Hansens in the House

One of the drawbacks to living near my family is that we are SOOO far away from Ryan's family. We wish there was a way to be close to everyone, but that is not possible and since Ryan found a job in Idaho, we moved here. When we do get to see more Hansens, it is rare and visits are few and far between. It is our goal, however, to make them less of a rarity.

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have one of Ry's brothers visit us. Nick and his family are taking a cross-the-West tour to visit Grammy Taylor and other family and friends for Christmas Break and we were lucky enough to be a pit stop on the way! They made it to our house late Thursday night, stayed all day Friday and left Saturday morning. Ry was, um, "sick" on Friday and the kids stayed home from school. We had tons of fun while they were here.

Some highlights include:

• Ally and Emma having cousins to play with that are not only the same gender, but almost the exact same age. Ally is six weeks older then Kalee. Emma is seven weeks younger than Alana.
  
• A delicious dinner out with no kids and lots of funny memories! Thank you V! Best babysitter ever!
• Shopping with Rebecca Friday morning. Serious girl time! Plus we both equally hate it so it was easy to get in and out quick.
• Clark watching Cason (who is 2 1/2 months younger) and realizing it was OK to use the voice he tries out on occasion. His vocabulary is exploding these past few days.
• Making a gingerbread house with 5 kids and virtually no fights.
• Taking advantage of having a truck to go to the dump/DI. Nick and Ryan cleared out all the "junk" we had stored in the back yard/driveway. Items included an old washer, a broken dresser, a highchair we have no room for, an old car seat and multiple unidentifiable plastic items that have broken and faded over time. We no longer look like we are white trash. Well aside from the broken car in front of the house, but that just happened.

I know that Ryan loved having his brother here. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them and let our kids play with their cousins that they don't see as much. We were all crammed into our tiny house but there were no fights. The Arizona kids got to play in the snow ... well, what little snow we had. They even got to see Ally and Emma dance at their dress rehearsal for the Winter Recital. We packed a lot into the short day in a half and I would love to have the chance to do it again.