Hansen hodgepodge

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

Today is Valentine’s Day — one of the restaurant industry’s three busiest days of the year (Mothers’ Day and New Year’s Eve make up the rest). This is amateur hour. Most of the clientele on this day aren’t regular diners, and this is one of the special days out of the year they treat themselves to a nice date.

And restaurants take advantage of this: cramming every available table for two in every nook and cranny of the establishment. Creating tight turn times for tables, so couples can’t stay and linger over drinks and conversations lit by candlelight. After all, restaurants are businesses (something everyone forgets) and this is one of the days that needs to bring in some dough.

This is one of the reasons I don’t like Valentine’s Day. Besides all the usual corporate holiday arguments, it’s destroyed any concept I had for romance on this day. I’m that server who wants to make sure you drank, ate and paid within 1 hour and 45 minutes, otherwise the rest of the reservations are going to back up. Sorry, but I have other guests to wait on long after your meal is over.

That is not that dining experience I would want to have, but the demand for reservations on this day forces businesses to accommodate the influx of people in ways they normally wouldn’t practice. If you don’t book ‘em, you lose ‘em, and that’s the way business works.

So if you have someone special in your life, and you choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day, take them out to dinner on Feb. 15 for a romantic dinner instead. Don’t subject them to the madness the day before. This way you can have a quiet table at the time you want, enjoy your company, and have the evening you would want to have. If I'm your server, I’d be more than happy to make that happen for you too.

In sickness and in health

2012-02-10T11:02:00.001-07:00

A three day weekend lay before us, and it would be glorious: a road trip to Ridgeway and Ouray where we could relax in hot springs, eat and drink at breweries, and be merry.

We went left in the morning and arrived late in the afternoon in the town of Ridgeway. Everything was going according to plan — hot tubbing, then pizza and microbrews. We made our way back to the hotel room to relax and rest up for the remainder of our planned adventures.

And then it came with a vengeance, as food poisoning always does at 3 a.m. I sprinted to the bathroom and made it just in time for the violent sequence of vomiting and other lovely symptoms associated with the affliction to rear their ugly heads.

At first I thought I’d feel better after puking, and went back to bed hoping my health would improve by morning. I settled back under the covers, closed my eyes, and prepared my white blood cells for battle.

Within the hour, the bacteria and my immune system were in a full scale war, and the battlefield location had been selected: the bathroom. After a while, I even debated bringing a blanket and pillow in there, so I wouldn’t have to sprint at every impulse of impending spewage.

As night turned slowly into day, I began to realize that I would not be able to fully enjoy our weekend. Soda water, canned chicken noodle soup and Saltines would make up my dining experience, and the hotel room would be my spa.

I felt awful. My foolish fast food choice — which was causing utter turmoil inside of me — also sabotaged the weekend.

So I laid in bed the whole time, and Tyler dutifully stuck by me. Since he was perfectly healthy, I felt guilty for not being able to go and enjoy our time off together. He heated up soup for me, went to the store, and made sure I had plenty of beverages to replenish my system. I told him to leave me and enjoy his time off, but he insisted on staying. I don’t know what felt worse: my sickly state, or ruining his weekend too. He had just worked 10 days in a row, and planned this awesome trip for us, I couldn’t help but feel guilty.

By the next morning, I felt better. I could keep down food, and the nausea had subsided. This was great timing because we had to drive five hours to make it home that evening. We made it home, not having experienced the trip we wanted to, but at least we had a memorable one.

I'm not going to the Super Bowl

2012-01-28T09:20:00.003-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the afternoon of Sara: The 49ers were playing the Saints, I bought a DiGiorno pizza, a six pack of Snow Day by New Belgium Brewery, and I had a Saturday night off. All the ingredients were there for a perfect evening, so I settled in to the couch ready to cheer on my team.

For those of you who watched the game, or saw the highlights, know what a crazy win the Niners pulled off. When I came into work the next day, my co-workers were excited to talk about the miraculous win.

“Vernon Davis is my hero!” I said. “We’ve definitely got the talent to go to the Super Bowl.”
This is where my manager Chad (who only watches tennis) interjected: “Why are you using “we?” It’s not like you played in the game last night.”

All season long, he’s corrected me on using the first person narrative when rehashing events on Sundays. For some reason, I’ve had a really hard time adjusting my speech. I’ll catch myself halfway through a sentence and disjointedly redirect my narrative back to third person. After being harassed for 17 weeks during the regular season, one would think this wouldn’t be a problem and more.

But it still is. After the game last week against the Giants, I still find myself saying “we were soooooo close,” and “this was our year.” And why is that? Is it because of my personal history with team sports, or the collective mindset that comes along when rooting for your team?

The closest explanation I could find for my behavior is what experts call deindividuation, which is “the process by which group members become less aware of themselves as individuals and less concerned about being socially evaluated.” Sociologists have used this to describe rioting after games, behavior in a sports venue, and the lack of social constraints occur during some trash talking sessions.

Even though I found many possibilities, I don’t think I can ultimately answer why I use the narrative I do. All can do is hope things will turn out differently for the 49ers and me next season.

Santa's helpers

2011-12-18T13:21:00.002-07:00

Christmas tree

2011-12-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

This year we had a much easier time traveling down Forest Service roads than we did last year. We did run into a lot of ice on the roads (as seen above) but Moses was the only one who had any reservations about walking on the ice.

Now we have a fully decorated tree that we didn't have to find at Home Depot this year. And Tyler eventually did get his Christmas wish from last year too: a big burly truck.

A Thanksgiving visit

2011-11-28T10:12:00.002-07:00

My brother came to visit us for Thanksgiving. Since his freshman year at Northern Arizona University, Zack has always traveled to spend the holiday with us. Part of the reason this began was the trek back home was a little too far for the short holiday weekend, and I’d like to think the other part was because he missed me.

The first few years were a little trying. My brother and I fought a lot growing up — nothing out of the ordinary, but just the normal sibling spats.

But over the course of time, our spats have stopped and we’ve started to enjoy each others company. This has a lot to do with growing up, and me not picking a fight every chance I could to spite my brother. As my dad would say, we’ve pulled our heads out for air and now we’re beginning our post-childhood relationship.

I really enjoy the relationship we have now. It took a long time to get here, but I’m thankful we finally did.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T13:44:00.010-07:00

I woke up early this morning to start baking for our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. I have to work tomorrow, so we're celebrating a day late.

My Grandma baked the best rolls for the holidays. I looked forward to them every year. I never baked them with her — she’d show up on the day of the feast with perfectly shaped, fluffy, white rolls in square sheets that you’d break apart. I’d always save my rolls for when I was finished eating. I would use them to clean my plate of all the leftover gravy and cranberry sauce.

The first time I tried to make her rolls was in Tahoe. I called her up and wrote down the recipe on an old envelope, which I still have. They weren’t perfect — unless you consider slightly fluffy hockey pucks perfect. The subsequent trials of replicating her rolls only improved by slight increments.

This morning I wanted to bake her rolls like she did. This is the first holiday she won’t be able to make them, and it felt wrong that her legacy wouldn’t be represented. Baking at altitude can be a daunting task, but a little knowledge from the Joy of Cooking can go a long way.

My parents let me have her old recipe box after she died. Her roll recipe is one of the most worn cards in the box. I followed the instructions, letting her handwriting guide me through the steps.

Now the rolls are out of the oven, and this attempt is my most successful thus far — the rolls are beginning to look more and more like hers.

Hopefully they’ll taste just as good too.

Luke was here

2011-11-19T10:57:00.005-07:00

Luke came to visit us for three days last week. Moses wore his best outfit for the occasion (see above). The boys had a great time bonding and hanging out. Granted their adventures weren't nearly as extreme as they were in college, but they still had an awesome time. And as always, Kent made his pitch on why everyone needs to live in Vail. Luke left considering the idea, so we'll see how convincing Kent actually was.

Alpenglow

2011-11-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

al·pen·glow noun \ˈal-pən-ˌglō\

: a reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains

origin: part translation of German Alpenglühen, from Alpen Alps + Glühen glow

First Known Use: 1871

Halloween

2011-10-31T18:01:00.002-06:00

Our split personality Jack-o-lantern — even he is afraid of himself.

Winter

2011-10-27T09:11:00.003-06:00

Couch

2011-10-26T09:12:00.002-06:00

While walking the dogs last week, we spotted a free couch on the side of the road that was much nicer than ours. It even had a hide-a-bed. Without much discussion, we took the dogs back home, brought the truck over and loaded up the coach.

After receiving help from a couple of construction workers next door, we managed to wrestle the couch into the house. Now we had to figure out what to do with the old crappy piece of furniture.

For that evening, the old couch sat upright on our deck, making anything in our storage closet unreachable. Tyler said he planned to strip the couch so we could burn the wood and toss the rest, thus saving ourselves a trip to the Wolcott dump and a dumping fee.

He started early on Sunday morning with the Broncos’ game on the television. After a bit, he decided just to dismantle a third of the couch, leaving the rest to be Moses’ dog bed in our bedroom.

But it looks like Moses — and Aspen — are quite smitten with the new couch.

Road trip part two: Ouray

2011-10-22T18:02:00.007-06:00

For the second part of the road trip, we left the dogs with Kent and headed on down to Ouray (pronounced you-ray). In a weird way, it reminds a lot of Homer with its tourist season, small shops, and quirky locals. We stayed at the Black Bear Manor —which is an awesome bed and breakfast — and hung out for three days.

We hiked every day, and then would reward ourselves with some drinks and grub. Our favorite spot was the Ouray Brewery, which had some good beers and food to chow down on. Plus it had an awesome deck:

And here's the random section of the trip: the homemade burro trailer:

We followed it the last 30 miles home, and we were both enthralled with its sleek design. If you need to see a couple more pictures of this modern marvel of engineering, click here.

Road trip part one: Moab

2011-10-18T16:47:00.000-06:00

Before the winter season commences, us West Vailers wanted one last summer fix. So Kent joined us for four nights camping in Moab. We wanted to explore a different area, so we drove down Kane Creek Road a ways. After driving for an hour, Kent and I were starting to lose faith in finding the perfect campsite. Tyler was a bit more optimistic. When we reached the top of Hurrah Pass, the boys stopped and asked a bald guy on a four-wheeler if he knew any good camping spots. He didn't have a hat, helmet, sunglasses, or appear to be wearing any sunscreen in the desert. Here is the account, as recited by the boys later.

The boys: Is there any good camping down that way?

The Guy: No camping. Just drove through Lockhart Basin. I gotta get home.

The boys: So where would you go camping?

The Guy: I can't go camping, I need to get home.

The boys: We mean, if you were us, where would you go camping?

The Guy: I gotta go home.

The boys: No. If you were US, where would you want to camp.

The Guy: Oh, I'd go that way to trippin' springs - got caves and lots of cool stuff. I'd go that way.

So we headed on down the road. I wasn't very impressed with The Guy's recommendation at first. I figured he had fried his brain out in the desert sun. Then we saw a sign that said Dripping Springs, and took a left. Within five minutes we found the caves, and then our campsite. Way to go Guy!

The next morning we went to explore the caves. We forgot our headlamps, so we had to backtrack to camp to fetch them up. After we had proper lighting, the spelunking (and picture taking) was much more enjoyable.

Throughout our time camping, we managed to come up with a few songs that we all can sing a few lines to. Some of our titles include "We lost Aspen in Moab" (don't worry, we really didn't), "Doing drugs in the desert" (don't worry, we didn't), and "I was born with a birthmark." Here are some of the lyrics Kent came up with:

I was born with a birthmark / it's all I've got on my skin
I don't have tattoos of snakes, scorpions or bullshit / I just want you to get f@#%in over it

I actually have the whole song on video, but I promised Kent I wouldn't post it. So if you want to see it, you have to come to West Vail to watch it. But here are the other pictures from our trip that I know you will enjoy just as much.

Katie and Athena in Vail

2011-10-11T14:36:00.009-06:00

Katie and Athena came to spend last week with us. Athena gave us lots of smiles, and slept the whole time we went hiking to view the spectacular fall colors. Here are some of the sights we saw, but don't worry — we didn't trespass on any property, so we didn't have to be dealt with.

Fall

2011-09-29T17:00:00.004-06:00

An Aunt and Uncle

2011-09-21T09:01:00.002-06:00

The last few weekends Tyler and I ventured off the hill. First Steve and Karen were in town, and then we catered a dinner for Ian and Michelle. As we were driving home last Thursday, we realized how much we loved spending time with our nieces.

When we first moved here, you could tell Mazie wasn’t completely familiar with us. She always is warm and welcoming to everyone, but now she remembers us and we can pick up right where we left off. Our dogs even have nicknames with her now (Asp-e and Mo-e).

I think we’re getting better at the aunt and uncle thing. It’s still hard remembering to be prepared for every possible scenario when hanging out with kids. But we aren’t fooled anymore when Mazie says she isn’t hungry, and then asks where her sandwich is a half and hour later. We know now we’re supposed to state her options in different day-today activities; and we can play, act, paint and draw with the best of the 3-year-olds.

And recently Athena entered our lives. We were able to drive down and see her on her birthday, and it’s amazing how much she’s grown already. I can’t believe how much stronger she is within a week of seeing her last. She keeps trying to lift up her head and check out the world around her.

We like seeing our nieces milestones. I documented Mazie’s first soccer game two weeks ago, and it made me wonder where she’ll be in the coming years. Will she be a soccer star? Will this be a funny story to tell her when she is an accomplished artist? Who knows — it’s just awesome to see the transformation from the baby I met in North Carolina, to the loving big sister who likes to “mess on” her little sister. So far Athena is very reflective, but I know she’ll be running around and expressing herself soon enough.

Now for all of our parents out there: don’t get too excited. We’re still planning on just being the cool aunt and uncle that can leave our nieces with their parents and the end of the day.

I can’t wait for my brother to have kids.

Camping and Tammy

2011-08-26T20:03:00.008-06:00

Kent, Tyler and I returned to Coffee Pot this last weekend to explore the area more. On our way, we stopped in Eagle to purchase gas a beer. Upon entering the liquor store, we were greeted by an overzealous clerk who we came to refer to as “Tammy.”

We chose this name because it fit her appearance and personality: white trash West Sloper with caked on foundation, sparkly blue fake nails, cut-offs with a faded Old Navy sweatshirt. Not only did her she look the part, but her art of conversation matched as well.

“How y’all doing today? We got a lot of great specials — you like dark spiced rum? Great package deal here. Y’all see the new Jack Daniel’s bottles? They’re pretty mean looking.”

We told her we were just looking for cheap beer to take camping. She tried to derail our path to the Coors, and proceeded to take us over to the micro brew section.

“Got a lot of great package deals for Colorado brews. Ya ever have Dales? Sam Adams also gots a nice variety pack. We also got Shocktop on the other side of the store. You need gluten-free beer? Cause we got that too.”

After finally succumbing to a 12-pack of Dale’s, and two suitcases of Coors, the boys stopped to grabbed a bottle of Jim Beam.

“Is that glass? You should take plastic if you're camping. Don’t want any accidents by the fire and all.”

Since the store gave customers a free bag of ice for every case if beer bought, Tammy happily helped us carry the ice to the car, where she talked about being a member of the four-wheeler club in high school, all of her favorite campsites, and how she jumped out of the boat to wrestle her trout back after the line broke.

After what felt like an eternity of conversation, we were on our way to the Flat Tops. After an hour long Forest Road detour proved to be unsuccessful (warning: FR 62o SUCKS), we settled on a satisfactory campsite.

Then the rain came.

Scrambling, we managed to put together an okay shelter. The blue tarp covered the campfire, and enough room for three camp chairs. We feasted on hot dogs, beer and planned for a more successful outing in the morning.

The next day we found an awesome campsite on Heart Lake (as seen above with Moses). We moved our camp, and enjoyed the rest of our time at the lake. We watched a military helicopter practice landing (my pictures didn’t turn out), a lightening show from about 40 miles away, and did a little rock cookery again with burgers.

All in all, it was a very fun, memorable trip. My only regret is that I didn’t get a picture with Tammy. Here are the other photos though. And if you ever want to, I’m sure she’d love to chat you up at the Eagle Liquor Store if you ever have a minute or two.

Camping with Logan

2011-08-19T19:40:00.002-06:00

We went camping one last time with Logan before he went back to school. As you can tell from the above photo, we had an awesome, crazy time that was filled with Xtreme Croquet, dangle balls, Bocce Ball and a cardboard & duct tape boat race. To top it off, we saw a porcupine, and buck while we were hanging out. Here are a few photos from the trip.

One year

2011-08-02T08:31:00.000-06:00

home noun \ˈhōm\
1 a: one's place of residence : domicile
b: house
2: the social unit formed by a family living together

Today is our anniversary. So far we've stayed true to our vows — especially to be goofballs and make sure we make each other laugh everyday. You have an uncanny ability to carry this out effortlessly. I do keep up my end of the bargain, but I think you laugh at me a lot when I’m not trying to be funny.

I knew when I married you that we probably would end up moving a few more times, so our home would change a lot. But as long as I can wake up next to you, solve crossword puzzles together, snuggle while watching watching movies and share a nightcap after the end of the work day, it’ll always feel like home wherever we are.

I love you Tyler, and I can’t wait to hear what crazy plans you have for us in the future.

Whitney Lake

2011-07-23T13:58:00.001-06:00

Here are pictures of the hike.

Summer time

2011-07-19T12:47:00.001-06:00

The beat of summer keeps a constant tempo. Before you know it, the work week drums by and it’s time to load up the truck to find new camping melodies.

The get-up-and-go is a part of the weekend routine, and we execute packing with speed and precision. A new camping spot is awaiting us at the end of the road trip.

Once found, the tent and chairs practically pitch themselves and our second home is made. Beers crack open, a fire sparks, and the cribbage board shuffles cards.

Night falls, and the flames draw us in like a trance. Philosophizing, dreaming, and beckoning our chat on a little longer with each word. The stars hover over, as not to be outdone by the fire flickering below them.

The morning creeps over the trees, insisting coffee percolate. Soon everything must be packed up, waiting to be released until the next weekend.

But for now, a still morning and coffee must be enjoyed.

Enough of my rambling — here are the latest pictures from our trip to Brown Creek (just north of Salida).

Aspen chases Moses

2011-07-08T09:42:00.002-06:00

Tyler takes the stage

2011-07-06T14:22:00.005-06:00

I coaxed a reluctant Tyler into preforming his Bob Dylan impression for the camera. The conversation is a little hard to hear, but he's mostly telling me no and to "take the camera off my face."

Meet Ted

2011-07-01T20:38:00.004-06:00

Ted is the newest addition to the Hansen household. So far he is fitting in well, and likes his new digs. But I guess anything is better than a plastic container at a pet store...

Mazie with her Uncle Ty Ty

2011-06-30T18:11:00.000-06:00

Ty's Birthday

2011-06-29T13:48:00.009-06:00

For Ty's 27th birthday, we went camping with Quinn, Kent and Logan. The four boys set out and accomplished what they needed to do: drink lots of alcohol, chop wood, shoot a pellet gun, play camping games and grill meat on a rock in the fire pit (except for Logan). Here are the pictures from the trip. And here's a video of Quinn chopping wood:

Storms

2011-06-18T19:56:00.004-06:00

I had left the window open. The light catcher charms my mother made for me violent swung against the glass. Rain sputtered into the kitchen. I ran over and latched it shut. The trees bent in submission to the wind.

Much like the sky is bluer, the storm clouds are darker and more ominous in Colorado. The wind carried the darkness over the house. The mountains which are so clear from our deck were gone. The light hid them, so you couldn’t tell where they started and the storm clouds began.

But as quick as it came, the bright blue punched through the mass. The mountains fought to reappear, and the cloud retreated to the east. Within minutes, the storm's only tracks were the wet road.

I love watching storms roll in, and then slowly dissipate. But here, if you blink, you miss it.

Our annual McD's feast

2011-06-16T09:50:00.001-06:00

Last night Tyler and I ate our annual meal at McDonald’s. This started about four years ago when we drove by the golden arches late one night and decided we REALLY wanted some McNuggets.

I think everyone secretly likes the quintessential fast food chain. Sure people say how bad the food is for you, but not many people will turn down fries if they’re offered some.

At the drive-thru we ordered our feast: one double cheeseburger, two cheeseburgers, 10-piece McNuggets with sweet and sour sauce, and fries. We brought the food back to our place and laid the food on the table.

And it was glorious! I love how the burgers are practically smashed flat, then you take a bite of the patty with melty American cheese and minced onions — all accented by ketchup and mustard. The best part is when you reach the center of the cheeseburger because your reward is the two slices of pickle waiting for you.

After polishing off our burgers and fries, we devoured the McNuggets. These are Tyler’s absolute favorite. He said there’s something delicious about left over chicken parts, which are ground up and fried, that make him look forward to our annual Mickey D’s meal.

But the next morning always reminds us why we only eat there once a year.

Camping by Holy Cross

2011-06-15T08:51:00.000-06:00

We went camping with Logan and Tracy last weekend. Our time was spent eating, drinking, hiking and playing lots of eXtreme croquet. I don't have any pictures of us playing croquet — mainly because I was concentrating so hard on finishing each of the courses we set up. Here are the pictures I did take though.

And I don't know what Logan and Tyler are doing in the above photo...

Off to the home and motherland

2011-06-05T14:44:00.006-06:00

Tyler and I spent our two week vacation traveling to my home town Homer (but really Anchor Point) and then visiting Bellingham for the second week.

In my homeland, Tyler got the full Sara Thompson experience: hanging out in Anchor Point with the family, clam digging, town laps, the fermentation tour, adult softball and meeting all of my goofy, wonderful friends that I haven't seen in years. I don't think I scared him off because he said he wants to spend a summer up there sometime. Here are some pictures from the Alaska part of the trip.

After a week we were off to Bellingham. We participated in the 100th Ski to Sea relay, but our team Tippy Canoe and Tyler 2 disqualified for the second time in three years. (Eric told the story of our first DQ in last years blog post, and then I posted our results with our only finish on record.)

Here's the short version of what happened:

We DQ'd BUT the canoe leg still finished first in our division and 31st out of 500 teams overall.

Now the longer(ish) version:

It was my fault AGAIN (my new nickname is DQ Hansen, and the proposed team name next year is DQ'd Canoe and Tyler 2). We were wearing the wrong life jackets and were pulled from the race after the third river bend. The race Web site still says that we finished the canoe leg in record time. I am taking this opportunity to announce my retirement, and I will not be participating in the canoe leg in the future.

Other than the race mishap, we had a great time visiting with all of our friends. The weather cooperated with us, and we went for a nice sail on Steve's birthday. All in all it was a great trip in Bellingham.

Return to Moab

2011-05-16T08:52:00.003-06:00

On Thursday morning we woke up to find snow on the ground, and no signs of the storm letting up. So we decided to load up the dogs and head down to Moab to find some sun. We spent our time playing cribbage, tossing the Frisbee around and playing the guitar. All in all, it was nice to enjoy the warm desert air. Here is the visual documentation.

Crazy dog person

2011-05-14T09:37:00.000-06:00

I’m a crazy dog person. I didn’t realize how often I narrate the inner monologues of my dogs. I verbalize Moses’ thoughts the most because he “expresses” himself more than Aspen, and he can be a pain in the ass. He’s a very vocal dog, to put in mildly.

Aspen’s thoughts aren’t as interesting, since I’ve deciphered she only has three things on her mind: food, ball and walk. Food takes up 75 percent of her thoughts, so that’s not as fun to comment on.

Moses, on the other hand, has all sorts of issues going on. He’ll want food, need to go out, wants you to get off the couch, sometimes wants both of us on the couch so he can snuggle with us, can’t find his bone, etc. Kent sums it up as “just being a douchebag.”

So what it all comes down to is that I frequently verbalize the inner workings of a douchebag. If that doesn’t make me crazy, I don’t know what does.

Marriage

2011-05-13T09:38:00.001-06:00

Right after we got married, all of our friends asked me if the relationship changed. I would usually reply with a smart-ass comment, such as “Well now we file our taxes together.”

Change usually has a bad connotation when describing a relationship. You don’t want things to change because you love each other, and you don’t want anything to disrupt that. I knew there wouldn’t be any surprises because we’d lived together for almost four years. In that time, we’ve moved together multiple times, raised two dumb dogs and worked together at different restaurants.

Nothing has changed, ultimately. We’re still just two goofy souls sharing a life together, so the core of us is still the same. But since we were married, our relationship has evolved. I just started noticing all our lifestyle alterations recently.

It’s the small things that come up. Such as shopping for groceries and deciding that we should eat healthier, and then reluctantly put back all the crackers and chips in exchange for fruit and vegetable snacks. Taking vitamins in the morning, encouraging each other to exercise and doing yoga every other day. Or talking about canceling the cable because we could be spending our time more productively — plus it will save money (and with instant Netflix, and the Internet you can get by without it anyway).

And you can tell Tyler wants to take care of the household. Every week he sits down and makes sure we’re sticking to our budget, saving enough money and that all of our bills are paid for. This is a far cry from the boy who used to not want to monitor his spending because it would stop him from living in the moment.

None of this actually struck me as an evolution of our relationship until he picked up his guitar a couple weeks ago. When we come home from work I’ll pour myself a glass of wine, he’ll have a beer and he’ll practice a new song he’s trying to learn. I’ll sing along and tap my foot to help him keep the right tempo. He’s even teaching me to play a song right now.

Seeing the guitar permanently stored in our living room reminded me of seeing Steve’s guitar propped up with sheet music in the office. Just like his dad, he is constantly learning how to do something else. I’m sure sometime down the road he’ll want to learn how to build a dinghy too.

So I’m loving evolving with one another. We already aren’t the same people we were a year ago, and when the next decade passes it will be interesting to see who we are individually and as a couple.

I think it’s safe to say we won’t have any record deals in our future though.

Knife sharpener

2011-04-30T08:06:00.000-06:00

Tyler brought home a knife sharpener from work last night. We’ve been smashing tomatoes, and other delicate produce for some time, and I wanted to enjoy a sandwich with more than just tomato skins.

I don’t know how to sharpen knives. My dad used to take all of the kitchen knives downstairs, set up the wet stone on the reach-in freezer, and methodically sharpen them all on a regular basis. The front door of my room opens to this spot in my parents home.

Sometimes I’d be in my room reading, listening to music, or doing my high school homework when he’d start his TLC for the knives. I’d usually embrace this distraction from my high school studies, lean against my door frame and blather with him for a bit.

“You know, you’ll have to get yourself your own a knife sharpener someday,” he told me.

I told him that I probably didn’t need a lot of kitchen knives in my dorm room for the coming fall, so I could probably do without a sharpener for a while.

He sighed.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said.

I didn’t get right away what he was saying. I just let the comment pass and continued on with the conversation by taking it in a different direction.

But now watching Tyler set up the sharpening stone, placing the knives next to it, and hearing that steady scrape improve the blades one stroke at a time — I understand what my dad was trying to tell back then.

I’m happy to have my own knife sharpener.

Moab

2011-04-29T20:38:00.004-06:00

To get away from the winter weather, Tyler and I packed up the dogs and took a camping trip. Instead of heading immediately west to the warm weather in Moab, we decided to check out Gunnison National Forest. We didn't want to be around a lot of people (Moab was site host for Jeep Week), so we decided to brave the chances of a camp site being thawed out already.

We found a spot down a Forest Service Road outside the mining town Somerset — which is along 133. We had the river right next to our campsite, a nice fire, and plenty of space for the dogs to explore. It was so nice we thought we'd stay there the whole time.

I woke up to raindrops hitting the tent. When we finally worked up the courage to leave the warm shelter — mostly because we had to relieve ourselves — we discovered that it was sleeting, so our tent was covered with snow. For the record, Tyler can move pretty fast in the early hours of the morning with the right kind of motivation.We threw everything in the back of the truck and took off to Moab to dry off.

We stopped in Delta to repack, and grab a hot breakfast at the Stockyard. Did you know Delta is the city of murals? At least two buildings on every block along main street have a mural painted on the side.

When we arrived in Moab, the first thing we did was set up the tent, and in less than 45 minutes all of our stuff was dry.

After setting up camp, we took a long walk down the road to check everything out since I had never camped there before. Here are some pictures from our hike.

Later on we cooked some burgers for dinner. We were a little overzealous with the amount of toppings, so once you wrapped your hands around the burger, there was no setting it down again. It's always amazing how great simple food tastes when you've been camping. Tyler declared our burgers the best camping burgers ever. Here are some pictures showing his excitement.

The next morning we picked up and headed back home to winter. Hopefully summer will decided to join is here in the Vail Valley sooner than later.

A cold blooded killer

2011-04-03T11:14:00.003-06:00

Moses says hello to a cat

For those of you who’ve met Moses know he is all talk. His ferocious bark combined with his size makes him look intimidating to any potential intruders, but once you offer him love he melts like butter.

So you can imagine my surprise when he tried to kill something yesterday.

We were walking on the trail by our home, when he began sniffing furiously around in the snow. A vole suddenly popped out of the snow and began scurrying across the winter landscape. Usually when a similar circumstance has arose, Moses tilts his head with curiosity and passively follows the unidentified critter around. Whether it was ants, bees, squirrels or chipmunks, he just wanted to say hello and figure out what he was encountering.

I thought this would play out the same way as always, but this time he wanted something more.

All of the sudden he pounced after the vole and actually caught it! Moses is a lot of things, but coordination is not traditionally associated with him. I heard the vole squeal and I knew its life was probably close to over within a matter of seconds. Miraculously when I commanded Moses to drop the rodent, he did.

But then Aspen finished the job.

Did I mention I don't like heights?

2011-04-02T10:08:00.003-06:00

Standing on top of the world’s highest suspension bridge, I suddenly realized I was scared of heights. At 1,053 feet above the Royal Gorge, I could see the Arkansas river flowing under me through the cracks in the wood planks. The old boards creaked a little too much for my liking, and I began picturing the scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Thuggee cult members fall to their deaths after Dr. Jones compromises the structural integrity of the bridge.

Your all probably wondering how I got into this situation. Tyler and I were sitting at Gohan-Ya, which is the Asian noodle place by our house, and decided we should get out of town for our weekend. After lunch, I packed and he found a place for us to visit. We took off for Cañon City soon after.

When we arrived, we had dinner at small french restaurant called Le Petit Chablis. It was in an old house, and the menu was written on a chalkboard because it changed everyday. The Chef Daniel Petit (who was from Chablis) came out and explained the menu to us. We had a wonderful meal, and were ready to conquer any adventures awaiting us the next day.

Or so I thought.

In the morning we drove to the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park to check out the scenic wonder. After debating the price of admission, we paid the old park ranger and went on in. It was shortly after this that I decided I didn’t want to walk any further across the bridge, and insisted Tyler go on without me.

At first he thought I was joking, probably because it was April Fool’s Day and all — but then he saw the look of panic spreading across my face.

“Come on, you’ll be a stronger person for doing this,” he said.

Like a good husband, he held my hand the whole time we were on the bridge — even though my palm was as sweaty as a seventh grader on a first date.

After letting my heart rate return to normal, we took the incline railway to the bottom of the gorge to look up at the bridge. I appreciated this view a lot more, probably because I had time to check things out without an overwhelming knot in my stomach.

But more importantly, we had an Amish sighting! There were three families altogether, and Tyler and I wondered how they got there. We didn’t pass any horse and buggies on the way to the park, or see any in the parking lot.

Upon further investigation, I found that the Amish do travel by bus, train or vans driven by others to go on vacation. They use cars, but do not own them, because that would disrupt their social structure. Since only wealthy individuals could afford a car, it would bring inequality to their community.

We then left the park, and meandered our way back up to Vail, stopping in Salida for lunch. We found an awesome pizza place and brewery called Amicas. We will definitely be stopping there again to fill up our growlers and grab some grub.

Another Grandma shout-out

2011-03-05T10:25:00.003-07:00

Since I can't be at my Grandma's service today, here's the eulogy I wrote for the pastor to read. Dad put me in charge of writing it on behalf of the family:

Throughout Mary's life, she evolved into each new phase with enthusiasm. From her childhood days in Egypt, going to college in Ohio, becoming a mother, and finally moving to Alaska with her husband Jim and their children. She continued to change with life because she loved being a part of it, and her family's lives. When Mary's daughter Carol was young, and she tried to help her daughter zip up her coat, Carol would stop her and say "my do myself."

That became Mary's mantra.

She jumped into grandmotherhood with all her "my do myself" zeal. Lending her helpful hand as her grandchildren's babysitter. In her rookie year she took her granddaughter Sara to watch Carol compete in a triathlon in Wasilla. While making a quick trip to the car to restock on toys and diapers, Mary had given Sara the car keys to play with. After she set her grandchild down in the car seat, she shut the car door for just a moment. When she went to open the door again, she discovered she accidentally locked the car, and Sara still had the keys in her hands — smiling and giggling with her new toy. Mary quickly went into a building to call a locksmith, and when she returned to the car, the smiling baby now had started screaming and crying. To cheer up her granddaughter until the locksmith arrived, Mary danced and sang like a "batty old woman" in the parking lot to make her Sara happy.

She embraced her battiness by following her grandchildren through all their make-believe adventures. If they needed to travel like Fivel to America, she'd ready the sails; if Pinocchio needed to escape from Pleasure Island, she helped map the way out. When plans were being made for a treehouse, Mary wanted to make sure she could climb up to the tree tops too. Rick had to take over the treehouse blueprints in order to ensure the structures integrity.

For a short while, Mary lived in Anchor Point at Rick and Sharon's home. In order for Sharon to complete her teaching certification, she needed to finish her last semester in Anchorage. So Mary came to help Rick with the kids, packing their lunches and sending the young ones off to school in the morning. She'd walk down to the bus stop to greet Sara and Zack in the afternoon, and then they'd wander home and cook dinner together. One night, Zack tried to help clean up by putting ketchup — his favorite condiment — back in the fridge. A 6-year-old boy can only pay so much attention to detail, so a precariously balanced Heinz ketchup can look the same as a well-placed bottle. Mary went to put the rest of the leftovers away, but found a falling condiment container instead. The ketchup explosion became legendary with her grandchildren — some tales told of a the whole kitchen being painted red that evening. After Sharon returned home, and was doing a little spring cleaning, she even found ketchup splatter on top of the kitchen cupboards.

Mary always made sure her family felt welcome in her home. Pop-ins were not just welcomed, but encouraged. Zack would stop in after basketball practice with a gallon of milk and a box of cereal, then fill up a bowl and start chatting about his day. If she wasn't there, he'd eat and leave the bowl in the sink to let her know he stopped by. When Carol would come for a visit, Mary would direct either Zack or Sara to wrestle the spare twin mattress up from storage to be set up in her apartment. And in her mouse house at assisted living, she insisted on owning a love seat with a twin sleeper sofa tucked away inside — always ready to accommodate those stopping by.

And she felt at home wherever her family was. Whether it was here, Anchor Point, Palmer, Seattle, or Bellingham. At her granddaughter's wedding, Mary enjoyed all of the festivities —zooming around on her walker and talking with all the friends and family that were there. The mornings were filled with food, conversation and talk about activities for the day. She fit right in, even though she thought she was stealthy at moving from room to room. In preparation for the big day, she tailored her own dress for the occasion. She didn't move as fast as she used to, but she still could give the younger generation a run for their money.

Toward the end, life had changed a lot for her. Carol said it best in a letter to her mother: "I'm glad you have chosen to go on with life and change with it, and not just crawl in a hole and hide." Until the very end, Mary continued to change and adapt to her surroundings, never satisfied if she could make it better for her and her family.

My Grandma

2011-02-20T09:47:00.002-07:00

I was wearing her earrings when I heard. The diamond earrings the jeweler set from her engagement ring. My Grandma gave them to me on my 18th birthday, because she said every young lady needs a pair of diamond earrings — especially if it were her birthstone.

I only wore those earrings on two occasions: my senior prom, and for my wedding. She always said she liked the way they sparkled on my ears.

When she went into the hospital on Wednesday night, I felt compelled to wear them. I wanted a part of her with me somehow. This wasn’t her regular tune-up she had done when her blood sugar crashed.

Part of me didn’t think this day would come. If any of you ever wonder where my stubborn nature comes from, you don’t need to look any further down the family tree than my Grandma. She climbed into our tree house when all the adults thought it was a bad idea, she jumped into a boat because she didn’t want to wait for a foot stool and broke her leg at 65, and refused to ask for help most of the time. Tyler joked that this behavior was what he had to look forward to when I got older.

But all of that made her a strong woman who I looked up to. She spent much of her childhood in Egypt, earned her math degree and taught, and then moved to Alaska with her husband and three kids when the Al-Can Highway was gravel.

Around 4 a.m. (2 a.m. Alaska time) my mother called me. Grandma past on.

It’s always hard, even when you know it’s coming. There’s something about the finality of it all that’s hard to deal with. Maybe it’s just waking up and knowing for the first time in your life that someone isn’t there.

I love you Grandma, and I’ll miss you.

The Hansen mobile

2011-02-07T13:09:00.001-07:00

The search is over: we bought a truck.

Many of you might know this story, but for those who don’t I’ll fill you in. We’ve been through three cars since the Pathfinder met its demise last year.

Car 1: The Subaru we owned for about three weeks. It couldn’t tow our belongings out to Vail, so we sold it to Steve and Karen the day we left Bellingham.

Car 2: The Dodge Dakota we bought from Roger the day we left Bellingham. It got us out here, but when winter started falling the two-wheel-drive truck wasn’t great in the snow.

Car 3: The Land Rover. We bought it for $500 so we could have a vehicle that wouldn’t get stuck driving around town.

The car saga became Tyler’s obsession, so last Thursday we decided to end the madness. We drove down to Denver and managed to find a GMC Sierra that should last us for a long time. I’m happy to only have one vehicle again, and to have my husband’s sanity back.

In response to my buddy

2011-02-01T09:30:00.002-07:00

After reading Liz’s blog post “Masters in Indecision” (she’s great with headlines), I started thinking about my own growth. Like Liz, I did not like school that much, and was more than happy to be done. I do think I graduated with a useful degree, but the field I thought I loved turned out to be something else entirely.

I just started loving writing again, something that took me more than a year to get back. It’s hard to reinstate a former discipline when you’ve gone without it for so long — much like getting back in shape. The first two weeks are always the hardest.

But it’s like an old friend: very familiar, comforting and always there. Similar to a friendship, it takes a lot of work and effort to remain intact. And I need to put more effort in so that it doesn’t slip away and become a memory of something I used to do. I need to start making writing something more than my early morning routine before I go to work.

That means drafting query letters, sending in submissions and dealing with a lot of rejection for a while. And after enough casts, something will bite. It did for my friend Jeremy, and he’s already talking about his next project.

The last book I read also gave me some encouragement:

“As to why anyone embarks on the adventure of writing, which is that you write in order to find out not so much who you are as who you are becoming.” - Bernard-Henri Levy citing Michel Foucault’s idea in Public Enemies

I guess I see where this all takes me.

Who am I? Thoughts by an Aries: Part Deux

2011-01-15T09:03:00.001-07:00

Reader alert: If you haven’t read my January 14 entry, this might be picking up in the middle of my astrological crisis.

In April 2003, my friend Amber and I organized a trip up to Soldotna to go to the only tattoo place we knew of on the Kenai Peninsula. We were both going to get Aries tattoos. It had been the same plan we discussed all year long in weight training.

Now Amber and I are different people. We both grew up in Anchor Point (AP for life!), but have taken different paths in our lives. She became a vegan as a freshman in college, but I still embraced cheese and other animal products. She has two beautiful children, lives on the East Coast, has a garden, and is a very talented artist (here’s a link to her Esty site).

As you all know, I love meat, enjoy my dogs and grow only the plants that can fit in our apartment. And I don’t think anyone would want to buy any of my creations on the Internet.
But Amber and I have known each other since kindergarten, and that goes a long way. Especially because (at the time) we were both Aries too.

When we arrived at the tattoo parlor, I went first. Amber was still sketching out what she wanted, and I already had brought diagrams with me. My high school boyfriend Marcus went with us, and so did Amber’s best friend Angela. Afterward, we went and ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant that had an orca painted on the outside of the building.

The next day at school, we’d make sure to keep our tats covered with lotion so they’d heal properly. Amber always said that “tats love the Lubriderm.”

After high school, Amber and I haven’t seen much of each other — unless we visited home at the same time and happened to run into each. We are both enjoying our lives, and the different paths we are led down.

So my tattoo isn’t about my astrological symbol — it represents my memories with an old friend that I don’t see very often. Much like my frog tattoo that I got with Nyla, who I don’t see nearly enough.

I’d like to think my silly vegan friend thinks the same thing.

Who am I? Thoughts by an Aries

2011-01-14T12:02:00.002-07:00

There’s been a lot of hubbub around the latest news of the zodiac signs changing from a study done by the Minnesota Planetarium Society. Apparently the modern zodiac is wrong because the moon’s gravity has caused Earth’s axis to alter, which changes the position of the stars in the sky. Now all hell has broken loose: A former Virgo could now be a Leo, and now a would-be Capricorn could be a Ophiuchus — which I’m not even going to get into.

But that’s not really the issue at hand. I have a bigger problem that I share with many others who embraced their 18-year-old legal freedom too soon: I have an Aries tattoo.

At the time I thought I was getting something that stood for who I am, or should I say how I envisioned myself. As an Aries, my symbol is the ram. I am a warrior ruled by Mars with my element being fire. I am impatient, assertive, honest and willing to accept any challenge.

Now I find I could possibly be a Pisces: a fish that’s ruled by Jupiter and Neptune, with my element being water. I’m supposed to be peaceful, religious, co-dependant, a follower and tend to escape into a fantasy world.

You can’t get much different than that.

Now I could choose to adopt the Western astrologers defense to why the signs haven’t changed (which is that Western dates are based off of the solstices and equinoxes, so the zodiac dates don’t change), or I could do some soul searching to figure out what this all means to me.

I’ll admit, it would be easy to shrug off this debate, but I’m curious to find out if knowing the characteristics of my sign at a young age made me want to aspire to the description. Hence the reason for my tattoo on my left shoulder blade.

So stay tuned for my next entry. Will it be “I am Sara, Aries,” or “Stupid Pisces with Aries Tattoo”? Find out next time on Hansen Hodgepodge!

Now that's a bloody mary...

2011-01-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

Christmas tree round two

2010-12-14T17:18:00.002-07:00

Today while we were running errands, we broke down and bought a tree. We decided that we shouldn't venture out into the wilderness in our two-wheel-drive truck again. I did promise Tyler that next year he could have a big burly vehicle with huge snow tires to go find his perfect tree.

Final score: Tie.

Thank you Home Depot for the Hail Mary.

Christmas tree round one

2010-12-10T18:42:00.001-07:00

It’s that time of year when my biological holiday alarm alerts me to go find a Christmas tree. Tyler and I then go purchase a tree cutting permit from the Forest Service, and go hunt down a tree at a later date.

So on Thursday we decided to go find our tree. He promised me that we’d be back in plenty of time before I had to work, and that we’d decorate the tree the next day.

We drove out passed Minturn to find a Forest Service road that would lead us to our holiday tree. Road 731 looked promising, so we veered left and started down the road. After about 1.5 miles, we decided that we better turn around and park so we wouldn’t get stuck.

Ideas like this are great, if it’s not too late to execute them. As we backed up the truck, we slid the passenger’s side rear wheel into a snowbank. We were stuck.

At this point, I wasn’t worried to get to work because it was noon, and I didn’t have to be there until 4 p.m. We had plenty of time to get out.

After a couple hours of digging, rocking the truck, digging, and rocking the truck — we were free. We started to back down the hill.

But the front end swung around, and back in the ditch we went.

Now I’m getting worried. We don’t have cell service, we’re blocking the road, and I have to be at work in two hours. We started walking to go get help. Tyler started knocking on all the second homes to see if anyone was home. Luckily a nice woman named Lily let us use her phone. Tyler called Kent to come bail us out, and I was able to call work. A few hours later, we made it back to Vail with the Dakota around 5:30 p.m.

Final score: Us 0, Christmas tree 1.

The next round is ours for the taking.

Friendly faces

2010-12-03T08:56:00.004-07:00

Marty, Suzette and Sandy outside our apartment.

Tyler and I were driving home from the dog park when Suzette called me. At first I thought something bad had happened back in Alaska, but it turned out Zette, Marty and Sandy were passing through on their way back to Boulder. They were out visiting their son Kevin in Fort Collins, and were tooling around with Sandy. They stopped by our place, and then we went for lunch at The Westside Cafe. I hadn't seen Sandy since I was 6 years old. Back then it was cool to play Little Mermaid on the original Nintendo, if you were wondering.

Marty summed up the impromptu meeting best: "We couldn't have planned this any better. If we had, we would've wound up missing each other somehow."

I love Alaskan pop-ins.

Schooled again

2010-12-02T09:15:00.002-07:00

Walking up the hill from the bus stop with eight different bottles of wine isn't a leisurely trek. Neither is defending myself from Moses’ love once I walk through the door. My only concern is that the bottles don’t break for my take-home assignment.

Serving homework is tough.

At work, our sommelier hosted a wine tasting before the restaurant opened. A lot of distributors were there to sell different wines to restaurateurs. They left all the open bottles with us, which amounted to about five cases of wine. Before I left, my co-worker helped me pick out my take-home-goody-bag so I could become more acquainted with Old World varietals.

The wine bag’s weight reminded me of my sophomore year in college when I took Astronomy 102, Physics 101 and Geology 101 at the same time (I’d wanted to knock out most of my science requirements in one fell swoop). But at least with this homework it’s alright to have a mild buzz while taking notes. Plus Tyler is eager to help me with this assignment — I don’t think he’d be as enthused to figure out the stellar evolution of a high mass star.

I line up the bottles on the table. With about 10,000 known varietals out there, my wine knowledge shouldn't even be classified as knowledge at all. I recently tried Albariño, which is a white wine from Northwestern Spain. It’s known in Portugal as Alvarinho, and is one one of the varietals used to make Vinho Verde.

And I thought I was branching out with my Barberas and Viogniers.

So for my day off — and with Tyler’s help — I will reluctantly decipher the differences between French and Spanish varietals, and their appellations.

I think we’ll need some cheese.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T09:23:00.003-07:00

Husband rescues toothbrush

2010-11-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

My toothbrush fell down the drain.

Most of you are probably thinking how ridiculous that statement is, but it’s true. Our bathroom sink doesn’t have a fancy stopper for the sink, so you can actually look down and see where the pipe veers off into the wall. I’ve brushed my teeth about 75 times in this apartment so far, and never had any trouble — or near drain experiences — until now.

Part of me wants to forget about proper dental care and go to bed. I’m already extremely tired, and reached my grumpy, irritated, sleepy mood already. (This is when Tyler has to wake me up after I have fallen asleep on the couch, and then coax me to go to bed. Otherwise, I wake up on the couch and I’m grumpy for still being there.)

So to solve my toothbrush dilemma, and handle the situation like an adult, I do the only thing I can do:

“Tyler, help me!”

He promptly gets out of bed, and assesses the situation by giggling at my plight. He of course asks how I managed to drop my toothbrush straight down the drain by accident, but I let him know that’s not going to help the task at hand.

He goes to the closet, finds a metal coat hanger, and bends it so he can hook my toothbrush. He solves my problem in less than two minutes. The coat hanger contraption isn’t thrown away because he said we’d probably need it later. I know he’s right, because I’m sure this won’t be the last time I drop something down that sink.

After cleaning my toothbrush, I finally begin brushing my teeth. As I scrub in circular movements across my canines and molars, I think about how I’d probably not be brushing my teeth if Tyler hadn’t rescued my red Oral-B. I know I would have left it there, bought another toothbrush, and figured out how to get it out in a few days.

I’m so happy he puts up with me.

Death and Facebook

2010-11-08T08:34:00.001-07:00

I just found out through Facebook that another one of my friends died. This is the second occurrence in the last four months.

Besides the obvious fact that I’m upset another person was taken suddenly without warning — I can’t help feeling strange about the late individual’s Facebook page being used as an online memorial.

It’s shocking to login to a time-killing social network site, and then find a family member posting your friend’s death as a status update. Is this going to become the new normal? When my time is up, will people go to my page and comment on my deceased status with an emoticon? Is Mark Zuckerberg coming up with a new setting for this trend as I’m typing this?

Friends and family are spread out around the country — and the world — more than they used to be. My generation is able to keep in touch with more people then ever before with a simple tweet, update, or blog post. Now when someone dies, we are able to grieve with everyone around the world at the same time. We don’t need to wait for the wake — we just login, post old pictures, retell memories, and comfort one another instantaneously. No longer will there be a need for a written obituary because there will be a living, evolving one online.

Maybe this will seem less eerie and impersonal to me as this becomes the new normal. But for now, I still prefer the old ways of celebrating a life.

Scary movies

2010-10-31T08:32:00.002-06:00

I hate scary movies. Or at least I thought I did. When Tyler's at work, I start flipping through the channels late at night. Soon AMC's Fear Fest sucks me in, and then I'm watching either Jason or Michael Meyers hack up teenagers in small towns.

For those of you who know me, you're probably thinking this new fascination with scary movies is weird. This is the girl who couldn't watch the first half of It? The one who gets scared from watching The Exorcist previews? The little kid who wouldn't go downstairs after watching five minutes of Tremors? This can't be.

Blame it on Halloween, or growing up (which is definitely not the case, because I still get REALLY scared), but I don't think it's any of those. I still turn down the volume when the suspense is too much to handle, and my imagination still gets the best of me.

It's a good thing I start work soon so I can stop scaring myself. I have too much free time on my hands at the moment...

Not our best

2010-10-27T17:14:00.007-06:00

Tyler and I tried to get too creative with our pumpkins this year, and here's what happened:

Tyler's pumpkin (it's supposed to be Moses).

Moses in progress...

My pumpkin. It's supposed to be an elephant holding a feather, like Dumbo. Next year we're going to stick with traditional jack-o-lantern faces.

First snow

2010-10-25T15:12:00.007-06:00

We got five inches of snow today, and hopefully more is on the way. Before Tyler went to work, we went and played in the park by our house. The dogs really enjoyed the weather, and we enjoyed the hot chocolate when we came inside.

The first snow of the season is always exciting. Fall is leaving, and the new season is just beginning. We're happy to be starting the next phase in our life too. Tyler likes working at Kelly Liken, and I'm excited to start my job at La Tour on Thursday. Now we just need the mountain to open, and our winter can officially commence.

Here are some more pictures of our outing today — I still only have my phone for a camera, but you'll get the idea.

Birthday visit

2010-10-21T17:21:00.001-06:00

We ventured off the mountain to Boulder for Tracy's birthday. For her present, Tyler prepared a five-course dinner at her house. I didn't take any pictures because he was making me work too hard, but here's the menu that will make you salivate:

Mom's Birthday Dinner

First course
pumpkin soup, curried pumpkin seeds, maple syrup
New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale reduction

Second course
steamed mussels, smoked tomato sauce, quinoa cake
shaved fennel and grilled pear salad

Third course
asparagus, cinnamon cap mushrooms, parmesean, truffle oil
poached quail egg

Fourth course
seared coho salmon, Brussels sprouts, bourbon soaked raisins
fingerling potato salad, brown butter mustard vinaigrette, bacon

Fifth course
pound cake pain perdu, blackberry cabernet sorbet
crème fraîche foam

Not bad for a dinner at home, eh?

Flying monkey

2010-10-17T17:09:00.006-06:00

Don't you hate it when a parachuting monkey flies by your window when you're trying to watch football?

I do because then I become distracted, and can no longer focus on the game at hand. Because of Tyler, I'm trying to become a Broncos fan — but I'm only succeeding as a pseudo-fan. My real team is the 49ers (way to go 1-5 ), and so far the only conflict is that London game, or if we happen to meet in the Super Bowl.

So to get back to the monkey: I was watching the Broncos' game — at the point when pass interference was called in the fourth quarter — when I saw something fly by the window. After further investigation, I determined that drunk Broncos fans were throwing a stuffed animal monkey attached to a homemade parachute off the top floor. This excited Aspen and Moses because it looked like a flying squirrel.

After a handful of tosses to see how far the monkey could drift, the plastered posse picked up the parachuting primate and went on their merry way to another place to drink.

Vail Broncos' fans mourn heartbreaking losses rather oddly...

The move to Vail

2010-10-15T18:27:00.000-06:00

Moses checking out Arches National Park on the way to Vail.

Well we made it, but it wasn't an easy start to our journey.

We planned to leave Bellingham bright and early on Wednesday morning last week, but we had one little problem: our new Subaru could barely tow the trailer to Steve's and Karen's house. We should have realized this was going to be a problem when we were packing up the trailer with Eric and CJ, but hindsight is 20/20.

After reviewing our options, we decided to sell the Subaru and buy a truck to tow the trailer. Luckily our friend Roger had a truck he was planning on selling, so we sold our car to Steve and Karen and purchased Roger's truck. We left Bellingham around 3ish p.m. — just six hours behind our goal.

The bottom line is we couldn't have left Bellingham at all if it weren't for the amazing support system our friends and family provide for us. My dad said one of the coolest things about our wedding was meeting all the people we have in our lives, and that we should proud of who we surround ourselves with. I still can't believe how many people rallied to help us move here, and I can't thank them enough.

Those are the words, but here are the pictures of our journey and of our new home. Don't judge them too harshly — I only have my iPhone for a camera right now.

Bellingham state of mind

2010-09-16T00:22:00.000-06:00

Ode to the Pathfinder

2010-09-10T20:26:00.000-06:00

Camping on the Lost Coast — one of our first trips in the Pathfinder.

I know there's no good timing for an accident, but I do think totaling our only car right when we're planning to move is definitely not great timing. But since no undo-quick-command exists in reality, we just have to deal with it.

The shock of my accident has worn off, and I started thinking about all the great adventures we had in that car:

- Our Lost Coast camping trip after we first got Aspen.
- Camping at Point Reyes, and then driving back to San Fransisco to see Katie, Caleb and Mazie.
- Our trip to Cambria, where we fell in love with California's Central Coast.
- Driving out Highway 4 to take Logan camping at Bull Run Lake.
- Picking up, and dropping Zack off at the airport over Thanksgiving when he missed the airport shuttle.
- Numerous trips around Lake Tahoe when we felt like exploring the North Shore.
- And finally, moving back up to Bellingham.

I know I'm forgetting a lot of other events, and I'll try to add to the list if I remember more. Hopefully the next vehicle we get will give us as many – or more — great memories as the Pathfinder did.

Our wedding revisited

2010-08-31T12:30:00.000-06:00

Sweet...

...but also party animals...

Antsy

2010-08-30T10:31:00.000-06:00

Since we got back from Mexico, we've been working a lot to achieve one goal: earn enough money to move so we can start the next phase in our lives.

I don't know why I'm so antsy this time around to move. We've done this twice before, but I wasn't this impatient. This might sound crazy, but I'm actually looking forward to packing. Tara said it's because I'm "all growed up" — meaning I want to settle down and stop hopping from place to place.

Nesting sounds wonderful to me: staying in one place for a while, finding jobs in the area that satisfy both of our goals, and being a part of a community again. Plus snowboarding almost every day doesn't sound to bad either.

Now we just need to make it happen.

Meet the Hansens

2010-08-22T18:45:00.000-06:00

August 2, 2010

I promise to faithfully love you, and support you through your endeavors and hardships.
I promise to work with you, and continue to grow as an individual and together.
I promise to continue to enjoy dining with you, and discovering great food and wine.
I promise to be a goofball, and take the time to have fun with you and make you laugh every day.

And then we were married. So far the only things that are different now are how we file our taxes, and the new title of my blog. I thought that since we are embarking on a new phase in our lives — some might call it growing up — that it would be appropriate to give the blog a new name. I personally think it fits us rather well.

But enough about that. Here's what you've all been waiting for: the wedding pictures.

Strike a pose

2010-07-21T13:59:00.001-06:00

And now ladies and gentlemen, Tyler presents Magnum:

We're really, really, ridiculously good looking.

While walking the dogs

2010-07-15T14:01:00.000-06:00

I blew out my flip flop
tripped on a cement block
had to walk barefoot all the way home
so Tyler bought me a Drumstick
and some more ChapStick
but I really needed a new pair of shoes

Independence Day

2010-07-04T19:49:00.000-06:00

Picture box

2010-07-02T16:06:00.000-06:00

Since I have a month left until the wedding, I've been making sure I complete everything on my to-do list before all of our family and friends start arriving. I know — I'm pretty ambitious.

So today my task was to go through all of the unsorted photos that I'd sworn to glue in a scrapbook five years ago (it's amazing how well I can procrastinate). It turns out lack of enthusiasm for scrappin' is good thing, because I had plenty of old photos to choose from for the rehearsal clam bake fiesta.

As I was going through the photos, I couldn't help but relive those moments captured on film: opening Christmas stockings, a dance recital, my third grade birthday, my Girl Scout Troop, powder puff football, going to college, New Zealand, etc. I found a lot of great memories in that box, and all of my friends and family who have supported me over the years.

Now I'm getting married, and what I'm the most excited about is building new memories with Tyler. I can't wait to sort through my picture box in five years — it'll probably all be on the computer though — and relive all of our accomplishments, silly moments and adventures. We already have a great life together, and I know it will only get better.

I can't wait for the next phase to begin.

Meant to be

2010-06-30T23:36:00.000-06:00

Tyler and I went to get our marriage license the other day. The fee was $58 and they only accepted cash. We hadn't planned ahead, so we weren't sure we had enough money. I pulled out all the cash in my wallet, and Tyler counted up everything he had too. Between the two of us, we had exactly $58. No more, no less.

I guess some things are meant to be.

L'ecole 41 wine dinner

2010-06-15T00:03:00.000-06:00

After months of preparation and hard work, the L'ecole 41 wine dinner finally became a reality. Tyler and Eric put a lot of thought into the menu, and in the end, it's some of the best food I've ever seen come out of the kitchen. I can't wait until the next one.

Below is the menu. The food and decor are centered around a school house theme because the winery is in an old school house. If you want to see more pictures, you can go here.

Amuse Buche
Sugar snap pea & chevre ice cream, smoked tomato "caviar," potato crisp cone

Paired with 2008 Estate Luminesce, semillion/sauvignon blanc

Gravlax
Citrus-lavender cured Copper River sockeye, smoked creme fraiche,
Yukon gold blini, salmon roe
&
Quail egg
Sunny side quail egg, radish, white truffle oil, sea salt

Paired with 2008 Estate Luminesce, semillion/sauvignon blanc

Spot Prawn
Local spot prawns, brown butter poached beet,
pineapple sabayon, sweet corn-pancetta polenta
(This was my favorite)

Paired with 2008 Chardonnay

Bison carpetbagger
Bison tenderloin, local oyster, hazelnut, celeriac, manchego mashed potatoes, kale

Paired with 2007 Estate Merlot
or
2007 Apogee — a blend of cab, merlot, malbec, cab franc

And finally dessert.
raspberry & brie danish
strawberry lemon-lavender shortcake
funnel cake, rhubarb jam, blue cheese ice cream
molten chocolate cake covered Bing cherry

Paired with 2007 Apogee
or
2009 Walla Voila, chenin blanc

Big Quilcene River

2010-06-09T16:25:00.002-06:00

We took the dogs on a trip to the Olympic Peninsula for a short getaway. Because the rain wasn't letting up, we decided to rent a cabin that was on the Big Quilcene River.

The cabin is across the river from the Rob and Jacoba VandeWeghe's home, who are also the cabin's owners. They built a bridge over the river, and a path that leads to a small cabin with a loft. It was a pretty cozy stay for all four of us, but very nice. Jacoba has even created a trail that goes to a waterfall on her property, so there was plenty of land for the dogs to explore.

The only problem with the cabin is that Moses was displeased when he could not follow us up to bed. And he wasn't shy about letting us know how he felt either (he's a pretty persistent whiner).

In the morning Jacoba brought over breakfast for us, which consisted of homemade bread and jams, fresh squeezed orange juice, and more baked goods for us to snack on later. All in all, it was a relaxing weekend for us.

Tippy Canoe and Tyler 2's revenge

2010-06-03T10:54:00.000-06:00

The official results are in, and Tippy Canoe and Tyler 2 came in 177th out of 464 teams that competed in the 99th Ski to Sea in Bellingham. Our total time was 8:48:03 for the 90-mile relay (the winning time was 5:47:55 with some help from Olympic athletes). The competition was fierce, the water attempted to tip the canoe, but Margarito and I stayed strong and conquered the Nooksack River.

Here's the breakdown of our individual times that contributed to our awesomeness:

Frank cross-country skied a four-mile loop in 43:10 , giving him 191st place out of all the skiers.

Dan, the man, completed his 2.5 mile downhill ski loop (which consisted of hiking up the mountain too) in 27:10, putting him in 32nd place out of all the downhillers — that's damn impressive.

Steve said he ran an "acceptable" eight miles in in 55:36, ranking him 212th out of all the runners.

Eric posted an all-time personal best of biking 38.5 miles in 1:38:10, knocking off his previous record by five whole minutes. That put him at 149th place with the other cyclists.

Margarito and I were happy to just finish, and we took down the Nooksack River's 18 mile course in 2:36:58, placing us at 332nd with everyone else.

Tyler was covered in mud when he finished his 14 mile mountain bike leg, which he completed in 1:11:31, earning him 212th place.

John brought it all home in the kayak by paddling five miles in choppy waters in 1:15:28, giving him 263rd place.

Getting ready for Ski to Sea

2010-05-20T17:01:00.000-06:00

We're gearing up for the annual Ski to Sea race. It will be the second time Tyler and I attempted the grueling 90 mile relay, and to give you a brief history I will now share an e-mail our team leader Eric sent us:

"The team is made up of 3 teammates of mine from last year: Frank(cross country skier), Dan(downhill skier), and John(kayak)...and 3 teammates from 3 years ago: Steve(runner), Sara(canoe), and Tyler(mountain bike). The 8th member is new- Mag(canoe) -and has been brought on board for his balance and buoyancy. For those of you who don't know the story, the team of 3 years ago (Piddle Down Our Legs) was steaming along at a respectable top-two-thirds-of-the-pack-pace when tragedy struck. Sara was canoeing with a renegade fisherman named Jon who tempted fate one too many times. While trying to "shoot the gap" Sara and John hooked their vessel on some LWD (large woody debris) and were tossed helplessly into the raging Nooksack. According to Jon's account, death was imminent...albeit according to Sara's account, "it was kinda scary and pretty cold." Although the canoe itself went on to finish the leg, Sara and Jon were not aboard. The team was disqualified, and Tyler's epic mountain bike ride (on a girl's bike) went unnoticed in the records. Tyler and Sara left Bellingham in shame and moved to Lake Tahoe to "get away from it all" for two years.

That brings us to today...Tippy Canoe and Tyler 2 was born out of redemption. We have Frank and Dan, the snow team from last year that helped get me away from the Shuksan DOT almost an hour before I had in any other race. We have Steve shredding his knees down the mountain. I will suck the wheels of faster riders all the way to Everson. Sara now has Mag (who grew up in a float tube) paddling with her and determined to arrive as a threesome, including canoe, in Ferndale. Tyler now has a boys bike. And John will bring it home and ring the bell in triumph. We will all hug and laugh and take pictures of each other...It's gonna be AWE-SOME!"

I'll let you know how our redemption pans out.

Congrats Zack

2010-05-18T16:49:00.000-06:00

Congrats on finishing school in four years! And to top it off, you double majored in physics and math. Now you're off to Oregon State University to research and learn about stuff I barely can comprehend (thanks for all the mini physics lessons you taught me while you we here too).

I'm proud of you Bub.

Bix wins best dog award

2010-05-12T16:45:00.000-06:00

On our last camping trip, Eric's dog Bix earned the best dog award. It wasn't hard considering how Aspen and Moses were misbehaving. The following infractions are listed below:

1) Within an hour of setting up our campsite, Moses had found some deer droppings and proceeded to roll in it because he liked the scent. Tyler, CJ and I had to tie him to a spigot and wash him off with CJ's shampoo.

2) We found out Moses likes to chase trailers, with Aspen nipping at his heels. Bix was good, and stayed right by the camp like he was instructed.

3) Aspen and Moses couldn't bear to part with Tyler when he went fishing in the float tube, which tangled fishing lines and scared the fish away.

5) Aspen ate one of the trout.

6) Moses wouldn't stop barking during the night, so Tyler had to tie him to his camp chair and make him settle. At one point, Tyler stood up to get another beer and Moses bolted away from the campsite, dragging the chair behind him. This made Moses freak out and bark even more. I didn't witness this first hand because I was off having my own adventure (Eric, CJ or Tyler can tell you about that).

So congrats Bix, you earned it.

The escape

2010-05-01T16:37:00.000-06:00

Cat and Mo

For some time the cats have been pestering the dogs any chance they get. Whenever Moses and Aspen see, hear, smell, or think a cat is outside the house — they become crazed (the same thing happens with squirrels).

One day I came home after running some errands to find my neighbor Amy weeding her garden. She proceeded to tell me that she was keeping an eye on our front door. Apparently the wind had blown it open, which allowed for the dogs to escape and chase all the cats and squirrels they could find. Amy saw them romping around the neighborhood, so she ran inside our house and called for the dogs. Luckily they listened to her, and stormed back into the house. She said she didn't know how long they had escaped for, but when I got home they were pretty tired.

Now we make sure the door is latched properly.

Cypress Island

2010-04-29T16:41:00.000-06:00

On Sunday we set sail for Cypress Island with Eric and CJ. Because she had to work in the morning, we sailed to the Larrabee boat ramp to rendezvous with her. As soon as Eric picked her up from with the dinghy, we caught the perfect westerly wind that took us straight to the little cove we were planning to stay for the night.

We rowed ashore, where the boys prepared the seafood boil on the beach. First they threw on the potatoes, artichokes, onions, garlic and corn, and waited a little bit before throwing on the lamb sausage, mussels, clams and crabs. During the feast, Eric and Tyler couldn't contain their euphoric giggles — all the food had been cooked perfectly. I didn't know we lived in a world where potatoes, corn and artichokes cooked at the same rate over a campfire.

The next day we just hiked around Cypress and explored a couple trails.

On Tuesday morning we set sail for La Conner to meet Steve and Karen. We had planned to drive their car back, while they sailed back to Bellingham. A full visual account of our trip can be found here.

Hugs

2010-04-23T15:42:00.001-06:00

Slug hug...slug love dandelion (probably lamp too).

Moses hug — I don't know how Tyler can stay asleep when this happens. He does have superhuman sleep powers though...

Horseshoe Bend

2010-04-19T15:44:00.000-06:00

We took a nice, easy hike on the Horseshoe Bend trail to enjoy the 70 degree weather. Tyler decided to make things more interesting by walking out to the sandbar in the river:

We finished the hike faster than we had anticipated, so we relaxed at a picnic site while we waited for the North Fork Brewery, Pizzeria, Beer Shrine, and Wedding Chapel to open. During that time, Margarito found the perfect log to stretch out on and watch the river:

Opening Day

2010-04-12T11:42:00.000-06:00

For Funday Monday, We went to the Mariners' Home Opener with Eric and CJ. On the way to the game, we stopped at Bob Bailey's house (he's one of the Manor's regulars) to see his toy soldier collection. He's been collecting toys since the 1980s, and set up a room to display his collection. You can check out an article about his home here. We all enjoyed viewing the prized possesions, but my favorites were from the Civil War. Bob is a Civil War buff, so he's collected many items and primary documents over the years. My personal favorite was the letter he had from Robert E. Lee that he wrote to his oldest daughter right before the war began.

After Bob's house, we went and had lunch at Brooklyn before the game. Tyler ordered a medium rare burger, which we all saw was cooked to perfection after he bit into it and the juice squirted out onto Eric.

Then we headed to the game with our peanuts (not Cracker Jacks) and watched the Mariners lose to Oakland, and there were only six hits all game. But it was all worth it because Randy Johnson threw out the opening pitch to Dan Wilson, with Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. there to meet them. All the old Mariners were back together again and that made my opening day.

Wine dinner

2010-03-25T15:21:00.000-06:00

Last night I attended the wine dinner Tyler helped create. Here's the five-course menu, with an intermezzo, he prepared:

Chilled Plum Bisque
duck prosciutto, grapefruit, basil

Fresh Penn Cove Mussels
lemon goat's milk ricotta ravioli, smoked putanesca, wild watercress, shallots

Rabbit Roulade
Lambs lettuce, mascarpone, roasted peppers, sunchoke flan, sunflower sprouts, pear, truffle oil

Intermezzo
carrot and ginger water

Herb Seared Lamb Saddle
hedgehog mushroom confit, fingerling potatoes, braised endive, beets, lamb jus

Meyer Lemon Tart
pine nut crust

The Madness

2010-03-22T19:33:00.000-06:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year — buzzer beaters, Cinderella stories and ruined brackets. When March Madness is here, I'm glued to the television as soon as it starts.

And when No. 9 seed Northern Iowa took out No. 1 Kansas in the second round, I remembered when I first started watching the tournament.

I fell in love with the Madness in sixth grade when I watched the Arizona Wildcats — a No. 4 seed — win it all with Miles Simon leading the charge. I documented the event by cutting out newspaper clippings with headlines stating "Simon says NCAA," and tapping the collection to my bedroom door.

That year, the Wildcats beat Kentucky 84-79 in overtime to win their first national title. Arizona became the first team in the tournament's history to beat three No. 1 seeds on the road to victory. You don't get a much better underdog story than that, and from then on I was hooked.

Any team is beatable on any given day, and that's what makes the tournament so great. Northern Iowa believed this when they beat Kansas, and I hope the Huskies believe when they play West Virginia on Thursday.

Inati Bay

2010-03-18T12:09:00.000-06:00

We took a trip to Inati Bay on Monday with Eric. We originally planned to go snowboarding, but the warm weather and the wind convinced us that sailing would be a much more fun activity.

Once we arrived, we took the Small Miracle — the dinghy Steve made — out for a spin. We rowed to shore and explored the yacht club's private beach, found two abandoned vessels, built a fire and beer-boiled brauts. After the feast, we retired back to the boat for cribbage and improvised Cranium.

The next day the wind found us on the way back to Bellingham, and we sailed home in no time at all. It was a good thing Steve was there to help us back into the slip, since the wind created some minor trouble docking that afternoon.

Bloom

2010-03-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Goldfish saved by heroic roommate

2010-02-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Our roommate Mike decided to clean out the tank for the homemade waterfall and pond we have in our backyard. We're getting ready to start gardening, so he wanted to finish the job before we started planting.

As he was pumping out water in the tank, he saw a fish swimming around in the muck. He grabbed a bowl and rescued the fish and put him in our fish tank.

Now you may be wondering how this goldfish got into our water tank. Well last summer, Mike went to the pet store and bought six goldfish to live in the pond. After a few days of living in the pond, the fish disappeared. Mike didn't think anything of it, because he figured the neighborhood cats had eaten the fish. So you can imagine his surprise finding one of the fish alive eight months later.

After rescuing the first survivor, Mike fashioned a net to find the other fish. So far he's rescued four of the original six. Our fish tank is a little cozy now, but all the survivors seem to be happy swimming in clean water with lots of food.

Picnic

2010-02-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

On Monday Tyler and I decided to have a picnic on the beach. It worked out well because we found a flat rock that was high up, so the dogs couldn't get to our tasty cheese and wine. Moses and Aspen had a great time chasing each other in Bellingham Bay and trying to run down birds.

There was also a cool rock carving at the beach:

Will you be my Valentine?

2010-02-14T14:47:00.001-07:00

Super Bowl

2010-02-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

For the Super Bowl, Tyler biked to Anacortes from Bellingham (about 40 miles) with our friends Eric, Margarito and Rogelio. It has been a tradition of Eric's for the past three years, and Tyler decided to join in this year. He borrowed a bike from Eric, which he was really excited to try out (see above).

I met up with the boys at the Brown Lantern at the end of their journey. Tyler finished the ride in 2 1/2 hours, and was pretty tired. It's a good thing I was there to drive him back home.

Are you ready for some football?

2010-01-27T15:45:00.001-07:00

The former Funday Monday Manor crew got together on — you guessed it — Monday afternoon for a little two-hand-touch football. It had been more than three years since we all had tossed around the ol' pigskin as a group, but that didn't keep our ambition down. We ran, threw, fell, slipped and accidentally tackled each other during the entire game. The field was super muddy, so it didn't take long for everyone to get dirty. Tyler and I were on opposing teams, and his team beat us 28-21 with an interception on fourth down.

Moses even got in on the football spirit later on at home:

He said it

2010-01-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

"Was that unicorn poop?" Tyler asked, after a strangely decorated car drove down State Street.

Summer in January

2010-01-19T16:40:00.001-07:00

"Rest and be thankful." William Woodsworth - A highly appropriate inscription that was on the bench at one of the lookout points.

Tyler and I took the dogs up to the Oyster Dome on Monday to have some fun in the sun. Right now Washington is having some unusually warm weather at the moment, while our friends in Tahoe are getting pummeled with snow.

Oh El Niño...

New year...

2010-01-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

...and an important one for us. We're getting married, planning our next move, and we might be growing up a little more too.

Christmas tree hunting

2009-12-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

We took the dogs Christmas tree hunting on Monday. We purchased a permit through the U.S. Forest Service, and then drove into the wilderness to find a tree. While driving along, we encountered some cool frozen waterfalls. Here is the biggest one we saw (I had Tyler stand next to it for size).

Besides waterfalls, we did find a tree to bring home. It's not as large as the one last year, but it sure is pretty.

Family

2009-11-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

For Thanksgiving, Tyler's family and my family came to Bellingham to celebrate the holiday and to meet each other. We had a great time visiting, eating, drinking, playing cards, staying up too late and waking too early.

Before our families showed up in town, Tyler and I decided to get an engagement ring for me. We went to the jewelers with my grandmother's old engagement ring, and had the stone placed in a new setting.

Now the whole week reminds of my ring — the joining of not just Tyler and I, but of both our families that have been our support systems for our entire lives. We're combining what is familiar to us, with something new.

And we couldn't be happier.

Fun in the snow

2009-11-11T16:17:00.001-07:00

Tyler wanted to do something really fun on Tuesday. Since winter is coming early this year, he wanted to go up to Blue Lake before the snow got too deep.

We headed up with Julius and Natasha, and found snow quickly. As we were driving, the snow began to get deeper, and I thought we should turn around so neither of our vehicles got stuck. Our Pathfinder ended up getting stuck anyway, and in the process of pushing it out, a tire went flat. We managed to get down the road a little ways to change the spare. To our surprise, the spare was also flat. The boys then drove back into town to fill up the spare, while Natasha and I waited for thier return.

Thank God we had beer.

You know it's almost payday...

2009-11-02T17:58:00.001-07:00

...when you can only pay for Bloody Marys with change you rolled the day before.

We are one class act.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T10:34:00.000-06:00

Tyler carved a scary Jack-O-Lantern, while I carved a scared pumpkin. I'm not very good with scary things, mainly because I get scared easily, so I thought an afraid squash was a better fit for me.

Chain Lakes

2009-10-20T21:13:00.000-06:00

We hiked the Chain Lakes trail out by Mount Baker on Monday with Eric, CJ, Rhino and Bix (Eric's dog). The sun was out, and so it was a gorgeous, dry day. Blueberry bushes were all along the trail, so Tyler and I filled 3/4 of a Nalgene with blueberries (he made jam today, but I haven't tried it yet).

As you can see at the end of that slideshow, the boys decided to jump in the lake. It wasn't cold outside — but it was warm either — so we all thought Eric and Tyler were crazy for going forward with their plan. Here's a video of their plunges:

After that, Eric decided to jump in again. When he was out of the water for the second and final time, he said that it wasn't any better than the first time.

"I could cut a diamond with my nipples," he said.

We all then hiked back to cars, and drove straight to the North Fork Brewery for some pizza and beer. The brewery is staple end-of-the-hike stop out the Mt Baker Highway. Tyler and I stayed for the first quarter of the Bronco's game, and then had to hightail it back to town to watch the rest of the game at Coconut Kenny's. After the game, Tyler's phone wouldn't stop ringing because everyone was calling to talk about the Bronco's victory.

6-0...who would've thought?

Sailing in October

2009-10-15T18:38:00.000-06:00

We encountered a lot of wind when we went sailing on Tuesday. All of us got sprayed from the water, but Steve managed to take shelter for a few minutes.

Fall hike

2009-10-14T20:13:00.000-06:00

We made it

2009-09-25T10:40:00.000-06:00

Tyler and I have now been living in Bellingham for more than a week, and the dogs are finally settling in to their new home. The drive was long, but we had some great friends to help us move.

Ryan and Kent followed us up from Lake Tahoe in Kent's truck. We managed to fit almost everything we own into his vehicle (below), which was pretty impressive.

We left on Sept. 14 and drove about eight hours to Sutherlin, Oregon to stay at Memoree's and Russ' place. They are both good friends of my parents, and when we showed up Mem cooked us veal, potatoes and gravy.

The next morning we decided to drive up the Oregon Coast and camp by the beach. We found a great spot at Cape Lookout where the dogs could run around and stretch their legs. In the morning we were rained out, so we booked it up to Bellingham to sleep in a dry place.

Since we've been here, we've seen a lot of friends and family. Tyler's aunt and uncle — Missy and Larry — were in town when we arrived. We had dinner with them, plus Steve, Karen and Catherine on Monday. My mom arrived Tuesday and picked up my dad at the airport Thursday, so we've been busy visiting with everyone, nesting and getting back into a routine.

Both of us are happy to be back in Bellingham. Our house is in a great location — a bakery and a produce market are just around the corner from us, plus Trader Joe's is within walking distance. Life is good.