You Know Dinner is Going to Suck When the Steaks are on FIRE!

A few weeks ago, Tim's dad gave us some ribeye steaks. I'm not a fan of ribeyes, but Tim likes them so I decided to cook them tonight. Apparently, that was a very bad idea.



This morning I marinated the steaks in Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper. I let them sit out while the grill warmed up, and cooked the mashed potatoes. I put the steaks on the grill and looked at my watch so I could turn the steaks over after 4 minutes. I prefer a rare to medium rare steak, so after 4 minutes, I went to check on the steaks and they were on fire...literally, on fire...like I had to blow out the flames when I flipped them. Of course, Kona had to poop in the middle of all this. Welcome to my life...

I turned the steaks over, turned the grill down to low heat, took the dog out for his evening dump, and hurried back inside to get the steaks off the grill. They were still on fire.

So, I pulled them off and yes, I did have to blow out the flames on the steaks, let them rest and finished the mashed potatoes and broccoli. I told Tim I cremated the steaks. He didn't believe me until he walked into the kitchen and saw them. Because he's such a great guy, he laughed, and said, "I'm sure they'll taste great with salsa on them."

We both ate our ribeye jerky and I decided that I will leave the ribeye grilling up to Tim. Oh and I should mention that I actually do an awesome job cooking steaks.

A Busy Couple of Weeks

So, we're halfway through May and I haven't had a second to blog about life. Here's what's been going on...

-Spring is here. With spring has come some flooding...now I should clarify that flooding in UT is much different than flooding in the midwest.




This waterfall is NEVER there, so it's definitely flooding.

- We've been going to lots of Rylan's soccer games. I always forget my camera, so no pictures. It's been a discouraging season because his team hasn't scored ANY goals. I think Ry will be glad when it's over.

- We're still working on the cruiser. Tim has all of the pictures of that, but I think we're getting closer to being done. There are still several tasks, like building the mounting brackets for the ARB compressor, putting the carpet back in the rear, mounting the new bumper, and putting on the roof rack. I'm hopeful it will be done soon, but we'll see.

- I've been learning to crochet and have actually made 3 pair of baby booties. My new nephew will be getting some camo booties when he arrives in July.

- My friend and the best massage therapist in the world got married on Friday.


If that dress looks familiar, it's because she bought it from me. Yep, that's the dress I was married in. She made some changes and the dress looked absolutely gorgeous on her.

- The tulips are out!











- I'm doing the Little Red Riding Hood Century ride in a couple of weeks and the Ragnar Relay a couple of weeks after that, so I've been running with Kona and even took Oscar out for a spin this weekend. I'm hoping to get out and ride a bunch more in the next few weeks. This morning before my run, Kona and I saw two sandhill cranes "dancing" in the field next to our house. Of course, my camera didn't get any "dancing" shots, but I did get a not great picture of the cranes.



We also saw a couple of deer laying in a field while we were running. See if you can see them in this picture!


So, that's what I've been up to for the past couple of weeks. Things are going to get pretty busy here, pretty soon. Tim and I were looking at the calendar and we have something planned every weekend until the middle of July. Yep, life is truly good!

The Month of April

So, it's April 29 and it's snowing here in Cache Valley and I thought I could share a few of the things that I did this month. Here goes...

- Watched and listened to General Conference.
- Helped Tim cut a hole out of the back of the LandCruiser and built a cargo box to go into the hole in the back of the LandCruiser.
- Spent many, many mornings out at Tim's dad's working on the LandCruiser, doing things like removing the third members so they could be regeared for lockers, repacking the bearings, putting on new brakes, sanding/grinding out all of the "stuff" on the inside of the Cruiser so it could be rhino-lined, cleaning bearings and parts and axles and other stuff. Yep, alot of the month was spent doing LandCruiser stuff. Oh, and I also helped remove all of the seats, panels, and carpet from the inside before we could sand/grind. And yes, I do actually know what all of this stuff means and does. It's been quite a learning curve.
- Took Kona to dog class every Monday night so that he could learn new tricks and be all prepared for his dog show tomorrow!
- Went to several Young Women activities and meetings, and taught a couple of lessons.
- Drove up to Lava Hot Springs with the kids over Spring Break.
- Attended Kyra's patriarchal blessing which was an awesome experience.
-Went to Rylan's soccer games.
- Got a massage.
- Had an awesome Easter Dinner at my parents with Tim, Eric and Karen, Amy, Andrew and Liam, and Chelsey, Dustin, Brody, and Noah.
- Got my eyes checked...they still work.
- Watched my cute nephews and niece.
- Baked many chocolate chip cookies and tried some new recipes with varied success.
- Planned our 1 year anniversary trip.

Tomorrow is the last day of April and I think it will be the busiest. Kyra and I are going to the church to make pizzas for the Young Women camp fundraiser. Kona has his dog shows in the afternoon. My mom is having girls night and we're having pedicures and massages. I'm pretty sure I'll be gone most of the day, but what a way to end the month.

I keep thinking that married life will slow down...but, it never seems to. I guess I'd better just get used to it. May...here we come!

Update on Kona

So, life has been super busy lately. No surprise there. I have some stories I need to post, but I can't find the pictures yet, so I'll have to work on them later. Instead I've decided to post an update on our cute dog Kona.

Kona is now 10 months old. I weighed him last week and he's up to 117 lbs. He's tall...tall enough that he can drink out of the sink. Actually his head comes up to our bar, so that might give you some perspective. Speaking of the sink...the other day, I caught him licking a cereal bowl that one of the kids left in the sink with milk and floating lucky charms. Yep, he's that big...

Here are some of his favorite things to do:

- Snuggle on the love seat in the office while dad works.
- Zoomies around the living room and up and down the stairs, around the basement, between the kids' beds, etc. Just zoomies in general.
- Gutting his stuffed animals.
- Going on walks. He has spring fever and LOVES to be outside.
- Pointing at birds. Apparently, he thinks he's a bird dog.
- Training!

As far as the training goes, he's still in dog school, but we're going to stop for the summer since our Saturdays have become quite busy. However, he's training for a dog show! Our vet has a health clinic in the spring and this year, they've invited the dogs in dog school to perform some tricks. It's on April 30 at Mountain View Veterinary Clinic in Providence, UT. Kona has learned several new tricks, but mostly he just likes to watch the other dogs. Tim is certain this event is going to be a circus in all senses of the word, but we'll see. Kona and I have been working hard so hopefully, he'll at least do some of the tricks he knows. I'm hoping that Tim will record this event so I can post it on here, but we'll see.

Anyways, Kona is awesome. He definitely adds alot of joy and happiness in our lives and much laughter. I'll definitely let you know how the "circus" goes!

Braveheart 5K - First Race of 2011

This morning was our first race of 2011. I didn't want to go. I woke up early to take care of my parents' dogs and came home and crawled back in bed. I was really really hoping that Tim would say "Let's skip the race and stay home in our warm bed." Nope...he got up and got ready and so I decided to get it together and head out.

The Braveheart 5k-10k is a local race here in Logan, sponsored by the USU ROTC and the funds raised go to a local "need". The "need" this year was for a woman in my parents ward named Molly. Her son Mason was born with a congenital heart defect and as you can imagine, the costs are staggering. He's doing well and has had his second surgery and will be "cured" after his third surgery. Anyways, we thought it was a GREAT cause, which is why we decided to run.

We picked up Kyra and headed up to the university to get registered. I was overwhelmed with the number of runners and walkers who showed up. I'm guessing (from bib numbers) that there were about 500 participants which was awesome! There was some confusion at the start due to the number of people, but at 9:15 the 5k participants (that's us!) headed out.

Tim planned on staying with Kyra, who is not a runner, and told me to go ahead and run, so off I went. I got stuck around these super annoying college girls who were just whiny, so I sped up a bit and got past them. I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard and I was feeling good so I just kept up my pace. I skipped the water stop and kept plodding along. I looked at my watch and was trying to gauge how far I had run and how much further I had to go, but I had no idea what my pace was.

When I left this morning, I mentally set a goal to finish in under 36 minutes. I haven't been running much at all, except for a few runs in the past couple of weeks, so I was thinking that 12 min/mile would be a good pace. Boy was I surprised when I finished in 32:07! I can't believe that I did 11 min/miles and I probably should have/could have gone faster!

Once I crossed the finish line, I headed back out to find Tim and Kyra. I found Tim easily. He was about 6 minutes behind me. He told me to go and find Kyra and that she was far back. I kept running and running and was thinking "yikes, where is she?!" when I finally found her. I guess she had about 1.25 or so miles to go. I got her jogging for 1 minute intervals and then we found Tim. We could see the finish line and Kyra wanted to walk. I told her to catch the woman in the blue jacket ahead of her and beat her. All of the sudden, Ky had this burst of speed and off she went. I think her finish time was around 48 minutes.

After the race, we grabbed some super concentrated Gatorade...yummy! I also grabbed a slice of Great Harvest cinnamon bread and then it was time to head home to get ready for dog school. I'm so glad that Tim got me up to go to the race. I forgot how much I love racing. It was also a surprise to see that I'm not as out of shape as I thought. Now, I just have to get into better shape.

Racing is definitely not a bad way to kick off the weekend!

P.S. We forgot the camera this morning, so no pictures. Oh well...I'm sure there will be more races to come.

The Vacation in St. George

Last Thursday morning, the family headed to St. George. My parents went. My brother Travis, his wife Brooke, and their kids, John, Kate, and Mac went. My brother Eric, his wife Karen, and their son Cole went. Tim, Kyra, Rylan, and I also went after we dropped Kona off at the dog hotel. So, yep, there was a big caravan of Hansen's that drove from Logan to St. George on Thursday afternoon.

When we arrived, the kids all wanted to hit the pool, so we spent a couple of hours laying out in the sun and enjoying the 73 degree temperature. Dinner was at The Brick Oven. Oh and Tim and I had to hit the Eddie Bauer Outlet so that he could get some of his very most favorite t-shirts. The evening was spent back at the pool and relaxing. I should also mention that I found out that I'm going to be an auntie to a new baby boy, hopefully on my birthday!

Friday morning, we woke up and hit the delicious continental breakfast and then it was off to Snow Canyon State Park. The kids wanted to hike and climb on the rocks and that seemed like the perfect place. We headed to the sand dunes first.




After the sand dunes, we headed to the trail to see the "pioneer names". The names were written in axle grease, as early as 1881. It was pretty cool to see. I almost got to see John face plant on his way down from the pioneer names.


The kids, especially Rylan, wanted to climb on some more rocks, so we headed over to Pioneer Park, which was definitely the hit of the weekend. I think we spent a couple of hours there and all of the kids had a blast.






We spent the afternoon with my grandparents, swimming, and then ended up back at the hotel. Tim decided we were going to go for a drive out in the desert to shoot, so off we went again. Somehow, we ended up in Arizona on a dirt road and out of nowhere, a sign for the Little Black Mountain Petroglyph Site appeared so we headed that direction. Tim decided that this dirt road was the perfect place for Kyra's first driving lesson, so she changed seats with him and away we went. She did okay...but definitely needs alot of practice. We found the site and it was super cool.






The kids got bored after a little while, but I loved it. I thought it was really cool and definitely a hidden treasure.


I headed down the other trail and found this awesome picture. It looks like a timeline and I was totally amazed! I'm not a petroglyph expert, so I have no idea what it means, but it was super cool.


Oh and I finally got a picture of Tim and I!


On our way back to the car, I caught this cute moment...


Dinner that evening was at a Mexican restaurant and we ended up back at the pool. That night we all got a wakeup call at 2:30am when a very nice man's car alarm went off for 5 minutes. Tim didn't go back to sleep and needless to say the whole group was sleepy.

Saturday morning, we got up for breakfast, went swimming, and then loaded the cars up. The kids were definitely up for more time crawling around and up rocks, so we headed back up to Pioneer Park.






That's John, Kate, Rylan, and Travis up at the small arch. They climbed up to the top and ended up climbing around the entire ridge. They had a blast.


After lunch at Red Robin, we spent some time at a park and then we headed out to Larry and Nyla's condo for some basketball watching time. Dinner was with Eric and Karen at a pretty yummy Thai restaurant that included sushi. My cute nephew Cole decided that he loves sushi and worked on mastering the art of chopsticks!




After dinner, we grabbed some frozen custard at Nielson's Frozen Custard and headed back to watch Utah State beat Boise State to win the WAC. Sunday morning, we loaded up and then headed back to Logan. It was kind of a sad drive, since we were leaving the land of sunshine, but I'm pretty sure that we'll have to head back there soon. It was a fun trip and I'm looking forward to our next vacation!

Kona's First Training Run

This morning, when Tim woke up, he asked Kona if he would like to go running. Apparently, our workout today was going to be a run. Kona has never gone running with us before, so this was a new experience for all of us. Because he's a great dane, we have to be careful with how much impact he has on his joints, especially since he's still a puppy and still has alot of growing and developing to do. We've got approval from the vet for him to start running, but the weather has been sort of iffy and we didn't want a filthy, muddy dog. So, today was the day!

As you can tell from the picture, Kona was ready to go! We didn't take the camera on the run, so no "running" pics, but Kona had a great time. He did pretty well and stayed fairly close to me or Tim for most of the run. He did start pulling on the leash on the way home. I think he was ready for his breakfast. Oh, and while we were on our run, we saw 7 deer. There were 3 bucks and 4 does. They were gorgeous!

After the run, Kona had breakfast and then wandered around the house, watching us clean. He's opposed to the vacuum, unless we're vacuuming him off, so he usually just paces around in whatever room we're not cleaning in. After things quieted down, and he got vacuumed off, he crashed. You can tell how wiped out he is in this picture.