Moaning Caverns

To finish off the 2008 year we decided to take the kids up to Moaning Caverns to explore the cave there and go for a hike. The weather was really foggy and cold in the valley, and as soon as we got to the foothills it was sunny and 55 degrees. That is what is so crazy about where we live, we can drive 30 minutes and be in completely different weather. The caverns are awesome. Carl took his scouts there last January and they did the actual crawl. We just took the "walk down the stairs tour" Sydney wasn't so sure at first because you start down these really narrow, wooden steps into a hole in the rock. And to be honest, my claustrophobia almost got the better of me too. But she didn't quit and it was actually really cool inside. The kids were great and they really are troopers to get dragged on all of our crazy adventures. They always remind us that Ashlee is daddy's hiking girl and Sydney is daddy's climbing girl. Caleb is pretty much a mini-me of Carl. He is willing to try anything with his dad. He mountain bikes, snowboards, kneeboards, climbs mountains, backpacks and anything else Carl wants to try. We have the greatest kids.



Moaning Caverns in by Angels Camp (Frog Town USA)

The inside of the cave.

Brave girls.

Going up the steep spiral stairs. Sydney did most of it herself, I carried her the last 30 stairs or so.

caleb making music by knocking on the rock.

Hiking around after the cave tour.

Happy Birthday "Auntie" Kim

Happy Birthday friend. I love Landon's face in this picture. It was taken at our annual St. Patricks Day corned beef dinner this year. (Only 3 months and 17 days till our next one!) Kim you are such a great friend and great mom. I know it sucks to have your birthday 1) so close to Christmas and 2) on another holiday, but you can just tell yourself when everyone is cheering and partying tonight, it is really just all for you. That should make you feel great. Thanks for always being there for me and loving little Syd when she makes me mental. You are the best!!! Love your guts!
Happy Birthday!!!!

Cheating is BAD!!!!

Today in primary, Misty did a really cute sharing time with pieces of pepperoni that had different situations on them and the kids had to decide what Jesus would do. Ashlee's pepperoni said " You have a test in school today and you didn't study. You can see your neighbors paper and it would be really easy to cheat. What should you do?" Ashlee immediately said "You should never cheat!!" As her mom I was pretty proud until she added, "It would be BAD to cheat off your neighbor because what if their answer was wrong, you would miss the question and get a bad grade." What can I say, at least she won't get in trouble for cheating, regardless of her reasons not to.

The New Bike

Sydney got a new bike for her birthday on Tuesday and so we decided to try it out today. (Sorry to all our family and friends that can't ride their new Christmas bikes because there is too much snow!!!) It was beautiful today. Sunny and about 55 degrees. So after we got home from running errands, Me, Syd and Ashlee went to the park by our house. Ashlee rocked her old scooter and Sydney showed off her bike skills. A little side note of Sydney and biking. Her method of stopping is to just bail off the bike, whether she is on grass or not. I seriously can't believe she hasn't had stitches or a broken bone yet (knock on wood). Carl and Caleb came to the park to fly Caleb's new plane after they got home from mountain biking. There are definitely some advantages to living in California. The boys are going snowboarding next week but I don't have to shovel snow. Pretty awesome.

Happy (1 day late) Birthday Jo Jo.....

Happy Birthday Jo. Sorry it's late. Hope you and little Paige had fun yesterday. So sorry about the repeat on the fantastic turkey run picture, but sadly since I moved away from Utah 10 years ago my digital pictures of you are lacking. Jo Jo, you are one of my oldest friends, and by old I am not referring to the fact that we are thirty-somethings now:( I think that it is pretty great to still be friends after 28 years. You are hysterical and can always make me laugh. Love your guts!!!!

4 year olds are awesome...........

I took the girls with me today to go get the oil changed in the Tahoe. We went to this new place in Riverbank that said 10 minute oil changes. (false advertising) but anywho, we were sitting in the waiting room and you could look out the door and see the guys working on the cars. Sydney suddenly opens the door and hollers out to the mechanic that the truck above him was peeing on him. Then she laughed hysterically. Pretty nice. At least the other people waiting were entertained.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!!!! We hope that everyone had a fantastic day. Our day started pretty early. We told the kids that they couldn't come downstairs until mom and dad were up and that they absolutely couldn't wake us up before 6:00. So Caleb woke up at 4:30 and waited at the top of the stairs until 6:01. We got up and came down with him to see what Santa brought and Uncle Ian was up too. I guess you never get too old to be excited for Christmas. The girls however slept until 7:30 and we finally had to wake Ash up. We had a great day and feel so blessed.


All Carl wanted for Christmas was some Moon Shoes so he could Moon Shoe across the Golden Gate Bridge. But sadly moon shoes only go up to 160 lbs and size 9 shoe. Sorry babe. However, Santa brought some moon shoes for the kids, so we'll see if his dream of having someone go across the bridge comes true.


caleb trying out the shoes.


Look at all that stuff. Spoiled kiddos.



daddy and sweet sydney santa.



Nanny sent some Monkey Butt Powder for Ian. He loved it.



Ashlee loves littlest pet shop stuff.




This was a big hug sydney gave to caleb after opening her gift from him.

Caleb opening the present from Nana and Papa.

Nanny sent a movie for all of the kids, Caleb was less than impressed by the Barbie movie.

Sydney LOVES to dress up.

Caleb got juggling balls. It was the greatest gift. He is pretty good.

Little miss sydney.

This was my FIRST Christmas dinner that I cooked all by myself, with Carls help.

Carl deep fried the turkey. mmmmmmmmyummy!!!!

Christmas Eve Crab Fest

We started a family tradition to have crab on Christmas Eve. Carl makes it and it is pretty tasty. The kids love it too. This year Caleb was totally into cracking the shell himself. We are having fun making some of our own traditions with our little family.

The kids and their dinner.


Syd was not so sure about it.


The fam at dinner.

The girls sitting in a gift box in their new Christmas Eve jammies.

It's an Uncle Ian.........

Carl's younger brother Ian came to spend Christmas with us this year. He was supposed to get here on Friday, but got snowed in at Salt Lake, so we all went to get him with Carl on Saturday. Since we were just a short drive across the Bay we decided to go check out San Francisco after picking him up. We went to Fishermans Wharf and walked around Pier 39. It was such a great day because it was really clear and sunny. Not warm sunny, but still nice. We stopped and watched a magic show, had hot chocolate, saw some stinky seals, walked down to crazy people painted silver corner, went to the Oakland Temple to see the lights and finished the night off at Chevy's. (Ian's first time ever at Chevy's)

Ian, Syd and Caleb.



Big posers.

Little poser.

Sweet Ashlee.

I LOVE my Caleb.

Daddy and Syd, Alcatraz is in the background. clearly you can see why I had Misty take Syd's pictures.

Crazy magician guy on the pier. Caleb thought he was really funny.

So it is not quite temple square, but still really beautiful. The palm trees are fun.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl.......

Sydney Joan Hansen joined our family on December 23, 2004. She was born with a strong will that was evident in the fact that she was almost 5 weeks early. She also decided to make a grand entrance to this world by emergency c-section. We named her Sydney Joan after her 2 great granmothers. Both of them were very stubborn women and you would have thought we should know better. She definately lives up to her names. Sydney we love you so much and we are so blessed to have you in our family. Thanks for being our sweet Christmas baby.

Sydney 3 days old. She weighed 5 lbs. 8 oz. and was 17" long. Just a little peanut.

First birthday party.

2nd birthday party was spent at the San Francisco Zoo with Nanny and family.

3rd Birthday party she got to have some friends over for cake and ice cream.

4th Birthday was spent at the Oakland Zoo. But Sydney and mommy were feeling pretty sick:(

Here are some random shots of Syd that I love.