Swirly Canyon

After one successful trip down the river with the kids, we decided we wanted to do it again.  Blake knew of  one more stretch of river on the South Fork of the Payette that was kid friendly-Swirly Canyon-just the name sounded fun to me.  You start out in a canyon outside of Garden Valley and work your way down a narrow stretch of river, which then opens up into the valley.  It was different scenery than our previous trip and a little bit more technical, but had a lot more runs of small rapids that the kids and parents both enjoyed.  

We unfortunately didn't get any pictures up in the canyon because we were constantly having water splashing up on us.  Blake was our guide and rode in the back of the boat the entire time. Allie just loved riding next to daddy the whole time

We were still able to find a few beaches along the way.  The water was WAY colder than the Main Fork, but the boys decided to prove their manhood and jump in

Blake taking a moment to double think this.....he HATES water and really HATES water that is cold

He jumped in for a swim



And made it back to shore

On one of the beaches the kids went off to explore

On another beach there were some hot springs.  Not to tempting on an afternoon of 95 degree weather, but maybe next time we'll be back to camp and enjoy these hot springs on a cool night

Allie sporting Blake's helmet

Family photo.   Allie has learned all about giving people "bunny ears".  Lately, she constantly has two fingers up in photos

Allie enjoyed standing up on the cooler to ride down the river for the last stretch.  I wonder where this girl gets her crazy genes?

Quite the little diva posing here for me.  We had a lot of fun down Swirly Canyon, we'll definitely be back for some more fun down this canyon.

Fishing the Main Fork of the Boise River

We were very spontaneous in our planning the other night.  We wanted to have a family night and couldn't decide what to do.  At 6 p.m., 100 degree weather outside,  Blake suggested we go float the Boise River.  I am game for whatever, so we started running around gathering up swim suits, etc.  Then in the midst of this chaos we decided we want to go rollerblade along the Greenbelt and Blake wanted to fish along the way.  Great!  Sounds fun to all of us, so we pack up the stroller,  fishing pole, and rollerblades and hit the road.   As we are driving down Chinden, we pass Cobby's.  Blake informs me that the restaurant just got voted the number one sandwich shop in Boise for the umpteenth time.  Having never been there myself and having not have eaten dinner we stop in for subs-very good by the way-  just don't know if it would make my number one sandwich spot- my choice is the San Francisco Sourdough.  In the midst of ordering Blake states how it would just make his night to go fishing up to the middle fork of the Boise.  I'm all game, I love the mountains, the river, hanging out and splashing through water with Allie; sounds great.  So, at 7:30 we head up to the Middle Fork and enjoy a great night by the river.  

We finally found a great spot to fish.  Since this trip was spontaneous in planning, we totally forgot bug spray.  Our first location Blake literally opened up the door and about 50 mosquitoes entered our car.  Blake thought it might get better down by the river, but we had no luck.  We all ended up with bites covering our bodies; I think we lasted about 5 minutes at our first location before we drove up the road for about 15 miles and found our golden spot

After about 30 minutes of fishing and it nearing 10' o clock, Blake was successful and caught a nice rainbow trout

Allie enjoyed "petting" the fish as she likes to tell everyone

As we all know, the fish are very slimy and hard to hold onto.  The fish had just squirmed out of Blake's hands and this was my cute family immediately after the fish left Blake's hands

My cute girl who is growing up oh to fast!

Summer Randomness

Allie is cracking me up lately!!!  She is just a hoot and I have been a slacker on taking pics, so I have been out to capture a few of our moments the last few weeks

Allie wearing her pearl necklace from Aunt Gloria.  She just loves this necklace and is wearing it everywhere she goes

Not cooperating so much; making a silly face for me

Allie and I enjoy making cookies together.  A few nights ago, we decided to make some for dad while he was gone at a meeting.  Allie's job is to always get the eggs.  She ALWAYS drops an egg.  I am hoping that one of these times she'll get the hang of it.  Is two eggs for two hands too much to ask for????  In anticipation of her dropping an egg, I grabbed the camera.....this was Allie immediately after when I rhetorically asked her "What happened???"

Enjoying the dough-it's our favorite part of the cookie making process

The other day I asked Allie to get dressed.  She ran upstairs and was quickly downstairs without clothes, but with her Cheetah in her panties. She told me she found a new way to carry her cheetah and that she was ready to go for the day

The other day I got Allie a box of "smelly" markers for free.  We came home and got right to work coloring with them and smelling them.  Blake and I reminisced about our favorite smells from childhood-cherry and raspberry.  We sniffed away and taught Allie how to enjoy the smells with her sniffer.  Well, she got a little carried away and ended up with about 20 dots on her nose.  Thanks for the good times the last few weeks sis! 

Summer Rafting

We have enjoyed our summer to the fullest this year.  I have loved just being in town and having nothing crazy planned for our summer.  We have been on a few rafting trips so far this season and look forward to having a few more before the summer is over.  The first raft trip we took with 10 couples in our ward.  We took 3 boats down the Main Payette and enjoyed a great afternoon in the sun with friends

Blake gave everyone a safety talk before we head down river

Allie always gets to hang back with grandparents or a babysitter when we head off rafting, so we promised her that we would take her on a trip this summer.  She was just thrilled at the idea of getting to come rafting.  We rounded up some friends for F.H.E and took the kids on a calm stretch of the Payette.  We put our boats in at Beehive Bend and traveled down to Horseshoe Bend.  It was such a fun trip; the kids had blast!!!  We will definitely be taking more family rafting trips

Allie, Cam, Brynn, and Macy ready to head down river

Jensen and Mark

Karina and Cherie-even the youngest of friends got to join us on our trip

Allie stealing a kiss from daddy as we headed down river

We stopped at two different beaches on our way down river.  The kids had a blast swimming around in the water, looking for fish, and playing on the sandy beaches

Allie and daddy wading in the water

At the first beach, the dad's took the kids out to look for fish

Allie just loved "riding the bull" where she got to sit up on the front end of the raft

Allie crawled over the boat and grabbed on to the rope to take a dip as we floated down the river; this girl just loved this trip and loved climbing out to take a dip as we floated along

Holly and Macy enjoyed cooling off 

The kids also thought the trip was great because we got to see "wildlife" on our way down.  We ran into these horses, some cows, as well as a golden eagle hobbling around on the ground

We ended up taking two boats down the river....Allie bounced between the blue boat with Blake and the Hoegers and the red boat with the Givens, Rawlings, and me

Brynn enjoying the rind of my apple

The next beach we stopped at the kids got down and dirty.  Allie jumped right out of the boat and started making "sand" angels

Allie burying her legs in the sand 

You can't forget to make sand castles in the sand

All the kids washing off their sandy bodies before hoping back in for the home stretch

Best of all, I got to hang with my hot hubby the whole way down

IT'S A GIRL!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We are just thrilled for this little Miss to be joining our family.  When I was pregnant with Allie I was 100% sure she was a girl.  I was so sure that I wore a purple top and pink pants down to the ultrasound.  Well, this time a round I was pretty sure that it was a boy.  I wouldn't say I was as confident as I was with Allie, but I was pretty sure.  Blake was also sure that it was a boy.  So this whole time I was pretty sure that it was a boy, but deep down I was really wanting a girl. 

 Well, I can't tell you how great it felt to be wrong.  When the technician started to look at the kidneys, I jumped ahead and was viewing the genital area.  I was like, "there is nothing hanging out down there."  I was thinking, "it's a girl, it's a girl."  The technician finally caught up to me and definitely confirmed that it was indeed a girl.  I'm so excited and looking forward to my two little girls.  

I am very relieved to have the ultrasound over and to be reassured that we have a healthy girl.  I have been so paranoid this pregnancy.   When I was pregnant with Allie I didn't have a care in the world, ignorance was bliss.  Now that time has passed, I have been a witness to too many problems in the hospital that I was so nervous there would be a problem with my baby.  I was dreaming that this baby had problems and was so anxiety stricken over it.  I am just relieved that she is healthy and I don't need to worry anymore.

I haven't written about this pregnancy at all, so I want to write a few things down that I have had on my mind. So far this pregnancy has been pretty easy, just like it was with Allie's.  I started to get nauseated a little bit later than I did with Allie, around 8 weeks with this pregnancy compared with 6 weeks with Allie.  My nausea this go around lasted till right before my 16th week, about 3 weeks longer than it did with Allie.  During this pregnancy I was able to take the Unisom and Vitamin B6 combo which definitely improved my nausea and made it much more tolerable.  

There have been a few other things that have been different for me this go around compared with my pregnancy with Allie.  The first thing that has been different is my skin.  When I was pregnant with Allie I had great skin; I remember thinking how I wanted to be pregnant all the time because my skin was so smooth and I had no acne.  This go around my skin has continued to brake out and it has been so dry and flaky all over, especially my legs; that was one reason I thought the baby was for sure a boy.

Another area that has been different are my food cravings.  I have craved fruity things this entire pregnancy.  I could eat fruit all day long; veggies weren't so tempting in the beginning, but they are growing back on me.  When I was pregnancy with Allie I wanted lots of greasy, fast food.  No wonder I gained so much weight with her:)  

Another new thing is exhaustion!!!  I think this problem just gets worse with subsequent pregnancies. There are more things to keep you busy as a mom and children that you are tending to, that by the end of the day I was done.  I was passing out with Allie around 8:30-9:00 p.m. in the first trimester of my pregnancy and could hardly wake myself up in the morning.  My poor house fell apart.  Thank goodness your energy returns for a time being so you can pull things back together before the baby arrives. 

We have loved being able to be pregnant again and are so blessed she is healthy as can be.  I was excited to start to feel our little miss move around 14 weeks.  Having been pregnant before, you are able to recognize and pick up on that feeling a little bit sooner.  The night before the ultrasound (last night), she was very active.  It was the first time we could really feel her moving from the outside; I guess she was getting excited for the big day.  Blake and Allie are loving every minute and we are getting very excited to have the time quickly pass by so we can meet this cute girl!

Fourth Of July Weekend

We had a busy weekend over the Fourth of July.  We left Boise early Saturday the 3rd and drove down to Logan, UT for the Hansen Family Reunion.  We met at Mack Park in our usual place; we were just missing one thing this year; sweet Grandma Vella.  July 3rd is her birthday, so we celebrated in her honor.  We had  lunch, chatted with family, had games for the kids, and even enjoyed watching my husband in a water fight with all of the little kids

Lots of Hansen cousins and second cousins enjoyed "fishing" for prizes

Grandma Vella used to always hide pennies in sawdust for the grandkids to find.  Aunt Madelyn put the games together this year and brought this one back for the great grandkids.  Besides pennies, there were lots of suckers and toys hidden as well.  The kids all really enjoyed this game

Family Shot

We were also able to honor Grandpa Lyman on this trip.  Grandpa was the chief at the fire station for over 45 years.  We brought all of the kids over to the fire station to see the trucks that grandpa had purchased back in the day.  The truck he is standing in front of with all of the grandkids was the last truck he ever purchased

Here we are standing in front of the first truck grandpa purchased for $25,000.  One interesting fact that we learned about grandpa was he called in sick for one-half of a day his entire career.  I was very impressed!

We wrapped up our day and headed over to Blake's cousin's house to enjoy a neighborhood firework show. Allie was exhausted by the end of our day.  She was begging to leave the fireworks so she could go and sleep at the hotel.  We don't get that request very often so we knew it had been a busy day.

The next morning we woke up and visited with Grandpa for a few hours and started back to Boise

Allie entertained us on the way home.  She told me to turn around and look at her face.  I busted up with a big laugh when I turned around to this. Allie had taken the sticker pieces from one of her books and applied them to her own face.

Once we got back to Boise, we unloaded and headed off to watch the big fireworks show at Ann Morrison Park in downtown Boise

Allie festive and ready for the show

Allie's cute "star" that I attempted to make sewing ribbon through her hair

We joined up with family and friends down in the park

The kids were able to do some sparklers while we were waiting for the show to start

Natalia, Allie, Macy, and Lilia anxiously waiting

Dad being silly sitting in Allie's little camper chair; glad he didn't break it

Goofing around with daddy

And then at 10:30 p.m. the show finally began.  We enjoyed every minute of the 30 minute show this night.  We will be back next year for some great fun and fireworks.