Snow Day

So, with Utah weather being unpredictable -- especially in the spring -- I guess we shouldn't have been too surprised when it snowed here the day after Easter. However, we still felt especially tricked by mother nature after the days of warm weather we enjoyed the week before. Being cooped up in the house yet again proved to be a challenge for us until I came up with a great way to use the sand buckets and tools I had bought for the kids before Easter.



Believe it or not, they ARE actually having fun. And in case you are wondering, the tubs are filled with rice (Grace's) and cornmeal (Ethan's). Quick caveat -- rice is very difficult to vacuum up in large quantities.

Here are a few more photos of the fun...

Fun pictures from Costa Rica

Here's my brother Freddie (or I guess I should say Elder Hansen) crossing a handmade rope bridge in Costa Rica.















Here are the people he was crossing the bridge to visit -- they really live in a tree house.

Don't you wish you were there?

Hoppy Easter (hahaha)

Here below you will see the progression of an Easter morning...






I opted against candy this year because they are still sugared out from our California trip. My family loves sneaking them treats.

Here are a few more Easter pictures for your viewing pleasure.




I got Ethan and Grace these little watering cans from Wal-Mart, and Ethan pretty much won't let his go. Here's a shot of him "watering" the flowers before Church.

A Day at the Beach

Okay, so we didn't exactly spend the whole day at the beach. In fact we spent the majority of the day cooped up in the hotel room. In an instance of too much family bonding time, here you can see Ethan intent on giving Grace what we in our family like to call a doyoyoing.

Notice the look of complete
concentration on Ethan's face and
the total lack of concern on Grace's.

And now for the beach shots...

Sarah, Ethan and Scott admiring the waves.

The Bobbsey Twins both enjoyed digging in the sand.

Here's a really cool shot I got of the ebbing surf. Lovely, isn't it?

And to end it all with a bang, here is our rental car. No offense to those of you who own a Dodge Magnum, but the middle back seat SUCKS! Especially being strapped in between two carseats with very active (and occasionally aggravating) toddlers.

More wedding pics

So, I think I ran out of room with that last post. Here are a few more pictures from the wedding and the reception.

Our Little Family

Sisters, Sisters...

Laura and Grace at the reception. Grace is a little sleepy. This vacation totally threw her sleeping schedule out of whack.

Here's Ethan in a showdown with one of Jeremy's nephews.

Notice how Ethan is trying to slyly edge him out? When I asked him what he was doing he said he was "blocking him."

Here's Grace hurting Sarah. She was very intrigued by the sling.

Here's the newlyweds arrival at the reception. We were right next to a marina (?) --it was beautiful.

Check out the view!

California here we come...

So, to continue the story. After the accident we didn't think we were going to make it to the wedding. However, the next morning everyone was feeling like they wanted to go, so we found some last minute plane tickets and flew into LAX that night. Talk about a whirlwind trip. We got to our hotel that night at 12:30 AM pacific time (1:30 AM for our poor little mountain time bodies) and the wedding was the next morning. Posted for your viewing pleasure are pictures of the Emily Hansen - Jeremy Curfew wedding. Enjoy!

The happy couple leaving the temple.

Don't they look beautiful?

The Hansen Family

The Curfew Family

The Crash

As many of you have heard by now, we got in a really bad car accident on Thursday, April 6th as we were driving to California for Emily's wedding. The roads were slushy and as Scott was passing a semi, a gust of wind pulled on the car and we started to swerve and fishtail. We ended up going off the road and spinning around 180 degrees and then rolling one and a quarter times so that the van ended up on its side.

I had just unbuckled to take off my jacket and was literally in the process of buckling back up when we started to swerve. As we went off the side of the road, the only thing I kept thinking was "oh crap I'm not buckled, I'm not buckled!" I had a death grip on the seat belt strap with my right hand, and miraculously the only physical evidence I have of the wreck are a couple of bruises on my arm. The kids and Scott were totally fine, and only my sister Sarah was injured. The window she was sitting next to broke and gashed open her arm. It wasn't until I saw her arm that I totally started freaking out.

Luckily Scott managed to stay calm and three cars pulled over almost immediately to help. "GPS Joe" was the first on the scene and helped Scott get the back door open and the kids and Sarah out. He also knew what to do with Sarah's arm until the ambulance got there. He wrapped it with a sweatshirt and got her into a car with a blanket to keep her warm.

We feel very blessed that we were all able to walk away from the scene of the accident on our own. The ambulance took us to the Fillmore, UT medical center and the doctor was able to stitch Sarah's arm and it appears that there is no muscle damage and that she'll be able to recover completely. Here's a before and after shot of Sarah's arm. (Just a warning, her arm looks REALLY bad).

Before

After

Like I said, we feel very blessed that everyone is alive and well and that nothing worse happened to us. Here are a couple more gratuitous shots of the totalled van.

Inside ...

... and out.

Okay, this is taking a lot longer than I expected. Stay tuned...next post -- Emily's Wedding!
(Yes we made it there after all).