sister hansen is home!

Kelli's back from serving her 18+ month mission for the Church. Of all the missions I have waited for loved ones to come home, this one felt like the longest. She served in the Marshall Islands and can now speak Marshallese (aka gibberish). It has been a great pleasure to read her beautiful, uplifting letters each week about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people she served and grew to love in the Pacific this past year and a half. We are so happy to have her back and love her so much!

Kelli's home! from Loral Hansen on Vimeo.

Some pictures of her mission:

matt's birthday

 The big 2-8!

Since we were going to be in California for Matt's birthday, I had to put up the awesome birthday banner my sister-in-law, Adrianne, had made for us a couple weeks before his birthday. Matt is wearing the North Face zip-up I got him as he is opening up my parent's gifts in the pictures below.

Once we got to CA, we had a fancy dinner at San Ysidro Ranch, a beautiful, romantic resort in Montecito the day before his birthday. On his actual birthday, November 3rd, we celebrated with family at Rusty's Pizza Parlor and Matt's mom had decorated the party room and got the best birthday hats and glasses for him and the kids to wear. Like last year, Matt wanted Costco's pumpkin pie and red velvet cake for his birthday. He also was sung to not once, but twice. Once for the cake and the other by his sister and adorable nephews.

the kids and their costumes

I am really happy we could be here for Halloween and see Matt's nephews and sister dress up. We had forgotten how awesome Halloween is. We loved seeing the costumes, watching Brandon and Justin pass out candy and the kids willing to share their loot with us wasn't so bad either.

back in cali-forn-i-a

Matt's sister, Kelli, will be back in the States Friday! Matt has always been planning to be home for her mission homecoming and he found a cheap flight for me to be here too, so we are lucky to be here celebrating Halloween, birthdays, and Kelli's return!

1. A beautiful sunset and crescent moon while flying into LA. We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for dinner (which I haven't had in a year or so) and I don't know how I have lived these 24 years and have not had Chick-Fil-A sauce. Seriously, how have I not heard people raving about what could be the best condiment ever invented?!

2. Playing at the pool with Kobe and Cassi. Matt's first priority was to lay out and get some sun.

3,4. At Justin's game, meeting our newest nephew, Jacob.

5. Kobe and that adorable smile!

6. Matt and Brandon.

7. The one and only Yanni's Tri-tip sandwich at Mackenzie's Market.

last bit of summer

Way back over labor day, we got to spend time up North for the holiday weekend. We love being able to spend time with family and this time we were able to be there for Oliver's blessing, visit the Blackberry Festival in Bremerton, WA, walk around beautiful downtown Poulsbo, WA and spend time outside squeezing in the last bit of beautiful, warm weather. So excited to experience our first NW fall, but clear and sunny days will be rare from here on out.

astoria column

We couldn't pass up visiting the Column while in Astoria on the rare occasion of a perfectly clear day. The long spiral staircase made me dizzy, but the view was worth it. The Column overlooks the city, rivers, bay, forest, mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It was fun to watch kids launch little wood airplanes they got from the gift shop.