On the Homefront

While I was playing at the beach, the boys were away for a marching band competition, so Craig decided to take Camille apple picking!  This is the kind of thing that we did in Manassas before Camille was born, so she kind of missed out, being the youngest; I'm glad she got the chance finally!

How cute are these two?

Looks like they couldn't have had better weather!  Once they were home, they got to work fixing something that's been bothering us for a long time: the blinds in our garage windows.  They technically worked just fine, but they were absolutely disgusting-- cobwebby, dead-buggy messes.  Blinds are hard enough to clean, but blinds in a garage???  Impossible. 

And that's just the window sill!  The blinds were layers upon layers of the same!

Craig finally decided to just pull all of them off the windows and throw them away.  Then he put frosted glass stuff over the windows so people can't see into our garage, but we don't have the same kind of cleaning problem now.

Three of the four windows finished (and you can see why we don't want people seeing in)!

Final product!

Well done, Craig and Camille!  MUCH improved!

Then they made apple cobbler with all those fresh apples!

Beach Weekend!

Months ago, Megan and I had the idea of organizing a weekend getaway with some of the women in our ward.  Megan had a friend who'd said we could use her beach house, and we certainly couldn't waste a free house!

We managed to make it happen in September and it was so fun!  We began Friday morning, sending our kids off to school, meeting up at the Knuth's, and then me driving us from there in the van.  Even a 5-hour drive doesn't feel too long when you stop for lunch at Chick-fil-A and then again for a bathroom/gas break-- the time flew by!

The house was on the bay side, and you could see the water past the other houses.  And there was a purple house behind us that I kind of loved!

Seriously, how cute is this house???

I feel like you can only get away with having a house this color in a beach town!

And we had to go see the ocean side, where the tide was washing up against the base of the stairs, so we looked at the waves for a minute and called it good:

Amy, Allison, and me

After everyone had claimed a bedroom and I'd gotten a quick nap, we got dinner at a pub called the Whalehead Brewery.  They had all kinds of fun pizzas, we enjoyed trying a bunch of them while watching various trivia groups competing.  Angela slipped answers to the table next to us who knew NOTHING about Full House.  Then we hit the grocery store next door and headed back to the house.  We watched Edge of Tomorrow and ate ice cream and stayed up way too late.  It was delightful.

I look like I just got caught shoplifting or something.  I promise you, I was not stealing anything!

Pretty sunset!

The next day we actually managed to walk on the beach.  Or rather, Amy, Allison and Megan did.  Angela stayed at the house because she hates sand (???) and I just sat in a camping chair reading my book and admiring the waves.  And the crabs.

And we played games (okay, I read my book and then joined in halfway through)

Angela, Amy, Allison, and me (all our names start with A!)

And there's Megan, too!

And another pretty sunset!!!

Here's the whole gang!

The next morning we went to church in Kitty Hawk, and then we visited the Wright Brothers landmarks.  I'd already seen it when we went in 2021, but right after that I actually read David McCullough's book about them and was totally more impressed once I knew a little more about them, so I probably enjoyed seeing the national park more the second time around!

We followed that up with lunch at Five Guys (where the potatoes came from Sugar City, where my friend Sarah's son is serving his mission right now!!!) and then headed home-- I needed a quick nap before I was ready for some more walking on the beach (the first time it had been sunny when we were there)!

That's me!

More games-- this time playing Code Names

Unfortunately, we also figured out that the house had at least one sizable cockroach, so that made everyone considerably less happy about being there.  This is Clarence.

It was a lot of fun, but I was very excited to get home the next day.  We got all packed up in the morning, washed all our bedding and towels, and headed out as soon as the last load was in the dryer.  It was nice to get to see the water and have fun with my friends, but I was also very anxious to get back to Craig and the kids-- I'd missed them so much!

Marching Band and More

Much like our Monticello Mustang's Marching Band, time also keeps marching on.  I'm not sure how I keep getting so far behind on this blog.  Part of it is that Google and Apple aren't playing nicely, so in order to post pictures here, I now need to download each photo, and then export it as a JPEG file before I can upload it onto Blogger.  It's super annoying.  I also try to send Bentley an email each week (with pictures!) telling him what we've been up to.  So by the time I do that, it's feels redundant to post anything here, too.  But that's silly, since no one else is reading those emails!

I shall persevere.

Here are a BUNCH of pictures from September.  Yes, I went through all those steps for every single picture here!  You're welcome!!!  (Enjoy!)

Marching band is taking up a TON of Ryder and Colton's time.  They seem to be enjoying it, though, and the band has done really well in competitions, so that's very exciting!

Marching down to the field before a home game-- you can see Colton easily, and Ryder is way in the back

I just wish Ryder was happier...!

For the halftime show, Colton just plays the keyboard, so it's fun to see him getting to play stand tunes on his sax!

Camille has taken a lot of lovely sunset pictures at the games!

For my birthday, Craig got me the pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid, so on a Saturday when we didn't have much going on, we finally put it to use!!!

Best.  Fettuccine.  Ever!!!  And really quite fun, once you get the hang of it!

Date night at the temple!

Okay, this is random, but I love it: these are my Hansen grandparents, decades ago, in front of their home in La Mirada!  As their grandchildren were leaving, they would run along the car for a moment to say Goodbye.  How cute were they???

And speaking of cute, look at this guy!

Getting ready to begin their show

Ryder is Locked In.

Any time I can spot a goldfinch, it just makes my whole day!!!

Finding out that we FINALLY had a release date for Volume 9 of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion ALSO made my day!!!!  If you haven't read these yet, stop reading this blog and go get your hands on a copy!!!

This is a cake pop that my co-teacher made for seminary to help the kids learn Isaiah 5:20 (Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil)-- this looks delicious, but the inside is a Brussels sprout!!!  😖  (We did give them doughnuts afterwards-- we aren't just mean!)

For our stake Day of Service, we were once again helping out at PVCC's Community Garden!  I know next to nothing about gardening, but this almost persuaded me to plant one!  It was so beautiful and restful being there, even as I sat just outside pulling creepers and vines from the fence (and apparently avoiding having my picture taken!).  It was a perfect day and we were so happy!

As the evenings cool down, Camille finds creative ways to stay warm!  (She looks like her bear is giving her the best hug ever.  Or mauling her...)

Another temple date night, what?