♣ Happy St. Patrick's Day ♣

Brooklyn needed a bit o' green this morning so we whipped up one of these cute four-leaf clovers out of leftover wired tinsel ribbon and some vintage white buttons and hot-glued a safety pin to the back.  We thought they turned out cute enough to make a few extras for teachers.  Wish I'd snapped a photo before they rushed off but, alas, I did not.  Jaeden's teacher got a shamrock with stem, and Brooklyn's teacher received one similar to this.  What do you think? 

I'm thinking that if I'm more prepared next year, we could make some really adorable ones out of all kinds of scrap bits 'n' bobs!

May you always have

Walls for the winds,

A roof for the rain,

Tea beside the fire,

Laughter to cheer you,

Those you love near you,

And all your heart might desire!

♥ The Hansens

Sky & Sea

While we were so close to Vancouver, BC, we wanted to do a little sightseeing.  We discovered that because it was the weekend, for just $1.75 - $2.50 per person, we could ride the SkyTrain and the SeaBus all around Vancouver and all day on that one ticket.  What a bargain!  So we hopped on the SkyTrain at a station and rode it to the Vancouver waterfront where we took the SeaBus across to North Vancouver and had lunch at East Side Marios.

 Riding the SeaBus from Downtown Vancouver across Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver.

 North Vancouver

"Our" SeaBus

 Another SeaBus we watched cross the inlet

 I'll take one of those yachts, please...

 The fish market in North Vancouver reminded me of our very own Pike Place Market.  I'll skip the octopus today, thank.you.very.much.

 Looking back towards beautiful Vancouver.

 Our trip back on the SkyTrain.  We purposely hopped in the front car so we'd have the best view.

Our holiday went all too quickly!

Wedding Barn

Keith's uncle has acreage further away with an amazing old barn on it.  Uncle Ralph had a granddaughter who wanted to get married here this last September, so they cleaned it out and set it up for an adorable country wedding!  We got to see pictures of the wedding and the next day we took a tour of the old barn.  I could totally move in and call it home.  It was such an awesome barn!  We were talking about how neat it would be to hold all sorts of events/parties in this barn if it wasn't for the liability factor.

 Love the old ice house sign!

 I could NOT imagine climbing the ladders in the lofts.  I got dizzy just thinking about it!

 A transom window above the barn doors - how cool is that?

 Leftover props from the wedding.  During the wedding, they even had a couple of calves in one corner with hay bales around them.  I guess the children just loved it!

 Looking at the old barn wood out back.  What I wouldn't give to use some of that for flooring in our house!

Back of the barn

 Loved this moment I caught of Cousin Kayla taking a pic to probably post on Facebook.

Beautiful farm country

 Waiting for the loooooonnnng train

 Of course, the first thing Brooklyn does when we get back to the dairy is check on the calves.

We can't wait to visit again!  The last time we really spent time here was when Brooklyn was ten months old and now she's almost 10 years old!

Dairy Farm

We spent the Turkey Holiday at Keith's uncle's dairy farm in BC.  Brooklyn was in LOVE with these sweet babies, and who could blame her!?!  She spent a lot of her time visiting them and bottle feeding them.  Most of the calves in this area were about 2 weeks old.

 This little darling was only 2 days old.

 The pens for the older calves.

Showing off their rubber boots.  The ground seemed even more mucky because of the recent snow that had just melted after raining all night.

 The feeding barn.

 Jaeden sitting on a tractor.  He got to go for a couple of rides on them with Keith's cousins.

 Keith's mother's maiden name is Newman and this is her brother's dairy.

One of two silos on this property.

I cannot believe I forgot to take pics of the milking barn!  When I went through it, it was all dark, and I didn't get up at 5:30 AM for the first milking.  Next time...  Jaeden, however, was ALWAYS up early to help out with the milking.  He loved every minute of being on the farm.  I would have to say we ALL did!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day, we were up bright and early and ready to head to British Columbia, Canada for the holiday.  Unfortunately, Brooklyn and I had been battling the flu since Monday, and she didn't make it out of the house without being sick once again.  We decided to relax for a few more hours to see what we felt like by noon.  She was feeling MUCH better so we finished loading up the van and off we went.  We made it to the bottom of our hill without any mishaps and were greeted by this beautiful sight.

 Picturesque, isn't it?

We stopped and picked up Keith's mom and made our way north.  It was a pleasant enough drive - the rains had started and the snow was melting.  Actually, the highways were quite clear almost all the way up.  We didn't see snow on the roads until we were north of Bellingham where they'd received a bunch early that morning.

A Wonderful 4th!

Being on the lake this year for the 4th of July certainly spoiled us! We had the best fireworks show I've ever seen. There was a panoramic view of fireworks going off in every direction. The only problem was knowing where to look so you wouldn't miss it all.

We even had a ton of our own that was set off at the end of the dock. I was too busy oohing and ahhhing to remember to take pics of them.

Holidays

Nana and Papa paid us a visit at Christmas time. They drove up from AZ to spend a couple of weeks with us while the kids were on their break. The time went all too fast!

Catching Up...

A super quick overview of our lives since Oct 31. I sure miss blogging and feel so out of touch with everyone right now.

We moved.....again......on Halloween.....
Fact: we've now lived in three (yes, that's 1, 2, 3) houses in less than one year.
It's been said to us that we must surely be good at moving/packing by now. Well, the answer is yes, we think so, but believe us - we don't enjoy it! Lots of craziness, that's for sure. Just makes us wish we had a tent, some bedding, and the clothes on our back. Sure would make moving easier! Makes us realize how little we "need".

This time, it didn't help that I went back to work full-time for the first time in 10 years just two days after moving. Needless to say, the house still isn't in order like it was the last time. Which drives me nuts every time I come home from work and think about all that needs to be done.


Jaeden and Boo got in some pumpkin carving after the move - not the same night, though.


Story of the bees - We took the van down to Keith's work so he could pick up a rail for the door to his new shop he's been building. We closed the doors and buckled in. As we started down the road, I looked over and saw these bees in the rail (it was between the seats right next to my face) and they were starting to stir from a winter's nap. Yikes! I kept my fingers crossed, took a deep breath, and prepared to bail if they decided to meander far from the nest. Luckily, our house wasn't far and they didn't get too wound up. We definitely didn't hang around chatting in the car once we got there!

We had an opportunity the weekend after moving to get to spend a day in downtown Seattle with some of Keith's family - some from AZ.

Our sister-in-law Jolene with her granddaughter - our grandniece.

Good food, good times.

The guys had to see if they could fit the giant burgers into their mouths. Took a bit of work.

Keith's brother and his two sons. The baby belongs to the one on the left. Who knew when I left AZ ten years ago that this part of the family would make their way down there? Funny how that works!

We enjoyed a small Hansen reunion the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Aren't these turkeys and pilgrim hats, that some creative gals made, cute?

The gorgeous lake we live on. We're trying to tempt people to come see us - can't you tell?


The latest love of my life. . . . isn't it beautiful? I adore old mantels and the chippy brown and blue paint makes it perfect! Ignore the ugly stove - someday this beauty will go over a real fireplace! Since I quit blogging on my cottage blog, you all have to put up with things like this every now and then.
Don't you envy us, just a teeny-tiny bit, to be able to slip out the back door and into the lake on a whim? Brooklyn, Keith, and Jaeden took off to do a little fishing yesterday afternoon. Hmmmm...do you think this could be why we're not getting a whole lot of unpacking done?

We hope you had wonderful times with friends and family in November and we look forward to sharing our December with you! Where, oh where, does the time go?

Jordan finishes up his first semester at college on Monday and we look forward to him being back home during his Christmas break. My parents are planning on coming up from Arizona for the holidays as well. We're excited about that!

Love to all and to all a good night!

The Hansen's