Bryan and Ali Hansen

Finally... An Update! Dec '09 - Feb '10

2010-09-20T17:48:00.013-06:00

After some motivation to update the blog, I am finally doing it! It has been way too long, and I keep going back and forth between doing well on keeping it up, and having a really hard time with it! Lately, it's been more of a laziness and lack of making time factor. But oh well! There is so much that has happened the past couple months! I'll hit the highlights of each month, and then get to some details of more recent events!

Dec '09
Bryan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary! Craziness! As usual, he provided me with some AWESOME, bright flowers! He has such good taste!

We also had some fun parties that we attended and hosted, with great company as always!

Jan 2010
January wasn't too exciting of a month, as far as I remember anyway! I did throw a baby shower for my friend Elise though! It was fun, but a bit crazy trying to get everything done and ready.

The best thing ever started this month though, and it has made me SO happy! I started fostering kitties and helping out with cat adoptions for Four Paws Rescue. The first little cutie I fostered now belongs to my mom, and she is such a funny girl. Her name is Chloe. I love and miss that girl, but am so glad to know that she is in such a great home! And yes, she is OBSESSED with water! She loves running water, and getting wet.

Feb
This month Bryan had some fun!
From getting dirty in the garage,
to taking apart and putting together a laptop,
and making my Valentine's Day a wonderful one,
he kept himself really busy!

We got a second foster kitten, named Indy. He was a fun little playmate for Chloe! We finally got my buddy from Spokane to come and hang out at our house as well! He and Bryan played some Wii, which is always a great "bonding tool" : )

November 2009 - With LOTS of Pictures!

2010-04-21T18:35:00.010-06:00

So I chopped my hair for the first time in November! And I LOVED it! Short and dark! It has been so easy to take care of. I also found my mom's cute puppy, Xena, a super cute summer dress. I decided that Mocha wanted to try it on : ) She wasn't too happy - in case you can't tell from the picture. Skye is fascinated by our fireplace!

My new Christmas decorations! I love them!

We made a trip to Alyssa & Jeremy's house before Thanksgiving, and I had so much fun (as usual)! I always make sure I get lots of pictures of the cutie kids! They seem to just grow up so fast! And yes, I have a ton of pictures of Parker. He's such a ham! It's hard NOT to take a bunch of pictures of him!

Not a whole lot else happened during November. We had a great Thanksgiving here in Cache Valley with Grandma & Grandpa Hansen. I got Bryan to go Black Friday shopping with me, and we got almost everything on our lists that we wanted to get! It was great stuff! I'm always glad to be able to get the items we wanted after getting up at 2:30 in the morning. Seems to make it all worth it! Plus, it's only once a year, right?! : ) I'm so glad Bry loves me as much as he does!

October 2009

2010-04-21T17:13:00.006-06:00

So I was realizing that we are a couple months behind on our blogging! We have been major slackers! We were able to move into our house in the beginning of Oct, which I think has caused the lack of blogging. We have been super busy trying to get stuff in the right places, and keeping everything clean, and now working on the yard. But that is for a different blog : ) I got some pictures of our baby girls enjoying getting ready to move, and already finding their favorite places in the house.

I was super excited to have my brother Kyle come and visit us for a couple days on October. I really hate having my family so far away. I guess that's the consequence of everyone growing up and moving forward with their lives! Bryan and Kyle had the fun opportunity to plant our
raspberry and strawberry plants, so we can hopefully have some yummy fruit this summer!

October was the start of the major coldness in Cache Valley. We had our first snow while Bryan was in Albuquerque for work. It was so pretty though! Little did I know I would be looking forward to the LAST day of snow shortly after this.

Halloween was fun this year, and we barely got our pumpkins carved before our party! We had our annual party at our house with some great friends!

September 2009

2010-01-11T20:45:00.005-07:00

Looks like it's my turn to try and catch up a little bit more on our blog. Looks like we are up to September which had another great demolition derby (we wouldn't want to miss one!). As you can see from some of the pictures, you might be able to tell understand where all this bad air pollution in Cache Valley comes from!

Cole, our oldest nephew, turned 8 and was baptized. We made the trek up to Idaho Falls for the big day.

Here is a picture of Ali's sister Alyssa, husband Jeremy, and kids at the baptism. We stayed the weekend and the kids were a blast to spend time with. We gave them a sheet of Disney stickers, and as you can see, Parker really enjoyed them!

Ali's mom, Carla, was also down for Cole's baptism. As you can see below, she got herself a shima (Shitzu/Maltese) puppy and named her Xena. I can't say that she reminds me too much of a warrior princess...I'm thinking more along this lines of Ewok. Yup, definitely an Ewok.

Ali has gotten into the habbit of taking random awesome cloud pictures as we drive down the road. The first picture was just here in town, and the second was driving down the freeway on the way back from Idaho Falls. I must same, I'm quite impressed!

August 2009

2010-01-11T19:58:00.007-07:00

August brought Bryan's birthday! He's up to 24 now! Almost a quarter of a century! Holy cow!

We adopted a robo dwarf hamster, and named him Gimli. I saw him at ksl.com for free, and was afraid that he was going to end up being the meal for a snake. So Bryan let me get the adorable little guy! He's not tame at all, but he is adorable, and so funny to watch. Full grown, he is about 2 inches long.

August also brought a very exciting event! Our awesome friends, Ben and Christie, got married! They are so fun, and make such a great couple! We love them, and are so happy that they will be together forever : )

Bryan and I went to the Cache Valley Fair, and got some pictures of the displays. Of course Hyde Park ROCKS and had a sweet dragon! The other picture is made completely from different assortments of beans/grains of some sort. It was pretty cool!

My favorite vehicle and store! Hooker Appliance. Big and Friendly.

Bryan got his job at the Space Dynamics Lab just in time for their 50th Anniversary party! It was mainly focused towards children, and well, let's just say that we felt a little out of place. But they have a sweet pond with a fountain and lily pads that I got some pictures of. We also got to enjoy some yummy ice cream made from liquid nitrogen. Not going to lie. It was good! : )

Time to Catch Up! Starting with July 2009

2010-01-10T21:15:00.004-07:00

Fourth of July, Bryan and I went up to the USU stadium, and watched the fire works. They always have a great show, and the music is fun. We were cheap to pay for tickets, so we found a patch of grass outside, in the parking lot, hence the light in the bottom of the picture of the fireworks : ) The view wasn't the best, but it was still way fun, and we loved just spending the evening together.

Our nephew, Landon, had his birthday. We spent it at Leslie's parents' house, and had a great BBQ, and a fun cake. Landon enjoyed being outside, and getting a little bit dirty. : )

Opening a card, right before they broke out the cake. : ) Landon had his own version of eating it. Less dirty utensils!

I missed out on dad Hansen's 50th birthday party, but luckily Bryan was able to go and get a picture of him, and his amazing cake! I wish I wouldn't have missed it!

Chewie time! I love this boy! The picture of him in his tube made me laugh. Bryan poked him after to make sure he was still alive : )

Best day EVER! I LOVE Lucky Charms!

Our House!!

2009-06-27T13:14:00.006-06:00

So I'm sure most everyone has already heard, but we are building a house! Yeah! After finding out that we'd be here in Cache Valley for the forseeable future, and with the government throwing money around like they are we just couldn't resist.

Lots of people have asked what it will look like when its done and our best response is usually "a house...a rambler...". So I've scanned in some of our plans and to give everyone a better idea of what exactly we are building.

Here are the view from the front and back.

The floor plan for the main floor and how our house will sit on our lot.

The day before they dug our hole we had our own private ground breaking ceremony, and here is the progress they have made in the past two weeks.

It should be done the first part of October!

My Birthday!! Yay for the big 22!!

2009-06-22T21:28:00.007-06:00

Okay, so maybe 22 isn't too great or exciting of a number. I think I'm already to the point where I don't want to get any older. I'm done with birthdays! I want to stay 22 forever! Or go back to 21. Is it bad that I want to be done celebrating, and getting excited to get "one year older and wiser too"? I guess I'm just happy with where I am in life right now, and I don't really want anything to change. Well, for the most part. I do want our house to hurry and be done, but that's another blog. : )

About two weeks or so before my birthday, Bryan had me request the day off, and he did the same. He had some secret plans that I wouldn't find out about until the day came. I honestly was hoping that we would either go to Lagoon or to the Hogle Zoo. And I'm not going to lie, I really, really wanted it to be the Hogle Zoo. But I wasn't going to say anything to him! It was his day to plan and surprise me with!

The morning of my birthday, I awoke to Bryan making me yummy pancakes! Best birthday breakfast ever! I was grateful just for that! After we ate, I got to open my card and present from him. I had no clue what Bry had gotten for me, even after shaking the box. He totally surprised me, especially since "we are poor and we can't buy anything" until we get into our house. My present was a new digital camera with 10x optical, and an additional 6x digital zoom on top of that! Holy crap! It is a freakin sweet camera! My old one started dying a little while ago, and I don't think it has much time left (Which I guess is okay, considering I've had it for like 6 or 7 years now). I really wanted a colored camera (on the outside), so this one is a sweet blue color. I am totally in love with it! My pictures turn out so nice and clear! Ahh, he is so wonderful!

The breakfast and camera were just the mere beginnings of the most wonderful birthday ever! After a little bit of a drive, we pulled up at....

YES! The Hogle Zoo!!!

I don't know what all to say about the zoo, except it was awesome! The weather couldn't have been better, and we got to see most of the animals when they were more active - some we had to go back to later in the day, which was fine - we were in no hurry! Here are a bunch of pictures. I don't think they really need any explaining... but I'll probably say stuff about some of the pictures anyway :)

Super cute little monkeys!!!

The Red Panda

The best for last! The Tiger!

The end of our little visit at the zoo came somewhat as a relief. We had walked for several hours straight, and I was excited to sit down, and drink something cold and yummy! It was my choice for dinner, so of course I chose PF Changs. YUMMY!

With the exception of not getting to see or talk to some of my family, the day went absolutely perfect! And it ended with Snickers ice cream bars for dessert, and then a well-needed night of sleep! : )

Memorial Day Weekend!

2009-06-15T21:56:00.005-06:00

So I know it's already like half-way through June...but we're a little behind on our blogging.

For memorial day weekend we went up to Idaho Falls to visit Alyssa (Ali's sister) and her family. It was also Tanner's 3rd birthday, so we had fun celebrating that with them. He has recently become obsessed with trains, especially all things Thomas the Tank Engine. I'm surprised he's still around, I used to watch that when I was like 2 feet tall!

Parker, our youngest nephew is growing up fast (seems like he was just born a couple months ago...), he's already over a year old and just about ready to walk. Even with all my coaching, he just doesn't seem all that interested in walking.

We all went on a picnic on memorial day, which was great. Except for the insanely huge present that a bird (maybe an ostrich?) left on my car window. Ali thought it was just about the funniest thing she had ever seen, she couldn't stop laughing about it all day. Literally, she couldn't stop laughing about it. She is actually still laughing about it as I write this, almost uncontrollably.

Ali was trying to get some action shots when we were throwing the frisbee around, as you can see, she vastly underestimated my insane mad jumping skills! Tanner also got really good at this amazing frisbee throw where he would be throwing it forward and it would end up like 10 feet behind him. Pretty impressive!

Good Times!!

Demolition Derby

2009-05-17T18:03:00.004-06:00

Now some people might think it rather redneckish of us, but we love hitting up all the demolition derbys here in Logan. There is just something extremely enjoyable about watching cars smash into each other, catch on fire, etc.

There was something different this time though...a car that was actually in good shape! I don't think there was even a scratch on it. Maybe this was just extra incentive for everyone else to gang up on him. After about 10 seconds he had his back wheel completely ripped off (first picture below). About 10 more seconds and he not only got completely rolled over, but the other car ended up pretty much running over him as well. Good stuff, good stuff indeed!

Amazingly, they were able to pull the driver out and he was fine. That nice car of his sure looked a lot more like it belonged in the derby though! Good times!

All of you out there who think you're too civilized to attend such a barbaric event, I think July 11th is the next one! See you there!

Yay for Graduation & Family!

2009-05-11T22:51:00.005-06:00

First, I have to make mention of our sweet baby Skye's lovely mess that she made before my mom came into town. She was very proud of it, and thought that her pile of litter was one of the best toys she had ever had.

My mom flew into Salt Lake on the Thursday before graduation. Sadly, my parent-in-laws & sister-in-law Michelle were sick, and so they met Bryan partway to bring my mom here that night. The original plan was to have to come down Friday morning, when the in-laws came here to help my sister-in-law Janette move out of her apartment. I am glad that my mom was able to come, and spent time with us and our friends Thursday night though. We had a fun end of the school year party, and I made my mom stay out and be social. It was really fun having her there! Friday afternoon, my sister and her four kids made the trip here to come for the weekend. It made for a super crazy weekend, but it was totally worth it! Graduation day went by really fast for me. I think I was more excited about Bryan graduating than he was. : ) We got several pictures, and I pretty much had to put a bunch of them up on here.

I am so proud of my awesome husband! He has worked hard to get his degree, and luckily for me, he is willing to take a break before going back and getting is Master's degree! : ) Yay for finally having Bryan time!

The Proud Parents!

Bryan and my sister's kids, and the "Wright" ladies with Bry & the kids.

Bryan and Big Blue!

After graduation, we had a fun little luncheon at Bryan's grandparents' house. We had lots of yummy food, and enjoyed spending time with our family. Bryan and the kids played Lasso Golf for a while. I'm horrible at it, but love it anyway!

Bryan helping Tanner, and Cole & Livy in the back playing on their own.

I think my sister's next to youngest child, Tanner, has the funniest personality of any kid I've ever known. He was crawling/running on all fours for a while. I really don't know if he was pretending to be an animal or what. It was just kind of random. And I love the other picture - I know it may not be the most flattering of my mom, but I had to post this of Tanner. He is OBSESSED with bugs! We had a ton of ants running around in the crack in the cement, and he was absolutely enthralled with them. That kid seriously is such a crack-up. And he's a doll too - but then again, my sister's kids are all adorable! Cross your fingers for us that some day, when we have kids, they will be at least somewhere close to how cute my sister's kids are! : ) But don't worry, it won't be happening anytime soon...

Baby Cows!

2009-05-10T12:42:00.002-06:00

On Sunday, April 26th, our cousins Kent & Lieren Hansen blessed their adorable baby boy, Samuel. He has lots of hair, and is such a cutie! Of course, being me, I didn't take any pictures of that. Instead, I took pictures, and had Bryan take pictures out on the farm, after the luncheon after church. I've really been wanting to feed a baby cow (and some day a baby horse, and other cute animals!), and had my chance! Our cousin was out feeding the babies, so Bry and I headed out. I got to feed one with a bottle, as it had been sick, and is a little bit behind. It wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped, but it was still fun, and I can now say that I've done it : ) The rest of the baby cows got buckets to drink their milk out of. It was really funny, cause they had milk all over their faces, and afterwards, they would suck each others faces to try to get all the milk off of their neighbor.

A couple of the baby cows were determined to get every last drop of milk out of their buckets. It was very entertaining. Probably because this was my first time watching baby cows drink milk... I'm sure not everyone finds it as funny as I did. : )

I decided that I really don't think I want a cow anymore. So we can take that animal off the list for our future zoo. I guess if we get them young enough, and make them not hate people, it would be okay. But none of the babies wanted me to touch them. I just wanted to pet them! They're so cute when they are little! The one I fed was around 12 days old or so. The ONLY baby cow that would let me pet it without freaking out was a cute little baby that was only 5 days old. It was also nice enough to slime my pants, my hand, and the sleeve of my jacket. But that's okay. It let me pet it. And amazingly enough, baby cows are really soft! They aren't so much when they get bigger, and I just figured they wouldn't be when they were smaller either. Guess I learned a couple new things that day : )

Aww, sweet baby cow!

Bry's Award, Our Lot, Our House & Awesome Decor

2009-05-07T17:51:00.006-06:00

For those of you who don't know, Bryan has been going to school to study computer science. There was a dinner for all of those who were graduating this year at the Bluebird. There was yummy food, and some "words of wisdom" and such from some of the professors. One professor handed out a couple awards, one of which was for Bryan. The professors voted on who received this award: the Utah State University Computer Science Outstanding Senior Award. Guess Bryan is just a likeable person : )

Some other good news: we signed our papers for our lot and our house! The dig date is June 9th, and the latest it will be done is Oct. 12th, and we could begin moving in on the 19th. I'm SO excited! Here are a couple pictures of our lot from the front and back, and a picture of the model home, which is the same floor plan:

Our house will look a bit different however. We won't have a third car garage, or the fake windows on the roof, or the brick or probably even the same color of siding. But I'll post pictures as they get started, and as it progresses. I'm so excited! It is such a beautiful and open home on the inside, and will be perfect for us to grow into. It is a three bedroom, two bath on the main floor, and we will have an unfinished basement that we will finish as needed (or as we can afford!).

After having two sets of crazy neighbors living below us for over the first year at our apartment, we finally got someone a little bit more normal. It is an older lady, who lives by herself. We love having someone quiet below us, as well as someone who doesn't sit on our stairs and smoke or drink. However, there is one drawback to having an older, single lady living downstairs. It starts with a little story. Our managers had us go over to sign a new contract for our apartment. We went over everything, and we were told something that Bryan and I were both rather excited about. We have these flowerbeds in the front of the apartment that were kind of trashy, and not well taken care of at all. We were told that we can do whatever we want with these - plant flowers, or even a small garden - like tomato plants, etc. The next day, when I came home from work, I saw these two teenager-ish boys cleaning out the flowerbed. I figured that our managers had some boys from the ward come over and clean it out so that we wouldn't have to put much effort into making the area look nice. However, when I came home the next day, we had some bright, tall, green tulips that had popped up from the ground! After taking a little bit of a closer look, we came to realize that these were FAKE flowers. And yes, they were planted into the ground. It definitely made for a good laugh. But a day or two later, we had an even bigger surprise. Look at the picture below.

This is what Bryan and I came home to. More fake flowers "planted" in the ground, an eagle, skunks, creepy gnomes, deer, etc. So much for our garden.

Family Easter!

2009-04-23T18:17:00.004-06:00

I know I already posted a couple pictures from Easter for Bry and I, but I had to put up some of the cuteness of my family!

My two Chinese sisters, Kailan and Jenna!

My sister and brother-in-law's kids: Cole, Olivia, Tanner & Parker

Family Photo!!

April Showers

2009-04-19T17:01:00.012-06:00

I am so excited that we are in April! I always look forward to the weather warming up, and seeing the first several days in a row of spring weather. However, I keep forgetting that I am in Logan, UT. Which is why we had snow less than a week ago. And the last couple days have been beautiful and sunny! I've been waiting for this kind of weather! Winter lasts way too long here. I switched out my winter and summer clothes around the beginning of the month, and have had a couple days where I've really missed my winter jacket. Oh well, it's finally getting warm! Just cross your fingers that the warm weather is here to stay!

I am so happy to have our kitties. I don't know what I would do without them! I'm pretty sure I would be "baby-hungry", especially with EVERYONE having babies either soon, or finding out that they are preggo. Thing is, I'm glad that I'm not. I am LOVING the life that Bryan and I have together. We have been keeping plenty busy with work, and for Bryan, his homework. Is that bad to say? It's not that I'm anti having kids, I'm just not ready. I know I'll be excited when the time comes for us, but why rush? Once you start, there's no stopping or going back : )

Conference this spring was awesome as usual. I stayed awake for almost all of it! I only missed an hour, because I was on the verge of falling asleep sitting on the couch. But I came up with a good idea this time. I decided to do something during conference, to keep myself busy and awake. Hah, I feel like such a horrible person for saying that I fall asleep during conference. But you know, when you sit down on a comfy couch, and try to watch these amazing men and women speak with such comforting voices, I really just can't help but close my eyes. This most recent conference weekend, however, I decided to keep myself busy. I put together a puzzle. I LOVE puzzles to start with, and Bry and I have several to do! After finding out that I would be doing the puzzle on my own, I decided to do a smaller, 500 piece one. It ended up keeping me busy for almost all 8 hours of conference! It was a painting, which I came to realize are much harder to do than regular photos. But, here is proof that I was able to pull it off!

Easter this year was fun as usual. I was wanting to stay home, and spend it with our friends who are moving in a couple weeks, as they were also spending the weekend just the two of them, due to the husbands' homework load. Luckily, there was a slight miscommunication, and we ended up going to Salt Lake, and spending time with my awesome in-laws! I say "luckily", because Bryan had received a call, asking if we would speak in church on Sunday. Hah! Good thing my husband is so smart and amazing : ) We ended up having a super fun time with the family, and celebrating my youngest sister-in-law's 16th birthday!

We also had a chance to check out my parent-in-laws future house (it is a model house too), and their dirt, as well as my brother- and sister-in-laws dirt for their new home. I have some pictures of the awesome-ness of my inlaws' modelhome basement. I think it gave Bryan some ideas of how part of our future basement will be. I'll fill in later about our house situation. Check out the awesome pictures though!

March Madness 2009

2009-04-15T18:33:00.005-06:00

March was a fun and busy month! It is crazy that it is already over. My mom's cat, Jango, had his last lime-sulfur bath, and I got him a fun cone to try to get him not to chew on his tail, and keep bleeding everything. He wasn't a fan. Bryan tried to get some pictures, and this one is by far the best and the creepiest of them all. We also had a trip up to WA to bring him up to my mom, aka his mom. I love the picture I got in the car - he kept yowling, so I took him out for a little while. Then he yowled, and looked out the window, trying to figure out what was going on. It was rather entertaining.

Sadly, I didn't really get very many pictures while we were up in Spokane. I really wish I would have. I always plan on it, it just doesn't happen. I will share a couple that I took though. Bryan and I brought quite a snow storm! We were a little bit worried about being able to drive back home the next day. The poor robins also didn't know what to do about all the snow! My granparents' dog liked the snow though! Or at least she liked to have it all over her face. I'm not really sure which one. : )

Bryan cutting his first prime rib! Yay!

Spring cleaning started in March, and I have been having a hard time finishing it up. Our kitties made sure that they did what they could to help me while I was going through the two bedrooms. Apparently, Skye has "her chair", which was covered in her hair. It was actually rather gross. Mocha LOVES drawers, no matter what. So she really liked it when I pulled out my sweater drawer, as you can see from the picture.

Mocha also likes to go inside of our little entertainment center. I think she might like the warmth from stuff being on. Or she just likes to be inside because she usually can't get in there. Either way, she loves it. Bryan got probably my favorite picture of Chewie! He is just so cute (both of them are, you can pick which one you want that comment to be about)! I look forward to some day hopefully getting Chewie a good roommate.

I think one of the last major events of the month is that my dad and step-mom, Mindy, were able to go to China and pick up their second little girl, Kailan. She is such a doll! I can't wait until the day that we will get to meet her. I just hope that that day will come sooner than later!

March is over, which means springtime, right? Hmm...

February 2009

2009-04-04T19:28:00.006-06:00

It's April, and I just realized that I haven't updated our blog in quite some time. I'm a big slacker! But things have been so crazy, and time flying by, and I finally am going to take some time to update! I don't know if anyone actually reads our blog anyway, but I'll entertain myself with the idea that someone out there likes to know what's going on in our lives. : )

In the beginning of February, our ward had a RS Birthday dinner. I decided not to go, because of a personal issue with a certain person (I know, not a good excuse). There had been a request to have send a family photo to a girl in the ward, so that they could set up a slide show of everyone to enjoy. So this is our first family photo:

We still had Jango at this time, and our kitties were both distracted by him, and by Chewie. So they were busy hissing and growling at each other, and wanting to scratch my arms off. Chewie was making funny noises too, which didn't help matters. Maybe some day we'll get a GOOD family photo! : )

To me, any excuse to get together with friends is a good excuse. And I've been thinking that we need to come up with more good reasons, because we hardly hang out with anyone anymore! However, Jami had a birthday, and that was as good of a reason as any (if not better!) to get together, eat dinner, cake, and just hang out and talk.

Jami's birthday dinner & Girl's Night!

We had our last girl's night out before Brooke got married. It was so fun! We went to Del Sol, ate some yummy Mexican food, and just sat and chatted. Some times I really miss having girl time! Not that I don't love spending time with my husband, because I do. He is amazing! But some times, you've just gotta have time with the girls!

Valentine's Day was kinda just a regular day here at our apartment. I won't say much else about it, because I was kind of upset. BUT, our stake had a Valentine dinner/dance/game night at our church building the Friday before. It was super fun dancing, and spending time with my husband and our friends - and our cousins! Good times!

Here are a couple pictures from February that I wanted to make sure I posted, because they all just make me smile : )

I absolutely LOVE this picture! My beautiful sister, and her four beautiful, blue-eyed kids!

Chewie is still super spoiled, and Bryan makes sure of it. He even has his own Koopa shell! Our babies, Skye and Mocha, FINALLY started to be okay with Jango. They didn't mind having him around as much. Too bad it took so long, because he would be leaving before too long, to go live with his mom (my mom), and his siblings, Chan & Koko.

January 2009

2009-02-15T16:28:00.003-07:00

January flew by, just as the last couple months have. I guess that's what happens when you are having fun : ) I've posted some pictures, as they are probably more enjoyable than me rambling on and on...

Ali, me, & Bry at a basketball game (of course I had to ruin the picture...)

Heidi has officially left on her mission! I am so excited for her, and hope to actually write her, and not be a bum, like I am with all of my other friends who are/were on missions.

My cousin, Kody, returned from his mission to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of hanging out, and I haven't received any pictures from the rest of my family who was there. So I decided to post at least one picture from the weekend. My aunt, uncle, cousins, grandma and my brother Kyle all went miniture golfing. It was really cool - in more ways than one. It may as well have been outside though - it was really cold. It was also dark inside, with lots of glow in the dark paint. And a huge shark hanging in the middle. It was awesome.

One of my really good friends, Brooke, is getting married on February 28th. I am SOO excited for her! But so sad for us girls, cause she will be moving to Canada. I'm hoping for one more dessert night before the big day : )

As fun as January was, I'm really glad that it's over. I'm looking forward to the spring, and the flowers and warmer weather! And I'm even more excited for Bryan to be done with school. We should know within the next week if Bryan got his job here in Logan. Cross your fingers, and I will post as soon as we find out!

Chewie!!

2009-02-06T23:33:00.008-07:00

With Kelo's passing, we decided that we needed another little furry creature of some sort. After some research, and the fact that Petsmart was completely out of dwarf hamsters, we decided on a chinchilla. Looking in the classifieds we found a 2 year old male for sale. His previous owner couldn't keep him any longer because one of her cats bit off the end of his tail and wouldn't leave the poor little guy along. He was down in Lehi, and convieniently enough we had a wedding reception in Provo. After getting him we decided to name him Chewie, after Chewbaca, and also because chinchillas are quite the chewers!

We also got him a new cage and we've been adding to it over the past month or so. It's a lot better than what he was living in before and there is plenty of space so that we can get another one to keep him company.

In Memory of Kleo

2009-02-02T18:38:00.007-07:00

So this will probably be old news for some who read this, but I'm still super sad about the situation, and want to make mention of it. My beloved rat, Kleo, passed away shortly after Christmas.

I'm pretty sure my pets should never die. Otherwise I'm a wimp for a couple days after. Kleo was my first real pet to die. I mean, whenever other pets had passed on, it had always been while I was still at home with my parents, so I never had the horrible sadness that I had to deal with and feel that Monday night. Kleo also represented the time in my life where I "converted" back to following the gospel, and getting back on track with what I knew was right (I got him not too long after I moved back to Spokane, WA from Orem, UT). I miss my baby boy, and it is still a touchy subject.

I decided that this was one of the worst holiday seasons ever though. One of my good friends had two of her guyfriends pass away in a horrible accident on Christmas Eve morning. One had only been married for four months. A couple in our ward had a good friend die from brain cancer the next week. A lady I work with had her puppy that she had only had for a year die right in front of her. Another lady I work with lost her husky that she had had for 9 years. I just hope our kitties stay nice and healthy. I don't know what I would do without them.

Christmas '08

2009-02-01T19:14:00.005-07:00

We spent Christmas with my (Bryan's) family down in Kearns. It was great to spend some time down there and play with our nephew Landon who we don't get to see too often. As you can see he enjoyed opening presents, and had to play with each present immediately after opening it.

Some presents were even wrapped to provide a little extra opening fun for Landon!

After getting all the presents opened we went over to Jason and Leslie's to give them a little lesson in all things Wii. As you can see we were able to introduce Landon to Mario Kart...I don't think you can start a kid too early!
We stayed down in Kearns until Saturday, when we made the fun/snowy drive back up to Logan. After a couple days of fun and tons of food (I think my parents were trying to fatten us up a bit), it was back to work for the both of us.

Quick Recap of (Most of) December 2008

2009-02-01T15:14:00.010-07:00

On December 1, 2008, Bryan and I celebrated our 1 Year Anniversary! It is so crazy to think that we have already been married a year! As they say, time flies when you're having fun! I've also heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest. If that's true, then the rest of our life together will be cake! We actually spent the weekend before celebrating our anniversary, as we both had work, and Bryan had school. But I came home to my FAVORITE colored roses!

Here are some pictures from events that occurred in December.

Basketball game on 12-2.

In the middle of the month, we went up to Spokane to visit my family. It was so much fun!

We spent some time with my dad, step-mom, and little sister, Jenna. And of course there was Simon! He is such a funny little chihuahua My step-mom had a gorgeous Christmas tree! We also drove around and looked at the lights that hit the newspapers. Some people really go all out! I love it!

My mom and her newly inherited Yamaha winter jacket. That thing is WARM!!

I got some pictures of my grandparents animals. Well, almost all of them. The first one is Honey, the mutant dog. She is soo sweet, but very... umm.. different. The middle picture is Sweetie. She is the daughter of Mr. Chan, and litter mate of Koko, both of whom belong to my mom. The third cat is Rosie. She is so pretty! She has very unique coloring. And she is super skiddish. I'm lucky I got as good of a picture as I did! I didn't get a chance to get a picture of Cali, the calico cat that my grandparents adopted from a friendd of theirs. So much fun! Can you tell that loving animals runs in my family?

I had Bryan take this picture right before we left for the airport. My mom is looking and feeling so much better than she did a year ago. It is an absolute miracle. I know that without the gospel, and the faith of all of our friends and family, she would not still be with us. After experiences such as this, I wonder how people can't have their testimony grow. It surely was a miracle, and nothing short of that. My mom also has her own hair in this picture, which she is very happy and proud of. No more wigs! Hopefully she'll never have to wear one again. Her hair is curly too. Hopefully it'll stay that way this time!

Thankgiving Weekend

2009-02-01T14:56:00.003-07:00

We spent Thanksgiving this year with the Hansen side of the family. It was way fun (as usual!). Bryan and I both had a really hard time getting a good picture of the awesome turkey cupcake that Grandma Hansen made. This is as good as we got:

Maybe one day I'll be this creative...

Since we finally got past Thanksgiving, Bryan let us put up and decorate our Christmas tree. And we listened to some of our favorite Christmas music! Yay for Christmas music!

We were both excited to go to see Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols again this year. It is such an awesome performance. Too bad we were kind of off on the day... So we kind of missed it. I think from now on we will just watch the DVD as a tradition, instead of going to see it live. But don't get me wrong. I HIGHLY recommend going and seeing it if you ever get the chance!

Visiting Family in Idaho Falls!

2009-01-24T15:43:00.003-07:00

So, it has been a while since we have updated our blog, so I decided to try to catch up on the past month and a half. Near the end of November, Bryan and I went up to see Alyssa, Jeremy, and their four adorable kids, Cole - 7, Olivia - 5, Tanner - 2, and Parker - <1>

Olivia and the picture that she drew. She is such an artist!

CUTEST picture ever! Bryan and Parker are great buddies : )

My sister's kids love taking pictures with any camera. Olivia took this picture. Not too bad if you ask me!

We Love USU Basketball!!!

2008-12-09T19:34:00.005-07:00

Since Bryan still has two more finals to study for, I decided I need to pick things up a bit, and add another post to our blog! One of the first things that came to mind was (of course!) Aggie Basketball. It is amazing. USU is awesome. And the games are so much fun! For those of you not from Logan, and have a distaste for the lack of sportsmanship from the crowd, well, I wish I could apologize. But I can't. The Aggies ROCK! And we know it! : )

Bry & I after the first game; we didn't take any pictures at the game...

The second game we went to was against Cal Poly (I think). The guy shooting in the picture below was a midget. That's what I decided anyway. Cause you totally have to be taller than that to play basketball! If you are any good anyway!

Bry and I at the second game - So fun!

So there is this one cheerleader that I wish would just go away. She has these huge, super fake-looking white teeth that stick out like a beaver's front teeth. I've been trying to get a picture of her, but it's kind of hard, as when she is facing us, she is usually jumping around, being annoying. But I mean, LOOK AT THOSE TEETH!! You can't tell me those are real. Otherwise, you'd have to be her, and let me pull on them... really hard.

Homecoming 2008!!!

2008-11-09T20:03:00.007-07:00

So, I (Ali), have finally decided that I need to learn how this whole blogging thing works. Bry is usually the one to do it, but, due to his HUGE amount of homework, nothing new has been posted for a little while. So I'll mix it up a bit. I know it isn't going to be as exciting, but it'll have to do : ) After Bryan and I started dating, I would make small mentions of going to formal dances. Which never happened. He had some excuse about school dances being too expensive and such. I would have paid! I wanted to go to a formal dance with him SOOO bad! Oh well. That's something I just decided I would have to get over sooner or later. About a week before the homecoming dance, I mentioned something to Bryan about it. I don't think he realized how soon it was coming up. He told me that he wanted to go, and that it would be a lot of fun, since the only time we really have had a chance to dance was at our wedding reception. I'm kind of a brat sometimes, and just told him that no, we weren't going to go, and that I didn't want to go, and that it just wasn't going to happen. Little did I know that Bryan really did want to go. So I came home from work a day or two later to the flower plant that I told him I really liked, on the little table next to our front door, with our ticket to the homecoming dance sitting on top. I'm so happy that Bry has learned that a lot of the time when I say "no", I really mean "yes". He is learning SO quickly! ; ) After this wonderful event, I talked with my friend Elise Snow that I work with. (For those of you who don't know, her husband, John was roommates and friends with Bryan before they (and we) got married.) We planned to double, and go out to dinner beforehand. It was awesome! We went to Hamilton's, and enjoyed not only the good food, but the company, and looking all sorts of pretty and having people look at us.

John & Elise Snow

We then headed to the dance, which was actually rather fun, considering I don't know how to dance... at all. And I don't follow a lead very well either. Bryan will agree with me on that. After some fun live music, and some horrible singing in one of the rooms, we decided that we were exhausted, and headed home, not staying so Bryan could make me a true Aggie. Oh well. I'm pretty sure I'm okay with that. I'm an Aggie at heart : )

WEEZER!!

2008-10-16T20:41:00.005-06:00

Last week we ran down to Salt Lake quick one night (it was even a school night!) to go to a Weezer concert. Kinda crazy, but it was definitely worth it! The two opening bands were both pretty lame, but that just made Weezer look all the better.
To give you an idea of how awesome they were, the lead singer for Weezer came out and sang the first couple songs with a sock over his head. They had a rubber ball (the kind you buy from Walmart for a dollar) on stage that they were kicking around randomly, as well as one of those mini trampolines. After seeing them live, we have a much greater appreciation for their nerdiness. They also played all their classics, The Sweater Song, My Name is Jonas, Buddy Holls, etc, it was great!!

Near the end of the show they had a bunch of random people from around Salt Lake come up on stage to play along with the band. They all brought whatever instrument they played (saxophones, guitars, acordians, irish whistlses, etc) and they all played the backup music for the band. Very random, but it was actually pretty cool!
Ali and I both agree that it was one of the better, if not the best concert either of us have ever been to.

Demolition Derby

2008-09-14T18:16:00.005-06:00

One of our most memorable dates from back in the day before we got married was a demolition derby here in Logan. We unfortunately had to miss the first two this year, with people getting married or family vacations, but we were pretty excited when we found out they were going to have one more in Logan and we finally weren't going to be out of town that night!
It was a classic night of demolition derby goodness, with some pretty memorable moments. For instance, there was a somewhat faithful representation of Mater from Cars (see below), who unfortunately didn't do so well. And don't ask me how, but a pickup truck managed to nearly flip a suburban upside down (The bigger they are the harder they fall?). Wheels were popping off all over the place, drive shafts were falling off, and tires were usually little more than a flap of rubber somehow clinging to the rims. Good times!

Probably the most exciting event of the night was when the pickup above got flipped onto its side right in front of where we were sitting and caught on fire. We're not talking a little wussy fire, but probably about a 6-foot diameter fireball came off of his engine to start things off. They quickly pulled the driver from the truck (he was ok), got the flames out, and flipped it back on its wheels. Luckily, Ali managed to snap a picture of the fire before they got the fire put out.
We were trying to meet up with a bunch of friends there, unfortunately it was packed! Luckily we still got a spot with Garrett and Melissa, friends of ours who recently got hitched. Besides almost feeling like we we're going to die of smoke inhalation, it was an awesome night. If you've never been to a demolition derby, you are definitely missing out!

Lagoon!!

2008-09-06T10:04:00.009-06:00

I'm a little late posting this, but we decided to spend our last day of the summer at Lagoon. It turns out that a couple of other people decided to do the same thing...I guess it was the busiest day of the year. Even though it was a little on the crowded side, we had a great time. It was Ali's first time at Lagoon, and I hadn't been there since high school.

One of the day's highlights was this awesome car's bumper...I've seen people duct tape a car back together, but band-aids!?!? Yup, pretty amazingly ghetto.

Some of the lines for rides we a little long, after getting in the Rattle Snake Rapids line we were informed that it would be at like 2 to 2 1/2 hours before we would get on the ride. Luckily, we decided to stick it out and it was really more like an hour or so. But, considering it was extremely hot that day we needed some cool refreshment. You've gotta love blue icees!

We also had to spend a while trying on all the sweet hats, and Ali did her best to convince me that we needed to buy some of them...I guess she had good reason, these fish hats were pretty awesome.

We pretty much spent all day there with our final ride being Wicked. It looked awesome, so we decided to save it as our last ride...unfortunately for us, I think everyone had the same idea. The line was insane!! After an hour and a half of waiting it was finally our turn, and it was awesome! I would have to say that it was probably my favorite ride of the day, a little short, but the crazy acceleration at the first, the complete vertical drop, and the corkscrew totally made it worth it. Ali liked it was well, but I think she's decided that the Colossus is her favorite because she almost blacked out around the double loop.
Lots of fun, a good way to end the summer! Now it's back to reality and school...

Bear Lake Adventure

2008-08-14T21:31:00.010-06:00

We spent the first half of this week up with my family in Bear Lake. My Dad has turned it into a yearly tradition to rent a place up near Bear Lake and then spend a couple days there with the family. Here are some pictures of the cabin...

Monday
We started off the morning hiking the Limber Pine Trail, which is just right about where Logan Canyon hits Bear Lake. Limber Pine is supposed to be a 2500 year old tree, the hike was lots of fun, Landon especially enjoyed playing in the dirt the whole time. However, we're not quite sure we ever saw Limber Pine or not...oh well. Here are a couple pictures from the hike.

After getting back from the hike we spent the whole afternoon out on the lake riding waverunners. This was probably the highlight of the trip, it was actually quite windy and that made for some crazy huge waves as you got out to the middle of the lake. Ali and I shared a waverunner and she might not look like the type to do anything crazy, but you should have seen her jumping from wave to wave at crazy speeds, laughing the whole time. It might have helped that she didn't have her glasses on or contacts in, when you can't see how big the waves are I guess you don't worry about how fast you are hitting them!

Tuesday
Tuesday morning was the annual four-wheeling with Grandpa Dave. He and his friend Morris (who happens to be 92 years old!!) brought up a bunch of four wheelers and we started off in Franklin Basin and rode out to Camp Wilderness, an old abandoned scout camp that my dad went to when he was a kid. Then we down the "horse trail", which was a very narrow, rocky trail through dense trees. At one point we had to go down some really steep rocks for a hundred feet or so...it was crazy! Even crazier was that the guy leading us down it was 92, and he was down a lot quicker than the rest of us! We finished the trip by riding over to a place where a military plane carrying soldiers returning from Korea crashed in the 50's. There was a monument up there and you could still find a bunch of little pieces of the plane on the ground. It was a great ride, and we all managed to get plenty dirty!

After four wheeling we quickly headed down to the lake for some boating. My dad rented a boat and a water weenie, so we climbed up on that and he drug us around the lake for a while.

Tuesday night we all went to the Pickleville Playhouse for a chuckwagon dinner and their Wild West show. It was hilarious!! From the tall, happy looking white guy playing a Mexican villain (Juanito Badito), to the random rap number - we rarely stopped laughing.

Wednesday
Wednesday was our last day, so after packing and cleaning stuff up around the cabin we went into town to grab one last raspberry shake and then it was time for some horseback riding. We went up to Beaver Creek Lodge in Logan canyon a guide took us on a two hour horseback ride. Ali almost immediately fell in love with a horse when we got there, unfortunately he was too young and they wouldn't let her ride it. Our guide, Bryan, was a really nice guy and he took us up on the mountain just across from Beaver Mountain. We rode up to a ridge through pretty dense trees and then probably half way up the mountain and stopped for lunch. It was quite the climb to get up there, and we were all glad that it was the horses doing all the work! There was a really great view up there and then all the way back down. All our horses were great...well, except for Jason's, which couldn't seem to follow the horse in front of him, or stay on the trail. This was pretty funny because Ali was behind Jason, and Ali's horse would just follow Jason's wherever it went - through bushes, over rocks, etc.

And that was it for our vacation, we came home Wednesday afternoon and then I was off to work until ten o'clock that night. I guess it's back to reality now!

Rodeo

2008-08-14T20:57:00.020-06:00

We went to the Rodeo last Friday here in Logan and it was great fun. The first date that Ali and I went on after we officially started dating was actually to the rodeo, so it was fun to relive those memories.

The "Poker Match" to start the rodeo was great, they several guys sit at a card table while they let an angry bull loose. The last guy to stay sitting at the table would win $500. 00! It was funny to watch the guys try to stay sitting as the bull flipped the card table over, trampling and nearly goring them all in the process.

Here's a video of some bull riding.

After the rodeo we wandered around the fairground for a while. Ali absolutely loved all the animals, I think she was just about heartbroken that we couldn't buy a baby goat. This goat to the left was Molly, she was very content on not letting Ali take her picture.

Nine Mile Canyon Trip

2008-08-03T22:33:00.019-06:00

My Dad has been wanting to take the family down to Nine Mile Canyon the whole summer, so this past weekend he rented a 12-passenger "plig-van" and we made the trek out there. It ended up being quite the adventure, first off on our way down we got stuck on I-15 for like an hour because of some huge wreck. Luckily Leslie had brought a bunch of toys and activities to keep Landon happy, and as you can see, Ali and I made good use of the playdough.

After we got through that mess it was smooth sailing until the dirt roads, lets just say those giant vans don't do so well off-road! But we made it intact, here is a sampling of some of the awesome petroglyphs and scenery...

The trip back home went rather well, my Dad decided to head back up through Heber and Park City to see if the dirt roads were any better in that direction (they were a little nicer). We were making good time until we hit Parley's Canyon and they decided to shut it down to one lane for no apparent reason. So instead of getting back to Salt Lake at 9:00 we finally pulled in at about 11:30.

Even with all of our traffic problems up and back it was still an awesome trip, we highly recommend it to anyone!

Getting Old...

2008-08-03T22:22:00.004-06:00

Yup, it happened...I turned 23! That sure does sound kind of old. On a happier note, Ali got me this sweet picture of the Logan temple...now if we could only find a wall to hang it on.