Take Me Out to the Ballgame!!!

Because we in the Hansen house obviously don't get in enough baseball we decided to go to the Bees' game on Saturday night. Actually Richard and Vicki had the whole suite for the night and were nice enough to invite us along. Auntie Sam, Lisa, Jalon, Mark, and Molly also were able to go. The boys were thrilled when we surprised them with the fact we were going

The weather appeared as if it wasn't going to cooperate. Xander had a baseball game earlier in the day. It was so cold and it started to rain. Thankfully the weather cleared up just in time for the game. There was even a little blue sky for all of us spectators. The field was very empty. I guess few were in the mood to brave the cold weather. Being in a suite we were well protected from the elements. Vicki and Richard had the suite stocked with all sorts of goodies and drinks. It was "sweet"! So that last joke was probably more funny in my head. The boys also went and got some giant hotdogs with all sorts of messy toppings.

To be honest I didn't watch much of the game. I was busy playing with my iPhone taking and uploading pictures. I did get to see some awesome plays and a bat breaking. That is always cool. No bat breaking in little league. I would say the highlights of the night were when Bumble, the team mascot, came into the suite and let us take a ton of pictures. Vicki even snuck in a little smooch. Watch out Richard... that bee is a ladies man. Xander was so excited. That was all he had talked about was seeing Bumble. After the game (the Bee's won) Brian and Mark took all the boys down to the field where they got to run the bases. Jalon was very serious about making it all the way around. Then they got to meet Bumble again and get autographs.

Auntie Sam recently won a whole Wii system with all sorts of goodies at a work drawing. That night she gave the boys Mario Kart and an extra wheel from her winnings. They were thrilled and so thankful to say the least. We went immediately home where they proceeded to play. Brian and I even teamed up over the Wii internet and played against Mark and Molly. Brian and I have a little practice to do before the rematch. But we will be victorious!!!

Here are the rest of the pics and videos from the night of fun.

Family Dinner with Presents

Auntie Sam was so nice and threw Maria and Daniel a baby shower for their upcoming arrival. Because there weren't going to be girly games Auntie invited all the guys to come also. I told Brian about it and he said emphatically (many times) "Boys don't got to baby showers!!!!" I being really quick caught on after about the 10th time he said that. And changed the invitation... "Auntie Sam has invited us over for a family dinner with presents." He was finally in.

We headed up to Bachan's for the party. Well with a slight detour. Brian had forgotten all the NuSkin products he got for Bachan and rad home quickly to get them. Auntie Sam took care of most of the food and had a great BBQ planned. Uncle Tim cooked the meat on his giant man BBQ. I am pretty sure Brian has BBQ envy now. After dinner Ria opened up her gifts. She got some great stuff. Amy had even sent some adorable hand decorated bibs for Ria and Daniel. I didn't make a list of all the other items but I think she got a gift card, a high chair, a pack n play, some cute outfits.

After all the festivities I was able to give Bachan a facial treatment with the Galvanic Spa Brian had just gotten for her. It was fun to do all sorts of girly stuff. I love all the facial products that Brian took to Bachan and Auntie Sharon... I hope they love them too.

Super Fun Utah "Staycation"

We decided to stay home for spring break this year and explore all the wonders of Utah that are on our back porch. And thankfully the weather cooperated.

Thursday (April 9th) was our first day of Spring Break and Brian had a meeting at work that he was not able to cancel. So I decided to just spend the day with the boys at Classic Skating. Lisa and Shay along with all their kiddies decided to join us. My friend Christy and a few of her kids also came. The boys rollerbladed and spent hours on the bouncy equipment.

Friday was the official start of our "staycation". We decided to go up to Ogden and visit the Eccels Dinosaur Museum and park. We had a great time. They had a few animitronic dinosaurs which were pretty lifelike. They had a decent fossil display also. Xander and Josh love to soak up knowledge so they read about all the different dinosaurs. Josh also continued his love of photography and took so many pictures. Lisa and her little ones were also able to join us this day. Her kids really love walking around outside and seeing all the giant dinosaur statues. The outside was such a perfect set up. Great little trails and scenery. Not to mention the end of the park was a playground for all the kids to play on.

After the dinosaur park we headed over to the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum. I initially was just going for the guys but it turned out to be fascinating. I could not believe some of the planes and helicopters that people actually used to fly around in. And nuclear war heads are giant... just in case you were wondering. Brian and the boys were in heaven. This kind of museum is right up their alley. I can't even list off everything we saw there. Mya was probably the cutest at the museum. She kept following Josh and Xander around pointing at everything the were pointing at. She was acting like a big kid. Truly adorable.

Saturday we went downtown to eat at Brian's favorite, heart attack on a plate, deli... Siegfrieds (I totally spelled that wrong I am sure.)After that we just headed up to the Utah Museum of Natural History. I think our favorite exhibit was the live frog display they have going on right now. The frogs were so vibrant colored. Not to mention a lot of them were poisonous. You wouldn't think a cute little pink frog is poisonous... but you would be wrong. I guess they don't need to use camouflage because they are deadly. Josh had a great time photographing the frogs and the live insect display. A couple of the spider exhibits were empty. I am not sure if that is the best thing to have... EMPTY spider cages!!!! The boys actually spent a large portion of our time at the museum putting on a puppet show. It was great fun. The dinosaur and fossil display was actually far more extensive then at the dinosaur park the day before. We also got to see museum employees uncovering and preserving some fossils. A very delicate process.

Brian and I went out to dinner with a group of friends to Tucanos a little later that night. The food and company was fabulous. Then we went on the great Easter hunt of '09. I typically have all of our Easter shopping done weeks in advance. However, this year I just procrastinated. We hit up 3 stores before stopping at Walgreens where we hit the mother lode. I bought like 40 dollars in candy just to make up for being a slacker mom. I spent the rest of the night stuffing plastic eggs and preparing the boys baskets.

Sunday was Easter and we had Richard, Vicki, Mark, and Molly over for breakfast. I was sick that morning because I took some medication on an empty stomach (thanks root canal). Brian and the boys were very sweet and made breakfast for everyone. Creamed Easter Eggs and biscuits. Then Vicki, Brian, and the boys all headed off to church while I slept off my stomach ache. After church we all headed over to Bachan's for Easter dinner. Tim made a great turkey and there was just too much food to even mention. We just spent the evening chit chatting and having fun with our family. It was a perfect way to top off our "staycation".

The slideshow above is some of our fun. Check out the rest here .

The Busy Season

Baseball season is upon us again. And while it is one of our most favorite times of the year, it is also our most busy. This year we also have karate added to the mix so we have had a lot of running around. The boys also have spring concerts coming up, Josh for orchestra and Xander for choir. Xander is also part of his school production of Hamlet coming up in June. He is playing Horatio.

This season Xander is playing for the Astros. Josh was on that team for 2 years before moving up. Xander has his same coach, Jason, as he had last year. Jason is great with Xander and recognizes how hard Xander tries. Xander has made amazing improvements in his game over the last year. He even caught a line drive and participated in a couple double plays. He is on 2nd and is very worthy of his post. He knows the rules and follows them well. And the weather has been holding up pretty well. We have only had one freezing cold game so far.

Josh has moved up to the Babe Ruth league. He is playing for the Yankees. Josh has the opportunity to travel a bit and play against the Riverton league. We really like Josh's coach this year. He is no nonsense and keeps the boys (and a girl) in line. Josh is pitching for his team this year. He is an amazing pitcher. Sports really come easy to him and pitching was no exception. He pitches fast and pitches strikes most of the time. Now if we can just get the other teams to stop hitting the balls. Josh plays short stop and tried his hand at catching when he is not pitching. He has made a couple great catches at short and helps his team immensely.

We are really proud of both our boys being able to keep up with the hectic schedule we have right now. They both keep up with their homework and most of their chores. I am sure we will have more updates as the season progresses. Thanks to everyone who has braved the weather so far to come see games. The slideshow is just a few highlights of the baseball season so far.