Hurling, Hacking, and Happiness with the Hansgens

Back in July, I found a killer deal on airline tickets from Las Vegas to Detroit ($80 per round trip ticket, including tax). Immediately, I called my sister Diane. Since we moved to Ohio, we talked of flying her and her family out to come and stay with us. I figured at that price, I could do it, so we booked the tickets for her family to come out in October and anxiously awaited the day. Alden was estatic! He couldn't wait to see Davin, Diane's oldest son that is his age. He made general announcements in school and in Primary a month before they came that his cousin Davin was coming to visit us in Ohio. Thobe was almost as excited to see James, Diane's son that is his age. When I told him that their whole family was coming, Thobe expressed his excitement about seeing James. I said, "Well Thobe, don't you want to see the rest of James' family?" Thobe thought for a minute and then responded, "No, I just want to look at James."

Last Monday, October 13, the long awaited day arrived. I took Alden out of school an hour early, dropped the kids off in Toledo to spend a couple hours with Abuelita & Grandpa Monday, and then drove up to the Detroit airport. I was thrilled to see my sister and her family. I must admit that my nephews are incredibly cute and fun, and I was so excited to get to know my newest nephew Joshua who I had only seen once prior to their visit. Joshua with his contageous smile, stark blue eyes, and happy disposition quickly won his way into my heart. I felt as though I had known him as long as I knew the other kids and loved him just as much. On our way home, we stopped in Toledo to pick up my kids. I don't know who was happier to see us, Alden or Grandpa. Poor Grandpa changed a whopping 5 poopy diapers in the hour and half that I was gone (Michael's mom often tells me that when his kids were little he changed a total of 1 diaper). Needless to say, I felt terrible. To top it all off, Grandpa Monday then generously offered to fix us all one of his famous meals--Little Caesar's Pizza. It was a welcomed, delicious, and appreciated meal. Afterwards we all went over to Handel's Ice Cream where I treated everyone in a feeble attempt to pay Warren back for his gallant diaper changing feat.

I had planned that we would do so many fun things while Diane and Doug visited. I thought we could go the the children's museum in Lima; Diane and I love to exercise together, so I got us a bunch of passes to the YMCA where I work out. I also thought I could give them the grand tour of Lima, go shopping, and maybe go to the Columbus temple and then take the kids to the zoo afterwards. Unfortunately, on Monday night, Hyrum threw up. On Tuesday, Bridger puked. On Wednesday, James was ralphing. On Thursday both Diane and I were doing the old heave ho. On Friday morning, we were all feeling relatively well, so we quickly, before anyone else got sick, got everyone bathed and dressed and loaded into cars, and headed down to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton. The kids had a really great time!

For those of you who haven't been to Wright-Patt, I would highly recommend the trip, especially if you're in the area. Admission is free, which is great for cheapies like me, and there is so much to see and to do. The first part of the museum has models of the first planes and focuses primarily on the first planes used in World War I. There are many replicas of our Nation's earliest planes with thousands of historical artifacts and stories that go a long with them. When you get to the middle of the World War I era, there are actual planes that were flown in the War. The boys especially loved the shark plane and insisted on getting a picture taken in front of it. James and Thobe went from sign to sign asking, "What does this say?" Patient Aunt Diane willingly read each sign to the kids as long as they would listen. Bridger wanted to ride or push the stroller that I grabbed for Hyrum in the museum. Hyrum wasn't really fond of either arrangement, which may explain many of his grumpy looking photos (he also wasn't feeling really great that day either). From World War I and planes from the 1930s, the museum then has a hanger dedicated to World War II. It's amazing to see all the airplanes that were flown in the war. It even has the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima as well as a replica of the smaller bomb that was dropped. It is always interesting to me to see many of these planes and learn the history behind them. I would love to take Michael's grandpa there someday (he was a pilot in World War II) and have him give us a tour. They also have tour guides, but with a bunch of little kids, I don't think it would be all that informative.

From the World War II hanger they have a hall dedicated to the Jews in concentration camps that leads to many of the planes that were flown in the Vietnam and Korean Wars. In this part of the museum they have planes that you can walk inside of and some really impressive airplaines, including one that made it from New York to Los Angeles on 1 hour! They then have a hall dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall and then a hanger with modern day war craft, including my favorte, the stealth bomber. They also have a room that has five rockets that were not launched into space as well as a Flight Hall of Fame. We all had a great time. When we returned home, not only did we find Michael home from work, but we also had Michael's cousin Don Milnor and his son James there. The boys had a great time playing and dressing up. That night poor Uncle Doug got sick.

The next morning, Alden up chucked. It didn't slow him down though. He was determined to make the most of his time with his cousin Davin. We didn't send him to his last football game, but we did go and see a parade in Ada with our friends the Talbots. The boys all dressed up in costumes and got a lot of candy thrown at them for that reason, I assume. We then went over to the ONU campus in Ada and decorated cookies, had balloons made for us, and had a whole lot of fun. The kids really enjoyed it. Later that day, we went to Suter's Farm. Our good friends, the Burkes and the Places, told us we needed to go. They had places to take pictures and little duck races. They also had a hayride where they talk about animals in the area and a corn maze. We figured we'd do the corn maze first, but ran out of time to do the hayride. The kids were sad about that, but we had a lot of fun in the maze. We then got some delicious apple cider to drink and went home exhausted.

Sunday morning, Michael and Thobe were sick with the runs, and Hyrum had a bad cold (which we later found out was pneumonia), so the Hansgens, Alden, and I all went to church. We then came home and had a nice dinner, started a blog for Diane (http://hurricanehansgens.blogspot.com/), and then played games and just spent time together.

Doug, Diane, and the boys left bright and early (3 a.m.) the next morning. We were so sad to see them go and were sad that not only did we all have the stomach flu, but Hyrum also shared his sickness too. Nonetheless, despite not feeling well, we are so glad that they came. Thank you, Di & Doug! We loved you coming. Diane made jam for us, and it was so delicious! By the way, Diane, Alden told me that he's going to start calling you Jam Maker because you're the best jam maker in the whole world!! We love you and hope that Josh & Bridger get feeling better soon. We hope you'll come again (we'll all take our ecinasia or First Defense stuff next time). We love and miss you!!!