The Hanson Crew

Sorry for the lack of blog posts this week...we are still adjusting to being back home. It's funny how I forgot how little time I have here and how little I see get accomplished each day. We are so glad to be back to what seems like a "normal" schedule now, but still want to be lazy. It might be that the Olympics have had our nightly attention and that's when I can "catch up" a bit. Haven't the games been amazing! We enjoyed them in Hawaii as well as here. I really do miss being an athlete and being in shape (like the old days)...maybe Wii Fit can push me over the edge and actually get me some muscle back! We are in the planning stages for next fall this week to. Trying to decide if we should send Caleb to our private school for K or the public school by our house that would help with his speech. In the process of that decision, I have started schooling him a bit and have enjoyed that time too. He is really smart! It's so hard when he knows

The first 3 pictures are from the summit of the volcano on Maui. It takes about 30 minutes to get to 10,000 feet elevation and is amazing up there. The sun sets over the clouds and into the ocean - very, very, hard to capture this beauty even on the camera! The last three are from our last evening there - the free, extra day we got to be there. It was one of our favorite sunsets while we were there. I still hope to make a slide show of more pictures this weekend....but these are a sneak peek at Hawaii's beauty.

Things to remember about Feb trips in the future... Winter in Hawaii: 85 degrees, high tides, whale season, bigger waterfalls, clothing optional over swimwear! Winter in Kansas City: 20 degrees, icy driveways and streets, snow everywhere, many layers needed! I froze today (even shoveled my walkway and driveway) and had some jet lag (or maybe lack of sleep from the travel day). But we woke up on time, got everyone to all the right places, and really enjoyed my children today! We even found extra time for some haircuts for the boys and a Wal mart trip. Tonight we are unpacking and 'picking up' while we try to stay awake. I have so many pictures to go through and to share. Jonathan has been so sweet all day and will say the sweetest things out of no where. He hugs me so tight and tells me he missed me and loves me. He has done this about 10 times today and all the times have been so sincere. It is so adorable. The other kids haven't show that affection, but have sai

We were scheduled to leave Maui Sunday night at 11:30 pm. We were going to take a Red Eye flight to Denver and then catch a flight to KC to be home Monday around noon. We knew we would have some jet lag because there was a 4 hour time difference (earlier) in Hawaii, but figured we would take a bunch of Benedryl and try to sleep on the plane. When we got the airport around nine, we were told they might be canceling our flight, United 92 (yes the same flight that crashed on 911). But they weren't sure yet. After about an hour, it was official, but we weren't sure if the cancellation was due to snow in Denver or airplane related. So we waited and waited....at about midnight, they confirmed that the airplane was broken and that they would cover costs for hotel, transportation, and meals since it was their fault. If it had been weather related, we would have slept in the airport and hoped for another flight the next night. Thankfully after 2 hours of unorganized lines and conf

We were greeted at our resort with some champagne, fruit platter, luau invitation, and 2 leis. Here I am wearing mine, touring our new place. Here is our resort from the boat tour we were on today. We snorkeled, saw whales, sea turtles, and sailed. We also got tons of food throughout the 6 hours boat ride. The reef that we went to for our first snorkeling trip. We used a waterproof camera so I'll have to share those pics when i get them back from the store....there were jellyfish, a small reef shark and octopus here, which made me get out pretty fast. John stayed in for the whole time. Here he is still snorkeling. He still compares every boat trip to one he went on when he was 10 in Florida with Boy Scouts and still complains about the fish where ever we go....he saw some blue, yellow, and black fish in this spot. Here is a sea turtle that came right up to the boat when I had my nice camera on. It appears to have some kind of tumor on its face. There were about 4 or 5 turtl

We arrived in Maui early Thursday morning! We have really enjoyed it so far. Our resort here is amazing!!! Five stars all the way - thanks to the Maids people who provided this part of the trip along with the airfare! The bathroom alone in our room is bigger than our hotel in Kauia . We even have matching bath robes here and our lanai is 3 times the size of the other one (plus a kitchen, living room, and huge bedroom) We have a table and chaise lounge out there on the balcony and can hear waves all day long - it is 83 here today so the doors are wide open. When we first checked in here, it was very tempting to just stay on the resort the entire time we were here and never leave the room...but, we didn't and here are some pics from the first day... Maui from the plane - it's just as gorgeous as we remembered it 12 years ago! The kids official Hawaii picture on Front Street. They came, they saw, the loved it like us! Can you tell we are missing them more now...we are cons

Our SOS to the kids... Attempting to use the timer function on the camera... Too wavy and windy to snorkel today... But John still had fun in the waves... Another attempt at the timer function... (We covered the amazing lighthouse in the background, see next pic!) But we still got to sit in the sand and talk...

The Beautiful Na Pali Coastline in the background Awesome Sea Turtles We saw lots of whales - here is one of the them jumping out... Lots of Dolphins everywhere...

Here is the second zipline we did in Kauai. It is 1800 feet long. There are 2 lines, so 2 people go at the same time. I went with another scared lady named Bev and John went with her husband. That way we could get pictures of one another. This video is not of one of us, but someone else who posted it on Youtube . You can see from the video, how long it is. Once you get to the end of the line, you stop and then roll back toward the beginning. You can also see the water hole where we go for our third zipline below toward the end of the video. It drops you into water and has a waterfall that empties into the water. Once you stop rolling back toward the start on the zipline, the guide helps you back to the podium and down a ladder. It is AMAZING!!! The trees you go over are so beautiful and very low....it is crazy! Enjoy the video (I was too nervous to try to make my own, but I did actually let go toward the end - and no I never hung upside down like this crazy person in th

We survived the day yesterday on the safari...we kayaked for 2 hours down a river for 8 miles (a two-man kayak which made for some interesting partnership time), then hiked for a little while. We then took a tractor ride through some famous movie landmarks and the went to our first HUGE rush on a 800 foot zipline !! I was shaking when I got off and got voted the loudest scream from our fun group. Then had a picnic lunch while staring at the 1800 foot second zipline - it was SO long!!! Somehow, I managed to jump off the landing and make it to the other side, which was actually amazing!!! This one allows you to slide down to the other side, stop, and then swing back toward the start again and then stop somewhere in the middle. Then a guide gets a ladder to you on a podium and you climb down off the line. I actually waved a bit on the way back instead of holding on to the rope like before. Both of the ziplines were on the land where Jurassic Park and Indian Jones were filmed...i

Watched the sunrise. Had a McD's breakfast. Drove around the island to Waimea Canyon (Hawaii's Grand Canyon). Picnic lunch. Amazing hiking. A little Salt Pond Beach time. Romantic candlelight dinner outside. And some Olympics time in our amazing hotel. Tomorrow's adventure: our Zipline Safari Kayak trip...

Both Joshua and Ashlyn got 1st place ribbons today at the Science Fair. They were both very excited. The places are decided with a point system so the majority of entries got either a 1st or 2nd place ribbon. They were very happy and proud of their work. We also had a Mad Scientist come to the school for some fun experiments after Valentine's Day parties. It was a casual day and pizza day too...not a typical Faith Christian Academy day! But a great day to end the week and the start of a vacation!!! We'll be back in 10 days - Aloha!!! This is Joshua with his best friend Jet, his sister Kate, and his K teacher, Miss Bainbridge having fun at their K class party.

Ashlyn says it does. That was her Science Fair experiment. She had fun doing the experiment and the board. She gets 25 extra credit points in Science for participating. We are very proud of all her work :)

Joshua participated this year in FCA's Science Fair. It was voluntary and not a grade. We froze 6 different household foods (bread, rice, syrup, soy sauce, PB, and Ketchup) to see how they changed. He wrote out what it looked like and felt like before, then came up with a hypothesis of what he thought would happen, and then wrote what it looked and felt like after. We took pictures and made the board together. He did a great job!!!