We've had a pretty relaxed week...nothing super exiting to write about. Sometimes weeks like that are nice. The highlight of my week was probably climbing with a new partner on some of the great harder routes in our area (Dad- it's the guy you met at Q'emiln) and setting plans in motion for later in the summer. The weather is also getting really nice and Rachel and I have started sitting on the deck in the evenings after kids are in bed and watching the sun set behind the mountains we live by. Beautiful. That's all I can say. Absolutely Beautiful.

Here are some pictures of our recent exploits (including a lot from last week with Grandpa):

Museum w/ Grandpa

Painting Jackson's room (with Grandpa)

Backyard picnic (with Grandpa)

Our family with the General Lee. Also, I just noticed that Evelyn is sucking on Lindsey's foot. Ok- that's weird. 

Evelyn's magic show

Evelyn went to a friend's birthday party and came back looking like The Joker. Creepy.

Weekend Run: Canfield Mountain. Beautiful. Overcast down low, but was soon above the cloud cover and overlooking a sea of white (as seen in background).

It is Wednesday night and I am sitting in my shop right now eating frozen burritos. We just got back from the Kroc center where Evelyn went to "Club 7," the other kids went to their free babysitting, and I rock climbed for 2 hours (on-sighted an 11d today and set a 12b). When I was done the kids ate a fast-food dinner in the car, and then went right to bed when we got home. They are good kids.

Rachel has been home all evening with some of her lady friends doing a Pinterest night. I have no idea what they are making tonight, but this has become a monthly tradition for Rachel, and her group seems to be growing. It's the same group we went dancing with a little while ago, and who we will invite to our home for our annual Cinco de Mayo BBQ (also our wedding anniversary) in a few weeks.

As for our week- things have been pretty eventful. 

The biggest bit of news was our visit from Grandpa for a full 5 and a half days. The kids especially loved having him here, and they are still talking about camping in the back yard, getting ice cream, and telling stories. I had to work most of the time, but it was still a good visit and Grandpa got to do a lot with the younger kids including painting Jack's room.  It is now referred to as 'The creamsicle room."  On Saturday we all went to a "mountain festival" in the small town of Kellogg where they had a classic car display and live music featuring a great band and one of the best singers in all North Idaho (sarcasm). Hey- they seemed to be having a good time playing music, and I was thoroughly entertained (not sarcasm), so I guess we all won. From there we said our goodbyes and Grandpa was off for his house. That evening the kids had a "kids meeting" in the backyard to regale each other with stories about grandpa's visit and to commiserate with each other in sadness because he had to leave.

That night, Rachel and I went out and had a wonderful date at a local place with a really good cover band (definitely not sarcasm). We ate and danced and had a great night together to cap off what was already a great week.

One more thing that should be mentioned here...

Rachel is awesome.

Now, that sentence could easily stand on its own, but I'm not going to let it. Instead, I am going to tell you exactly why Rachel is even awesomer than normal this week. Because on Saturday night she got a text saying that there was a desperate need for an interpreter the next day. All it said was that pay was good and that it would take a few hours in the morning. Rachel responded and said she would be willing to take the job. That's when she found out the venue. 

Now, I can't say too much here because of confidentiality rules. Let's just say that this ended up being the biggest job that Rachel has ever had. She was interpreting in front of twelve THOUSAND(ish) people, in probably the largest venue we have in the area. On top of that, her boss (and friend) from work would be there. Stakes were high on this one, and I would be lying if I said she wasn't at least a little bit nervous.

But all those nerves were for naught. Rachel totally rocked it. I think she has reached the "Jedi knight" status that she told me about when we were dating- that coveted position in the interpreting world where linguistic genius intersects with practical reality and forms a sort of magical "flow" of communication. It is amazing, and it is Rachel, and it is awesome. By the way, these are all my words. Rachel is far too humble to admit to any of this in person. Just know that I am pretty lucky to be married to someone like her.

Alright. On to pictures.

The only picture we actually have of Grandpa while he was here. At least it proves that I'm not just making it up!

Maren with her chosen classic car

First haircuts.

Okay. These pictures are a little bit embarrasing. This week was the first week that Lindsey has slept in a crib. Until now, she has been sleeping in her car seat. And it's not that we didn't have a bed. In fact, we have two bassinets and 4 cribs. So really, there is no excuse. It's just that it was so easy, and she didn't seem to mind. The bassinet was in the way in our bedroom and she wasn't ready to share a room with someone else just yet.  I know- we are terrible parents (but I don't really think that). Anyway, this week we finally got around to putting one of the cribs together for little L, and she couldn't be happier. Just look at the way she stretches out. Couldn't do that in a car seat!

Just a random picture of my amazing wife

I don't know why, but I like it when numbers are nice and even like this. 50,000 views on this blog- average 122 views/post. Not too bad for such a personal affair. 

My Saturday morning trail-run was to the top of Mt. Coeur d'Alene. 11 miles. Here is the cabin at the top to prove that I made it in one piece. Pretty trail.

There are three big events to cover in this post. Let's get started.

Big Event #1- Easter:

We had a great Easter. We spent the better part of Saturday morning at a local church that was hosting a free BBQ, live concert, and "easter egg hunt." This was awesome. First of all, they had a great band with an old guy who played the guitar in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan (maybe my all-time favorite guitarist), and I seriously could have gone just for the music and had a great time. On top of that though, they had good meat on the grill, crafts and other activities for the kids, and a large bounce house. With hundreds of people taking part in the festivities it really had the atmosphere of a community gathering, and was a lot of fun for everyone. This is especially true since our three older kids are now old enough to run around fairly unsupervised, leaving Rachel and I (and "the youngers") to enjoy ourselves.

Now for the "egg hunt." This was one of those things where they just throw a bunch of eggs onto the field and then blow a whistle and let the kids go wild. And I'll admit- I have not been a real big fan of these events in the past. They seemed contrived and designed in such a way that they would almost always result in tears. But I have to say, I am coming around. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little bit entertained by how serious some of the kids took this contest, and amused at how clueless others seemed to be. Also, I have to give props to the way the church organized this event to minimize the amount of violence and heartbreak that took place. See, when the kids were done, they all went and traded their eggs in for a bag of candy. And they all got the same amount of candy, regardless of how many eggs they had collected. And nobody seemed to care. Candy was candy, right? Nobody is going to cry or complain when a nice old woman trades you a big bag of goodies for nothing by worthless pieces of plastic. I thought it was brilliant.

There was one competitive aspect though that led to some little scuffles. The organizers had cleverly drawn numbers or pictures on some of the eggs, and these marked ones could be traded in for special prizes above and beyond the normal bag of goodies. The marks were small enough that they were supposed to go somewhat unnoticed in the inevitable frenzy of activity. But some kids- Evelyn included- happened to be very good at scanning the field ahead of time for these treasures and planning their strategy accordingly. This led to some pretty remarkable sprints, dives, and dogpiles, and I would not hesitate to place my bets on some of these kids for the future NFL draft. Also, I am proud to say that Evelyn was second to none in this very competitive arena, and that she came away with a very large share of the booty when all was said and done (about one minute after it started). I am even more proud to say that when she saw other kids who did not get as much as her, she was very good at offering, totally of her own accord, to share in the spoils of her hard work. It was one of those parenting moments that make you smile and think that you must be doing something right- or maybe that you just got lucky to be the dad of such an awesome little girl.

Big Event #2- The Bike
After the egg hunt, they also had a raffle. Everyone that was there was issued a ticket at check-in, and those who stayed through 'till the end had a chance to win a variety of prizes. And guess what? Evelyn won a bike! A good one. The only problem was that (and I am ashamed, as a dad, to admit this) she did not know how to ride it. She had never shown much interest in learning, and whenever I would try to teach her it would just end up with her getting mad at me. But that has all changed. The day she got her new bike we went to the park and...voila! She can now ride a bike. I guess the prospect of riding around on a shiny brand new prize was more incentivizing than anything I had been able to do up until that point. Whatever the reason, we now have 3 bike riders in the family, and two more who are eagerly trying to catch up. It's been fun.

Big Event #3- The Date
Rachel is a part of a big group of "CDA Moms that Rock!" It was one of those things that she got involved with a while ago by looking on meetup.com, but since then she has made many good friends and participates pretty regularly in their activities. A while ago Rachel had purchased a new dress while on a shopping trip with some of these friends, and ever since then she has been looking for an opportunity to go out on the town to dance. Well, that time was this week, and it was a lot of fun. Rachel organized the event, and there were 16 people (8 couples) who showed up. We started by going out to a fabulous dinner at Twigs, followed by a brief walk to a downtown piano lounge where we had a VIP section reserved for our group. The musicians were great and took requests and we had a fun time socializing and, of course, dancing. It's been a while since I pulled out my West Coast in public, but it was a good time and I think that Rachel did a good job at making me look good. All this, despite the fact that she broke her little toe (I am being serious) earlier that day and she was wearing heels.

Well- that pretty much sums up how we've been doing. My dad is coming to our house in a few hours, and he'll spend the next several days hanging out with us. Other than that, we are loving the changing seasons and the beauty of North Idaho.

Have a good week!

I had to throw this selfie in. With Spring here, I have been trying to get out more on hikes/trail runs- usually early in the morning on the weekends. This is at a local peak after a 4 mile run- the sun just starting to shine over the mountains. You can see the lake in the distant background. Beautiful.

So...Lately, Rachel and I have found ourselves participating in a lot of things surrounding what one might consider to be "pop culture." Things like sporting events, concerts, plays, comedy shows, movies, political discussions, religious gatherings, community events, and popular literature. Things that I think reflect in different ways the popular consensus of the masses when it comes to values, tastes, and concerns pertinent to our small corner of the world. Taken together, I think it is fair to say that all these things could be representative of our "culture," defined (thanks to Google) as "the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively."

Which leads to an interesting question. Because if these things could be considered "culture," then what exactly does it mean to "be cultured?" I ask, because when I think of this somewhat pretentious label then I tend to think more in terms of classical art, literature, music, and drama which, in all honesty, seems to reflect a bygone and somewhat romanticized era much more than the one we actually live in. In fact, that is exactly what the Google definition of "cultured" seems to point at- "characterized by refined taste and manners and good education;  artistic, enlightened, well read, refined, polished,sophisticated..."


Refined taste and manners? Artistic? Polished? Sophiticated? I would like to see an objective definition for what any of these terms actually mean. Personally, I do not believe that there is one. These things are all matters of opinion, based either on individual taste or else on constantly changing cultural norms. And so that leaves us with "well educated," "enlightened," or "well-read." And indeed, that does seem to be what "being cultured" is meant to imply- that a person's personal sense of aesthetics are somehow loftier than those of a perceived underclass due to a privileged and highly educated position within society. In this way, the term starts to seem a little conceited.

And yet, it rarely comes across in this way. People from all walks of life tend to value "being cultured" as an admirable trait, perhaps somehow having an intuitive sense of a term that it turns out is actually very difficult to pin down. Sort of like the words "healthy," or "good," or "beautiful," or "just." These are all essentially contested ideas that are extremely useful to us- even indispensable- despite the fact that it may be impossible to get universal consensus on what they actually mean.

So by now, if you are still reading this then you are probably seriously wondering to yourself what's wrong with Logan's brain. Yeah- I wonder that sometimes too. Seriously, why do I go off on these random digressions? I find them enjoyable, I guess. And sometimes I come away with insights that I am glad to have come across, and that's valuable to me. Maybe it's weird- maybe it's just me. Maybe we're all weird and this is just my particular way of expressing my weirdness (there I go again...I'm such a nerd sometimes).

Okay. I'm done. I promise.

So...like I started saying in the beginning, Rachel and I have been pretty active lately. As mentioned, we went to our first backyard BBQ of the year this week and got to hang out with some friends. Last night we went to a comedy club, and that was fun. But most importantly, we dressed up last weekend and went to see the Broadway production of Camelot which was a LOT of fun. I have never seen this musical performed live, but I have always loved the old film with Richard Harris in it and I was excited to be able to go and see the real thing. We dressed up and had a nice dinner beforehand and basically just had a great night.

Besides that, we are just marching on. Things continue to go well for us. We are looking forward to a visit from my Dad in a few weeks. The weather is really nice. I have a good bucket list of peaks I want to climb this year. Rachel and I finalized plans for a super duper incredible vacation this summer...things are good.

Here are some other pictures of some of the stuff we have done as a family.

I LOVE this picture of Addy and Jack. First of all, it looks like it could have been taken in the 80s. The clothes. The grainyness of the photo. The poses. It's classic. Second, I think it's just an awesome picture of twins who are also best friends. Addy and Jackson have a special bond, and I think it shows here. It's sweet. Finally, check out Jackson's hair! What a cool kid, right? I wish I could pull that off and still maintain the respect of my patients. I love these guys.

 The next several pictures are from one of our many trip to the Science/Discovery museum.

This last weekend marked almost exactly one month since Evelyn turned seven. It also happens to be the weekend that we actually celebrated this event with a party. A little late, I'll admit- but it was still a great party. In fact, I would opine the the sheer awesomeness of this party was enough to outweigh the belated circumstances of the event.

Evelyn invited a lot of her school friends that we did not know, and it was fun to put names to the faces of the people she talks about playing with. It was also reassuring to see how well they knew Evelyn and the things she liked- all their gifts were extremely appropriate even though we never said anything to the parents about what sorts of things Evelyn was into. I don't know- I guess every parent wants to know that their child was doing okay socially, and this party was good to put any worries we had at bay.

The theme for the party that Evelyn chose was Ninja turtles. This was was pretty awesome- forget the "girly" stuff and go straight for the ninjas that were my childhood heroes. Yep- my daughter is pretty cool. Also, even though we offered to host the party at a skating rink, a climbing wall, an indoor swimming pool with a water slide, or a bounce house, Evelyn was adamant that the party be held instead at our own home. Plain and simple. We did our best to decorate, and I think we pulled it off pretty well. It was also kind of cool to me that Evelyn likes our house that much and was excited to invite her friends over.

As far as Rachel and I are concerned, we had a pretty normal week. On Friday we went out and watched the Gonzaga game (it's kind of a big deal around here), We also went out with some friends on Tuesday evening (St. Patrick's day) for a double date which was interrupted by a bagpipe band. Hey it's live music, right?!

This coming weekend we have our first BBQ of the season planned for Friday, and we are going out to see the Best of Broadway performance of Camelot in Spokane on Saturday. Next week is also the week that the mountaineering club I am a part of begins it's weekly climbing trips (as long as it isn't raining). In other words, there is a lot to look forward to.

Here are some pictures of the party. Have a good week!

All but the two most important things- cake and pizza! We had those too though. What's a Ninja Turtles party, after all, without pizza?

Green Slime Cake. This was good.

I think we got at least most of the people here. It's hard to say though- our house got pretty hectic and there could have been some people in the back still.

For the beginning of today's post I want to start by pasting something in that I wrote a couple of years ago. If you don't want to read it, then go ahead and scroll down to the page break:

When I was 14 years old I discovered music. It changed my life.

Before that time I was definitely exposed to music. I had taken piano lessons for years (more on that next week), and I had played the trumpet and the French horn in the school marching band. There was often background music in our home as well, although it was almost exclusively soft religious or instrumental music. We kicked up the tempo a little bit around Christmas time with the Osmonds (now that family was wild!), but by and large, I would say that my musical upbringing was…tame.

And then my family moved. We moved to Rexburg, Idaho which, as you can probably guess, was about as different a place as you could imagine from my California home. During this move I came across a box of cassette tapes that my dad had saved from his days as a missionary in Japan. I took these tapes and I hid them in my room on my closet shelf. At night time, after I was sure nobody was watching, I would covertly take out my new Walkman (for listening to religious talk-tapes of course) and listen to these newfound treasures.

Most of the tapes contained correspondence between my dad and his brother, who was also serving a church mission at the time in the Philippines. The back-and-forth between these two brothers gave me worlds of insight into my father, and I am extremely glad that I listened to them. The tape that changed my life, however, was different. Rather than a date scrawled on the tiny sticker across the top of the tape, this one was labeled with a single word written in all capital letters- BOSTON.

I curiously put the cassette into the Walkman, wondering when my Dad’s family had ever visited the East coast. What I heard instead totally blew me away. The music coming through my headphones was like nothing I had ever heard. The first three tracks blended seamlessly into an epic rock-and-roll tour de force. And then, with the fourth track, came one of the most emotionally, heart-wrenchingly beautiful blends of guitar and vocals that I had ever heard (never mind that electric guitars were a foreign species in our home to begin with).The experience I had that night was nothing short of transcendent for my fourteen-year-old self.

It is only in retrospect that I *think* I can describe what happened to me that night. The best way I can understand it is that I started to learn a new language. Or rather, I recognized this language for the first time as one that was a part of me. Different from other languages, though, music was not spoken with words to be filtered through an imperfect and prejudiced mind. Sure, words are fabulous at explaining ‘things,’ and a person who has a mastery over them can even, at times, describe certain ‘ideas’. But words will always fall short when it comes to communicating ‘emotion’.

I do not believe that we feel emotion with our minds, but instead with our hearts, our intelligences, our divine sparks- our souls. Whatever you want to call it though, words are, at their very best, hit-and-miss when it comes to stimulating this vital part of our human natures. And what’s more is that I have found that most of the important things in life- things like love, faith, fear, reverence, solidarity or passion- are best understood, not with our logical minds, but with this deep emotional part of ourselves which words can’t touch.

And that is where music comes in. In music, words are secondary. Ironically, this makes them all the more poignant-for the words, if needed at all, can bypass the mind entirely, being carried by the music directly to the heart of the listener. The words are then delivered as a perfectly packaged offering to the soul.

Ever since I first recognized the language of music for what it was, I have allowed it to fill my life with its many varieties- there is a place for all of it. Granted, that certain musicians are more adept, and certain genres are better than others at conveying specific ideas, but they all speak to me- to us, I believe- as human beings. And as I have done this I have found a source of inspiration, enrichment, and growth that has made me into the person I am today...

****************************************************

So- why did I post this little thought? Because, I still love music just as much as ever, and especially when that music is found in a live venue. I love watching skilled musicians who seem to enter into another world when they pick up their instruments and just become lost in the music they are making. There is something extremely compelling and almost spiritual about it. Whatever it is, I love it. And so I try my best to get at least a weekly dose of live music, usually with Rachel along as a partner to enjoy fine dining and/or good conversation with. Truly, this is one of the finer things in life that I am privileged to partake of on a pretty regular basis. 

Rachel and I at a Blues establishment we went to last week. We will definitely be back.

On that note- I'll let the world know how disappointing it was that Alice In Chains is coming to Spokane and sold out in one day, leaving me and a lot of other people empty handed. We'll see what Craigslist has to offer though- perhaps there is still hope (if you are reading this and have tickets then feel free to contact me through this blog).

Changing gears a little bit, I want to go back and post a bunch of pictures that Rachel had on her phone (Rachel's pictures usually don't make it onto the blog). Some of these are recent- some are not. Either way, it will give you a glimpse into our lives.

Enjoy :)

For our weekly family dessert night Evelyn made leprechaun hats this week to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. 

The leprechaun hats were quickly devoured.

This was last week- we went to the children's museum in Spokane. This is one our our kids' favorite places.

I'm not sure when this was taken- about a week ago maybe. It just a picture of Evelyn on a normal day, about to go to school. (And a dirty diaper in the background)

This was taken sometime in the past few weeks. We are trying to get more pictures of Lindsey on here. She is definitely a "youngest child", and the lack of pictures is, sadly, evidence of this fact. 

Rachel with some of her friends at a Pinterest party that she hosted a while back.

This was a long time ago- like last Summer. Evelyn took an art class and in it they learned how to "Zen-tangle." This is Evelyn's creation.

Evelyn wanted me to do a Zen-tangle as well. This is what I came up with. I think it's pretty good.

Just Addy. I have no idea when this was taken.

This was semi-recent. The kids like to arrange random things to make "art." Some of the stuff they come up with is pretty ingenious.

The kids and the stuffed Animals they got for Christmas. These have become some of their favorite toys.

I didn't take this picture. Rachel didn't take this picture. It looks like we have an anonymous budding photographer in our midst.