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!

Karrick's First Trip to Utah

We took a trip to Utah for Karrick's baby blessing and our niece Whitney's wedding.  It was kinda stressful to prepare for our first airplane trip with an infant…we wanted to be prepared for an unhappy child but we really really really wanted to have a happy baby on this trip!

Of course we had a red eye flight out of Anchorage.  Most of the flights are.  We got Karrick ready for bed like usual and even got him to sleep.  When it was time to go we loaded him up in the car seat and left.  He even slept through getting into his carseat.  We were very happy about that!   

This is happy baby post-bedtime nap and pre-meltdown going through security...

Karrick was happy up until it was time to go through security.  He totally lost it.  Who can blame him for having a breakdown though??  Airport security is enough to make most people want to break down and cry!  My "favorite" part was when I had to open the bottles of milk so the TSA worker could test them--while holding a screaming baby.  I guess I had to open them in case they were filled with explosives?  I don't know exactly.  And I was too annoyed to ask.  (Bravo TSA.  Bravo.)

Luckily Karrick slept the majority of the flights (Anchorage to Seattle and Seattle to Salt Lake) and he even stayed asleep during our layover in Seattle.  Wahoo!!!

Sleeping in Seattle…thanks to our light blocking skills!

We were very very very happy to arrive in Salt Lake!

Whoa.  Where am I??

First item of business was to take naps.  And eat.  And visit.  Well it was more like visit and eat and then take naps.

That night (Oct.15) we had Karrick's baby blessing at my parents house in Heber City.  It was so nice to be with family for that special occasion.  Almost all of our immediate families were able to attend--which was awesome!

Luke and Karrick

Family photo :)

The next day we went to Herriman Utah to spend time with Luke's family.  More food and more visiting.  Very good times!!

The Hanzon family...minus Reagan.

Karrick and Grandma T

Then the next day (Oct. 17) was Whitney's wedding day!  She and Josh were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.

The newlyweds-- Josh and Whitney

My artsy pic of the Salt Lake temple.  I think it turned out really nice!  :)

Lauren watched Karrick while we were in the temple.  She even got him to take a nap!  Well done!

Cody and Karrick are buddies.  They totally bonded...  

I can't believe my brother has a daughter that's married!  Whoa!

Another family picture before we left to go to the wedding luncheon/buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  What??  They don't have those in Alaska! 

Karrick hanging out with the bride at the wedding luncheon in Lehi.

The next day Karrick and I went to Tabiona with Wendi to watch Kaelyn's volleyball game, and Luke went back to Herriman to visit his family again.

Karrick and Kaelyn

Kerri approves of my outfit choice since they are the Tabiona Tigers

Kamerie and Karrick...notice the tiger in the background?

Karrick and Uncle Travis

Before we went back to Heber, we went to Duchesne to visit dad and see the progress he is making building the foundation for his shop building thing.

Karrick with grandpa Alan.

Me and Karrick

Karrick and Aunt Wendi standing in dad's future shop site.

Saturday (Oct. 19) was Whitney's wedding reception in Roosevelt, so we went back out to the Basin for that.  We rode out with my dad.  And of course we had to stop and do some work on our way.  This time it was loading the diesel tank in the back of his truck so he could take it back to Heber...

Notice he is wearing his suit??

And then we were off to the reception.  Apparently the zombies were already there.  Luckily they didn't eat all the people refreshments by the time we arrived.

My brother's contribution to the reception decor.

Karrick and aunt Kara

Before we knew it we were headed back to Alaska!  It was a wonderful trip, and it was so fun to have Karrick meet all of his family members (except for Reagan...he hasn't met him yet).

In Seattle, trying to keep the baby entertained with windows and planes.

Almost time to board our flight to Alaska.  

And to bring this post back to where we started with our annoyance with TSA--  good thing they inspected Karrick's car seat that was in a CLEAR PLASTIC BAG.  Heaven forbid we are smuggling anything in there...  Again, bravo TSA.  Bravo.

Utah Trip

For the past little while I have been in Utah.  Luke was at work (much to Kaelyn and Kamerie's dismay...) so off I went.

Mostly I watched movies, took naps, and ate all of the canned peaches from my mom's food storage while I was there.  But there were a few more things going on as well.

Like:

-Eating at Cafe Rio...multiple times...

-Watching Whitney cheer at a basketball game in Park City.  Yay Union won!

This is when all the cheerleaders attacked their cheer coach.  (Whit is the blurry one. )

-Shopping with my mom.

-Making a fleece blanket for Chewie (baby nickname...Think Star Wars...)

-Playing games with my mom.

-Driving to Provo with my brother Dustin, so I could bring his truck back to my parents house.  It was fun to hang out with him for awhile.

-Shopping for baby clothes with my sister Kerri at the Park City outlets.

-Sleepovers at my parents house with Kerri and her kids and Cassie and her kids.

-Making a quilt top...with the cutest fabric ever!  (I think anyway...)

Yes,  know it's not even...

-Hanging out with Slinky (my sister's dog) because my swollen feet wouldn't fit in my church shoes :(

-Helping my dad with his computer... (mostly iTunes support)

-Watching my dad go feed the horses and leave to feed the cows every morning.

-Shopping in Park City (again) with Whit and her friend.

-Watching Kerri be awesome.

It's even an "action" shot!  And that blanket is for Chewie!  Yay!

-Watching my nieces (Kaelyn and Kenleigh) play basketball.

-Having Kam tie my shoes.

-Feeding the horses apples.

Snoopy

Gypsy

-Having a last minute baby shower.  (Thanks Laura!!! and Colleen!)

-Getting awesome baby gifts...for example, this one from Kara and Whit:

And the reason baby's nickname is Chewie is because Luke's nickname is Skywalker (thanks to Kara and her kids), so when I told her we were having a boy they said we should name him Han Solo.  I suggested Chewbacca...Chewie for short.  And it stuck.