sun breaking through

Its 2011.

I love that Madera started off the new year with a rain storm. i really do.

I Love rain.
I Love laying and hearing the tiny raindrops pitter against the roof.
I Love the mist at the bottom of waterfalls and how the sun bounces off of it and creates a rainbow.
I Love stepping outside when the first drops come down.
I LOVE the smell of rain.
I LOVe rain puddles.
I Love all the rain drops on the flowers and grass in front of my house.

I Love that after rain, I can see the far off mountains perfectly clear.
I Love being in the mountains during rain.

I Love the way the sun reflects off all the little rain drops on my window

I Love the way the sun breaks through the grey clouds and turns the whole sky blue.
I Love when there are real rays of sunlight bursting through visible patches in the clouds.
I Love the new, fresh clean feeling you get the first time you go outside after a storm.

I Love that warm fuzzy feeling you get when the big yellow sun comes out after a long stretch of cold gray rain.
I Love that this year started off with a storm. I really do.
It's like washing away 2010. all the mistakes, all the hurt.
fresh.
clean.
new.
A brand new year.

A brand new start.

A brand new life.

2011...Bring on the rain :)

To any of you missing Good 'ol Madera

hahaha my bus lol

quick kudos, i took all these pictures while i was riding home on the bus lol so i wanna give a quick kudos to my bus driver for being cool and letting me hang half way out the window to get a couple of these. while she was driving :) hahaha

Jenae's cross-country montage

This year (like the last 5 years) i have participated in my schools cross country team .Last year I felt pretty run down of x-country and did not try very hard at all. I even got second to last in one of the races . This year was a much better experience ,because I before this year even started i chose to not make it count the only reason was to get in shape for soccer,and maybe try to improve times . So because I did that there was no pressure at all ,it was so amazing. (I did not even let mom come and watch any of my races) . but I at least made my self come in , in the middle and some times I even got some a meddles.

At the begging of the season and for the first 3 races we only had 5 girls barely enough to compete (the 1st race we only had 4 girls , not enough to compete)so this was are first team.

By the and of the season we had a total of 10 girls (2 0f which are not in this photo). In this particular race all but three of are girls got a meddle (top 20 got meddles). At this race my team won :) but i am not going to tell you what place i got because remember this year to me was only to improve and train for soccer .

In total this year i had a lot of fun and got some times that I had set as goals at the begging of the year,and made some really good friends on the team . also got training for soccer :) (this is a really cool picture of my team huddled i for a break)

I don't have any pictures of just me because i was the one taking it, and mom was not there to take pictures sorry, boohoo to me in 10 years i won't have pictures :(

the Parlor! :)

SO!,

we recently re-did our parlor! it used to be Allison's room, then donny's room, then derek's room, then jenae's room. But then when Jonathan left on his mission Jenae moved into Jonathan's room my mom was determined to get back her parlor. 6 months later, we're finally finished and it looks GREAT! thanks Grandmom and Grandad! :)

don't have any before pictures, sorry.

finished! :)

Girls Camp!

SO! these pictures are in reverse order because i'm lazy hahaha
girls camp was. AMAZING! (i would make that word bigger but that's the biggest font there is.) so if you want to hear the story the right way, go alllll the way to the bottom of the post and start there!
and that, was girls camp. the pictures don't do it justice at all. Girls camp is always good. but this year was incredible. our theme was "sisters of strength" so every cabin chose a woman from the scriptures or church history to be there role model all week at camp. A lady in our stake wrote our camp theme song

stories of long ago
tell me of women
who stood with strength, who followed there heart
are they just sroies?
what can i learn?
can i be like them? and find the power within?

chorus:
sisters of strength, sisters of light, helping each other in choosing the right
doing our best everyday
to follow the savior, to live in his way,
helping each other, sisters of strength

eve and elizabeth ruth and naomi.
esther and mary, the mother of christ,
i know their stories and i have learned
I can be like them, and find the power within

chorus

abish and sarah, ana sariah
they walked this path, with honor and strength
now it's our story now it's our turn
we can be like them we have the power within!

and when it gets hard to keep up the fight,
we'll stand as sister with power and might!

chorus

sisters of strength :)

it was really cool cause then, the lady chose several girls to record the song and me and my friend Mary got to do it :) it was awesome.

it was great and i think the whole week of being up there with no distractions just nature and friends and the spirit really made all the girls realize that we have to come together and be sisters of strength. because this world is CRAZY and we have to stick together and help each other out to make it through. we have to be sisters of strength :)
SO! all in all, girls camp was PERFECT. if you ever get the chance to go, please do. because really? it changed my life. in a good way :)

YAY the six chicks! haha have you ever seen 13 going on 30? there is a clique of six girls that everybody calls the "six chicks" hahaha me and my friends that were fifth years in charge of 3rd year certification teaching caled ourselves the 6 chicks cause we were like, always together lol

see? this is Amanda downs. one of Katrina's friends. She was jenae's cabin leader at camp. they do look a lot alike.

this was jenae being her leader lol she actually does look a lot like her

the second years (jenae's year) go on a 5 mile hike every year. so this is the group. (lead by mi papa)

Jenae dressed up as one of her leaders in her sit. it was pretty funny

at our cmap we have this tradition of "passing the torch" from the sixth years to the fifth years on the last night. so everybody gets a candle and lights it and we sing "keeper of the flame" yeah. it's pretty great.

jenae and her cabin had some pretty crazy roll calls. they were hilarious

in the skit that our cabin did, i was a pregnant lady giving birth on an elevator lol. In the first year skit, they took a little peice from everybody Else's skits and threw together one big mash up hahaha it was pretty awesome. so there was a girl pretending to be me, pretending to be pregnant lol so then i ran on and we were pregnant together lol it was pretty legit.

okay blurry picture. hahaha the fifth years are in charge of conducting "pre-campfire" so basically, you sing a bunch of silly songs to get them all riled up! :) and i was a fifth year this year! so yeah, awesome :)

the first night at campfire was the staff skit! my dad was for some reason pretending to be Kermit the frog as a reporter lol so he was interviewing the shepherds who were told that baby jesus had been born lol

The Hansen Family Reunion :)

So, i tried to put these pictures in some sort of order. unsuccessfully. Over the fourth of July weekend my family and I headed off in our trust red vehicle alllllll the way to Hiko, Nevada. A.K.A.....the middle of nowhere. a small valley oasis in the desert we call Nevada lol

so now it's time for some family history real quick.

My great-Grandparents James Alfred and Jewell Evelyn Hansen lived in Hiko. On a ranch. they had six Children. Alfred (my Grandpa. the one in blue farthest to the left) James Dean, Edward, Darrel, Jean and Marie. (Darrel was not yet at the reunion when the picture was taken, and Jean passed away a few years ago.) So we call those children "The Big 6"

my grandparents :) over fifty years married together and still and still madly in love. aww :)

SO! The Hansen Family Reunion happens in Hiko, NV every 2 years and consists of "The Big 6" and any of their descendants who wish to join in the festivities. This year was a Blast.

So, like i said these pictures aren't quite in order.

this is Katelyn "Helping" put up her tent on Saturday morning.

This is Whitney being a cutie Saturday evening

and Katie making silly faces :)

Whitney and her pig. best friends forever hahaha. they are inseparable.

this is me on Saturday morning on the way to the Alamo (city slightly larger than Hiko about ten minutes away from the ranch.) main street Parade. There is a Sinclair gas station with a huge dinosaur out front. i couldn't pass up the opportunity!

Jenae and Natalie Friday afternoon on their way TOO the ranch. the weird thing is, Jenae and i had no clue that the other had taken the exact picture until i was loading them onto the computer because the pictures were taken 24 hours apart lol

Saturday morning while Allison, Natalie, Caleb and I went to the parade and Mom stayed at the ranch to hang out with cousins, Donny, Dad and Jenae (along with 25 or so others) climbed Limestone peak. A mountain right behind the ranch. this picture is awesome cause you can see like, the whole valley.

Pahranagant Valley (spell check? lol) beautiful! I kind of regretted not going on the hike. but only for a split second hahaha

Natalie totally conked out in the tent Saturday afternoon

okay, so i think this is where the pictures start going into an order of some kind. This is a picture of our failed attempt of a dance number in the Friday night Talent show. My dad, Jenae, Natalie and I were going to sing the song, "sweet Caroline"... Neil diamond. anyway. fail. hahaha

this is cutie Caleb :) my best friend :) chillin all happy on Saturday morning :)

then, the murrays arrived Saturday morning and set up their tent right next to ours :)

then, we were off to Crystal springs! It's a natural spring, STRAIGHT out of the earth!!!! coming out of that very whole, the water is clean enough to drink. so i did. ever and over again lol. best water I've ever tasted hahaha. no side effects.

Donny and Grammy playing with the girls in the shallower part.

Whitney and Katelyn had TONS of fun!

Natalie on the other hand was very........hesitant lol. But she warmed up to it once "Grammy" pointed out a few little fishy friends that Natalie immediately called "my nemo friend" hahaha

Whitney kicking in the tiny waterfall :)

The Murray girls had lots of fun! We missed you Eric and Kent! :(

all the little girlies with uncle Donny :) Katie and Whit look a lot a like in this picture lol

Natalie is "All done" haha

Whitney giving her mom lots of kisses :)

Donny looking epically into the distance......ha there was probably a fish.

Our cousins Peter, Nathaniel and Andrew are little dare devil! they went into a different little dammed off part of the springs all by themselves!

after we drove back to the ranch and got all cleaned up, Katrina and Phillip arrived!

after dinner we all whisked off to Watch some Fireworks!

way cool. like everybody in that whole valley was there. i'm not even kidding lol. and get this, for the finale, the fire department came and lit off a bunch of REAL fireworks just like the ones in these pictures. less than forty feet in front of us!!!! They were right on top of us! it was loud and bright and exciting, totally worth the eight hour drive to hiko lol

Sunday morning Before church we had some down time to talk and hang out. Here is "grammy" reading to the grand girlies :)

"Grammy" and "grandpa jamie" with the grandkids :)

katelyn was avoiding me everytime i took the camera out lol

a view of Limestone peak

it felt really good to go back to hiko. It always feels really good to go back there. every time, it feels like home. I know i know, i wasn't born there i wasn't raised there. But Hiko is where my roots are. I've seen that little rock house where my great grandmother was raised, and the ranch they farmed and lived off of. I can't imagine having to go through the hardships my ancestors went through.

But everytime i go back to Hiko, it's like...where my family belongs. thats where i came from, thats where my family started and flourished. It is really amazing to think that from just six people, there are 155 (or more) people that come to that reunion, and others who couldn't make it. it's amazing to me how big our family has become. How many people can call Hiko their "home away from home" being with family, no matter if it's my father, my uncle or my second cousin's daughter evie, makes me remember who i am. where i came from and the name that i bear. I realize how important it is to me, how grateful i am, to be a Hansen. to come from a family that loves each other so much, that cares so much about each other. A family where work is bred into every person, and humility is learned from hardships that we face. where love is abundant and everyone is accepted. I am so thankful to be a part of something so special. I know that this family is exactly where ia ma supposed to be. Forever. I love my family SO MUCH! they are my best friends! and i get to be with them for eternity :) no wonder when i'm with all that family, even the extended relatives, i feel home. Because i've known them for eternity. and i will know them for eternity. And I'm so grateful for that. So grateful for Hiko.

My Home Away From Home.