McKay's Triathlon

So McKay competed in his first Triathlon over this past weekend in Burley, Idaho. It is called the Spudman. It was a lot of fun to go up there with him and watch him participate. He did really well, especially for his first one. He finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes and I think he came in 27th in his age group, or something close to that, out of just under 200 people, so not too shabby I'd say. I don't know how he did over all, there were just under 2000 people who raced. McKay had so much fun he thinks he'll do another in a couple of weeks up in Ogden. So for those that don't know I believe there are 3 levels a Triathlons, the full, Olympic and Sprint. This one was the Olympic, so he swam 1 mile, then biked 24 miles and ran 6 miles. Most people know how great McKay and I are at always forgetting to bring our camera with us. Well when we were in Portland we did buy a new camera and I have recommitted myself to remember to take it with us. So we did not forget but when I pulled the camera out at McKay's first transition area and tried to take a picture I discovered that our battery was dead. Doesn't it figure??? I guess we assumed it was charged up well enough since we have hardly used it since we got it. So we have no pictures of this great event to share, it is a little disappointing. All in all the weekend was good...we camped while we were up there. Some people might think what camping with less than 6 weeks left in your pregnancy?? It really isn't so bad. We had a good time so any sleep I lost was totally worth it. They did have an incident at this Triathlon; they lost someone in the swimming portion. I had already been down and watched McKay transition from the water to the bike so I knew where he was so I wasn't worried. But unfortunately there was a 60 year old man that went down and they didn't find him for 30 minutes, needless to say he did not make it. I saw them pull him out of the water, it was kind of disturbing and I'll be interested to see if they report how he died. The people that did see him go down say that he waved his hands in the air, yelled help once, and went under. Some are thinking it may have been a heart attack because he just went straight down. The water was so murky from the all the swimmers they couldn't find him even though they had people in the water looking for him with in 10 seconds of him going down. It was pretty sad and all of us sitting there watching them search and then find him were pretty sad. They never had anything like this happen before in the 22 years of this Triathlon.Well I have been tagged by a couple different people so I may try to log on a little later and get to those. I hope this post makes since I am so tired today I am not sure it does. Other than being tired today I really have been feeling pretty good...ready to be done with this whole pregnancy thing, but not quite ready for baby so I guess I'll take the discomfort for now.

Much love denene

July 16th...another year has passed

July 16th….to some people it will just be another day in their lives. To me it will always be the day that I said goodbye to my only brother Adam Karl Hansen. It was three years ago today that we lost Adam to Cancer. A lot has happened in three years but not a day goes by that I don’t wish he were still here. I miss him so much but usually try not to dwell too much on his passing. I try more to remember all the good times that we had. I feel so blessed to have made the choice to move to Utah over 6 years ago, one major reason is of course I met McKay here and the other is that I was able to spend so much time with Adam the last three years of his life. Really I don’t know if I could have made the move had he not already lived here. The transition was a lot easier knowing that one of my siblings was just going to be living a few miles away.

This year I decided that instead of sitting at work on my computer looking at pictures and reading Adam’s Eulogy (yes I have it on my computer at work) getting all depressed, that I would do something a little better. So McKay had the day off and we went fishing all day. Last year we did this the weekend before the 16th, but I worked the 16th and it totally sucked. Anyway below are some fond memories of good times we had together and with the family.

Adam, Emily and I at good Ol' Bingham Copper Mine, who knew a mine could be so fun!

The last picture of the Hansen family all together was at my wedding.

This is Adam, McKay, Joe and William, with Olivia on the right.  We were having a great day up Spanish Fork Canyon sledding with the fam!!

One of our favorite pass times watching BYU Football!!!  Go Cougars!

So I just want to say that if they have blogs in heaven, I love you Adam and I miss you more than anything.  You were a great brother and wonderful friend.  Thank you for always being a great example to me, and everyone, of how important the gospel is to you and also how important it is to live it each day.  I will continue to hold your testimony close in my heart because it still helps strengthen me today.  

I know Adam hated country but the below song always makes me think of him and it does really state how I feel.  This song hits me the hardest when McKay is gone all weekend I am out walking on a Sunny Sunday afternoon thinking, I really should be at my brothers house in Lehi visiting with him and his family.... It is called Who you'd be today by Kenny Chesney:

Who You’d Be Today – Kenny Chesney

Sunny days seem to hurt the most,
I wear the pain like a heavy coat,
I feel you everywhere I go.
I see your smile, I see your face,
I hear you laughing in the rain,
I still can’t believe you’re gone.

Chorus:
It ain’t fair you died too young,
Like the story that had just begun,
But death tore the pages all away.
God knows how I miss you,
All the hell that I’ve been through,
Just knowing no one could take your place.
Sometimes I wonder who you’d be today.

Would you see the world,
Would you chase your dreams,
Settle down with a family,
I wonder what you would name your babies.
Some days the sky’s so blue,
I feel I can talk to you
And I know it might sound crazy.

Chorus:
It ain’t fair you died too young,
Like the story that had just begun,
But death tore the pages all away.
God knows how I miss you,
All the hell that I’ve been through,
Just knowing no one could take your place.
Sometimes I wonder who you’d be today.

Today, today, todaaaaaaaayyyyyy.
Today, today, todaaaaaaaayyyyyy.


Sunny days seem to hurt the most
Wear the pain like a heavy coat
The only thing that gives me hope
Is I know, I’ll see you again some day.

Some day…some daaaaaayyyyyyy……

The last of our trip

So I probably could have finished this the other day because now that I look back I didn't take very many pictures while in Portland. One of the days we were there we went to Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top with Erika, Grant, Ethan and Elle. It was a lot of fun and I only think I stopped twice on the way up. I thought that wasn't bad for a prego. Here are some of our pics from the trip:


McKay and Grant at the top of the Falls


Ethan and Elle at the top


The dogs and us at the top


McKay at the top


Griffin hanging out in the back of the car with Ethan.


The dogs wanted in on the action when we stopped at Crown Point, but they got to stay in the car on this stop. Erika took some good shots from the Falls and Crown Point with a real camera, we'll have to post those when she sends them to me some day. :)


McKay at Waterfront Park in front of the Hawthorne Bridge. One of the days we were in town McKay and I went downtown together. I love downtown Portland so it was so nice just to walk around my city! I miss it!


Just some ducks swimming down the Willamette River


The last from our trip right now. The dogs hanging out at my parents house watching McKay pack up the car I think. Miles looks like he maybe howling but no worries he is just about to catch some mean flies....got to love that Fly Catchers Syndrome of his! :)

___

Utah to Cali to Oregon

So I am finally getting around to posting some of the pictures from our trip to the Redwoods and up the Oregon Coast. I believe I mentioned in my prior post that we had to use disposable cameras because we left our digital at home, so the quality of some of the pictures is not the best but better than nothing! We'll start with the Redwoods:

So the first night we drove to Winnemucca, NV and stayed in this really nice hotel that I booked for us.... oh wait no it wasn't nice and McKay said to me "maybe next time don't book the cheapest hotel you can find." I thought that I was being smart and thrifty, oh well we survived. The next morning we got up and drove all the way to the Redwoods. It took us the whole day. We camped at one of the camp grounds inside the Redwoods. It was so nice and each camp area is secluded because of the tree's and brush. We loved it! The next morning we got up took down our camp and did some exploring. Below are some of the pics from our day.


McKay Hugging one of those big tree's in the Redwoods


I don't know how we'll this one will post. Me and the dogs hanging out of the sunroof.

McKay on a big stump.


McKay and the dogs by a steam in the Redwoods, it was really pretty down there.


Just one of the dogs...Miles looks so thrilled in this picture! :)

So after our day at the Redwoods we started up the Oregon Coast. It was so beautiful and I didn't realize how much of the coast line you do get to see while you are driving. We stayed right on the Ocean for quite a while. That night we camped at Beverly Beach which is between Depot Bay and Newport if I remember right. The camp ground was not as good as the Redwoods, but it worked out for us. We enjoyed a nice windy walk on the beach that night and a great sunset!!



Shadows of us...this is the type of picture I like of myself these days. The rest you can see how fat my face is getting. :(


Even the dogs enjoyed the Ocean view.



It got pretty windy...just look at Griffin's face in the second picture; he really was ready to go. He kept making his little whining noise at this point until we left. And Miles just looks so cute! :)


Windy but don't you just love the Oregon Coast. It is so pretty!



A couple of other views. Me and the dogs and then if you look above you can see McKay on the other side of the weeds....I wonder what he was doing?? :)


Just another view.

Here we are our little family at Haystack Rock. I can handle that these pics aren't too large; it makes me feel a little better about posting ones with me in them.




So this is going to have to do it for this post. I'll post some of the other pictures I have just from being in Portland later. This already took way too long. But hey at least I am getting this caught up and up to date. The above pics are taken of us up above Manzanita Beach. I love this little look out it is so pretty!! Until next time....