Anniversary Flowers

Yesterday was our 8th wedding anniversary and Curtis had these delivered to me. Thank you honey! You're the best!!

Chocolates, flowers, and a balloon. Just what I needed, especially the chocolates :) I was having a sweet tooth yesterday. But then again it seems like I'm always having a sweet tooth lately, ha ha.

Happy Anniversary Curtis!

My trip to Utah, Part 2

Here is the 2nd part of my Utah trip. Just to warn you now, there are A LOT of pictures. It was hard to narrow them down and I took more pictures than I thought I did. So enjoy!

Nikki and Grandma Marsha making blackberry jam.

While the girls were making jam in the real kitchen the boys were downstairs having a great time with the toy kitchen. They are really starting to enjoy playing with each other.

This is at the school playground right next to my grandma's house. It has a futuristic look to it. I loved this teeter totter though because you could ride it by yourself. It never hits the ground because it has a spring in the middle that just makes it bounce. Even I rode it, ha ha.

Garrett going down the slide.

Nikki and Garrett falling asleep on Aunt Karen. We wore them out.

Jack asleep on Grandma's lap (this was a different time from when the other two kids were asleep)

We went to the local carnival and I got to ride the Ferris Wheel with Nikki and Garrett. They each got to ride the Carousel too.

Had to get a generations picture before we left. My grandma, my mom, me, and Nikki.

Now this is at Thanksgiving Point at the petting zoo. This is an egg that was hatching. I guess I skipped a picture when I was uploading because there was supposed to be one above this with Nikki and Jack looking at some baby chicks. Oh well. It's after midnight, I'm tired.

This is a big scale they had that compared their weight to farm animals. They had fun with this and I even got on with them too. I think we weighed the amount of 3 sheep or something.

Nearby where they do a carriage ride they had these little buildings that the kids went inside. I think this one was a bank.

And here's the jail.

For some reason Garrett really liked the jailhouse. Should I be worried? ha ha

In another building they had things about farming and crops and the different insects that could be good or bad for crops. Jack is holding onto a big tire that has slots in it for where the kids could pretend to plant seeds with some cards that had pictures of different plants on them.

An earthworm tunnel. They had fun crawling through like worms.

Here is the truck you would put the little cards on once they were "harvested". It had a conveyor belt that would slide them to the front of the truck. And from there you would put some in a basket and take them to the market in some stands nearby.

Our very own Farmer Garrett.

With our ticket to get in we had the choice of doing a pony ride or carriage ride. Nikki was the only one that ended up doing anything because it was incredibly windy outside and she wanted the pony ride. My aunt just kept the other tickets to use for her grandkids some other day.

Nikki at my cousin's wedding breakfast. The food was really good. It was the first time I'd ever had a rolled up omelet.

Garrett is enjoying himself. Because we had assigned seating we were put at a table where we didn't know anyone but Garrett quickly made friends with the guy sitting next to him. They were sword fighting with their knives at one point.

Nikki had me take several pictures of her by the Salt Lake Temple while we were waiting for my cousin to come out of her wedding sealing. I think she's practicing. She even told me before this wedding that she wanted to get married in the Salt Lake Temple.

Me and Jack at the wedding reception.

Jack was looking at the camera so I snapped a shot of him. It turned out pretty cute I think.

My grandparents taking a whirl on the dance floor.

Nikki stopped dancing so I could get a picture of her.

The happy couple who just got married.

They had their reception at Wheeler Farm in SLC. When I heard it was going to be in a barn I was a little worried but as you can see it's actually pretty nice. Hard floors and everything.

Jack at my aunt's house. He had so much fun pushing that chair around. I would be sitting on the chair trying to watch a movie and he would keep spinning me in circles. I finally had to move so I could watch my show.

Garrett trying to get the blowing bubbles down. You can see he got some.

Well, it is almost 1am right now so I'm sorry there aren't more details about everything we did but I guess if you really want to know more you can just ask me personally :) I hope you enjoyed the pictures though.

My trip to Utah, Part 1

I spent a week and a half in Utah due to my grandpa's funeral and my cousin's wedding. Here are some of the pictures from my trip.

My grandpa passed away on June 1, 2010 and his funeral was on June 4, 2010. He served in WWII so he had the honor of carrying the flag on his coffin. He was 88 years old and lived a very long fulfilling life. I will sure miss him.

They had this displayed near the burial site.

Farewell grandpa. We love you.

My mom is in the pink dress and my grandma is in the middle. They did the gunfire solute and then folded up the flag and presented it to my grandma. What a great honor.

Garrett was not quite sure what to think of the coffin.


The weekend of the funeral I stayed with my brother and his family.

This is them playing a game. I don't remember what it was called but for some reason part of the game was Derek had to wrap toilet paper around his face. It looked so funny I had to get a picture. I wasn't actually playing the game. I was watching "National Treasure" with other family that were there too.

We also discovered that Jack could eat Oreos since there weren't any of his food allergens in them. As you can see he loves them!

The day after the funeral it was free fishing day in Utah so we took the kids out to Utah Lake in Provo. The view of the mountains from where we were was absolutely beautiful!

It was too busy at the festival in Provo to do any fishing so we went to the store and bought our own fishing poles for the kids and did a lot of driving before we ended up at Deer Creek Reservoir. And here's Jack hanging out at the picnic table.

Garrett practicing casting. He has a "Cars" fishing pole.

Nikki and her princess pole.

I think Jack was more interested in fishing than Garrett was....or at least more interested in the fishing pole.

The last night at Derek's we played Rockband with The Beatles songs. Jack loved the drums. There were drums, singing, bass, and guitar. I did the worst at the drums(And I'm talking about personally, not comparing myself to how anyone else did. I don't really know how anyone else did since I was concentrating on what I was doing). It was harder than it looked. I did the best at singing so long as I knew the song. It was a lot of fun though.

Well, enjoy these for now. I will post more tomorrow or the next day.

Our last visit

Memorial Day weekend was spent visiting family in Utah. My grandpa on my mom's side was not doing well so I decided to make one last visit. I stayed with some friends who live nearby. Friday we drove from home straight to see my grandparents and my mom and other family who were there. It was difficult because I did not recognize grandpa when I saw him. He was so skinny and limp. When he tried to talk it was very difficult to understand him. But when we were able to get him to smile it filled my heart with joy. On Saturday, I went to see my brother Derek and his family who had just moved to a new house. The kids had so much fun playing on the play set out back. It was fun to see my brother again and we all had a good time. Sunday morning we went to church with my mom. Although Nikki didn't want to go to her class because it was all boys and she was the only girl. She ended up going home early with my mom. I followed soon after because Jack was getting restless and cranky. My sister brought Garrett back with them because he was having so much fun in nursery. He was supposed to go to Sunbeams but was taken to nursery by my aunt by mistake. But as long as he was happy, right?

After church we had a delicious dinner of sweet and sour chicken on rice, rolls, vegetables, jello, and yummy homemade strawberry cheesecake for dessert. The rest of the day was spent mingling with family and going in to visit grandpa. He slept most of the day but by the evening he was doing some more talking. We also had fun watching the kids play. My daughter and my nieces made their own instruments and did a couple different songs for us as they danced around in a parade. I also enjoyed looking at the many paintings hanging around the house that were painted by him, his dad, his grandpa, my mom and other family. I guess art is in the genes. I will treasure the painting by him that I have hanging on the wall in my home. It was a painting of the "Y" mountain.

Most of the time when we would go in to visit grandpa we would remind him of all the good memories we had with him. Some of my memories were of hiking the "Y" mountain and going on different camping trips. I especially loved the time we swam in the creek and we had so much fun using grandpa's hat to dump water on his head.

Here are some pictures of my last moments with him.


This is Sunday evening with my grandparents.

My brother in law, Nathan, had just cracked a joke about BSU vs BYU and it made Grandpa Hansen smile so I tried to catch it on camera.

My sister Melissa and Grandpa.


This morning my aunt Karen called to inform us that he passed away peacefully around 9:15am. It is always bittersweet. You hate to see them leave but I know where he will go and that he'll be dancing in heaven and full of life again. I know that I will get to see him again and until then he will be deeply missed.