice and then Rachel and the kids come and meet me at 9:00. Afternoons are pretty variable depending on the time of year. This week, Rachel and I went out to watch the last Seahawks football game of the year. A lot of times we will head up to go skiing as a family though. In warmer weather, this would probably be a hike or bike ride, or maybe a trip to a local climbing area. Sunday evening typically involves meal planning and an online food pick up order. Rachel enjoys cooking and trying new things. Personally, I would be thrilled to rotate the same 7 dinners for the rest of my life. We typically come up with a nice mix of both.

Monday: I get up early and go to the gym, stopping on my way home to pick up the groceries for the week. Those are all unloaded and put away by about 8:30 and Rachel and I will head off together for our weekly breakfast date. It is almost always either IHOP or Denny's, and both places know our regular orders. I don't know why, but I get a weird sense of satisfaction out of that. Over breakfast we discuss upcoming events, along with any other random topics that happen to come up. We then continue our time together doing something a little more active. Lately, this has meant trips to the climbing gym. Around lunch time we part ways and Rachel goes to work. I go home and have two hours of deep cleaning and laundry-switching to do before kids come home and wreck the place. Me doing this has made housework manageable during the week, since most other days we have limited time. I then make dinner, and Rachel gets home around 6:00 to eat with us.

Tuesday: Kids at school, Rach and I at work all day. She usually finishes around 3:00 when kids are getting home. As soon as I get home I take Evelyn to her weekly drum lesson. When we get back, we have a quick dinner before trying to fight Jackson into going to scouts. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes not. It really depends on if either of us are in the mood to pick that particular battle that night. Either way, I'll usually get a quick workout in at our home gym before coming in and doing bed time. Rachel typically schedules a workout into her workday. One of the many perks of working from home.

Wednesday: Same as yesterday during the day. After school/work we have some running around though: Addy and Maren have dance class, and Evelyn and Jackson go to a youth group at church. Rachel usually works out at the gym during these times and I either work out or climb at our home gym. Between the two of us we are normally able to juggle carpool duties for the kids and still get the things done that we want to for ourselves.

Thursday: Same as above during the day. This is also a day when, besides working, Rachel reserves some time for herself to run small errands. This often means little home projects, working on CDAide stuff (local charity she works with extensively), or helping out in the kids' classrooms.  After school, Evelyn has started having her band- "The Undetermined," come over for practices since we have a plug-and-play audio set-up. When I get home from work, Maren and I are off to do "Schooltastic." This is an hour we have reserved every week to go out to dessert together while talking about "school skills," even though we never actually call it that. When we get home we have dinner and a pretty relaxing evening before kids are off to bed. Also, though not a scheduled thing, this is a day that Rachel and I will very often find ourselves leaving after the kids are down (oh the joys of having kids who can babysit) for a quiet place with drinks, appetizers, and live music. It's a nice time to check in with each other mid-week and talk weekend plans.

Friday: School, work, and work, just like before. There are no after-school obligations on this day, but the weekend often starts as soon as I walk in the door around 5:00. If you follow this blog, you know that we are not averse to a little driving, and that will usually be a Friday thing. If we are staying closer to home then we are laying out climbing equipment or ski gear or something for the next morning. It is rare that we don't have any weekend plans. I also like to get a little workout in at the home gym either on Thursday or Friday- usually depending on what our calendar looks like for the week. Rachel also tries to find at least one day a week for an after school dessert date with one of the kids also.

Saturday: This is the most variable day of the week. If we are home, I will usually go to the gym early and get back for breakfast with the family. That is a big "if" though. I'd say that roughly half of the time (maybe more) we are away- camping, climbing, skiing, visiting friends/family, or doing some other sort of travel. In that case, the day is dictated by events. Also, I try really hard to have at least two hours per week of really pushing myself hard with rock climbing, and I am usually able to fit that in on Saturdays if it hasn't happened yet. For this last weekend, some of us had our best local ski day of the year. The snow was amazing! Since it was just a local thing, we didn't make everyone go if they didn't want to, and those who stayed had a relaxing time at home.

Alright- that's it. Our current "normal." As I read through this, it seems pleasantly full, but not stressful. We are able to eat dinner as a family almost every night, and we are nearly always able to settle down the kids and read books together before going to bed (I usually read out loud while they color or something). Rachel and I typically get two or more dates outside of the house every week, and several more hours together in the evenings after kids are down. We also have a nice morning/breakfast routine that we do together at home before going off to our daily activities. It's comfortable.

Here are a couple of pictures:

This picture, which is obviously not edited in any way, shows how much fun the three of us had skiing together on Saturday. We stayed in a group the whole time and took turns choosing runs. 

Rachel and I went out to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Spokane Broadway series. Hooray for theater finally returning to Washington!

Have a good week!

What a weekend we have had! Crazy roads, lots of family, difficult goodbyes, and some AMAZING skiing were all packed into the last few days. Here's how it went:

Wednesday: Worked half day- got a nice early start and clear weather all the way down to my parent's house in Rexburg. Arrived in time for some evening conversation. They are leaving in a couple of weeks for Germany (LDS mission) and we probably won't see them again for about a year-and-a-half, so we wanted to maximize the time we had together.

Thursday: Woke up early(ish) and, after a quick breakfast, got on the road headed for Grand Targhee ski resort. Conditions looked pretty yucky, but we were determined. That is, until we saw a gate across the road with a cop guarding it. Road Closed. Ugh.

Making the best of things, we turned around and played a little closer to home. The morning was spent at the local climbing gym, and the afternoon was full of tow-sledding (screaming around icy neighborhood streets at 40mph with kids in a sled tied to the back of the car). Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, Rachel and I were both blissfully unaware of this last part until after the fact. No worries- the kids loved it and nobody broke anything, so it was all good. The movies they took were terrifying though!

Addy really likes finding a climb that is hard enough to become a "day project" for her. It usually takes her several tries to figure out the moves and do it cleanly. She often gets frustrated and cries when she makes mistakes- which makes it that much sweeter when she finally sends. I have to say, I really love the conversations her and I have during these moments. I guess I am part coach/part cheerleader to her, but it feels to me like I am able to step away from the "dad" role for a while and just offer support as a friend. It's good.

Left: Just getting started. Right: at full speed. Look carefully- there is a kid behind all that snow that is probably having the adrenaline rush of their lives.

Friday: Woke up early again for a second try at Grand Targhee. We got to the same place as before and the road was still closed, but we were not so easily deterred today. We decided to take a long detour up and around the closure, only to find that after 45 minutes of driving, that road was closed too. There were no cops around though, so we drove around the barricade and soldiered on. Sure, the drifts were high and it was impossible to differentiate between "road" and "potato field," but our front wheel drive minivan has always been up to the task- after all, we had come to ski! After a tense 30 minutes things cleared up a little and we were finally able to make it to the resort.

I have to say, personally, I think it was worth it. I have never skied such amazingly deep and dry powder in my life. Knee-to-waist deep, and light as air, I floated down a number of runs feeling halfway like I was actually flying. 

Unfortunately, not everyone shared in my ecstasy. It could have been the sub-zero degree temperatures. Or maybe it was the 35 mph wind and heavily falling snow creating whiteout conditions. Okay, let's face it- it was a blizzard by any definition. But still, all that new snow and cold weather made for some pretty awesome skiing. Rachel and Addy were game, and we got a few runs in together before meeting up with the other kids who were huddled together in the car with the heater on full blast. Calling it a day, we made the slow drive back home in mostly-good spirits.

This is the only picture we took that day while we were at the lodge. This was taken right before Addy, Rachel, and I headed back up the mountain and the others retreated to the warmth of the car.

That night, my brother and his wife surprised everybody by showing up and spending New-Year's eve with us. We had great food and fun games. I think it was the first time all the kids stayed up until midnight. Playing Bingo for money was probably their favorite part of the whole trip, and the adults enjoyed each other's company into the early hours. What a day!

Saturday: Rest day. After the previous day's adventures and nighttime festivities, most people took it pretty easy. Board games. Legos. Movie theatres. I think a little sledding. I went back to the climbing gym and, instead of belaying kids most of the time, climbed for myself and sent the entire gym in one two-hour session. That was kind-of fun. This was a good day for everyone, but nothing super specific stands out.

Jackson spent most of the day building a Lego city

Sunday: Another early start saw us on the road to Jackson Hole. Unlike previous days, the weather was absolutely perfect. We got to the resort and...well...there aren't many words to describe the day. "Amazing" would be an understatement. I am pretty certain that most people in our family would say this ranked as one of the best days of their lives. Certainly, it was the best ski day we have ever had as a family. The premium resort had something for everyone- steep chutes and big faces for me and Jack, long groomers for Rachel and most of the kids, multiple terrain parks, short lift lines, and plenty of space to explore. Everyone skied continuously until the lifts closed, with just one 30 minute break where we all came together for a quick lunch. The weather was perfect. Nobody got cold. No issues with gear. Basically, it was everything you could ask for in a ski day, and then some. The only regret was that we couldn't stay longer- but I can already see an extended family vacation in the making.

I spent most of the day with Jack. He is a good skier and doesn't shy away from a challenge.

Rachel and I got a little time together also

Can I just say that we have some really cool kids? I am so glad we can all have awesome days like this together.

Monday: A casual breakfast that went by too quickly was followed by a clean-up of the house and loading of the car. After such a great trip we were soon to be on the road back to real life. First, however, we had to say our goodbyes. Everyone loves visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and their absence will be felt over the next 18 months. We are all excited to hear about their experiences in Germany and throughout Europe- but we will also be excited when they get home and we are able to sit around the kitchen table again all together while we laugh and eat and play games and tell stories. It was a great weekend.

Have a good week!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Christmas was actually pretty great this year. Usually I'm a bit of a grinch about the holidays- a title I wear proudly, I'll have it known. (As far as I'm concerned, the Grinch SAVED Christmas for the Whos...but that's a digression I'll leave for later). This year was a little bit different though, because our family is growing up. A lot of the hoo-ha about presents and Santa and seasonal sentimentality was circumvented by a common realization that we, as a family, don't really need all of that. We did the normal traditions, sure, but they were done in a more mature way this year than in times past. I like the direction this is headed.

Anyway- besides normal Christmas things, we skied a bunch. That's just what we do. Later this week we are driving down to visit some family and ski a bunch more. Should be good.

Enjoy the pictures!

Annual Christmas Pageant. Addy took charge of the sheep crew. Maren was an enthusiastic angel. Lindsey made for a somber shepherd. And Jackson was very proud and excited to play the part of the star.

Rach and Jack. Every year she schedules five shifts of bell-ringing- one with each of the kids. They make it fun :)

More parties. This is from a work thing I did at an escape room.

Christmas Eve PJs!

Lindsey is the queen of the lodge. 

I actually really like this photo that was taken from the window of the lodge. You've got the icicles, the lift, the trees, and Evelyn zooming by in the bottom corner. 

'Tis the season!

First day of skiing! Many more to follow.

Addy, Maren, and me- the diehards. Traffic to the resort on opening day was horrible and we didn't get as many runs in as we would have liked- but fresh powder was abundant and there is a certain "essence" to the first turns of the year that just can't be matched. We all agree, it was worth it.   

*****

'Tis the season! School programs, and projects and concerts and stuff. Mostly for our own kids, and a few with friends. Now that these things are all out of the way, we have one more week of freedom before the kids are off for a nice, rELaxIng, three-freakin'-week-long vacation.

School band concert. Sorry, but these are the best pictures we got. Here's Ev on the drum set, keeping time for the jazz band. She's a confident musician and counted them off and kept them together without a conductor. She was a little nervous about that, but she did great. Also, just as a side note, she is looking forward to a little later this month when she is going through the initial steps of forming a girl band with some other musicians at the Rock School. That should be cool, and the music is a little more up her alley. It's also more fun to listen to while she practices :)

More great pictures, I know. Here's Jackson (Clarinet) and Addy (Sax) in the sixth-grade band. They've all been playing their instruments for less than six months, and it is actually pretty impressive to see what they can do after so little time. Also, all middle school band teachers should get medals. They are the real heroes of the arts.

Sigh. Invent Idaho. Second grand and fourth grade. Five kids. Do the math. Lindsey did a great job and was proud of her presentation. We were relieved to have it done.

*****

'Tis the season! Work parties and lots, and lots of food. It's fun, but my body feels like somebody put sugar in the gas tank. Ugh.

One of many parties we will be a part of. This is one we did at our place with my dental team and their families.

*****

'Tis the season. Christmas is just around the corner. And while I'm not super into the "festive" side of things, there are certain parts that I really do look forward to. The first snow. Hot chocolate by the fireplace. Quiet music. Warm colors. Friends and family. Quiet streets with sparkling lights.

Lovely Coeur d'Alene

Happy Holidays :)

It has been a while since we had a weekend this good! Wow.

So, there are three big things to write about here: The office, the goal, and the game. Each one could be a whole post in itself, and I don't want the significance to be lost of either one by grouping them together. In fact, if it was a slow time of year for us, I might actually do different entries on each. As it is, the next couple of weeks look pretty full of activity as well, so this is what we get. Just know that I am really excited about each of these things. It really was a wonderful weekend!

The Office

For anyone who has been keeping up with our family, you know that we have been in the process of building a detached office on our property for Rachel to work out of. The idea started when Covid forced her into more work from home. The idea grew when this situation looked like it would be semi-permanent and we wanted our bedroom back (where we had set up a small workstation). It was way back in August when, over an evening conversation on the deck, we committed to the project. 

And ever since then it has been this huge weight that we have carried around with us- interfering with weekend plans, forcing us to learn more about building than either of us ever wanted to, and taking up more space than we were really comfortable with. The permit process with the city and the HOA was a chore, and it took a little trial and error to figure out each step of the construction. For sure there were times of excitement and accomplishment along the way, but for the most part the project made me question my sanity. Why had we started such a committing and ambitious (for us) project in the first place?

Well, I have to say it was all worth it. On Saturday afternoon we made the final touches with carpet and trim. We touched up the paint, cleaned up the tools, and took a step back to admire our handiwork. And guess what? It doesn't suck! It actually looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. It is cozy and I think it will serve our family very well. We still have to put furniture in, but besides being a workspace for Rachel it can be a quiet retreat for people to do homework, read books, make plans, or play games away from the constant clamor that is our house. 

We did it!

This will be a little reception area, with a small sofa, an accent chair, and a coffee table. Also, some art.

This will be the "office area", with Rachel's computer and everything. Also, you can see a little loft area above this. We haven't really decided what to do with this yet. Probably storage, but maybe a little reading nook for kids. There isn't tons of space up there, but there is enough for a mattress and small bookshelf. We'll see.

The Goal

Way back when I was a teenager I started getting pretty interested in rock climbing. I would go to a little bouldering gym pretty much every day after school and climb with the local college students. Some of them became pretty good friends over the years. It was at that time that I bought a training manual for climbers called "How to climb 5.12." 5.12, a rating of difficulty, became a holy grail for me. At the time, it represented a fairly high level of performance for climbers. It was even possible to get low-level corporate sponsorships if the grade could be reached consistently. (Times have changed as climbing has become more popular.)

It wasn't until a couple of years later that I climbed my first 5.12. Because of school, climbing was sort of an on-again-off-again endeavor for me, but it has remained a part of my life through the years, and every once in a while I would hit the grade. Last year, I really upped the ante by putting time into sport-specific training, and I completed eight climbs that were 5.12 or harder. Some were actually much harder, and I was very proud of that. 

But pretty much all of these climbs were, for me, what climbers call "projects." This means that I worked on each one a number of times- sometimes over the course of several weeks- before being able to climb it "clean" (without any falls). It is easy to conceptualize this process as learning the choreography to a very intricate and physically demanding dance- but where if you don't do all the steps one hundred percent perfectly, you fall down and have to start over again. You can rehearse the dance as much as you want, but you don't "send" until you make it through the whole thing without any mistakes.

But what I really wanted- what I had been reaching for since high school, was not only to climb 5.12, but to become so proficient at the grade that I could do these climbs predictably with little-to-no rehearsal. In climbing, this is called "onsighting," because you have to "read" the route as you go and adapt in the moment to what you see. It requires a person to have a wide "vocabulary" of movement to draw from, the physical fitness to execute the moves, and the mental capacity to solve complex puzzles in the moment. Most of the time, once you commit, you can't go back. You only get one chance to get it right. Once you fall, it can never be an onsight again. 

To this end, I made a goal for myself. I would do, over the course of a year, 52 climbs that were 5.12 or harder. That is an average of one "hard" climb each week. I could rehearse if needed, but I couldn't count a climb until I did it clean- bottom to top, with no falls. I figured that with this sort of volume it would force me to learn new skills. It would push me physically and mentally. And as I adapted, the climbing would start feeling easier- at least in theory. I would begin to "onsight" more, and "project" less. Basically, I would get better.

Which brings us to this weekend. When I first made this goal a year ago I happened to be in Seattle, and we thought it would be poetic if we returned to the same area to finish it. And finish it we did! On Monday morning I climbed, onsight, four 5.12s. They felt easy. And with the fourth one, my tally for the year reached 52.

I have to say, I feel great! Of the 52, 20 of them were onsight sends- mostly toward the end of the year. It is clear to me that I have gotten better- gotten to be very good actually. The most difficult climb I did this year was rated 5.13a- and it was also one of the onsights! This means a lot to me, as 5.13 is a grade I reached for the first time just one year ago and it is only the fourth one that I have ever done. I mean, in the competitive world that climbing has become, these achievements are pretty modest. I'm not about to get a phone call from The North Face or anything. But in my own world- that of a dentist/dad who is quickly approaching his forties- this is huge for me. Nothing less, really, than a childhood dream come true. Everything after this (and there will be more) is just a cherry on top.

Thanks so much to Rachel, who was a very supportive partner and belay slave for many of these climbs. I Couldn't have done it without her. Seriously. As a side note, she has had many of her own breakthroughs during this process. Pretty cool!

Also, though I'm not about to stop climbing anytime soon, the timing couldn't have been any better. The ski resorts open this weekend :) 

Bring on the snow!

The Game

As mentioned above, we went to Seattle this weekend. Originally, the trip was just so I could finish my goal. As the time got closer though, we started looking at other things to do while we were there. Long story short, there was a series of events that happened that led up to us getting tickets at the fifty yard line for the upcoming Seattle/49ers game.

Woah. Though I was excited about the climbing, this quickly became the emotional highlight of the weekend for both of us.

Rachel and I have been Seahawks fans for years. We rarely miss a live game, and when we do, we avoid the score religiously until we are able to watch it later. Our favorite places for important games have been either at football-centric parties with friends, or at rowdy sports bars with other fans. There is something about allowing yourself to get caught up in the excitement that is intoxicating and fresh and fun, and football- at least from an armchair- has become a way of life for us during the season.

But we had never been to a game. It just wasn't in the cards. Either kids, or money, or time, or something else would always get in the way. But this time, at the last minute, we found ourselves with tickets. That, and some great friends who offered to take care of any needs the kids might have, transformed our weekend into one that will go down in memory as one of the best ever. 

I don't even know what it was exactly. Part of it was the game (which, incidentally, was the best game of the season). Part of it was walking to and from the game through the crowded downtown streets of Seattle. Part of it was screaming until I no longer had a voice. Part of it was being with thousands and thousands of other people who, in spite of their differences, all came together in one place to be a part of the same thing. There was excitement and drama. But mostly, there was and "essence" that can't really be described. At least not in words that I have. It was an "experience."

I'm pretty sure this is going to become a regular thing we do.

Alright. That's all.

Have a good week!

Breakfast at a shipyard. What a very "Seattle" thing to do. It was lovely.