Camping at Alturus Lake

We spent a few days last week up at Alturus Lake with our friends the Jenkins family.  We arrived Friday evening and got to work setting up camp while the kids scampered about.  The kids ran about, climbed over logs, created their own games, and helped gather and cut firewood.

We ate so well on this camping trip!  Candice and I are both planners so we had our menu planned so that almost everything was prepared before we left so that while there we just cooked.  I'm not sure that we washed more than 5 dishes in the 3 days that we were there.  Camping burritos, dutch oven chicken and cobbler, fruit pies, roasted hot dogs, it was great!  And of course pancakes, pancakes are best when camping.

The lake water was COLD!  I haven't been to Alturus in nearly 20 years, but I remembered very clearly just how cold the water was.  That's okay, the kids enjoyed fishing and playing the sand.  Karina helped Lily finally figure out casting and she ended up doing really well, getting 20 foot casts which is pretty good for a 4-year-old.

Charlotte got her first fishing pole for this trip and can't quite cast yet, but sure does like reeling it in.

See that blue plastic fish on the end of her pole?  That acts as a weight for them to practice casting.  Well, one time when Candice cast for her it went flying into the water...off of the line.  So Candice and I went into the freezing water, chest deep, to retrieve the blue plastic fish.

Back at the cam sites the kids climbed all over the logs.  I'm amazed at just how much time they spent doing this without getting bored.  Charlotte wasn't overly confident walking on the logs, so she crawled along.

Lily likes to follow Karina around.

I'm pretty impressed with her balance.

King of the stump!

Bruce and Lily playing with a lighter...maybe not our best parenting moment.

 No camping trip is complete without s'mores (and a nice poke to the eye while playing with sticks)

 Good stuff!

We had a few visitors to our camp site.  This deer spent a while running around the camp ground.

There was also this skinny little black fox that roamed around one morning.

We had a lot of squirrels popping in and out of holes all around our site.

Gideon did very well.  Camping with a 2 month old is pretty easy because he mostly ate and slept.  We made sure to bring our bouncy chair so that we had a place for him to rest so that he didn't have to be held all day long and it was great to have.  Even with a hat and keeping him in the shade he still managed to get a little sun burnt on his face.

Charlotte still loves her brother!

Bear Lake

This last week Tyson had some time off work and he finished up the summer semester so we decided to take a little vacation. I had never been to Bear Lake, even though I have lived in Idaho for most of my life, so we headed east.

The lake was perfect! It is rather clean and where we camped there was a great beach right down the hill so we spent a lot of time on the water. Lily loved it!

The water was nice and shallow in this area so it was perfect for Lily.

Just for fun I captured her little footprints in the sand.

Last year when we went to Redfish Lake Oscar would not touch the water. This year however, as soon as we got to the lake he headed straight for it. He loved playing fetch and I think that we finally figured out how to exhaust him.

Just standing by the lakeside.
She wanted one of her daddy's chips to she was trying to climb through the chair to get to them.
Just a cute photo.
Taking a milk break while at the beach.
We headed over to Paris, Idaho Wednesday afternoon and checked out the tabernacle there. Tyson loves checking out old stone work.

Here's Lily reading the brochure about the building's history.

And posing with her daddy for one of my favorite pictures of the two of them.

We decided to eat our little picnic under a tree while we were in Paris, so at age 14 months Lily has already had a picnic in Paris.
Back to the campsite, Lily kept Oscar entertained and kept sneaking him little treats.And was so good as to help with clean up.
All ready for bed for her first night of sleeping in a tent. It was interesting, figuring out how to put Lily to bed without a crib. The first night we let her stay up and just brought her to bed with us. That didn't work, she LOVED the tent and had the best time wandering around it and climbing over us. She kept us up for nearly 2 hours before she finally fell asleep.

The next night we decided to treat the tent like her crib and just laid her down in there alone with her Violet toy and blanket, She fussed for a minute or two and then fell asleep.
Sorry that these are out of order, blogger can be a pain that way. Anyway, I married an over-grown child. This is proof.
Tyson and Lily playing in the sand.
The weather was perfect, not too hot, but warm enough to be playing in the water at 8pm. Perfect way to wear out a toddler for bedtime.
And finally another cute picture of Lily on the beach.

2009 in Review

As I sit down to write this I hardly know where to start. This has been a momentous year for us. The beginning of the year was pretty standard for us, we were expecting our first child and anticipating her arrival. On January 8th we were scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound. I had scheduled it for Tyson's day off but a riot at the prison prevented him from being able to come. We talked about putting it off, but in the end I just couldn't stand to wait any longer. Anyway, we had been thinking that it would be a boy, but every time I imagined say "It's a..." "girl" would always follow. Turns out that bit of intuition was right, we were told that we would be having a baby girl.
In February Oscar decided that it would be a great idea to tear apart one of his favorite toys and eat it. After a couple days of him refusing food and water we took him to to local vet and found out that the bit of toy that he had swallowed had become lodged in his intestines. Our only option was surgery. Oscar came though it like a champ though. Poor guy had his belly completely shaved and has a rather large scar, but is healthy and happy as can be. We also set Oscar up with a local dog trainer to help prepare him for the baby. He still is a little energetic around strangers, but he loves his little sister and it wonderfully gentle with her.

In April the courts finalized the adoption of my six youngest siblings. They have certainly become a big part of our lives, and a trying part as well, but we love them. They are sweet kids and we are thrilled to have them as part of our family. In June we all got together to be sealed and then we took a family vacation up to Cascade. It rained the whole time, but it was so much fun.

Also in April we celebrated our one year anniversary of home ownership. Our house is still a work in progress, but we have come a long way in one year. We are excited for all of our future projects and we are grateful at this time to have a home. We were luck yo be able to buy when we did and to be able to buy one that will fit our growing family.I enjoyed getting the house ready for Lily's arrival. I spent a lot of time working on various crafts and projects. In April I was placed on bed rest and Tyson and I started making bi-weekly trips to the doctor which were so much fun. After a bit of a bumpy road and a few little scares we welcomed Lily Ann Hansen into our family on May 12, 2009 at 10:42 pm. We are so grateful for her. She is such a sweet little thing with loads of personality. We always knew that we wanted to have a baby, but I don't think that we every came close to realizing just what an amazing adventure we were embarking upon. It has been difficult and ever arduous at times, but it has been more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined.

In July we took a short trip to go camping at Redfish Lake in Stanley, ID. For anyone who hasn't been there, add this to you list of places because it is beautiful! It was Lily's first camping trip, she was almost 2 months old.While it was still rather cold she handled it well. We went for some wonderful hikes up the mountains and enjoyed the lake views. It was a little cold for us to put her in the water. Maybe next year.In August I decided that I was getting tired of typing out recipes and emailing them to people over and over so I started up a blog for some of my favorite recipes. It is still a work in progress, but I have enjoyed working on it. It helps motivate me to keep trying new things which we both enjoy. Thankfully I have a husband who will eat anything so I am free to mess up all I want.

In October my twin sister Liz married Eric Roundy. It was fun to help plan another wedding, but I forgot how much work they are. Thankfully my next sister in line is only 7 so we get a bit of a break. Anyway, the wedding was beautiful and it was wonderful to be together as a family again.
Also in October we got to have fun with another first for Lily, Halloween! I had far to much fun making a costume for our little girl. Sarita and I took Lily and Junior to Boo at the Zoo and had a great time. She was a little too young to take her out trick-or-treating so we stayed home and passed out candy to all the neighbor kids.
In November we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. It is interesting to me how quickly time can pass and yet how it can seem like more time has passed. It seems like we just married, but at the same time it is like we have always been married. I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful husband and fantastic father for our baby girl. I could not possibly ask for better.
And as with any year, this year ends with Christmas. I don't think that I have been this excited for Christmas in all my life. I know that Lily is young and certainly won't remember this year, but I will. On Christmas Eve we were sitting in the living room at my parents house while my dad read Luke chapter 2. I sat there cuddling my baby girl and couldn't help but marvel at the birth of the Savior.After writing this rather long entry it still seems like such a brief review of such an eventful year. This has been a wonderful year for our little family and we are looking forward to a great new year to come. We have a lot of plans for 2010 and some new challenges heading our way, but we can't wait to face them head-on.

Happy New Year to all! Our best wishes to you and your families!