Merry Christmas 2016!

Now that I have had a quick refresher course on how to use blogger, I still don't know where to begin this letter.

2016 will be remembered for a lot of things...

1. A winter with never ending freezing rain. (Lame!)

The ice made hiking (or going to the grocery store) interesting/treacherous...

2. A 7.1 earthquake. (Scary! But we were all safe and unharmed.)

The extent of the damage from the earthquake...a couple broken bottles in the laundry room.  (PHEW!)

3. Subsequent emergency preparedness planning...complete with sweet tactical backpacks and family logo patches! (Thanks to Luke's sweet design skills!)

The Hanzon Family Preparedness Crest

4. Homemade Dirty Coke Zeros and Dirty Diet Dr. Peppers (Amazing!)

With sugar free coconut syrup purchased (by the case) from Amazon :)

5. The Broncos won the Superbowl. (Hooray! Finally!)

6. Grandpa Alan let Karrick "drive" the truck while he fed the cows when we visited in March. (He was in heaven!)

Reminds me of when I was a kid!

7. A wildfire near our house. (Again, scary! But again, thankfully, we were all safe and unharmed.)

8. Manda's visit to Denali National Park with her sister Wendi. (Fun!)

At Eielson Visitor Center in Denali National Park

9. A month long visit to Utah in June-July to visit all of our extended families. Plus we finally got to go to a rodeo and see fireworks (in the dark!) for the 4th of July! (Awesome!!)

On Cedar Mountain

10. The summer Olympics!  (Go USA!)

11. A trip to Nabesna in Wrangell St. Elias National Park where Karrick caught his first fish--an arctic grayling. (Yay!)

Devil's Mountain Lodge/Nabesna River

12. Karrick's first tent camping experience in the Chugach National Forest. (So fun!)

Such a beautiful spot!

Happy Camper!

13. Grandma & Grandpa Hanzon's visit for the lantern festival and a trip to Hope. (Wahoo!)

The wind made things a bit difficult, but we did get one lantern to cooperate!

Fall in Hope, Alaska ♡

14. The election of 2016 that is finally over. (Thankfully!)

BUT mostly it will be remembered as the year my sister Kerri passed away.

If you remember from our letter last year, she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in October 2015.  She left us on October 26, 2016--just a little over one year later.  I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend with her this past year.  And I'm especially grateful Karrick got to spend time getting to know her.

We are so grateful for the gospel and for our knowledge that we will see her again!  But it truly has one of the hardest things that has happened to me and my family.  We appreciate all of the love and support we have received.  Thank you!

We hope you are all doing well this Christmas season!  And may you all have a wonderful New Year!

Hawaii Day 2- Hukilau Beach, Pillbox Hike, and Lanikai Beach

The place we are staying is across the street from Hukilau Beach.  We went for a walk along the beach this morning.  (And if you have the Hukilau song in your head now and you are wondering what came first--the beach or the song?  The answer is…the beach!)

We were trying a morning nap alternative for Karrick…which was to have him sleep while we walked around instead of being stuck inside while he napped.  It worked--for the most part. 

We walked from the middle to one end and then back toward the other end--which was basically the furthest point of land you can see in the picture.

Karrick napped most of the time.  It's a rough life...

How we roll...

Eventually K woke up…mostly rested we hoped!

After our walk we went back and ate and Karrick napped again.  Then we were off on our next adventure.  My friend Stephanie (from Colorado) lives in Honolulu now.  We met up with her this afternoon to go hiking and then we went to an amazing beach.  She is the most wonderful tour guide!

We did the pillbox hike.

Karrick eventually fell asleep.  Of course he did!  Nothing as relaxing as your mom carrying you up a big hill...

We only went to the first pillbox.  The pillboxes are old military bunker thingys…that have been graffitied on a lot.

Such a beautiful view!

Me and Stephanie (and sleeping K) 

Back at the car.  Getting ready to walk to the beach!

Walking to the beach with auntie Stephie!

Lanikai beach was our destination at the end of the street (opposite the pillbox hike) and it has the most amazingly soft sand!  We loved loved loved this beach!!

Almost there!

Karrick's first time in the ocean!  He LOVED it!

Turns out K is quite the little fish!  :)

Winter Hiking

Today we decided to go on a winter hike at the Eagle River Nature Center in between Karrick's naps.  (Have we mentioned lately how much we love living so close to such awesome places??)

Me and Baby K…who isn't so "baby" anymore...

Family pic on the Bear Viewing deck

Taking a timeout for some snowy pics

I can't get enough of the snowy trees!!!

View from the salmon viewing deck

On the way home, Luke said that he never thought he would say that 16 degrees felt so warm!  It was a beautiful day for hiking!  Alaska is rubbing off on us.

Fall Family Hike

Luke leaves for Houston Texas tonight for work training.  He will be gone for about a week, so we made sure we had some fall family fun before he left.

We went on a short hike to South Fork Falls to enjoy the beautiful colors before they are all gone.  (Seriously...their days are numbered...one wind storm and buh-bye beautiful leaves!  They will probably be gone by the time Luke gets back.)

On the way to the trail.  (Fall looks good on Alaska, doesn't it??)

Walking on the trail/road to the waterfall overlook.

South Fork Falls

Karrick is awesome at sleeping through adventures...which is fine by me :)

Yay!  We are out enjoying the beautifulness of Alaska! 

I call this one "stroller in the woods".  (Luke's pic idea.)

South Fork of the eagle river and some berries which are probably poisonous.  Or not.  There's really no in between...

After our hike we went and got delicious sandwiches at Tinker's.  (Seriously their turkey bacon ranch croissant is the best sandwich I've had in a very long time.)

Hiking South Fork

Today I went hiking.  It was such a beautiful sunny day, and I knew I needed to seize the moment and get outside!  (Especially since who knows when the last nice fall day will be...it could be any day!)

This is what the sky looked like today.

I chose to go up to South Fork to the bridge and back--which is about 4 miles round trip.  (I have yet to make it beyond the bridge up to Eagle and Symphony Lakes...someday...)

Anyway, while I was hiking I looked behind me and noticed an impressive mountain range in the distance.  I thought to myself "aren't the Todrillo mountains to the West?  Not the North."  I turned back around and continued hiking, still pondering on which mountain range it could be.  (The Todrillo mountains are visible to the West on really clear days, and I am surprised by them every time.  And it wasn't until recently that I found out their official name..)

Lightbulb.

Alaska mountain range is to the north!  I wondered if I would be able to see Denali.

Yep.  Sure enough.  By that time, when I turned around it was in sight.  And it looked massive.  From hundreds of miles away, it still looks massive!

Of course I didn't have my camera.  But I did have my phone.  So instead of no pictures, I have some fairly lame pictures to share.  (But let's face it, I have yet to take a picture of Denali, with any device that I own, and be satisfied that it captured it's immensity.)

This picture is from the bend in the trail before the bridge looking northwest-ish.

Looking the other direction was also beautiful.  This is looking southeast-ish at the bridge.  These are our neighborhood Chugach Mountains.

And then driving home on Hiland, I pulled over to attempt to capture another impressive view of the Alaska Range.  I couldn't believe it!  It was the clearest day of all time!  (At least that I've experienced since we've lived here...)

Here's a view of Foraker, Hunter, and Denali from Hiland Road.

What a beautiful day!

Now if only next monday will be just as beautiful...that's when Luke and I will be at Denali National Park for our road lottery adventure...the fun never ends!

Hiking and Demolition Derby-ing

Luke had to do some things this morning to get ready to go back to work, so Lauren and I had to go hiking without him.

We went to South Fork Falls:

and to the Eagle River Nature Center:  (where this cool tree lives...)

Part of the trail system there is closed due to bears feeding on salmon in the river.

But there was still plenty of space to roam.

After we got our fill of hiking, we picked up Luke, got some Taco Bell to go (Lauren loves that stuff!), and we were off again to the State Fair for some Demolition Derby action....and kettle corn and doughnuts.  (The best mini doughnuts of all time!)

Kettle corn=Derby snacks

Do you see that car?  The one on it's side?  This hit was the hardest hit of the day and the station wagon driver got a gift certificate for a tattoo...Wait, what?  (If only I were making this up...sooooo funny!)

I think this car was in the derby yesterday too...It came into the arena looking like this...

Free for all...and that's not dust.  That's full out car smoke-age!

I have been to demolition derbies before, but this one was way more intense...not as many rules or something.  It was Luke and Lauren's first demo derby experience, and they both are hooked now.

Luke took some video of the derby, and it's so funny to watch.  Not because of the crashing cars, but because of Luke.  He is laughing nonstop and saying "Whoa" and "Oh No!" the whole time.  (I have been forbidden from posting the video though.  You're just going to have to trust me.)

We stopped back in the farm exhibit building to see the huge vegetables one last time.

And last but certainly not least...doughnuts!

They are SO GOOD!

Tonight Lauren has to go back to Colorado.  BOOOOOOO!  It has been so much fun having her here!  We really miss our Colorado friends!  (And non-Colorado friends and family etc...)

It was Alaska Airlines Day at the fair today...