A Quick Trip to Boise

Usually you don't go north for vacation in the winter, but that's what we did last week. Our son invited us to come visit him and his family while they were visiting his wife's family so we headed north. We hadn't seen them in a year so we were excited for a visit. We left right after church on Sunday and drove without stopping to Boise. We had an Airbnb and it worked out nicely. We were able to visit the Larsen family and play lots of games. Some of us went skiing at Bogus Basin while the rest of us took a walk or played around the Larsens' and enjoyed the remarkably pleasant weather. The next day, we took a look at the Anne Frank/Human Rights Memorial in downtown Boise and walked on the Boise River Greenbelt Trail. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and windy so we didn't last long doing that. Despite that, we had a great time visiting with our son and his wife and baby and playing lots of games. We headed back Wednesday morning, making good time, so we could finish up our Christmas preparations. It was a good trip.

Singing happy birthday to Garrett whose birthday was the previous week

Opening a present from his Aunt Susanna who used to babysit him when he was a tiny baby--she recently started crocheting on her mission.

Playing Wii out in the "shop" with some Larsen's

Going on a walk

Skiing at Bogus Basin

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Garrett's wife! Next time...

Comments

Do Dots Family System

The original post was written in January of 2015. I wrote an update at the bottom of this post in March 2021. A few months ago, a friend of mine told me about something she was doing in her family to help her family function better. Her teenage autistic son had been struggling a lot so they had been working with behavior therapists to help him and this "Do Dots Family System" had been recommended. As she described it, I was greatly intrigued since it sounded like something I wanted to implement at my own house. I looked into it and decided to purchase it right after Thanksgiving. Here is my review of how it has worked for us over the last six weeks or so. The basic idea of the chart is that children need to take care of their responsibilities before they get any privileges. It strongly reinforces the concept of "Work Before Play" . The chart helps children see in a very visual way that, until they have completed their responsibilities, they are on Le...

Hansen Family Reunion 2024, Thursday afternoon

For lunch on Thursday, Lauren and Kurt made Cafe Rio which was delicious. On Thursday afternoon, we had free time at the lake. Heidi and Aaron rented a pontoon boat and took people out for rides. This was very popular. Some of us went on the kayaks and/or swimming or just hung out on the beach.

2024 Hansen Family Reunion, Wednesday

Recently we had another Hansen Family Reunion at Bear Lake. We've been having these destination reunions since 2008. There were about 70 of us in attendance. Bruce and Michelle organized the activities and did a good job. I enjoyed myself! Hopefully lots of other people did too. We showed up on Wednesday afternoon and enjoyed a taco salad dinner, served by Neil and Kristie's family. We also worked on two mixer games: a word search with the names of all 100 Hansen family members as well as a Bingo card that involved finding people with different attributes like recent high school graduation, birthdays in certain months, etc. The word search was definitely the most popular. Also popular was playing Nine-Square and Sandy Pickle (a cross between pickle ball and badminton). Thys and Katrina might have won! After dinner, we had an FHE activity/lesson. Liz had made a book with stories of the first ancestors to join the church. She had selected different stories for us to act out in g...

Search This Blog