The Hanson Crew

While we were in MN this weekend at a conference, Sue took on babysitting at our house.  She took the kids to their annual pumpkin patch/farm.  Caleb was at a birthday party this year, so he is missing, but the Cordova cousins made it this time!  It was a lot of fun according to our crew!

So today was our last DG National Conference in Minneapolis.  We have been going for 10 year!  Most of the trips were couples trips, but the last two were just John and I.  We have enjoyed the teaching and ministry of DG so much all these years! We are excited for what they will be doing going forward....Look at the Book (LAB) mini conferences all around the US instead.  We hope to get to one of those one day too.  Now we will need to find another conference to get away to next fall...any ideas?

Looks like Caleb's picture is hung in our Park Hill School District Building.  We believe this is from 3rd grade last year.  He looks so young. He thought it was Jonathan when he saw it.  We will get the picture when they take it down :)

I took all four kids to a matinee after school today to see Dolphin Tale 2 :)  And we were the only one there up until the Previews started and only a few more people showed up.  It was great and a great price!

Bear is no longer allowed to go to soccer games or practice.  This dog is crazy!  She acts like everyone in a foot distance from her is an enemy.  She barks at everything,  She tries to run after everything and everyone and is crazy!  This is a picture of her in the car where she continued to bark until practice was over. Picture me sitting on a fold out lawn chair enjoying the crisp summer air while Bear sits on the ground in front of me with her leash on.  Moments later, I am sideways on the ground, still in my chair, being drug across the field.  Pure embarrassment.  Maybe one day, Bear will be trained well enough to enjoy Soccer again!

 Last year, we brought a small tree into our dining room for our Thankful tree.  We used clothes pins to hang the leaves on the empty branches.  Since that time, we have added a buffet table in the dining room and have less room.  I decided to use our two front doors for the thankful area this year.  I asked Ashlyn to make a tree using brown packing table and tape.  She did great!  She cut the pieces and taped them up on the door.  We started making leaves to hang on the tree through Thanksgiving.  We will post a picture soon with some of our leaves...

Ashlyn, Joshua, and Caleb are all playing on the same Gladstone Soccer team this year.  Ashlyn is hoping to play for the FCA Knights in the Spring so she is playing for practice.  Joshua's friend Chancellor is on the team too.  We have tied both games so far (no score).  Hoping for our first goal this week! Go Supernova's!

Joshua still loves to homeschool, but his absolute favorite part is cooking.  He spends most of his morning planning out lunch and dinner.  When I told him that I was going to homeschool Ashlyn this year too, he said, "Well, every chef needs a sous chef! That will be good."  I couldn't stop laughing!

According to Bear's medical records we received, her birthday is Sept 9th.  We celebrated with a new rope toy and a fun time at the dog park!  She is sure a sweet girl. We look forward to more time with her, especially holidays.

We received four more free tickets to World's of Fun this season and decided to spend it celebrating Ashlyn's 14th birthday.  We will be in Omaha for her actual birthday in Oct. for a Maids convention.  These tickets had to be used before Sept 7th.  She invited her good friend Abigail and we made it a mother/daughter trip.  It was a lot of fun!  Lots of rides and great weather again!  It was awesome!

Yep, Kansas City is finally going to have an IKEA store!  The closest one to us is in Minneapolis, MN about 6 hours away.  We try to go there each year when we go to the Desiring God conference each year.  I'm excited to spend an afternoon there.  It opens on Sept 10th!

John's grandparents (on Gary's side) came to visit for the week of Labor Day.  They hadn't meant Macy yet and wanted to see everyone.  We played cards and went to the thrift store we all love.  It was a nice week of visiting with them.  We hope to see them again in the Spring when we go to AZ.