Happy Thanksgiving

We drove to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with our families. Nanny made us a yummy turkey dinner and invited my mom and dad over so we only had to do one dinner. Thanks Nan. For coming from England you sure make a good Thanksgiving dinner. Sorry the colonists didn't like your homeland. But we got a great holiday where you can stuff yourself until your sick from it.
I just wanted to say a couple of things that I am grateful for: 1) My awesome hubby, you rule. 2) My sweet kids. 3) Our wonderful families, my parents and my in-laws are great. 4) My Savior Jesus Christ, 5) Good Friends. There are so many other things that I am grateful for but it would take too long to name them.

Caleb got to sit at the big table this year!!!!

Highlights from Utah

I had to put this one on because of how cute my kids were camped out on Nana's floor.

The kids with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Hansen. And Ashlee playing in the leaves.

Fun with cousins Ty, Nate and Jake.

You can swim in Utah in the middle of winter. We took the kids to the indoor pool in Springville and they had a blast. I don't know how I ended up with 3 water babies, since I am not a fan of swimming or the water.

Caleb and Carl climbed to the Y on the mountain Wednesday afternoon. It was a little cloudy but you can still see Provo behind Carl.

The Bean Museum at BYU. The "kids" loved the animals.

A crazy Ice Cream place that makes your icecream in front of you with liquid Nitrogen.

TURKEY RUN!!!!!!

On Thanksgiving morning I got up to do the Turkey Run in Orem with my friend Jo and the gang. It was raining but we were troopers to run it anyway. Jo is pretty hilarious but she has a crazy, funny sister Jessie that dresses up for every race she runs. See if you can guess which one she is? Thanks to Jo's little girl Paige for making the Pilgrim hat I am wearing. I used my extensive knowledge of craftiness and turned Jo and Becky's t-shirts into their own Pilgrim hats. Thanks girls for the fun run!

Happy Birthday Dad

Robert Lee Hall was born to Veda and Thelma Hall on November 24, 1933. He loyally served this country for 25 years, 10 months and 7 days. He married Margene Mickelsen on October 12, 1968 and had 3 kids. The last one was by far the coolest. Dad you are such an amazing dad and an inspiration to me. You are the best papa in the world and I am so grateful that you are my dad. You have seen and done so much in the last 75 years. You are someone we can all look up to. Instead of listing 75 reasons my dad is the greatest, to save space and brain power I am going to list 12 reasons because that is 7 + 5.
12. You have such great sense on humor.
11. Your talent at building things and fixing things. I just assumed that husbands could fix anything and luckily Carl can, but there are husbands out there that can't. You took care of everything around the house.
10. I love the fact that after 40 years of marriage you kiss mom goodbye before leaving the house.
9. I love that after the 1 time I was spanked by mom, you brought me Oreo's and milk.
8. You are respectful to mom and taught me how I should be treated.
7. You have a big, soft heart for dogs, especially your Angel.
6. You are accepting to everyone and willing to open your home to anyone in need.
5. You look out for your friends.
4. You adore your grandkids, and you cherished the time you had with Caleb when you guys watched him for me.
3.I admire your work ethic and integrity.
2. You tell me you love me every single time I talk to you on the phone, even if it is a quick call.
1. Your love for our Savior Jesus Christ and your strong testimony of the gospel.
Happy Birthday dad, I love you!

Joe and Shirl and Carl and I took mom and dad to the Tree Room at Sundance for his birhtday/ 40th Anniversary present.

Shirley and me.

My cute hubby.

Sorry Joe, but you asked for it. Love you though.

Driving to Utah.......................still driving to Utah....

We decided to leave for Utah on Friday after the kids got out of school. We set 3:00 as our goal, so we finally hit the road at about 4:30 pm. We were just going to drive as far as we could before we got tired. We have done the drive all night before and it pretty much sucks. So with our 3 kids and 2 dogs we headed across the widest and most boring part of the great state of Nevada. Usually a little payoff is the drive through Donner Pass and the Sierra's, but it was too dark by the time we got there. We drove about halfway to Battle Mountain, NV. and stopped at a Super 8 around midnight. The "ABSOLUTELY NO PETS" sign didn't deter us and we just stuck the dogs in a bag and snuck them in. (See Carl, you couldn't do that with the "real" dog you want). Anyway, a pretty bad night sleep later and greasy McDonalds for breakfast we were off again and got into town right as the BYU game was starting (probably could have skipped it). Everytime we decide to come to Utah I think it is a great idea, then halfway here and 4000 questions from Sydney whether we are in Utah yet? I have a hard time deciding if the trip is worth it. Seeing the fam is great and we are having a good time.

Caleb and the dogs sleeping.

Sweet Ashlee was the first one out.

This was seriously the only time she wasn't asking if we were in Utah yet?

Happy, refreshed kids! Thank goodness for car DVD players and DS's.

Pretty much the view for 600 miles.

Twilight.......

So a little catch up on the Hansen's. Thursday night at midnight Misty, Tami, Mel and I joined a pretty big group of teenagers at the premier of Twilight. We sat outside for a couple of hours FREEZING!! Mel and I stopped at Starbucks on the way and picked up 4 large hot chocolates to get us through the wait. For details on how old and a little lame we felt please see Tami's blog. But whatever, it was a blast to be with girls, stinky people behind us and all. The cheering at inappropriate times was also entertaining. A question for anyone who has seen it: what is the deal with Jasper's crazy face? just wondering. Thanks girls for another adventure.

Girls Night Out Birthday Dinner

We went to B.J's for Tami's birthday dinner last night. It was pretty fun and yummy. Tami was spared the opportunity/embarrassment of wearing the birthday crown because Misty wasn't able to be with us (sniff). However, Misty assured Tam that she would be honored one day soon to wear the flashing crown in public. Oh the things to look forward too. Thanks girls for a fun night.

Happy Birthday Tami Tam.........

So what can I say, you are such a great friend. Happy Birthday!!!! You are so much fun and so sweet. I am so glad that you moved to our ward. You are such an amazing mom and I have to say that you are hilarious. My girls love and idolize you too and I honestly can't blame them. Love ya pretty friend!!

I seriously love your faces in this one.

What people don't see is that you clothes lined yourself on the net after this fantastic move. It was classic.

Happy Birthday GHHH..............................

Happy Birthday Greta. I love you. so I scanned this page in out of my high school scrapbook. I figured that our rule not to post any embarrassing pictures of each other didn't apply in this case because if you note that ones of me are way worse than the ones of you. However, to those of you that were not lucky enough to be graced with the total coolness of my tinted pink glasses complete with stanimals, here are a couple of fantastic pictures of them for you. Greta, I love you more than my luggage and all that other stuff. You have always been a constant in my life. You are such a strong and amazing example to me and I know that your mom is so proud of you and she is smiling down on you. Sometimes laughing........especially when Audrey is causing trouble. She had a long time in heaven with her. You are the GREATEST!!!!!!! Thanks for all the fun times. Peanut butter M&M's and candy lipstick. Not to mention that I am still the reigning licorice fight champ. I am pretty glad that families are forever.

Sydney's Pre-school picture

Here is Syd's pre-school picture. I was pretty excited because the photographer got a real smile out of her. She has a really hard time taking pictures (good luck friend Misty).

Sydney Joan Age 3 1/2

Scouting For Food........

For our Cub Scout pack meeting yesterday the boys had to tie grocery bags to doors for the Scouting for Food program. Then Carl and his Boy Scouts will have to go pick up the food on Saturday. Every year we try to make the boys wear something fun as we walk through the neighborhoods, one year they wore a tie slide shaped like a turkey with real feathers on it. This year Jen Hetzler and I found these awesome pilgrim hats from Target. The boys are pretty sure that our main goal is to humiliate them so to prove that we were innocent of this claim, we made our fearless leaders wear them too. Scouting for food is a great way to help the boys learn to serve the community.

Thank You

I stole this picture off of Marie's blog... so thanks Marie. I just wanted to thank our troops for keeping us safe and for the sacrifices that they make every single day to ensure our freedom. A special THANKS to my dad and brother Don. I love you guys! You are such great examples to me and your patriotism and love of this country are amazing. Also a shout out to our friends that are serving our country, Ryan and Joe. I hope that we can all remember the men and women serving our country in our thoughts and prayers. Veterans day is a perfect opportunity tell them thanks.

Yosemite

Since moving to California 5 years ago, Yosemite has become a favorite place for us to go hiking and sight seeing. It is really beautiful. Coming from Utah I was pretty sure that no National Park would be better than the ones we have there, but Yosemite is pretty awesome. Carl has climbed Half Dome a couple of times and I am going to climb it next summer. Caleb might be ready to go then too. We decided on Friday night to get up and go up the hill to Yosemite. It is only a little over an hour to get there, but Sydney told us on the drive that it was taking "forever". She was really chatty on the way up and we told the kids that we would give them a quarter for every squirrel they saw. "Sleeping" squirrels counted so I owe Carl $1.50. Sydney hollered out that she saw a bear and a sloth in the tree and that we owe her $8.00. It was pretty funny. They have had some snow and rain up there recently so the waterfalls had water and it was really beautiful with the fall leaves. We packed a lunch and stopped at the picnic spot by the river. There was a sandy beach right by the river that we walked down to after lunch and there was a couple sitting by the water trying to be romantic, Sydney walked right up to them and sat down beside them. They didn't quite know what to think of that. Overall we had a great time and 3 VERY sleepy kids on the way home.

Sydney pulls the same silly face every time we take a funny picture. She learned it from her cute little friend Dylen.

Carl took this great shot of the Falls through this old tree and Caleb is pulling a face for the camera.

Sydney got tired and got a lift from her dad and big brother.

The kids were having lots of fun together. It is rare that they all get along.

The girls were spaztically running towards the camera.

The kids are really great hikers. It was a pretty steep trail.