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.

Love-a-Fair

Whew! Another major event in our lives completed. We had two weeks after getting back from vacations to switch gears and get ready for the county fair. Just before vacation I got asked to be the new 4-H Goat Club secretary due to last minute - lets just say, conflicts. I really don't know much about goats, and I've tried to keep it that way to avoid positions like this, but they were desperate, and I'm too nice. I won't go into boring details, but my spreadsheets got completed, the show got organized, and I actually really enjoyed it.
The kids had been working at leading their goats during the summer, but sporadically, so it was time to get down to business and show those goats who was boss (or at least try). They also worked hard getting them trimmed, and shaved and their hooves clipped, last minute tattooing (oops, forgot about that), baths (the goats and the kids), and finally shopping to replace all the kids outgrown showing clothes. Logan only grew 6 inches since the last fair so his pants should have fit, right? Anyway, we got it all done and got everyone and animal there.
There was a Utah Dairy Goat Assoc. double-ring open goat show one day and the Davis County Fair in conjunction with a UDGA youth show the next day. Hence, long hours in barns.

This is at the county fair. Stauney is showing Clover and Logan is showing Ruby. These are the goats they got last year. They ended up taking 1st (Ruby) and 2nd (Clover) in this age group and got to compete in the Star Class where Logan won Reserve Champion for Ruby. Stauney also competed in the Star Class with her other goat Penelope who got 1st place in her age group. Logan also showed a market goat, Copper. He sold him at the auction for $150.00. Stauney got Reserve Champion in showmanship. I won't explain too much since most of you wouldn't understand what all the terms mean, but they did really well and brought home tons of ribbons and they both got a big belt buckle again. They basically competed in 4 shows in 2 days. They also entered numerous exhibits and did really good in those also. Stauney made a set of cards that got selected to go to the State Fair.
Evan and Noah got to compete in the Pee-Wee goat show a few days later. Evan was in the youngest age group and showed Stauney's goat Penelope (Penny). He had no idea who the judge was, so he didn't know who to watch, and spent most of the time waving at us in the audience. He was a little distracted, but so cute and got 3rd of 3. He came out and yelled, "Yes! I got third place!" He received a medal and a lead rope. He was thrilled.

Noah was in the intermediate age group and showed our neighbor's goat Mississippi Mud. He placed first and got to come back in to compete again, and won Grand Champion! He did so awesome. He can show a goat better than a lot of kids in the 4-H/FFA show. He deserved it and received a medal, a bag of candy, and a belt buckle (if you look at the sack in his hand you can see the cute little belt buckle in it). He was beaming and proud when he exited the arena and pointed to Logan and said, "Two years. You and me." Logan accepted the challenge.

This photo of David and Stauney reflects how we all felt by the end of the fair. It was worth it.
But we better rest quickly, we are headed to the Utah State Fair in 2 weeks. Come see us!

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.

New Babies

On Monday we received news that my daughter's new baby had been delivered to our neighbor's house and was awaiting pick-up after a long trip from Heber. Her previous dairy goat 'Clover' decided to grow two extra teats last year and was disqualified at the State Fair, so this is her new adorable replacement goat. She came with the name 'Penelope', which was an instant hit, and nicknamed 'Penny'. In this photo she had just finished her dinner so she has a milk mustache.

My son also got to pick a male from our neighbor's crop of new babies. Their two Oberhasli milkers had successfully delivered 5 males between them. Not good luck when you are trying to re-stock your dairy herd. But he now has a nice chunky little guy to raise as a whether for the county fair. Sadly, this means he will become meat. But that cute white patch of hair on his forehead dooms him to no other fate. He came with the name 'Hos' because he nearly killed his mother from coming out so big. His twin brother was 'Little Joe'. My son shot that name down pretty quick and decided on 'Copper' for his color. Then we realized we had 'Copper' and 'Penny'. Oh well, it works. Each time my kids get new goats their names seem to relate in some way.

So I now am in charge of filling and warming bottles full of goat milk 3 times a day. I can't say that I mind though, they are so cute and so much fun to play with, and I don't have to do diapers. My kids will now go outside during the day just to play with or watch them. Our biggest problem is that our dog Chloe is jealous and whines constantly whenever the babies are getting the slightest bit of attention. Chloe doesn't mind their bottle feedings though. She has taken it upon herself to clean up the goats as they eat by licking any milk slobber or drool off their faces as they eat.
If you are in the neighborhood you will have to come by and see them while they are still little and cute.

Bless Us!

Our family is hoping to return to normal life this week sometime. It seems as if we have had a crazier than normal schedule this month with illness and much missing of school and work. Over the past 2 weeks we have had 11 such days missed between all 6 family members.
We have had sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, phlegm, phlegm, more phlegm, vomiting, asthma, nebulizer treatments, 3 sinus infections, 3 antibiotics, 4 hour Dr. visit waits, 5 bottles of cold/cough/asthma medicine, 6 boxes of tissues (with lotion please)...I could make this into a sick version of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'!
Anyway, you get the picture of what our March has been like. And just as everyone is nearing recovery, we can welcome spring and ALLERGY SEASON! I seem to always forget about that when I'm in the snow and looking forward to warmer weather.
Alas, each season has its good and bad points. I do welcome spring and its pollen, because it also brings with it (hopefully) an end to the cold and flu season. Sorry, I lied That season has no good points.