2010 In Review

Okay, I've learned my lesson.  Catching up on an entire year in one blog post is too hard, but I'm going to do it.  I put my blog address on the back of our Christmas cards and sent it to 60 people, so that's really good motivation.  So if you are one of those people, this is for you!  If not, welcome anyway.
(Click on photos to view larger.)

JANUARY
I'm starting at the very beginning, New Year's Eve.  We spent it with the Moon family at my Brother's home, where we have had some great parties the past few years.  The night started out with food, of course, then we started our Pinewood Derby!  Some cars were new for the night, some were previously made.  David brought his two motorized cars that he has made for our adult class Cub Scout Pinewood derbies for the past few years.

David raced his two motorized cars against each other and the new one won.  Then he raced them UP the track!

Evan was disappointed that his car kept losing until he won the award for the slowest car!  His is the little gray one in the photo above.  He made it himself from a scrap he found in the garage.

Afterward we had a board game party, but you can read about that on my other blog.  Once again, spending time with family was a great way to ring in the new year.

On New Year's day we headed to David's brother's home for more partying, food and cousins.  Living at a higher elevation they are always blessed with enough snow for fun winter activities, not to mention a great sledding hill just outside their door.  We all had a blast on sleds, tubes, snowmobiles, snowshoes, and Evan tried a little skiing and loved it.

Stauney got whitewashed by her cousin Mikayla.

FEBRUARY
Apparently this was a pretty calm month for us since I really didn't have many photos from it.  So I thought I would share this photo from Logan's egg collecting.  Logan sells eggs from our chickens to neighbors, relatives and David's fellow employees for $2/doz.  Since we started out the year with around 21 chickens, it has been great for keeping some spending money in Logan's pockets.  However, we only sell the ones that will fit in the cartons.  The egg on the right would be considered extra large in a grocery store.

We got two this size on the same day.  No, there's not a goose or an ostrich out there - we checked!

MARCH
We finally talked Logan into getting his learner's permit.  He's just starting to see the benefits of having a driver's license.  I think Mom and Dad spoil him too much by driving him everywhere he wants to go.  His uncle was willing to give him a car, but unfortunately Logan's legs wouldn't fit into it.  Maybe if we would have removed the front seat and he drove from the back it would have worked.

Logan's first time driving - it still scares me!

APRIL

David and I had enjoyed working in the Cub Scouts together as Noah's Wolf den leaders, until April.  I was made our Ward's Relief Society president, and a very busy year has followed.  I really enjoy it though and have great people to work with and a wonderful Ward.

Noah turned 9 years old in April and went into the Bear den.  He had a fun Spy birthday party with his friends that I'll post on BB soon.

Noah is always smiling, but it seems a little bigger with gifts.

 The day after Noah's birthday we got a big surprise when we found a newborn baby goat running around the back yard after school.  Stauney's goat had given birth to two kids and our dog helped one escape the fence.  As soon as we got them cleaned up, Logan's goat went into labor!  Two more kids were born (one with some help from our neighbor) and we had a very busy, rainy evening getting babies settled and fed and mommas milked.

Three boys and one girl, just like our kids.

 Many busy days and nights followed, and I had a really fun time trying to feed 4 bottles at a time while the kids went back to school.

That weekend, David  headed to Moab with his buddies from work for their annual 4-wheeler/motorcycle trip.  He always has a great time, eats really well, and didn't come home with any injuries this year!

Good thing he was there to hold this up!

A week after the goats were born, Logan had an ambulance ride and was admitted to the hospital for a ruptured appendix. Luckily they were able to do his surgery laproscopically, and he only spent three days in the hospital.  He has recovered well, and in December has finally gained back the weight he lost while in there. With the amount of food he eats, you'd think it wouldn't take that long.

Most minors who have to stay in the pediatric wing aren't 6'4" tall and can actually fit in the beds.

We were grateful we all survived April!

MAY
I had been helping at Stauney's new Jr. High school with their musical review.  I signed up to do props, but ended up doing a little directing and choreography also.  It was a lot of fun and I got to work with a lot of great kids.
Stauney LOVES theater and was willing to be the lead in every song.  She wasn't, but she was on stage most of the time.  They did songs from major Broadway shows like Grease and Wicked, and of course some High School Musical 1-3, but 'Super Trooper' from Mamma Mia was her favorite.

I painted the boots and made the microphones, but Stauney totally pulled off the look with the boa.

At the end of May Evan had his 7th birthday.  Apparently we should have practiced how to blow before we lit the candles.  We thought we would share the video of him sucking out his candles instead.

JUNE
We finally have proof that our Beagle Chloe doesn't ALWAYS look sad and depressed.

She especially looks happy and obedient when we give her baby carrots.

  After school got out we had a fun time going to stay in Duchesne with my extended Moon family.  We had fun visiting, reminiscing, and going to Nine Mile Canyon to see the Indian petroglyphs.

The kids had fun climbing on, around, over and even in rocks all day.

 We also had fun with the extended family on David's side at a family reunion on his cousin's huge dairy farm in Eureka.

Noah and Evan especially loved the biggest slip-and-slide they've ever seen.

JULY
Another whirlwind of activities started at the beginning of July when David's parents treated the entire Hansen family to a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois and the church historic sites for 5 days.  We all showed up bright and early at the SLC airport and 38 of us flew to St. Louis where we boarded our private tour bus and met our driver and guide for the week.  We had so much fun with everyone.

Yeah!  A green bus to match our green shirts.  (Grandma let a 12 year-old pick the color.)  Noah and Evan in Carthage.

The whole family, and ours in front of the Nauvoo Temple.

David and I were so happy we got to do a session in the temple while Logan and Stauney got to do baptisms.  Grandma and Grandpa took the younger kids to play pioneer games while we were there and everyone had a wonderful day.

David got me a new camera for my birthday and with it, took this photo of the temple at night.

Some photos from Hannibal and St. Louis, Missouri.

We also got to spend a fun day in Hannibal and take a river boat ride.  Due to recent flooding, Tom Sawyer's Island was completely under water.  The trees had very wet feet.

Then our last day we spent in St. Louis seeing the sights and going to the top of the Gateway Arch!

Us from the top of the arch - 630 ft!  Evan got a little squashed preparing to go back down.

We really stood out in our green shirts, but it sure made it easy to round up the kids!


AUGUST
Apparently our lives weren't busy enough. At the end of July we welcomed a 14 year-old exchange student from Japan to live with us for a month.  Rin became the sister that Stauney never got.  We had a few language difficulties and some homesickness issues, but we had a great month showing her how we live.  Instead of the kids spending their summer as couch potatoes, we decided we had better do something more exciting, so we had a busy month of sight-seeing and playing.

The kids and their new sister.

We had a busy month.  We went to a drive-in movie, which she had never done before, bowling, Museum of Ancient Life, Antelope Island, hikes, swimming, family reunions, BBQ's and lots of shopping.  She even went with Stauney to Girls' camp.

After visiting David's brother we went to the Castle Valley Pageant and Evan helped make butter like the pioneers did.

Rin taught us all how to do our names in Japanese with a brush and ink.

The biggest challenge for me was that Rin is a vegetarian.  I had to learn to cook differently for a month, and I really didn't mind it.  Rin's favorite thing to do was to cook dinner with me every night.  She even made us some yummy Japanese food.

The morning before we took her back.  We miss her and it was a great experience for our family.

August also brought around the Davis County Fair.  Noah was old enough to be in 4-H this year and was so excited to show goats.  They all did a great job and Logan and Stauney both earned two belt buckles each.  Evan got to show goats in the Pee Wee goat show again also.  It was a very busy week for us with David and I both helping to run the show and the kids also showing our neighbor's goats.  I think we took around 21 goats in all!  Exhausting, but fun.  The kids also entered many exhibits and crafts and several got best of show ribbons and were sent to the State Fair.

So proud of these kids and all of their hard work.

We ended up selling all of the goats except one little doe of Logan's.  It was too much.

At the end of August school started up, and I think I finally got to breath again!

If shoe size indicate height, then all of our kids will be tall!

Logan, and his size 14's just started 10th grade.  Stauney and her size 10's are now in 8th grade.  I don't know Noah or Evan's shoe sizes, but I can just about wear Noah's, and Evan isn't far behind.  Noah is in 4th grade and Evan is in 2nd.  David is the parent organization president at their charter school this year and it keeps him VERY busy.  I volunteer to help in classrooms weekly.

SEPTEMBER
After having approval for his Eagle project for over a year, Logan finally completed it.  It was a huge project and I think something like 70 hours was spent on doing an inventory of every headstones condition at the city cemetery.  It was a great project and he's glad to have it done.  He just got approved for his Eagle and we will have his ceremony after the holidays.  Yeah!

Although we had fun hanging out in the cemetery, we are glad it's done.

Noah and Evan were thrilled to get cast as Merlin and Mini Merlin in their school play of King Arthur's Quest.  All of the bigger actors had a mini to make the villians look bigger and the actors look further away.  It was so cute!  So Evan got to be Noah's mini, and they both were awesome.

There is some resemblance!

We celebrated Logan's 16th birthday and Stauney's 14th the end of September.  They've grown up so fast, but we couldn't ask for better teenagers.

Much to Stauney's dismay, Logan got a cell phone and she didn't.

David was released from Cub Scouts and is now serving as First Assistant in the High Priest's leadership.
 
OCTOBER
Yep, Stauney is back on the stage again as the lead in our Ward's musical for the Stake Roadshow.  She even sang a solo.  She is an amazing actress and impressed everyone.

Stauney is one of many talented kids in our Ward.  Logan was happy helping with props behind the scenes.

We had an unexpected opportunity come up when a co-worker of David's offered our family a free condo for a week in Anaheim, California.  We decided that if people wanted to keep giving us free vacations, we would keep taking them.  So we headed to DISNEYLAND!!!  We drove clear to the border of California before Noah and Evan figured out where we were going.

We spent 7 days at Disneyland and California Adventure.  It was a great bonding time for our family.  We even got to go trick-or-treating with Mickey in the park.  It was a great evening with fast lines on rides, characters, tons of candy, and a special parade and fireworks.

Flynn was really jealous of Logan's height.

Yes, that's the kitchen table covered with candy (not including all that the kids ate and one other bag full!)
 We had this idea for a Christmas card while we were there, but it didn't quite work:

There's no 'E' in California.

NOVEMBER
A busy month, but not for family photos.  I spent two weeks sick in bed and missed Noah and Evan performing in their school choir.  I just got the video of it and can't wait to finally see them perform.

I did stay busy taking photos of my niece's wedding and reception in November and I'll post some of those another time.

DECEMBER
Stauney has been enjoying taking musical theater classes and has just finished performances.  She's so fun to watch because she loves it so much.  Her whole class was so cute!

She even got to wear a feather boa again.

Logan, Stauney and Noah just had their piano recital.  They are all getting really good, but do not want me to post videos of them playing because they weren't perfect.  I thought they were awesome.  Their teacher says that Noah has natural talent and may pass by the older kids if he keeps working hard.  Logan needs to learn a few more hymns and then he will start taking organ lessons.  We plan to start Evan in piano this summer.

Thanks for hanging in through this very long post for our very busy year.  I hope to post more often from now on, so feel free to check in again sometime.  We hope you have a very Merry Christmas, and send you our best wishes for your new year.

Merry Christmas!  Love, The Hansens

 Please leave a comment so we know you've been here!

It Rained on our Parade...literally.

Payson, Utah celebrates Onion Days on Labor Day weekend every year and it's a huge Hansen family tradition in conjunction with a family reunion. We love this weekend and plan for it every year. The cousins of similar ages combine, find their spots and have a big sleep-over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma Hansen bakes huge amounts of delicious food for us to gorge ourselves on, the women have their 'Girls Night Out' movie night, we all play volleyball, usually watch the band concert in the park, some run the 5K (and even 10K this year), and we go see the parade.Do you kind of expect Shrek and Fiona to be waving from inside the big onion like me?

In the 17 years that David and I have been married, I only remember missing one Onion Days Parade because I was sick with the flu. Almost every year it's so hot by the time the parade starts you can hardly stand it. Well, this year we had a rainy weekend, but it seemed to be clearing up, and was even sunny for a while. So we headed to the 'Hansen spot' on the parade route. We've never sat anywhere but there because Grandpa stakes it out with about 20 chairs and rope every year. But not far into the parade - it poured. Raining cats and dogs definitely applies here. We were wet, cold, and trying to stay dry with blankets over our heads. But, we ran. Lots of people ran. We tried to be brave, but with two screaming boys on your lap it's just not worth it. So we sprinted to Grandma's only to be faced with wet boys crying because they hardly got any candy. We had a niece and nephew in the parade somewhere that we never got to wave to.

Logan stayed, and hid with some other family members under a nearby carport. He heard one man who was handing out candy ask another how long they had to keep going. The reply was, "We're done when the candy is gone." To which he promptly walked over to a brave family still on the side of the road, dumped his entire bag of candy in their laps, said, "Done!" and headed for shelter. And to the credit of most people in the parade, they kept going, marching forward to a dwindling crowd. Brave souls.

Despite the rainout, we had a great weekend. Logan ran in the annual 5K for the first time and did a great job. He and a cousin got big bags as prizes. Since all the runners wanted hot cocoa instead of icy sports drinks from sponsors on that cold morning, they loaded the drinks into their bags and lugged them back to Grandma's. Happy teenagers.

I think we all had happy husbands in the end too. Instead of heading to the shopping booths after the parade, the wives all stayed and chatted where it was warm and dry.

Vacation #2

A dream come true. That's the best way to describe my second vacation in July 2008. My whole life I have wanted to go to Hawaii, all it took was a deadline on our Skymiles to get us there! That's what we had been saving them for after all. After about 5 months of planning, we were so excited to finally be on our way. I won't do much writing because the photos are the best part. If you want to see more you'll have to come over to see the other nearly 1000 photos I took.
Our house, Honu C, one of three Tropical Waters rental houses in a gated area in Pupukea. It's on the edge of Papa'Iloa beach of Oahu's north shore. (Our van is the white one. Apparently every rental agency in Hawaii rents the same model of van. I'm sure it makes it easier for the locals to spot the tourists.)
This is the beach from behind the rental houses. Just up from this is Sunset beach and the Bonzai Pipeline, one of the top surfing spots in the world in the winter months. There were steps leading from here down to the beach where we had a short walk through some lava rock before the sand.
Mine and David's footprints in the sand. This is near the tidepool on our beach where we could see little fish swimming around in the lava rock. Our beach had the most beautiful sand I have ever seen. It must be due to the huge waves that crash here all winter making the perfectly tumbled sand. We walked down to the beach the first night we got to Hawaii. It was already after dark by the time we got back from dinner. There were little specks in the sand that glowed in the dark. We don't know what they were, but they were cool.Our beach at sunrise. David got up early one morning while I slept in and walked down to the beach to see the sunrise. This is the tidepool in the foreground.
Our beach at sunset. After being out and about all day, we almost always headed for the beach in the evenings to watch the sun set.
Sharks cove was just down the path a couple minutes from our house. It is #12 of the top snorkeling spots in the world. This is the sunset from there after we finished snorkeling one day.
We were so lucky to have Shark's Cove so close. The 3 D's (David, Dannie and Dad) tried out snorkeling at Turtle Bay one morning, but said it was nothing compared to Shark's Cove. This is a photo David took of some fish in Shark's Cove with a little disposable underwater camera. It's not the clearest, but you can see how many fish there were. We had so much fun snorkeling and wish we could have done it more. We only had to be knee-deep in the water to see this many fish. We didn't even wear our fins because we didn't have to go far out to be surrounded. David did once, but said there were just as many fish near the shore. We saw all colors, and sizes. One cute little fish even fell in love with David's water shoe and followed his foot around.It was really amazing.
The Laie Hawaii temple. On this day we just toured the temple grounds and took photos. It is so beautiful there and I love the view from the front of the temple looking straight out to the ocean. On Saturday we went and did a session. The temple was a lot smaller inside than we thought it would be, but very pretty.
Waves crashing near Hanauma Bay. On our second day in Hawaii we toured the island, stopping here and there to shop, wade at a beach and take photos of amazing vistas like this. The colors in the water were breathtaking.One of the beautiful sea turtles on Laniakea beach on the north shore. Every afternoon around 3:00 p.m. the come onto the shore to bask in the sun. That day we saw about ten sea turtles in the area. Some on the beach, some in the water. The oldest female, Honey Girl, was slaughtered just a few days before we got there. Please read her story and more about these amazing creatures on this link malamanahonu.org. Earlier that morning a news crew was there because one of the other turtles had crawled up to the grave of Honey Girl and rested her head on it in front of Honey Girl's photo. So sad.
David and myself at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was such a fun day. I could talk a lot about it, but I won't. I'll just say, go to Hawaii, and be sure to visit it.

This was taken right before we went in for our Luau. Me, David, Dannie, Sherilyn, Mom and Dad, and of course our new 'cousins' in purple on the ends. Don't you just love our hats that scream "TOURIST"! Well, I didn't care, I have naturally curly hair, and it does not mix well with humidity. I have photos with my hat off that prove it. (Sorry, I won't post those.)
We really enjoyed the food and the entertainment. They sang Dad and I 'Happy Birthday' (and everyone else with a July birthday), and Dad and Mom got to go on stage and dance to 'The Hawaiian Wedding Song" because it was their anniversary month.

We had several hikes and walks that we took to see some of the amazing plant life on Oahu. We hiked to the waterfall at Lyon Arboretum. It was barely a trickle, but we saw amazing flowers and trees along the way. This photo of the double hibiscus was taken at Waimea Valley Audobon Center, another must-see place on the island. SO many amazing plants to see. My favorite was the unique and unusual Cannonball Tree.

The view from the top of Diamond Head. Quite the hike, but worth it for the view. Hey, I just remembered we paid a guy for T-shirts that say "I hiked Diamond Head" to be mailed to our house. They better show up soon. I'll have to get back to you on how that worked out.

I'll end with this photo because it's one of my favorites that I took at Lyon Arboretum. Hawaii is wonderful, but no matter how many photos you take and see, it just doesn't compare to being there. It feels great to have a dream come true. I can't wait to go back.

Vacation #1

Okay, so I may be a really bad blogger, but I will try to redeem myself and get enough posts in here that I might actually tell people I have a blog. I do have an excuse at least for the last month.I have either been preparing for, or on vacation. Not a bad way to spend a month (well, at least the 'on vacation' part).

On July 16th we left for our annual Hansen Family camp out. This year it was at beautiful Joe's Valley Reservoir campground, in the mountain range between Castledale and Ephraim, Utah. We got a surprise welcome by a local moose in the canyon on the way up. There was a steep mountain on one side of the road, and a steep drop-off on the other side, so it had nowhere to go but up the middle of the road.
It was raining and it kept slipping on the road, so we drove along very slowly and took photos for about 1/2 mile until a truck coming the other direction scared it into this little turnout you can see in the photo, then we finally passed it. I have to say, it may have saved us a lot of problems, because just around this corner were many boulders that had washed off the hillside in the rain. Fortunately we were still going slow and were able to easily avoid them. Unfortunately, my S-I-L hit one a few minutes after us, but I don't think there was any major damage.
Grandma had dinner prepared for everyone that night with, of course, her famous cookies for dessert.
The next day Grandpa and Grandma rented five 4-wheelers for the family to enjoy riding for the day. Some relatives had their own, and David brought his motorcycle, and we all had a fun time riding some of the many nearby trails.
This is the view David, Logan, Evan and Grandpa got on one trail. It overlooks Castledale. I was so glad to see that David made Logan hang on to Evan's hand the entire time they were up there.
This is the view of Mary's Lake that Stauney, Noah, David and I got on another trail. It was really beautiful up there and the drive up was amazing, with pretty woods, ponds, and fields of wildflowers of every color.
I was driving a 4-wheeler with Noah in the middle and Stauney on the back. David followed along behind us on his motorcycle. Stauney begged me to let her drive for a while, so on a nice flat spot I relented. She drove fine for about 50 ft. and at the first corner ran off the road. I drove again until we got to the bottom of the trail on a nice straight, dirt road where she got another turn that lasted longer. She'll have to work on that upper body strength.
That night we enjoyed the next round of Grandma's cookies, and the grandchildren all had to perform a talent for a treat from Grandma. Logan played his trumpet, Stauney sang and danced with a few of her cousins, then played Hot Cross Buns on her recorder for Noah and Evan to sing to. It's interesting to see what some of the teenagers now consider a talent. It ended with my niece Brooke having everyone join her for the final chorus of Humuhumunukunukuapuaha from High School Musical 2. Grandma was shocked that even the adults knew it.

The next day Grandpa and Grandma spoiled us again by renting 4 jet skis to ride on the reservoir. We had a blast on the water and off. We found a little cove to hang out at for the day with a little beach and some fun rocks for the little kids to jump off of. The bigger kids, and the even bigger ones (their Dads) did some cliff jumping up the road a little. The kids also had fun being towed around in a tube pulled behind a jet-ski. I should not be allowed to pull anyone on the tube ever again. Just ask my B-I-L Gregg (or the rental guy who now has no flag).
Here David is letting Logan practice his driving skills on one of the two coveted "red ones". They were really fast, so everyone wanted them. We had so much fun and headed back to the campground exhausted, but luckily not too sunburned. This is how tired Evan was.

He was out for the rest of the night. It gave me a good excuse to go to bed early though. Evan was sad the next day that he didn't get to eat his hot dog. He just saw this photo and asked if we still had that hot dog so he could finish it.
The kids waiting for breakfast under the trailer canopy. I precooked and sliced everything before we left so all we had to do was heat it up. I'm not a fan of slaving over the stove while on vacation. We had lots of yummy food. Stauney made three different kids of muffins before we left also and we really enjoyed those. For our last breakfast we made omelette's in a bag, and the kids thought that was pretty cool. Everything tastes better when you're camping though, right?
Our Beagle Chloe relaxing under a shady pine. She was happy to come on vacation with us and get to play with Mo and her little sister Skye.One final shot of David, the kids and Chloe at the summit on our drive home. We had a great time and enjoyed our time together with the Hansen family and each other. We enjoyed yummy over-the-top shakes in Ephraim and then stopped in Payson to drop the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's (and all their dirty laundry - sorry Grandma) and then David and I drove home to get ready to leave on vacation #2. That, I'll post next.