White Christmas

We spent Christmas in Park City, Utah this year with my family. It was the first time any of us had ever had a white Christmas. It snowed about 50 in. the few days before we arrived so there was not only great skiing, but it was beautiful. Christmas morning Christian & I made breakfast and we opened presents. Then Christian, Corbin, and I went skiing at Park City. When we returned home Mom cooked her yummy Chrismas ham dinner. I attempted to make our favorite raspberry ribbon pie on Christmas Eve, but I over whipped the cream and ruined it. Since no stores were open we improvised with the ingredients we had at the house and it actually turned out pretty good! We have all loved being here during the holidays...I think we might make this a new tradition!

Family photo op.

We arrived on Dec. 23rd so we decorated a little decorative tree already at the place. It did the job!

Goodbye flip phone. Christian got me my first smart phone! I still can't believe what I've been missing out on!!

7 for all mankind maternity jeans from my mom! It actually made me a little excited for when I need to wear these!!

I gave Corbin a lottery scratch ticket. Unknown to him and everyone else it was a FAKE ticket. I about died laughing watching him react to "winning" $10,000.

Corbin gave me my first "baby" outfit. He obviously hasn't been around many babies because the t-shirt was a 4T...in 4 years I'm sure the baby is going to love it!

Park City! I wanted to take it easy so I rented skis instead of snowboarding. It was the 2nd time I've skied since Jr. High.

Corbin wiping out on a jump.

I was just trying to make it down alive. Can you tell it has been a while?

Land Legs

We sailed our final cruise and we are officially land based now! It's definitely a little bitter sweet...no more traveling, unlimited food & room service, and most importantly there's no one to make our bed and clean our bathroom everyday. Nevertheless, we are excited to finally have family & friends nearby, unlimited access to cell phones and internet, cars, and much more! We moved back to Christian's hometown Los Altos, CA (about 40 min. south of San Francisco) and Christian already started a job at a property management company named Robert Wheatly Properties. It hasn't really set in that we aren't going back to ships yet, but we are really enjoying this more "normal" life!

Cruise Update

We just finished a 5 week stint on a ship in the Western Caribbean! After being rerouted nearly every week due to hurricanes we were so ready to get off and be on vacation. We spent our first week on land at Walt Disney World followed by a cruise with Christian's family. There was 30 Hansens in the group. We sailed on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas and visited Cocoa Cay, Bahamas, St. Thomas & St. Maarten. Here are some highlights from my first cruise as a passenger! In St. Thomas we rented scooters and toured around the island. After over 2 years of cruising around the Caribbean this was one of the only islands we never visited! I'm still not quite sure how we all made it back in one piece between driving on the other side of the road and the sun going down. St. Maarten! After visiting old friends we went to the beach and Christian, Doug & Stan went scuba diving! Soccer champions. The "H-Factor" won gold at the soccer tournament. I'm not sure if it's really fair since 3/6 played college soccer, but we'll take it.

Tyler, Lauren, & Mackenzie!
Christian, Doug & Stan were obsessed with the Flow Rider. Every single morning they woke up for the 8am "Advanced Surf Session". Stan actually rented the entire Flow Rider 2 nights for extra practice sessions. They were 3 of the 4 people invited to the Grand Finale Surf Competition and Doug took the top prize!

Clearly I needed a little more practice.

Mall Blart

In Tampa we rented bikes from the ship and rode to a nearby mall. After doing some shopping, we went to get on our bikes and head back to the ship. To our shock, our bikes had been “booted” with a massive lock and a sign saying we were parked in an “unauthorized bike storage location”. I felt like I was in college all over again. Anyway, we had to call a #, a security guy picked us up and drove us to the security station to fill out the bike release paperwork. He explained that bike thefts were common and they locked them up “for our protection”. He then proceeded to give us a tour of the authorized bike parking locations & point out all 57 security cameras.

Here we go...again

We are in Tampa today getting ready to board the Holland America Ryndam. We'll be onboard for 6 weeks doing two different 7 day itineraries to: Key West, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, & Cozumel then Key West, Roatan, Costa Maya & Belize! After getting a taste of life on land it's a little bitter sweet. I've gotten all too used to internet, cell phones, and actually choosing what's for dinner, but I'm excited for some beaches & homemade guacamole in Cozumel!

Happiest Place on Earth!

I've never been so excited to go to "work". Right now we are at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort for a company conference. We are here for 9 days and since the training is only 5 days there has been plenty of time for sun, swimsuits, and even a little Mickey! That red cup has entitled me to unlimited free fountain Diet Coke ALL week...yay:) Have you ever watched those Publisher Clearing House commercials and just wished they would come knocking on your door?? Well at Disneyland I guess dreams really do come true...we unexpectedly won a del sol competition and even though it had a couple less zeros, I can assure you being handed that enormous check is just as exciting as it looks.

Shopping Ambassadors taking over Disney World! For one of our activities we went to the Magic Kingdom with the entire group. It was sponsored by Del Sol and they provided t-shirts for everyone. Can you guess who was in our group?

Thunder Mountain!

Alina, Linda, Gail, Kim & Me. Some of the girls we work with that I never get to see because we are all on different ships.

Dry Suit

I just came across this photo while I was packing and I couldn't help but laugh…partly because at first I thought it was some Star Trek Halloween costume and then because of the story attached. A couple weeks ago Christian went on a dry suit snorkel. He was really excited about it. When we met up after the excursion his clothes were soaking wet. Turns out if your suit doesn’t zip properly it becomes a “wet” suit snorkel and in Alaska it makes for one very unpleasant dive. When Christian told the guide that his suit was leaking the guy told him to just try to keep his back out of the water.

As seen on TV

I’m still not quite sure how you become the fastest wood chopping, tree climbing, and log rolling “lumberman” in the world. Nevertheless, we saw them compete live at the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan…just as hillbilly and cheesy as you might expectJ

A Big Wave Goodbye

This is our last Alaskan cruise. We worked hard to get everything done early so we could take it easy and have a relaxing final week while we wrapped everything up. All went according to plans until we set sail in Seattle. We ran into a terrible storm & 30 foot waves. It got so bad that we had to return to Seattle at 2:30am, get rerouted, and miss our first port. Crossing my fingers for smooth sailing here on outJ

Family Onboard!

My parents and my aunt & uncle, Chris & Jacque, just came to visit for one of our last Alaskan cruises. I think we may have been more excited for them to come than they were. After so many cruises of the same thing we couldn't wait for some company and family to join us! We had great time and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Thanks for coming!! In Juneau my parents did a helicopter tour that actually landed on the glacier.
Walking on the Glacier! After their tour we met at Tracy's Crab Shack for a fresh crab dinner.

Mom, Chris, Jacque, and Glacier Bay National Park.

In Sitka we joined my parents for a whale & wildlife watching excursion. I couldn't get my mom to take down the binoculars for a picture...they were all but glued to her head the entire tour! We saw some of everything...whales, sea otters & bald eagles.

My mom really wanted to see whales and I was a little nervous recommending this tour because they didn't guarantee whale sightings. Luckily, there was no shortage of whales. They were all over!

Mush!

We've been wanting to do it all season and we finally did! This was the last week of the season that the dog sled tours were running so it was our final opportunity. We tried last week and it was full, but it worked out to our advantage because the weather was perfect this week. We took a helicopter tour up to a dog camp on a glacier and went dog sledding. There was only 5 in our group so Christian & I got our own sled and team of dogs. They also let us each take turns "driving" the sled. It was AMAZING! Getting ready for take off!

Flying over the glaciers. The helicopter could get so close.
Approaching the camp.
Ready to go!

Taking the reigns!

By total coincidence our friends from Juneau Gil & Lital were actually on the same excursion!

4x4

Last week Christian went on a ocean raft & 4x4 adventure in Sitka. There was an extra space and the shore excursion team let him hop on. They took ocean crafts through the Sitka Bay over to the rain forest where they met their 4x4 vehicles. Christian was in luck because the 5th person was grandma who didn't want to drive!

All geared up and ready to go.

Face shot.
Christian & Grandma taking off.