Our Trip to Utah: A 4-part series

Chapter 4:

Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's House

This chapter concludes this four part series.

The day after christmas we headed over to

Gma and Gpa Hansens to stay with them for the

rest of our stay in Utah. Unfortunately, Grandma

Hansen, Trey, and myself got sick just a day or two after getting there.

So we lost about 1 week worth of time and pictures.

However, Tyler stayed healthy and was able

to help on his sisters house she and her husband are currently building. He

loves doing that kind of stuff, especially when he can be

working side by side with his Dad and brothers. And

Addie stayed healthy too which meant a lot of mornings

playing with her cousins Kaycie and Cloee while mom was

sick and in bed! Addie had a blast playing with her little

cousins everyday. We also enjoyed a wonderful New Years Eve

party at MinDee's (ty's sister) and Nates house. All of Tylers

brothers and sisters were there to celebrate. We played games,

snacked, laughed, counted down, and rung in the New Year!

HAPPY 2010!

Playing with Tylers old train from when he was little

Helping Grandma Hansen cook dinner. Addie did
a fine job cutting celery and really enjoyed helping Grandma.

Addie loved 4-wheeling! She would not get off.
She wanted more rides. Trey loved the wheelers too. So,
being the great Grandma that she is....she kept going and going
with these kiddos.

Even when the sun went down and it got really cold
Addie and Cloee did not want to get off.

Nate pulling cousin Easton on an old tire.

Tyler and his love for mountains, hunting, shooting,

4 Wheeling, mountain biking...this kid can't get

enough of the outdoors. I can't blame him though

the mountains are beautiful and we sure do miss them

when we go back to Iowa.

Boys will be boys!

"I found one''

Egg hunting in the chicken coop!

Addie got to help Great Grandpa Ence

collect Eggs out at the farm. And she even got to.....

Ride a horse!!!! check out this cowgirl! I was very surprised when she was

so willing to hop on when she wouldn't even pet

the horses or want to get near them. Daddy did a great

job leading the horse around the farm to give Addie

a great "ride!"

Mom even hopped on too for a little bit!

Ssssmmoooooch! and theres a nice wet kiss from this friendly horse!

I loved this pic so I just had to put it in...it makes me laugh!

Trey loved watching the animals. He finally recognizes

that they move and make sounds. He would sit with Tyler

on the corrals all day and watch the cows if you let him.

This is Home for Tyler. Beautiful Ivins, Utah.

Thank you for a great time Grandma and Grandpa Hansen.

We sure enjoyed spending time with you and all the

Brothers and Sisters and their sweet families.

Addie had the time of her life with all her cousins!

Chapter 3:

Christmas 2009 @ Grandma and Grandpa McFaddens.

Making gingerbread houses.

Addie wouldn't stop eating all the little candies....surprised?

No. Not one bit! We finally had to just put her in bed.

Work of art!
Tyler and Kasey's finished gingerbread house!


Kelly, Marie, and Jamie.
3 Wise ladies for our traditional Christmas eve
nativity. Man we make great wise men!!!

And here is our Angel.....

And our shepherd....

And of course the shepherds little lamb!

What a fun Nativity this year as we had a lot

of participants. Kasey was Mary and Garrett was Joseph.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Nothing like these sexy bright red one piece Christmas

pajamas! Every Christmas Eve we always got new pajamas.

This year my sister Marie talked mom into buying

these one piece beauties for us! Good times! Good laughs!

Christmas Eve pajama party! Everyone got new pajamas!

Off to bed....so Santa could come!

Hansens, Dicksons, and McFadden Family.

Christmas morning traditional stair gathering.

We would gather on the stairs Christmas

morning with great anticipation waiting for Dad to give the "go ahead"

as he always had to check first to see if Santa did indeed come!!!

It's Christmas morning and did Santa come......?

You bet he did and he brought Addies train and

train tracks with him....Just what she ordered!

Thank you Santa!

Trey's new farm truck from Grandma and Grandpa Hansen.

He didn't quite grasp the whole unwrapping concept. But

he is sure enjoying his new toys!

Grandma and Grandpa Hansen got Plasma

cars for the grand kids to play with when they

come to their house! We had so much fun

on these wiggle cars. I think the adults had more

fun on them than the kids...at least I did!

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with much love

and happiness.

Chapter 2:

Staying with

Grandma Rosie and Grandpa Dave

After the wedding Tyler flew home to finish

up his semester of school while the kids and I

stayed in Utah for the remaining 2 weeks

until Tyler would join us again for Christmas.

Because we were going to be at my parents house for a while

my mom decided to spice up this little nook in their house

and make it "Addies Room!" Addie loved it!

A couple foam letters, plenty of goodnight stories, and an

heirloom quilt to bring it all together! So simple yet so cute!

oh and we can't forget the glow in the dark stars that

kept her company each night!

Candid moment....couldn't resist!

TA-DA! All finished. We let Addie go to town

decorating this little tree "just her size" with

all of Grandma's old handmade decorations.

She could put the decorations and the

lights anywhere she wanted!

Aunt "Rie" even joined us one of the weekends from Provo.

We had a great time hanging out with her and couldn't wait

until Christmas when we would get to see her again!

Marie and I even had a chance to sneak out while the kids

where asleep and see New Moon together! It was so fun!

Grandpa Dave and Addie

In Memory of "Blue!" Blue was our car during our stay

in Utah! Laugh...its okay...I sure did! Nothing like

a bright blue with ALL blue interior hatch back car hauling

two kids around! I can't complain...Blue was an excellent

car and was so fun to drive. I haven't driven a stick since

high school. Amy's (tylers sister)husband Rob had this

extra car and offered it to us while we where there so

we could get around from place to place when we needed.

Thank you so much Rob. We will never forget "Blue!"

Bike rides with Grandma Rosie where always a

highlight of the day.

When Daddy finally arrived for his Christmas break

he and the kids had some good bonding time out at

the farm. Tylers grandpa owns a farm and Addie loves

it out there....probably because Daddy will take her

for tractor rides.

Trey really enjoyed the tractor too!

Addie, and her cousins Kasey and Garrett

swimming in the hot tub!

My sister Kelly and her family drove out from California

to spend Christmas at my parents as well!

Hiking the beautiful red rock in Snow Canyon.

Gotta love those mountains!

We made our way to a slot canyon filled with

many interesting petroglyphs.

Here are just a few out of the thousands that covered

the walls of the canyon.

Chapter 1:

Amy & Rob's Wedding

Meet Amy and Rob!

Amy and Rob Miller were married

December 5, 2009. It was a beautiful

wedding and as always fun to gather

together with the family and friends.

What a Beautiful Bride!

The classic Trey look......Happy!
The kids were angels on our flight out there.
I could not have asked for better behavior
from both kids! They were amazing!

Happy kids + well behaved kids = Happy Parents!

(thanks to addie our fantastic little photographer

to capture this moment.)

Just being on a plane gets this little girl

through the 2+ hour flight! She loved being

able to look out the window and see clouds,

open and shut the windows covers, sit in her

very own seat, buckle her own seat belt, put

down her very own tray to eat on....etc.

You get the picture!

It's been way too long and unfortunately i can't put up pics right now or i would. However, I just had to update the blog. So here goes a little checklist update:

1.Fly home for Ty's sisters wedding....

Check.

2. Stay in Southern Utah with family for the month of december....

Check.

3. Miss out on a huge snow storm back home in Iowa....

Score!

4. Addie and Trey having fun with their grandparents....

Check.

5. Trey's two front teeth coming in....

ouch.

6. Hang out with my sister for the weekend...

Can't wait.

7. Finishing Addies christmas dress...

UGH. (giving me nothing but problems)!

8. Sewing with my mom...

Check. :)

9. Surrounded by beautiful Mountains...

Check.

10. Missing my Hubby....

Check. check. check. :(

Mall of America

2 Moms

3 kids

1 Mall of America

What were we thinking????

We made it! The 4 hour car ride went very

well the kids were great. The outlets we stopped

at on our way there were a hit. First stop in

Minneapolis was IKEA....okay Amazing store...

loved it. Spent as long as the kids would let us.

You'd think we'd be tired by now but we just had to

go to the mall before we checked in to our hotel.

Danna and Adalee

So we ate the Rainforest Cafe in the Mall.
Addie loved all the jungle animals that would
"come to life" every 10 minutes and the
big fish tank we got to sit by as we ate our dinner!
After dinner we check in our hotel and survived our
sleepless night between the kids taking turns
waking up at random times during the night. ugh.
Good timing for our next day at the mall right?
Sleep deprived Mothers+sleep deprived children+ Mall of America= A LOT OF PATIENTS!
However I have to say looking back on it all the
kids were very good and cooperated well.

LEGO LAND....need i say more

she was hooked.

Addies first theme park ride! Blue skidoo.

Addie actually took this picture! I was being "brave"

to stand by the big shark tank to get a picture. She wouldn't let

me take her picture by the tank because she was scared

so I asked her if she wanted to take mine

by the tank and to my surprise she did so this was the outcome.

she did a pretty good job i think.

He was my little trooper. Although he was

naughty during the night, he made up for it at the

mall and took all his naps (good naps) in his car seat in the stroller

while we shopped and walked around. Thank you Trey.

This was so fun. The Mall has a huge aquarium on the lower

level that has huge underwater tunnel so you can watch

the fish/sharks/sting rays swim right over you.

Addie loved watching the big sharks swim over her

and the black and white polka dot sting ray swim right

up the glass in front of her.

This was at the end of our underwater adventure. She got

to play more before it was mom's turn to play aka shop!

We had to take turns all day!

My friend and I were under the impression that there was just one giant

roller coaster in the mall only to find out that

there is a whole theme park in the middle of the mall.

The mall was 4 levels high with just about any store you

could imagine...even a dollar tree!! we thought that was funny!

Over all we had a fabulous/exhausting time! I will go back!