Ripon 8K Almond Blossom Run

Misty and I ran the Ripon run this morning. It was pretty awesome to run along the almond trees in full blossom. This time of year is my favorite because everywhere you go there are trees in bloom. We had fun and wore festive pink shirts and pink flowers in our hair (not pictured). Thanks friend for the fun run. You are the best. The last two shots are a very realistic reinactment of the run, not that realistic because I am smiling, and at the 4 mile mark I really doubt I was smiling. But it was still a blast.

Blue and Gold Dinner

Yes, I admit that when I was young and I heard people talking about the blue and gold dinner, I seriously thought it was a dinner for Orem High, my fabulous high school had those same colors. Only years and 1 scout later did I learn that it is a big dinner for Cub Scouts. As you might recall from last months blog I stupidly agreed to do the 2 biggest pack meetings of the year, Pinewood and Blue and Gold. My awesome family went to the church with me early and set up all the tables and chairs and I baked 80 potatoes to take. It was a big success and the kids had a blast. One thing we do is have each scout make a cake, here are a few of my favorites. Please note the fancy schmancy carrot cake Caleb is standing by. Yes, that it ours, after quickly removing the tag I don't think anyone knew I didn't slave over it all day. In my defense, kindly remember that I had to bake 80 potatoes.

Somewhere over the rainbow........

Monday we had crazy weather and a HUGE cloud burst. But after it was over, I was leaving the house to take the kids to Caleb's basketball dinner and stepped outside to see this......

16 hours..... later

We left at 5:00 am on Sunday morning to drive back home. We decided to go across the 80 to Reno and down. BIG mistake. It took FOREVER. We were stuck on Donner Pass for hours and several inappropriate cannibal jokes later we finally made it to Sacramento, then down to home. Carl took a side road on the GPS and I was positive that we were going to get stuck, but that is how I decided that these 3 kids I have are definitely more Carl's kids than mine. We were on this deep snow covered road that you had to drive fast on or you would get stuck, I am having a heart attack, not saying very nice things about my husbands judgement and Sydney is in the back seat yelling " WOOHOO. It's a roller coaster!!!!" Caleb and Ash loved it too. We survived and finally got home around 8.

Breakfast at Jo Jo's

I have been very blessed to grow up with a fantastic group of friends. We have been friends for over 25 years (I am old, wait we are old) . Jo had us over and made waffles and we laughed and had a great time. There are a bunch of girls missing here, but I love you and miss you too. Thanks Jo for the fun time and tell my new bff Paige that we miss her.

SNOWBIRD

Since I only snowboard once a year (twice this year), each time I go I still suck. I don't go often enough to get any better but I still have fun trying. Carl and I went to Snowbird by ourselves and Nanny watched the kids. Thanks Nan. The weather was beautiful and the snow was still perfect. I was nervous when I saw several buses bringing Omniture employees up but we never had to wait in any lift lines. I sent Carl off to do some black runs and I sat in the sun enjoying a hot chocolate and a book. Seriously, what could be better? Thanks, babe for the fun ski Utah trip. You are the greatest.



Tunnel with a conveyor belt through the mountain.

Carl's self portrait.

I love to see the temple.....

Mom and dad got us tickets to the open house for the new Draper temple. It was awesome and the kids loved going. I remember going through the Jordan River temple when it was built and I was only about 5 so I am pretty sure that my kids will remember this neat experience. Until we moved out of Utah we pretty much took the temple for granted but now living over an hour away from the Oakland temple we realize how blessed we are to have temples so close. We looked at the map in the church at the open house of where all the temples in the world are and we felt bad for Europe because there aren't that many and the members really have to travel to go. I felt guilt for complaining about how far Oakland was. So all you friends and family in Utah, I hope you realize how blessed you are to have so many temples near by.

My kind of tubing.......

So I am a big fan of mountain biking at ski resorts where they put your bike on the lift and you just have to ride down. Now tubing is the same way. No more trudging up the hill for such a short trip down. In Park City there was this tubing hill where they hooked you up on a tow rope and all you had to do was sit and enjoy the ride. The kids loved it and it was well worth the 10$ per person for the lift pass. Ashlee was a crazy daredevil and told the guy at the top to give her a good spin like a tornado for the ride down. And Caleb and I went on the big hill a couple of times together. Good times.

Too many to choose from.

Olympic Park

We took the family to the Olympic park in Park City. We were pretty lame and didn't go the 2002 Olympics when they were in Utah. We lived in Vegas and Carl's company sent us on a trip to Cabo during the games, so it was our first time seeing the different venues. While we were at the bobsled/luge track there were some junior competitors practicing for an event on Sunday. We got to see them fly around the track and thanks to our awesome camera we were able to catch them on film.

Team Hansen

They are actually going pretty stinkin fast!!

Brighton Ski Resort

While on our " fun in the FREEZING cold" trip, we took the kids (caleb and ashlee) skiing/snowboarding to Brighton for the day. This is coincidentally where I learned to ski in the 7th grade with Micah Cook....ahhh memories. I am pretty sure that ashlee did better than me on her first time. Apparently I am out of the ski loop because they don't call it snowplowing any more, it's called making a pizza. She took lessons in the morning while we did some runs, then after lunch she announced that she was ready to go on the big lift with the rest of us. Sure enough, she did a great job. I fell more than she did. She was pretty ticked at first because she didn't have "sticks" like the other skiers but she got over it and we had a blast. Next year we are going to take Sydney so we can all go as a family. grandpa came too and got some great video so you can wait in suspense until I figure out how to post it.

Just starting our day!!