Catching up

November

I went to see "New Moon" on opening night at midnight on the 20th with my sister and sister-in-laws and friends. It was much better than the first one but still no comparison to the books. Then Pete & I went to the Utah football game on Saturday the 21st. They won easily!!!! It was a fun weekend.

Thanksgiving weekend

We had 2 dinners as has become a tradition - Wednesday night with my family, including my grandpa, uncle & aunt, cousins and their kids. It is a big group (and noisy) but super fun! And the food is delicious. Thursday with Pete's family at his aunt's house. A smaller group (and quieter) and more relaxing. Again the food is delicious.

I did nearly all my Christmas shopping on Black Friday with my mom starting at 4 am and hitting most stores twice. I had to do most of my shopping Thanksgiving weekend as I wasn't planning on being back in town until Christmas, and there isn't really any shopping available in Wendover except online.

Saturday my whole family gathered at my parent's house to watch the Utah/BYU game, many of us decked out in our Utah or red gear. We had a good time, even if the Utes lost - at least they did it with class.

December

We put up tree and other decorations, and finally have a mantel to hang stockings on (at least for a picture since we can't leave them up with the pellet stove on) -- thanks Pete!

California vacation

My parents rented a beach house in Newport Beach for the entire family. We arrived on Saturday the 5th and got settled in.

Sunday we relaxed, watched football, and hung out on the beach. It was cool and mostly cloudy but the sun did peek out a little. The kids were crazy enough to get in the water, the sand was cold enough for me. Pete took Logan to the hospital as he had been running a fever and broke out in an all-over rash - it turned out to be scarlet fever/strep throat.

Monday we woke up to rain, hoping it was better further south we decided to go to Seaworld. We were wrong, turns out it was much worse in San Diego (one of their biggest storms of the year). We insanely went through with it and sloshed around Seaworld in ponchos and umbrellas. We ended up soaked through and freezing, but the kids were troopers and didn't complain at all.

Tuesday & Wednesday the weather was much better, still cool but at least no rain, and we spent them at Disneyland and California Adventure.

Thursday those of us with little kids went to Legoland. This was probably the warmest day we had, and the place wasn't busy at all so there were no lines for any of the rides - awesome.

Friday we all went to Universal Studios, it rained a bit but nothing like Monday so we all tolerated it pretty well , and were better prepared this time.

Saturday we packed up and drove to Las Vegas where we visited some friends, then dragged the kids to Hooters for dinner and to watch the UFC fights (they were very good, though we let the boys bring their Nintendo DS's to keep them entertained). We drove home on Sunday. The weather wasn't great in California but at least we missed the single digit temperatures and big snowfall back home. And seeing all the parks decorated for the holidays was neat!

Back to real life

Work, laundry, grocery shopping, more work, kids to school, more laundry, mail Christmas cards, etc...

Reno, zoo, & family photos

We spent last weekend in Reno, for new cousin Rebekah's baby blessing. Since we didn't make it down to Reno in August this year like we usually do, it was nice to spend a few days there with family. The weather was gorgeous so we were able to make our traditional trip to Virginia Lake to feed the ducks & geese and let the kids play at the park. Pete's brother Russ, his wife Leta Kaye, and their kids Mitch & Verity (and baby Rebekah) joined us and the kids all had a great time. Grandpa Walt came too and helped keep an eye on all the kids and push a swing or two.

On Wednesday (Veteran's Day), since the boys didn't have school, I took the day off work and took Logan & Kylie to the zoo (Trevor went paint-balling for a friend's birthday party). We were joined by my sister-in-law Darci, her boys Jace & Cael, my nephews Brighton & Bode, and my youngest brother, Bryce. Again the weather was gorgeous - the "warm before the storm." The kids had a great time, and we all enjoyed seeing all the animals. Especially all the babies. Hogle Zoo had a banner year with a bunch of new arrivals - giraffe, 3 tigers, snow leopard, siamese crocodile, colobus monkey, howler monkey, twin golden lion tamarins, black-footed cat, 6 meerkats, 3 prairie dogs, and the most anticipated arrival - a baby elephant (my personal favorite).

On Thursday, my good friend took our family photos. We were worried about the weather, but it turned out ok, and we only needed about 15 minutes to get some decent shots (if only I could get my kids to not have a forced cheesy grin on their faces). Big thanks to Emily, I owe you!

Halloween 2009

I feel like we spent a week celebrating Halloween. We had a Halloween carnival and trunk or treat at the church as well as Trick or Treat Street at the school on Wednesday. Kylie wore her costume for about 15 minutes and then promptly removed it (it does get a little warm indoors).
Logan enjoyed the carnival games and winning prizes, and Trevor enjoyed hanging out with his friends.


On Friday we had a family party with cousins and 2nd cousins. Again, I could only keep Kylie in her costume for a short time. We had pizza and played some games, handed out candy, and lined the kids up for the obligatory pictures. It is quite a site with about 10 or so adults with cameras and video cameras trying to get all the kids to hold still, look at the cameras, smile, etc. One of these times I need to turn around and take a picture of that! I consider it a success if I have 1 shot with everyone at least somewhat looking in the direction of the camera, anything more than that is a bonus.


On Saturday, Kylie, Logan and 2 of my nieces helped my Mom carve her jack-o-lanterns. Kylie wasn't so sure about the gooey guts, and even Logan seemed reluctant to reach in. That evening my Mom and I took my 3 kids and 3 of my nephews trick-or-treating while my brothers and sister-in-law were at the Utah game (my other sister-in-law and her oldest boy were home sick, poor things). It was the first time in many years my Mom has been out trick-or-treating, she was a great sport and even dressed up too. I was the party-pooper and didn't dress up (unless you consider dressing as a Ute fan a costume). The kids did surprisingly very well. I pushed Kylie in a stroller after she hurt her foot right before we went out and refused to put her shoes on, but she forgot all about her pain when it came time to walk up to the doors to get candy (in her socks). Logan and Trevor and my 5 year old nephew kept running ahead. My Mom had her hands full with my two 2-1/2 year old nephews, but they were troopers and walked the entire time. It wasn't too cold and after an hour or so we were all ready to call it a night and went back to my parent's house to watch the Utah game.

Trevor as a ghoulish grim reaper.

Logan as Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars.

Kylie as a very cute Blue from "Blues Clues".

The kids ended up with way too much candy after all these festivities, I doubt they'll ever eat it all (I just hope that I don't). We hope everyone had a fun Halloween too!

I Love Fall

Fall, my favorite season of all, and October especially. I think it has a lot to do with growing up and it being the time when the farm would slow down and was coming to an end. Plus there's football and sweaters, crisp cool weather (I'm not a fan of summer heat) and the smells (smoke from woodburning stoves, fireplaces, and I'm probably alone on this but the smell of manure lets me know it is truly Fall). We made our annual trip to Papa's pumpkin patch a bit early this year so it didn't look or feel like Fall yet (technically it wasn't), but the kids had fun picking out our pumpkins and were even cooperative with my posing and picture taking.

Alaska

The "Great One"

Pete and I went on an Alaskan cruise just the two of us a couple weeks ago. It was so nice to get away just the two of us, it has been almost 8 years since the last time we did. We started out doing a 4-day land tour. We stayed two nights a the Mt McKinley Princess Lodge, where this first picture was taken. We had a gorgeous sunny day and were repeatedly told we were very lucky to get to see "the mountain" at all as most days it is socked in with clouds. On this same day we went into the nearby town of Talkeetna (the TV show Northern Exposure was modeled after it), did a little shopping, took a river tour, then we signed up for a flight around Mt. McKinley with a glacier landing. Pete was like a little kid he was so excited, and I have to admit although I've never flown in that small of a plane before it was really cool and not scary at all.

The view of the mountain and a huge glacier from the air.

On the glacier. (If I look cold it is because I was!)

The next day we stayed at the Denali Princess Lodge just outside of Denali National Park & Preserve. We caught this picture of a cow moose on the tour through the park. We had also seen a grizzly bear on our bus ride to the lodge but weren't able to get a picture of it. Our luck ran out as it rained all day.

The last day of our land tour was spent on a dome-top train from Denali to the port in Whittier. We were driving through some gorgeous wild country, unfortunately due to the movement most of the pictures we took were blurry. We saw some bald eagles and Dall sheep. We got off the train and onto the cruise ship.

Our first day was at sea while sailing through College Fjord, we did a few things onboard (Bingo, movie "Star Trek") but mostly relaxed and slept alot (3 hour nap!). The next day was also at sea sailing into Glacier Bay (Marjorie Glacier pictured below). We saw a humpback whale and a few seals out in the water. We mostly hung out in our room reading or watching TV or on the balcony viewing the glaciers. (This vacation was all about relaxing and being together.)

Day 3 we were in port in Skagway. We did some shopping and site-seeing down the old-time main street, still with boardwalks. We then went back to the ship for lunch and decided to stay, Pete napped while I read. Day 4 we were in Juneau. We did a little shopping then signed up for a tour to Mendenhall Glacier and a tram pass. Back on board we both took a nap (again). Day 5 was in Ketchikan. We again did a little shopping and site-seeing around town. The weather was nice at first but then it started to rain (it is the rainiest town in Alaska) so we headed back to the ship, and relaxed in our room for awhile. The next day was at sea so we slept in and spent all morning in bed watching a movie (these are the things you cannot do with kids either on vacation or at home). We finally got ready and did a few things onboard (Bingo again, eating of course). The weather was cool but not raining so we spent some time on the balcony and saw a whole bunch of dolphins, a couple sea otters, a few bald eagles, and even a killer whale! Our last day was spent getting off the ship, driving on a bus from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, WA, and then spending 7 hours or so sitting at the airport. I mostly read and we both spent sometime surfing the web. We got home very late, long after the kids were asleep. It was hard not to wake them up, we missed them so much. I don't think I'll be leaving my kids for that long (11 days) for a long, long time - maybe when they are teenagers I'll be ready again! We had a wonderful time, relaxing and spending time together without many interruptions or distractions and seeing some beautiful sites.

Lagoon, soccer, and owies

We went to Lagoon on Friday, with our friend John and his 2 girls, my sister Ally joined us as well. The kids had a good time. Logan was the perfect height being just tall enough to ride many of the big rides but not being too tall for the kiddy rides. Trevor as usual had no fear and was eager to go on any ride. Kylie did well on most kiddy rides, though those that went up in the air made her a bit nervous, thank goodness Logan was with her. The weather was nice - a bit muggy but not too hot and the few rain drops that fell were brief, and the evening cooled down nicely. My mom was gracious enough to come and pick up Logan and Kylie at dinnertime (and deliver our dinner to us) so the rest of us could really enjoy more of the rides, they were very tired at that point anyway. It was a long and exhausting day but a ton of fun.

This week was also the start of Logan & Trevor's soccer seasons. They have been having practices for a couple weeks now, but this week were their first games. Logan's on Thursday and Trevor's on Saturday.

Logan at first was being a stinker and didn't want to play, but after talking it over with him he decided he wanted to play and put forth pretty good effort after that. At halftime he started begging his coach to let him play goalie. The team they were playing was a bit young and inexperienced and weren't getting very close to scoring so the coach eventually agreed. He spent part of the time sitting on the ground (I think he recognized the goalie wasn't doing much and that is why he wanted to play that position in the first place). These pics crack me up, I'm not really sure what he is doing in the second one, some kind of ninja-karate move?

Trevor didn't play much in his first game (he had missed quite a few practices this week with a 2 night scout campout and our Lagoon trip), but when he got in he played defender. He hustled and was really focused on his assignment.

Poor Kylie has had a rough week. It started last Sunday when she fell down crossing the street and landed on her nose, scraping it up. Then on Tuesday she fell on the porch and scraped up her forehead and eye. On Friday she had cavities filled for the first time (she did pretty good once they gave her some laughing gas), but when her bottom lip was numb she bit into it pretty hard and gave herself a bloody fat lip. Then today at church she pinched her finger in a door. Why is it my girl seems to get more owies than either of her brothers seemed to? It probably has something to do with her trying to keep up with her big brothers. Though maybe I just don't remember all the scrapes and bruises the boys had (I am getting old -- the big 3-5 is only 1 week away).

Birthday Boys

I can't believe my boys are 11 and 6 now! It was the big birthday week at our house with Trevor turning 11 on Tuesday and Logan turning 6 on Saturday. On Trevor's birthday I took him, 2 friends, Logan & Kylie to Cherry Hill in Kaysville then went back to Grandma's house for pizza and ice cream cake. It was a long day, but we all had a great time.
On Saturday we went swimming with all the cousins as part of the boys' family birthday party. It was so HOT, the cool water was a welcome relief.

We then went to a Hansen family get-together at Pete's aunts in Honeyville, enjoyed good food and visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins. That night when we got back to Bountiful, we had part 2 of the boys' party. We finally let the boys open their presents (Trevor had waited 4 extra days so he was especially anxious), and had cake and ice cream.

Good times, but after three 3-day weekends away from home in a row I'm just happy to stay home this week. Trevor is at scout camp all week, and the only thing going on besides work is some more swimming lessons for Logan. Maybe I'll finally get around to cleaning the house, finishing Breaking Dawn (last book in Twilight series), exercising, sitting out on the deck, and hopefully some scrapbooking too. It will be a nice break from the packing, unpacking, doing laundry, packing again routine I've been in this month.