A Weekend of Friends, Dance Shows and Cubs vs. Royals

Not very often do the Chicago Cubs play the Kansas City Royals ... but this summer was one of the rare times it was scheduled to happen!

Being Cub fans and Royals fans, we thought it would be great if we could go to the game and bring Gretchen and the kids along as well!  We booked the tickets, invited our friends Brad and Sarah Baker down for the weekend as well and got the plans rolling!

And then the dates for Dayne's dance recitals were announced and the recital was the same weekend as the game.  That meant Dayne and I wouldn't be able to go and we had two extra tickets.  Knowing that Rocky and Luke are always good for a baseball game, we asked them if they'd like to go in our place and of course, they accepted!

Dayne did a really good job during her dance recital - her first ever!  She started the dance season with two of her best friends - Lauren and Lina - but they had since quit dancing so Dayne wasn't too thrilled that she was alone.  Regardless, she stuck with it and learned some impressive dance moves along the way!

Dayne had two recitals: one on Friday night and one on Saturday night.  The rest of the family was able to attend the Friday night show.

Dayne's first dance recital at Layton's Dance Academy.  She is the 2nd to last on the far right side.

Proud mom and dad after her first recital!

The next day, the day of the baseball game, Oz decided to add some excitement to the day by running off!  He was missing for a few hours, but eventually we found him - right in the neighborhood!  It was clear that whatever he had been doing wherever he was doing it, he had a blast!  He was wet and muddy and, besides giving the look of "I am sorry and ashamed" ... seemed to have had fun!  We were just happy to have him back home!

Dayne, protecting her beloved Oz from anyone who might want to scold him for running off.

After the recital and after the game, the Bakers brought over Wrigley so Dayne could play with her and they could hang out with us for a little while!  Wrigley just loved all the loves and attention that Dayne and Kylie gave her!

Hermsen Wedding Weekend

The Hansen Family traveled to Dubuque, Iowa this past weekend to help our friends, Adam & Renee, celebrate their wedding! 

| Our travels started Friday morning about 10:30.  We had to be in Dubuque for Graden to attend the wedding rehearsal that started at 5:15 so we were on a tight schedule!  Hunter had football practice until 10:00 ... so we couldn't leave sooner than we did!  I made pancakes for breakfast for the family before we hit the road so we wouldn't have to stop to eat, plus had plenty of drinks and snacks on hand!

| Amazingly ... we arrived in Dubuque at 4:45!  We dropped Graden off at the church while the kids and I went back to the hotel to get checked in and unpacked.  After rehearsal, we enjoyed a really nice dinner at Catfish Charlies - Graden had ribs and I had a nice sirloin.  Of course, we coupled our wonderful meals with a few adult beverages!    We headed back to the hotel about 9:30 that evening ... well, I should say we aimed for the hotel but ended up at the sports bar across from the hotel. 

| The next day was a fun one!  We spent a leisurely morning getting ready for the wedding - which was at 1:30 that afternoon.  My best friend, Jennifer, and her lil' guy, John, drove from Cedar Rapids that morning and met us at the hotel to get ready with us.  Graden, who was a groomsman in the wedding, headed out with the wedding party about 10:30 while the rest of us got ready to head out for lunch prior to the wedding. 

| Jen and I and the kids found a Mexican restaurant close by and enjoyed a margarita (of course!) then headed to the local WalMart to kill some time.

Me and my long time bestie, Jennifer

| The wedding started on time and was a beautiful ceremony!  After the traditional Catholic ceremony, the wedding party drove around town in a Party Bus while the wedding guests headed to the Grand Harbor Resort for Cocktail Hour.  Well, most of the wedding guests did .... we, however used this downtime to head to our room and take a little nap.

Mr. & Mrs. Adam & Renee Hermsen

| We headed down to the reception (which was located right next to the hotel we were staying at) about 5:45 and waited for the wedding party to arrive!  Renee was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen! She looked like she had just walked out of a photo shoot!  She is one of those women who you'd love to hate because she is so beautiful and adorable, but she is such a sweet person!  Adam isn't too hard to look at, either .

| The wedding reception lasted until 11pm, then we headed back to the sports bar we visited the night before.  We quenched our thirst until about 1am then headed back to the hotel for some zzzz's.  It was a fun night!

Wedding wishes to Mr.and Mrs.Hermsen: To many happy & fun years! ♥ The Hansens

| The next morning Dayne and I went to the waterpark that was located inside the hotel/resort.  It was pretty lame for her to be there with just boring ol' Mom, so we were back at the hotel room by 10am.  We cleaned up, got packed up and headed out for lunch.  We stopped by the Aswegan's hotel to say goodbye to them .... but ended up having breakfast at their hotel and then headed to the Mississippi River Aquarium and Museum for a while.

Hunter & Dayne with John

| About 2:30 we hit the road and headed toward Waterloo so we could join Donna, Gretchen and the kids for dinner.  As we got loaded into the truck to head home, TJ and Kylie got in the Suburban and "refused' to get out .... saying they were going home with us!  We bounced around the idea (they were planning to come to Lee's Summit the coming weekend for the Cubs vs. Royals game) and they ended up coming home with us!  I thought it'd be good for Gretchen to have a little break from the kids and it'd be great for all the cousins to get some much needed bonding time together as well!  They all miss each other very much!

Kylie, TJ's & Dayne enjoying the summa-summa-summatime heat!

| On our way out of town we stopped by Dad's house as a surprise visit for Father's Day ... but weren't able to stay long since it was already almost 8pm and we still had a 5 hour drive home. |Bleh!|

| On the way home we ran into some pretty severe weather ... listening to the radio we heard that a tornado had touched down about 16 miles from where we were.  Yipes!  The storm was traveling northeast and we were traveling southwest ... so Graden told Hunter to "hurry up!"!

| Sunday night was a loooong night ... we didn't get home until almost 1am.  Needless to say we all slept good that night!

| Long weekend, but good memories spent with friends and family!

Visit from the Benham Family!

Thursday afternoon I got a text from one of my Besties asking if we'd like some company for lunch on Saturday!  She and her beautiful family had been vacationing in Branson for the week so they were going to head our way on Saturday!  That made my day!

Folks, Trista Faye Benham is NEVER late.  And in true never-ever-ever-late style, Trista was about an early arriving this morning!  The plan was for them to arrive between 11:30 and 12.  About 10:15 Trista sent me a text that it'd be more like 10:45 that they'd be here ... and then, there she was just 15 minutes later ferociously ringing our doorbell!

We decided on BBQ for lunch and headed out a little after 11.  It was great that both of our kids joined us, too!  We went to Holy Smoke BBQ in Lee's Summit.  It's a little family owned restaurant that has great food!  Trista has three girls - Madison is 14, Kalli is 13 and Lexie is almost 3.  The "big" girls sat at a booth and the adults (and Hunter and Lexie) sat at a table a short distance away.



Bryan ordered The Porker and Trista ordered The Porkette. Does it get any sweeter than that?

After our lunch we headed home and the Benham's stayed for about an hour and we enjoyed the beautiful afternoon!  The girls played hide-n-seek and played with water balloons while the adults visited (and swatted away the wasps galore!).

As with all good things, the Benham visit had to come to an end and they headed home a little after 2:00. 

The Benhams will be back in Lee's Summit at the end of July for the Kenny Chesney concert and we look forward to it!  There is never a dull moment and always stories to share ... and new stories to create!

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

The Hansen family, yet again, had the pleasure of spending the holiday weekend with family - the Ruestman's.  An added bonus was that we were able to spend it with our friends, Chris and Jennifer Aswegan (and John!), as well! 

The holiday weekend started just after noon on Friday!  I got off work early and headed home to pack and settle all the deatils of the trip!  I had made arrangements for a friend from work to house/dog sit for the weekend so Oz wouldn't be alone!  It worked out great!  She loved him and he loved her!

We hit the road about 3:30 Friday evening and headed to Grove, OK.  We had the heartbreaking experience of traveling through Joplin, MO (it had been just 5 days since the tornado hit).  The images on TV are heartwrenching, but seeing the damage in person is very surreal.  Very quick way to ground oneself.

We arrived at the Ruestman Lake House about 7:00 and were welcomed by Dick, Marilyn and Zoe!  We ordered some pizzas for an easy, relaxing dinner and settled in for the evening with a few beverages and some good company!

The next morning, about 10:30, the Aswegan family arrived!  Jennifer has been my best friend since 7th grade and Graden and Chris (her husband) have known each other for about 15 years.  Having them both there was great for us both!  To make it an even better love story, they recently had their first baby, John, who is just six weeks old.  It was great having all THREE of them there to join us for the wonderful weekend!

The epitome of mornings at the lake.

Saturday afternoon the boys spent fishing and the girls spent sunnin' on the deck!  Dayne and Zoe wandered around the neighborhood, "swam" in the hot tub, played with the turtle that Dick rescued (then unknowingly held hostage in his truck for a full day!), walked down to the lake, made prank calls to boys, put on modeling shows, styled the creepy manequin head's hair ... just to name a few things!


Dayne, Zoe and John

Saturday night for dinner we feasted on hamburgers, chips and salad. Every meal was wonderful!  I am sure the cooking was good, but the company made it even better, no doubt!

Saturday evening was spent laying low and listening to some new stories offered by Dick & Marilyn. Their stories are the best, I tell you! Dick recited his experience of crashing his plane into a Florida swamp -- that may have been the best story of the weekend.  What makes it funny is the way he minimizes it.  Long story short, he is the only one to have survived a plane crash in this particular swamp and he insists that the media made a bigger deal out of it than it was.  He said, "they didn't know ....they weren't there."  Funny, funny man!

Sunday morning we made French Toast, fresh fruit and sausage for breakfast - so delicious!  The boys had gone out fishing so we had a late breakfast - well worth the wait!  After breakfast was settled we headed back to the deck for more sunnin' time.  It was a really rough weekend, I tell ya!

Sunday dinner was the pinnacle of our weekend feasts - Dick's famous smoked ribs!  Paired with corn on the cob, baked beans (which Marilyn and I prefer to be dry, but others prefer to be runny!), salad and baked bread!  I would guess that we all gained a few pounds this weekend! 

Graden and Dick preparing the ribs for our Sunday feast.

Sunday evening we all turned in kind of early .... we were beat from all the hard work we did that day (not!).  The boys had plans to get up early Monday morning, too, for one last morning of fishing. Up til this point, fishing hadn't been real good due to the high & muddy waters. 

Monday morning the women made a hearty breakfast - biscuits and gravy!  The boys came in from fishing about 10am (sadly, their fishing expedition didn't get much better!) and we all feasted until we thought we'd pop!  After breakfast settled in, the girls took Dayne, Zoe and John shopping to a few of the local shops - Factory Connection, STAGE and Cheapo Depo.  Cheapo Depo is one of those odd stores that you never know what you might find -- it's always an adventure!


The Hansen Tribe

After an afternoon of shopping, we packed up and headed back for home.  The lake is about three hours from home and we wanted to stop in Joplin to visit some family so we headed out about 3:30 Monday afternoon.

We waved our good byes and yelled out THANK YOUs to our wonderful host and hostess!  Always a great time and plenty

Needless say, the drive through Joplin was jaw-dropping.  The damage and devastation was very saddening.  And to know of some of the heart breaking stories behind some of the damage, and the lost lives of so many people -- so many young people! -- was enough to ground us all real quick.

We got to Rocky and Mindy's house about 5:00 and spent just over an hour and a half catching up with them and listening to some of the tornado stories.  Their son, Luke (who just graduated high school just hours before the tornado hit), is a volunteer Fire Fighter and had been out helping with search and rescue so they had a lot of stories ... many of them sad, but many of them about every day heros.

It was such a great feeling to hug our family this weekend.  We look forward to our next visit!