Mariner's Games

Alex, Mindy and clan came up to see us, or in Alex's case, he came up to see the Boston Red Sox series against the Mariners. As you can see, we got lucky at one game and sat on top of the Mariner's dugout. The boys ended up getting 3 balls out of that from the players as they went into the dugout.

Torchlight Run and Parade

The annual kick off for SeaFair was this weekend, the big Seattle party on Lake Washington where the Blue Angels perform and the hydraboats race. The kick off is in downtown Seattle, and there is a 5K and 8K run and then a parade through downtown. We went down with the Strattons so the older kids could run the 5K race. Lisa, Miles and Cole all ran in it (and the boys even did it in very crappy shoes, all the more impressive.) The boys did amazing, finishing in around 25 minutes, beating a lot of adults in the process. They are quite the little runners. Lisa ran with them, and I don't know who had the harder job, her running, or me chasing Gage and Shay all around the finish line while we waited. Luckily they had lots of booths set up to distract them with hand outs and candy. They even got interviewed by the local TV station since it was a family affair. Or it was just they we looked like freaks since between us and the Strattons we had 8 kids there. They're not quite used to that many in a family up here. They guy behind them in the interview picture, dressed as a pirate isn't there to shanghai some crew for his boat. The theme for SeaFair is pirates, and a lot of people dress up and run the race as pirates. The shirts Miles and Cole are wearing have the pirate theme on them too. In fact the SeaFair pirates, a group of middle aged men who like to dress up and play with swords, are fairly well known and have even been in Sports Illustrated. After the race we hit the parade where they kids waited in vain for someone to throw them some candy. Shay had fun dancing with the UW cheerleaders when they came by.

Cole's Baptism

Cole was lucky enough to have all his family around as he was baptized on July 6th. He waited until we came out to Utah so that they could all be part of it. It was a very special day and one that Cole will hopefully always remember. We had the baptism in Smithfield at Grandma Gayles church, and then we all went over to Mack Park and had a picnic. Then all the little kiddies proceeded to strip down to their diapers (or tighty-whities in Karsten's case) and play in the river. It was fun to be around everyone and have them all share in Cole's important day.

Summer Vacation in Logan and Bear Lake

As usual, we spent the 4th of July in Logan with family. 10 years now in Washington, and we still can't stay away!




This was the actual size of the pizza we bought. Needless to say, it fed everyone, plus some! Of course Dave is kind of weak, so it probably didn't weigh more than 80 pounds.

Strip down to the diapers and jump on in!

Summer Vacation, part II

Dorf on Baseball

Gage gives us his best Tim Conway impersonation of Dorf. This is what happens when you have 3 boys and you get the shorts mixed up and then Gage refuses to remove them because they're "cool." Not sure if they're floods, or knickers, but either way, they're long! I don't know if he could even run the bases with these things on, they must have totally slowed his legs down. He had a fun baseball season and was (of course, he's a Russon) the slugger of the team. After today, we are actually sport free for a while, amazing!

Cole's 8th Birthday

Cole had his big number 8 this month. He and his friends went down to the driving range to hit some balls (surprisingly far) and then had a sleep over. For the family party, he got to have his favorite dinner (spaghetti and meatballs), Cold Stone for dessert, and open his gifties. He got some Indiana Jones Legos, football cleats and the best gift of all...his favorite blankie got all sewn up so he can sleep with it again! He still loves that blankie, and wasn't happy that it had gotten torn up. Of course we didn't tell his buddies that were over that he had gotten that, he has an image to uphold and all. Being the big number 8, Cole will be getting baptized next month. We are actually holding off until July 5th, and doing it in Utah with the family so that he can have them come. Otherwise it'd feel pretty sparse on family members if we did it up here.

Mother's Day

Today was Mother's Day, or as we like to call it, Moms-sit-around-the-house-day! But, fortunately for her, she deserves it! We had great day and mom got lots of pampering type gifts, including a bunch of gift certificates from Cole for foot rubs and hair combs. And best of all, a pillow for her to sit up in bed and watch TV with. Shay gave her the best gift of all...

The Cake

Miles had a good birthday! He wanted a cell phone. We said no. He asked for an ipod. We gave in. Now he has an ipod. He kept saying "can we open presents?" Brian and I were laughing because we wanted to say "can we open present?" Luckily he wasn't disappointed in only having one gift. He was actually very excited. It didn't even have any music on it yet, but he sat around playing with it all night. We think we might get them for all our kids now if it means they walk around with headphones on and don't talk. We may be on to something. Gage gave him a gift too, he wrapped up a piece of bark he found outside and very genuinely thought Miles would enjoy it. We had a family dinner after Cole's baseball game (the joy of large families, somebody always has a game to ruin the plans). We ate a lame b-day cake. I cannot believe how unbelievably bad my cakes are getting as the years go on. In the beginning I used to make some amazingly cool cakes. Last night was a white cake in a pan with orange frosting I attempted to draw a basketball on and it turned out to be an orange baseball because I did the strings wrong. The boys all corrected me after making fun of my cake. Then I put Shay on the counter to watch me finish and left her sitting there while I grabbed the candles. I do this all the time (leave her sitting on the counter) and she is always fine. In my defense, I did tell Brian to come watch her and Cole was standing right by her. Of course Brian claims he didn't hear me and Cole said he was busy unloading the dishwasher. Anyway, she proceeded to help herself to the cake, erasing Happy B-day and then somehow fell flat on her face on the hardwood floor leaving an enormous goose egg. I felt bad, but made sure I let Brian and Cole know they each owned at least 25% of the blame for her fall. We finished out the evening by watching the home video of me giving birth to Miles. Very G rated, but everyone wanted to know why Miles' head was so cone-shaped. "What makes it like that, mom?"

Miles' 11th Birthday

Well, some deranged lunatic (not to point fingers, Lisa) let Miles invite 15 of his friends over for a birthday party last night. I didn't even know he KNEW 15 kids, let alone could call them friends. All in all they were actually very well behaved...for escaped mental patients that is. They had a rousing game of tackle football, which only resulted in 3 broken bones, 2 black eyes and 10 gallons of mud being tracked back to our home. Pretty minor, all things considered. We then proceeded to consume a side of beef for dinner and keep the entire neighborhood awake until late, listening to the lovely strains of head-to-head Guitar Hero III competitions. I'm sure all were glad when we finally wrapped it up and sent them home. Miles made a small mint in birthday present money since most kids just give cash now days to make it easier.

Lacrosse

Miles picked up a new sport this Spring, he's now playing Lacrosse (he bagged the soccer and baseball teams this year around, a friend of his talked him into playing Lacrosse instead.) He's actually really loving playing, and has picked it up quickly. He's even already scored in one game, quite an accomplishment for someone who had never held a Lacrosse stick until just a few months ago. This is Miles delivering a forearm shiver to the opposing team. He's not afraid of mixing it up (and has the yellow penalty cards to prove it!) Of course the way Miles changes his mind, he'll be doing water ballet next year or some other obscure activity. He seems to gravitate from one sport to the next, whereas Cole is convinced he's already NFL bound!

Beijing, China

Lisa and I just got back from a week in Beijing China, where I was traveling with the US Olympic Fencing team to the Good Luck Games. This was the dry run for the Olmpics, so that Beijing could make sure all the bugs are worked out before hand. It was only a small team, so we had plenty of time to take in the sites of Beijing, or at least those that we could actually make out through the pollution induced haze. It was definitely an interesting experience, especially feeling like a minority for the first time; and also finally being a tall person! We went to the early morning flag raising at Tianemen Square, and were probably the only Caucasians in a crowd of many thousand Chinese. We were able to see the Great Wall, the Ming tombs, the Summer Palace, Tianemen Square, Mao himself reposing in his crypt, the Llama temple, and sampled many wares and food at the night market in downtown Beijing. Adventurous Lisa even took the subway around by herself, and found her way to the only branch of the church in Beijing for Sunday's services. We sampled many authentic Chinese dishes, included KFC (yes, we really did, no other places were open late when we finished one of our shopping trips to the knock off emporiums.) All-in-all it was a great trip and an interesting experience to see another part of the world. We brought back many souveniors, the main one being all the crud in our lungs from breathing the industrial fumes of the city! I think we lost 5 years life expectency in that one week! And yes, the below picture is of cooked lizards, seahorses, bugs and snake. Yummy!

Disneyland

The family just got back from a week at Disneyland, and we all survived! And that included an 18 hour power through the night drive home. The kids did great and we had a blast with Lisa's siblings and their families, along with Grandma Gayle. We did Disney, Seaworld and a day at Huntington beach, where Josh, Alex and Brian did their best to drown themselves in the very cold surf; and I do mean cold! I think by the time we got out, I couldn't feel my extremities. Or maybe it was because I was holding Alex's hand instead of my own...hmm...maybe? Everyone had a great time on all the rides, sights and hanging with their cousins. Cole and Riley were as inseperable as they always are when they get together.

Redwoods

On the way to Disneyland, we stopped off at the Redwood Forest to see some HUGE trees. It was good diversion from the long drive and we could get out and stretch our legs in the forest. Gage wanted to bring home every stick he found along the path, so now we have our very own redwood tree in our back yard! The kids especially liked the tree that you could drive your car through. Well, some cars, not the mondo Sequioa with car top carrier and crap busting out of the windows after being loaded down for the massive exodus. But we could at least walk through it and watch a Mini Cooper squeeze through!

Bird Girl of Alcatraz

While at Alcatraz, Shay channeled the infamous Bird Man. She had them doing her bidding in no time, stealing other peoples candy and bringing it back to her! Actually during the course of our tour, we found out that the Bird Man actually never had his birds at Alcatraz, only at Leavenworth. They made him leave them behind when he was transferred to Alcatraz. So Shay is the true Bird Person now!

Easter

Cole was pretty into the Easter Egg Hunt as you can see by his great hustle in chasing down those elusive eggs. By George he wasn't going to let anyone else get them! And that includes the little girl he flattened on his way to these eggs!

Shay shows her disbelief that the eggs are all gone. Look in her basket and you'll see where they all went to! And then look at her mouth and you'll see where they went after that!

The boys all got Webkinz from the old Easter Bunny, so even he has bought into this marketing racket. Sheesh, I wish I had come up with them! Here they proudly display their pets, or at least a few of the many they have accumulated lately!

Whistler

I got a chance to go up to Whistler with a bunch of guys from the ward for a 3-day ski trip. The mountain was great, the weather was great, but unfortunately they needed some fresh snow. Still, 3 days of skiing on marginal snow is better that not! This is our second year doing this little trip and hopefully the second of many more to come! Of course Miles was already campaigning to go with me, and when I explained that it was a dad's trip, he said "So? I'm old enough to go too!" It's nice to have kids that share my interests, but it also means that every time I go golfing or skiing, they think they should be going, whether they're in school or not!

Sledding

We all trekked over to the big hill in Hyde Park, tubes in hand. Josh had his 4-wheeler there, so the kids never got tired of going up and down the hill, until they got too cold that is (see Gage). He face-planted and that was pretty much it for him. Since they pretty much only get to do this at Christmas, the kids wanted to stay all day long. Definitely a draw back living away from readily available snow. This picture of Ryan just had to be put in, to show you just had hard the ground was...and just how soft Ryan's posterior is! Too much "P90X" Ryan, and not enough "Buns of Steel!"

Pajama Party!

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Jensen, no one else in the country can have these jammies, they scooped them all up for the grandkids! Christmas Eve at the Hansen home was fun for all!

Hawaii

We had a very important Peak PT shareholders meeting in November, where lots of critical information was disseminated and key decisions made as to the future of our business. Unfortunately, the only place we could find to hold the meeting was in Maui. So we sucked it up, and went. I must say, it's very conducive to decision making to be there. I decided very quickly to not move my lazy butt from the beach chair for pretty much 5 days. Except to eat that is. I did occasionally switch chairs to one on the beach, to avoid bed sores. We had a great time, saw an awesome comedian/magician, watched the sun rise over Hale'akala and pretty much forgot we had 4 kids at home torturing their poor aunt Tara and cousin Kamden. Thanks to Tara we were actually able to do this trip! She's the best!

Football

Well, it was Cole's inagrual season of football this year, and he was slightly miffed that we made him play flag unstead of tackle, but all in all he had a great time. He was one of the stars of the team at every position he played, and was ultra-proud when the coach named him at the end of the season as "The player most likely to be a first-round NFL draft pick." He's looking forward to next year already. It's not often that you get a picture like below, where your SON'S golden hair is flowing in the wind as he runs! Sheesh!

Shay-dy Bug

For Halloween this year, Shay took on (one of) her namesakes and was a lady bug. She got the candy thing down pretty quick, but wanted to stop after every house and eat what she just got. I think I could pretty much hear her heart beat after the seventh house since she had so much sugar coursing through her tiny body!

Soccer

Gage's first official organized sport! Soccer! And he was less then thrilled to play. Definitely not like his older brothers were at the same age. He participated...barely. And the team picture has me in it (as his coach) but not him, he refused to stand in and when he refuses, there's no changing his mind! By the end of the season he was doing a little more (as evidenced here) so maybe he'll get more into it as he goes along.

The Agony of Da-Feet!

Miles and Cole ran in the annual Snohomish Pumpkin Run, where all the elementary schools in their district have a race around Halloween time. They are age based, and quite long (I can't remember exactly how far, but Miles's was over a mile.) They both did great and improved on last years times. Miles took 4th after being tripped near the finish line by the 3rd place finisher, and Cole took 7th. Great finishes by both, and as you can see, they gave it their all! It hurts just to look!