Holy Moley!

Meet Jonathan:

Jonathan is a goofball

He likes being one of the guys, Even when he thinks something is ridiculous, he can be talked into it. 

98% of the time, Jonathan is a pretty dang happy guy. Jonathan and Derek are twins.

Besides summer camps, they haven't been away from each other for long periods of time. So being in different states for two years is weird.

They are really similar, but completely different at the same time.

None the less they did a lot of similar activities in high school.

We were all in the wizard of Oz. Jonathan was a monkey

He was a senior when i was a freshman. We spent a lot of afternoons together eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the back of the car talking about randomly deep things- one of Jonathan's Favorite subjects.

Jonathan loves kids. I have literally a whole album FULL of sweet jonathan pictures where he's holding a sleeping baby or playing with toddlers or watching worriedly as a small child walks on something jonathan didnt think was safe. Jonathan just connects with kids. He's an awesome uncle and I hope he gets do help kids as a career someday because he'd be awfully good at it.

Jonathan loves movies. Especially Sci-Fi. or fantasy. Did he watch a Harry potter, Star wars or Lord of the rings film every Saturday morning? naturally.

Jonathan loves BYU. He was accepted to BYU-Idaho and eargerly calls it, "BYU-I-do!"

heh

heh

heh

But really, Jonathan is a straight up ladies' man. The kind you only hear about. Sure he opens doors and lets women take his seat, but its more than that. He is gonna be the best husband and dad ever. and whoever his wife will be, she's is gonna be treated like a dang Queen. You have no idea how much Jonathan respects girls even if they're mean to him or completely ignore him.  Jonathan deserves the sweetest Girl ever. and he's gonna get her because he's gonna do every little cheesy thing that girls love and she will totally fall head over heels for his dorky pick up lines and his quirky date ideas hahaha she's gonna be a lucky girl.

I talked about My School and it's history awhile back.

The split and switch of schools was hard for jonathan, but i'm glad it stuck to his guns because he loves Madera South.

He was in the first graduating class, And he was on a championship XC team there

Jonathan ran a lot. sometimes i think he hated it. But don't we all hate things at some point?

even if he ever hated it, he was always good at it.

At the end of every race, no matter what place Jonathan came in. No matter how long it was, or how tired he was, he shook everyone's hand.

Every guy that he ran against that race that came through the finish line, there hand was going to be shaken. and they were going to be given congratulations on a job well done.

And soon, the rest of the team followed suit.

Jonathan Loves making people laugh. He's the entertainer

and the food-eating-machine. can't leave that out. Hungry Hansen award every march? yes.

Jonathan is the youngest brother, But that never stopped him from being the most curious or the one who would sneak around campus to watch out for me.

Here you see Jonathan re-enacting Nephi chopping off (Derek) Laban's head.

Jonathan loved looking like Napoleon Dynamite.

And singing.

But more than ANYthing, Jonathan loved...loves. The scriptures. He loves his brothers And his Father who is exactly like him in every way.

And then Jonathan was called to Ohio.

On a mission for the Lord.

I can't tell you how excited he was to share something he loved so much with everyone.

So we all said good luck and good bye for two whole years

we bickered a LOT. but i think he understood me better than most people. which is weird because I didn't like, treat him like a diary or anything. i didn't spill my guts out to him or quiz him about things going on in my life. he just got me. he didn't ever have to ask me why i was sad, he just knew. i don't know. Me and Jonathan have an interesting relationship. but we've always understood each other.

Now those two years are winding down. in exactly one week he will be laughing on the couch with me in good ol' Madera. and let me tell ya, I CANNOT wait for him to be home!

He's had the time of his life in Ohio. Literally. and i'm sad for him that it has to end. but that just means he gets to continue the work here!

 7 days goes by way too fast i promise.

So sprint home buddy!

You're so close to the finish line, don't stop. finish hard.

You've made your team and your coach proud.

See ya soon Brother :)

Yosemite

 Last week i got the opportunity to go to Yosemite with some friends from church. It was so much fun! and SO BEAUTIFUL! I loved being in the fresh air and there wasn't a building or telephone pole for as far as you can see. amazing. I loved it!

Honestly i don't know how people can stand on mountains, looking out at THIS:

 and not believe in a God?

 Actually, i was there at a once in one hundred year event! We were standing at Glacier Point, which is usually underneath tons of snow this time of year and impossible to dive to on the icy roads. 

The last time that anyone saw the moon rising over Half dome from this angle was over a hundred years ago! I know, it's not that cool, but it was interesting to me.

 AND. Turns out that in Yosemite at this time of the year, when the sun sets, the mountain tops go from regular....

 to orange...

To pink!

it seemed SO much pinker in real life, but it's pretty pink in the picture too

Happy Wednesday! :)

New Year

Every Year on (or around) January 1 we have a "sword fight".

It started because my mom had a bunch of  left over rolls from Christmas wrapping paper that she didnt know what to do with, and now it's just a crazy tradition because we're weird!

Jenae are still wearing skirts. because it was Sunday.

don't judge us haha

My hair is in a Dr.Quinn Medicine woman bun because i was tired of my hair down haha

don't judge me.

  

So basically, we run around smacking each other with paper rolls until they turn to ribbon

Then things get crazy. Derek used one as a headband, and another as a noose...

He's not actually violent i promise.

after we've beat each other up for a few minutes, we all plop down on the couch and smile because it's January and that means a fresh new start! 

Happy New Year from the Hansens! :)

2011: review

So i decided that one 2011 review post was not nearly enough.
this year has been so many things for me! So I'll go in sections.
This winter I...

visited Stanford University with the California Scholarship Federation.  celebrated the "52nd anniversary of my (grandpa's) 30th birthday!". and a few other birthdays. hung out with some cool boys. went on some dates :) took a trip to LA. went to several dances and spent every single day with my best friend Marissa!

In spring:

got my driver's license!  went on some awesome friend dates with some awesome people. Was in a couple musicals with some of my favorite people in the world. spent Easter in provo and hiked the Y! and had the absolute best birthday of my life. My mother, sister and best Friend Marissa are amazing beautiful women and they love me so much that decided to throw me a surprise party! and it was insanely fun!

This summer was...wow.

The summer of my life, foundation for my future, the ultimate testimony lifter, discover yourself, make the best friends you'll ever have, close books, open new ones, turn new leaves, give more, share more, want less, smile be inspired, love someone, be an example, stand up for what you believe in, be prepared, influence, try a little harder to be a little better, walk all over BYU campus every single day, never want to leave Utah, never want it to be over, believe. hope. seek endure.

i cant even explain that all in complete, coherent sentences but I'll try.

My summer started off with graduation. I was really close to some seniors and it was really hard to say goodbye because they were such a huge part of my life last year.

I went to EFY in Fresno. It was a huge blessing. and never got it's own blog post but it definitely deserves one! It was great to be at EFY with my friends from Fresno that i knew. and to meet new friends. I became friends wit a lot of new people and I didn't know that i had a comfort bubble, but EFY Fresno pushed me out of it. all of this happened at the perfect time for me because i was floundering. not necessarily in a bad way. I just had no clue what i was going to do for the rest of my life. and i was stressing about a lot of stupid things.

At EFY Fresno, my session directors were amazing. The Diamonds. I have mentioned them before but not enough. I don't know how to give them the credit they deserve. okay that's it. there is definitively going to be an EFY Fresno post very soon.

Anyway, these are the Diamonds: They are my heroes and I love them so much! a week later, i went to EFY in Provo, Utah. 

 The week after EFY Provo, i went to girls camp. A M A Z I N G. i Cannot stress it enough. I love love LOVE girls camp. and this year i loved it more than ever because it was my last year.

I loved EFY (s)

but Girls camp... absolutely. completely. changed me. Forever. if you need a refresher: here is where to go.

 Because the first half of my summer was so incredible and so life altering, the rest of my summer seemed pretty simple. But it was still fun.

This fall was...weird. 

I was annoyed. a lot. mostly with teachers. and their...well. we won't name names. But an 89.9?! 

Really?

anyway.

Most of my time this fall was spent in preparation for The Physicists 

And when i wasn't wearing blue Aladdin trousers being an insane scientist, i was stressing about real school and not fun things. In all honestly i was just delaying the homecoming of  This guy:

Derek was Serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Denver, Colorado. I love him and i don't know why i was so nervous about him coming home. But i was.

I guess i was mostly scared that he would be too grown up and mature to be silly with me and do stupid things and mess around.

He is a lot more mature and he is much more grown up.

Not that he was ever super immature or anything, he just became a man. a real man! one who works all day and makes money and reads finance books. yikes. i hope i never grow up.

Even though he did grow a little bit height wise (I know, i didn't think it was possible either.) and a lot spiritually, He's still Derek. 

We still rocked out to The Jonas Brothers, High School Musical, Mariah Carrey and Brad Paisley.

We still went to church dances. looking absolutely fabulous i might add.

We both love the Hunger Games! 

We still laughed. probably too much. and teased each other. and drove around town for random shopping trips at Walmart.

We had a few of those used-to-be awkward relationship talks. long ones.

We both got beat up by our nieces and Caleb when they were here

We've both changed a LOT in the past two years, and i'm really grateful for those changes.

But i'm also really grateful that we can still just be Derek and Mel.

So now he's off living his dream in Provo as an official cougar!

with scary math classes.

and he's single! watch out!

And i'm missing him already. 

But I've got Jenae and Donny :)

and JONATHAN who will be coming home in TWENTY SIX DAYS. 26. that's less than three weeks.

Cross Rocks

There is a kind of rock called Andalucite. It looks like this or this when it's a rock. some people make them into jewelry like this. It's a rare and precious gem. it is only found in two places in the entire world. Andalucia Spain, and the Fresno river in California. Oh yeah, and guess where the Fresno river runs right through? yuppers. good ol' Madera.
My dad loves this rock because of the cross design on the ends. We give these rocks away as Madera souvenirs to missionaries or visiting friends.
Whenever we're running low on rocks, we go out "hunting" for more in the dry creek beds a few miles from our house.
This week we had most of our family home, so we went hunting for cross rocks! The nieces and Caleb had a total blast.

 Whitney was proud to make the first find!

 "be-o  wo!" = "big rock!"

even the dads helped out!

 Derek being a man