More than just a trip...

158 E 1st N

After 55 years of calling this home, Grandma and Grandpa Hansen are moving. Some might say not necessarily by choice. They were presented an amazing offer by Dick Broulims (the owner of Broulims grocery store located directly behind their home) which grandpa initially turned down. After visiting with several of his children about the offer, they were able to do enough convincing and eye opening that he and grandma decided to take it-- $330,000 for their 100+ year old home sitting on 7 city lots. An amazing deal to all except two individuals so deeply rooted and attached to their home.

As you can imagine, after 55 years, 9 children, and 54 grandchildren, to say there is a lot to move is an extreme understatement. Especially, since grandma had/has a very hard time "wasting" AKA throwing away. My Mom felt that she needed to assist a little with their moving process and so she and my sister and I and a few of our kids made the trek over. We spent 6 days there moving, sorting, and going through not only physical belongings but years and years of memories. Words fail to describe that sort of mortal experience.

For me, the following pictures say more than words ever could. One set of long green stairs + one perfectly fit mattress + 2 fun cousins = loads of fun and millions of laughs

The infamous window among the cousins. This was a source of fun and trouble. We all seemed to have an obsession with sneaking out it during the night and sitting on the roof you can see. We'd eat candy or something simple just to say we did it. I don't think we ever manage to partake of the fun without grandma knowing. The trouble came each time we were caught... children!

The first thought that comes to mind with this picture is the memory of sitting on the floor, near where this picture was taken, and playing Rummy Royal with Shauntae and Eleisha. So many good times by those stairs.

The living room. When I was pregnant with Lydia I had a few sessions with a gentleman who taught me about hypnobirthing (a form a self-induced hypnosis during labor). At one point during a session he asked me to go to a place where I could feel completely safe, comfortable and relaxed. I immediately went to my grandparents living room. That's what that room meant to me.

A view from the living room into the kitchen

Kitchens are the heart of the home. So much nourishment comes from a kitchen. I was nourished from this kitchen in many ways, food being one of the least of them. In my college and later years there were many nights spent playing dominoes and visiting. I sewed with grandma at her kitchen table and received love and support during difficult times in my life. I am told by my parents that my kitchen sink resembles my grandma's kitchen sink. The way it's sets with the window and the plant behind the sink... I didn't consciously create that, though it's amazing what we do subconsciously.

This is the sewing room. Taunya and I had the fun and entertaining job of going through this room. What a daunting task, but 4 hrs later it was completed. There was a lot more to that room than the picture shows.

Due to mold in the house we didn't dare go in there without face masks. We found several interesting items during our time in that room. I believe what I'm reading there was one of those junk mail sweepstakes letters from the 80's. We did find some items of importance though including some memorabilia from grandpa's mission.

Grandma use to fit women for bras and apparently also used to sell breast prosthetics. By this point in our cleaning we needed a good laugh and these were a great catalyst! We hung a couple on the wall and randomly placed a few others throughout the house to offer good laughs to future visitors.

When you're not sure what something is, what's the best way to find out? See picture below...

Just kidding of course. Taunya and I emptied many many many jars of canned goods from as far back as 1962. Yes, that does say '62. You should have seen the nasty pile it all went into.

Not all was work while we were there. We spent a good amount of time visiting (mainly Taunya and I). We played Dominoes a couple nights and had some good laughs. These pictures are of Grandpa Handsome (as Lydia calls him) with Lydia, Grandma Shauna, Anikah and Savannah. If you look closely you can see Grandpa's harmonic in his hand; he's very musical as is my grandma, and he played a few songs for us.

Lydia was sick with a fever off and on the whole time we were there so you can tell by the photo she doesn't feel well. The last night we were there I had my cousin Mike and my grandpa offer her a blessing and right after that she started feeling better. (Now, two weeks later when I'm posting this, she reminds me that she got a blessing at Grandpa Handsome's house and then she felt better. Children are amazing and so close to the spirit.)

I've said it before, but Lydia is definitely a girly girl. Aunt Taunya is very good to do her girls' hair each day and each day Lydia requested that Aunt Taunya also do hers. She would tell me, "I want hers to do my hair. I want hers to do my hair." She was pretty adamant she didn't want me to do it. I'm now going to try to do her hair everyday. We got a lot of ribbon out of grandma's sewing room that will look cute.

Savannah and Anikah weren't exactly in the mood for a photo so this is the best I got of the three of them.

Jons conglomerate

Tony and I went looking for some animals in January. Tony thought it would be fun to play in the water so we spent most of the time playing.

The end results of of our frolicking in the water, Tony got water in his belt casing.
The Honda got to pull back the Griz



Roger hanging out in lodge sharing his special pork recipe

Hyrum taking some lessons

Hyrum got to skip school and we went to Anthony lakes with Uncle Roger. It was great snow, it dumped over a foot while we were there.

Hyrum and his best friend Trevor out 4 wheeling

Steelhead fishing at Hells canyon with Dad and Hyrum-No fish but fun time

getting ready to take the walk down the walk

Fun with the Family

It was a beautiful February day so we loaded up the 4-wheelers, picked Hyrum up from school, and headed to the hills. Jon brought along his .22 and we did a little target practice with some cans and bottles we found along the way. All I can say is I'm glad I'm the Mom and not the provider. It times got tough and our family depended on me for food we might all starve. I couldn't hit a target for anything. Jon on the other hand was hitting them left and right.... I guess that's why he's the hunter :) Hyrum even had a turn with the gun and did just as well or better than I did. It must be a boy thing!

Hyrum at the top of Squaw Butte. He'd just raced his Dad to the top through all the deep snow and I'm guessing by the look on his face he must have won.

The girls

Daddy and his girl. Lydia was napping when we first got there so Jon and Hyrum took off on one 4-wheelers and I stayed and waited for Lydia to wake up. When Lydia and I tried to find them we came across a pretty large and steep hill. Lydia must have sensed my hesitance to proceed down the hill and she started crying for her Dad. I had to keep reassuring her she would be okay but she kept insisting she wanted her daddy. She knows her Dad is safe and protects his little girl.

Valentine's Day 2009

I'm not sure if this is common among men or not, but when I first met Jon he didn't know what day Valentine's Day was. I thought that was pretty strange, but at the same time it sort of fit Jon. After 8 years he does a pretty good job remembering the holiday and finding some way to make it special for me. Lucky for Jon I don't require much. Usually a homemade card is good enough. (Jon makes fabulous cards and writes amazing poems!) This year was extra low key as far as the gift giving... in fact, there was none. We didn't even do cards. Boring and blah, I know. But, leave it up to my sweet husband to surprise me with something heart felt. After saying my prayers and getting ready to lay down for the night Jon told I needed to read his journal. (He had just written his bi-annual entry). I was a little confused, but he insisted so I opened it up and found "Reasons I love Rachel" followed by 33 reasons why and then "Happy Valentine's Day Rachel." Even when we agree no gifts, he still finds something... I'm sure blessed!

To celebrate the day we dropped the kids off with Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey and went into Boise. We did some shopping, went out to eat, and attended a session at the Temple. It was a wonderful Valentine's Day. I love you Jon!

Skiing at Anthony Lakes

Jon and I took advantage of a day off work and Grandma and Grandpa living nearby and went skiing. We drove to Baker City Thursday night and stayed at the Super 8 that night, which had a nice relaxing hot tub, and then drove to Anthony Lakes on Friday morning to ski. We'd never been to Anthony Lakes so it was fun having a new adventure. We quite enjoyed the easy drive and the small feel of the resort. It's far from commercialized like so many other ski resorts. Unfortunately, it's also pretty small so we didn't end up staying all day. When this picture was taken it had just started to snow/hail. Not too nice on any exposed skin while you're skiing :) I think part of the reason Jon was okay to leave early was that there was an elk feeding reserve not far from the hill. We of course had to stop on our way out and view the elk for a while.

We have a few good videos I need to post of us skiing, but we can't figure out how with our new camera... the joys of being technilogically challenged! P.S. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey for watching the kids- we sure appreciate it!!!

Puffer Butte

What a great blessing it was to spend the weekend at a State Park in Washington with my family. All were there except Bubbs and Julie, and Nathan... you were missed! The first time the DeCoria family ventured to Puffer Butte Lodge was the winter of 1987-88. ( I don't remember the month). We drove up there for the day (in our big green van, love you Bobby!) to check it out as a possible location of the 1st ever Hansen Family reunion. We hosted the reunion there the following July and I celebrated my 9th birthday during the reunion. (Does time ever fly!) Absolutely fabulous memories!

Our family has been there a few times since and every visit has been wonderful. Here's the gang, except Marshall- he was snowshoeing.

I just have to note the little white spot on my pants. I bought those pants in 1999. I've been quite fond of them over the years and worn them a few times too many according to my dear husband. Well, while cooking over the very hot stove, I burned a hole in them. Truthfully, had I been wearing any other pant that didn't have 4 layers there, I would have burned myself fairly bad, so I'm lucky I was wearing those. I knew the moment I burned them Jon would be happy. Sure enough, just as I'd predicted, when I showed Jon the hole he happily announced to everyone present that I'd had those pants for like 12 years and I wear them everyday and he was so glad they were finally ruined! Little does he know they're still wearable :)

What a handsome husband I have. Wow, am I ever lucky! I love you Jon!

Easton, Lydia, Layken, Emma, Jessica, Anikah, and Savannah

Lydia and Easton

A most definite favorite past-time in the DeCoria family-- CARDS!! And there were a lot of them played over the course of the 4 days. Another fun activity that I don't have a picture of was ping pong. It was a lot of fun to get all the adults and Brian and play Ultimate ping pong. Good times for sure!

One of Hyrum's favorite activities was playing the Wii. Fortunately, he also spent a lot of time outside tubing/sledding with his cousins. Pictured above is Hyrum, Jackson, and Joshua.

Jason, Taunya, Dad, Mom and myself decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and go for a little snowshoe adventure. Taunya and Jason turned around after the picture was taken. about 20 minutes into our walk. My Mom and Dad and I figured we had another 40 minutes to go to finish the loop. No problem. Well, it'd been a few years since we'd actually completed the entire loop and we slightly underestimated the amount of time it would take. Two hours later and completely exhausted, we returned to the lodge!

Despite the hard work and wondering when we'd ever see the lodge, the scenery was beautiful and renewed the spirit.

My ever so cool parents!

Grandpa Fred shows off some of his favorite dance moves, while Grandma poses for the camera.

Lydia, Kira and Emma

Not far from the lodge is a huge tubing hill. I'll have to find some pictures to post of it. The first night we were there we went tubing on it. There were a few too many bumps that made it a little rough this year. I jarred my neck pretty bad, but for the most part every had a great time with it. Another fun activity was cross-country skiing, which only my Mom and I did. There's just something about being out in the snow with calm beautiful weather that brings peace and solace to my being. I love it! Thanks Mom, for planning this family get together; let's make it an annual event!

This is a picture Jon took while out on his hike to find the river and the elk. Both of which he was successful in.

Some of the girls

Hyrum carrying his tube back up the small tubing hill that was just outside the lodge.

Silly kids

My kids love grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner and would probably eat it every night if I let them. Thankfully, it's easy to make so we have it fairly often. The kids were being kind of silly this particular night so we had to snap a few photos for memories sake. P.S. That yucky looking stuff in Hyrum's green cup is a shake with all sorts of good stuff in it :)

Lydia and her friend

This is Lydia and her friend, Brady, who lives behind us. Brady's a year or so older than Lydia but they play well together. This particular day they were playing Mr. Potato Head and decided to try the glasses on themselves. What cuties!

I wanted to post this picture in honor of Hyrum and his photography skills. He loves to take pictures and usually I just delete them all so I thought I'd keep this one and post it on the blog for him. I love you buddy!

Counting my blessings

I have a few quiet moments right now, which is rare, as is the case for most moms, and my mind's been to wandering to the many blessings I have in my life. Not the huge obvious ones like my family, the Gospel, etc., but small simple ones.

Let me give you an example. (WARNING: this may be a little lengthy so you might want to skip to the end if you just want the gist of what I'm saying without reading the novel.)

We've been in the hiring process for our business since July. When we're in the hiring process that means that I work at the office until someone is hired and trained. Usually a couple month process. The end of July we hired a gal for our new Weiser office and she began training in Fruitland with our employee there. Our Weiser office opened the end of August and our full-time Fruitland employee moved to Utah the next week. That left me working in Fruitland, and going to Weiser occasionally to continue training our employee there.

Hyrum started Kindergarten during all this, which also meant that my teenage babysitters went back to school. I was wondering how this was all going to work out when I noticed April at church on Sunday. April had babysat for us earlier in the year, before she left for college, while I was training another employee. She wasn't suppose to be back for several months. I asked her sister, one of my Laurels, if she was just home visiting and she said that she was actually moving home for the semester. No joke, this happened the exact weekend before I was no longer going to have a babysitter and had no idea what I was going to do. (April does medical transcriptioning, but was hoping to make a little extra while she was home so babysitting for us worked out perfect for both of us.)

We finally hired someone for our Fruitland office the middle of October. I figured that gave me a month and half to get her trained while April was still here, and come January our offices would be set with two well-trained employees and I could focus my efforts elsewhere. Not so. On December 8th, our gal in Weiser gave us her two weeks notice. That threw me into a scramble knowing April was leaving in a few weeks. Not to mention it was the holidays and everything was crazy enough.

A couple days later I asked April if she was sure she wanted to leave in January and she responded with, "Oh yeah, I forgot I haven't told you that I'm staying." I'm pretty sure I didn't stop grinning the rest of the day. It was like a huge burden had been taken from my shoulders. I had no doubt that the Lord's hand was in this, and had been from the beginning. Now I could relax and take my time finding the perfect employee and making sure she was well trained before I left her.

Well, this last Sunday (January 4th), right after we arrived home from Washington, April called and let me that something had come up and that she needs to move to Texas next week. Life turned crazy again. I had interviewed several applicants for our job, but none that had sparked my interest. Meaning that we had no employee hired, let alone trained. The only possible positive thing was that April mentioned a friend of hers was home from college for the semester and would be willing to babysit until she found a job. I called the friend and she said she was filling out applications, but thought she'd be able to babysit next week at least.

I interviewed a great applicant two days later (yesterday) and hired her a few hours later. She starts tomorrow and I think she's going to do a great job. Another blessing from the Lord. One more blessing happened this morning, Jessica, April's friend, called to let me know that instead of looking for a job she would just like to babysit for us as much as we need her.

One word: Perfect.

Looking back that's how things work out for us. We know we're on the Lord's errand and it's obvious that He blesses us in our efforts to do what is right. I am grateful for His tender mercies in my life.

New Year's

For New Year's we went to Washington and spent it with family. Jon was tired after a day of work and then driving to Washington, so he ended up sleeping through the New Year. Yeah, not too exciting. It's a good thing I love him! I spent the evening playing games with my Mom and Dad and Taunya and Jason. Jon and I played cards a few other nights with Taunya and Jason and had a great time. I sure love playing cards, even when I'm getting wasted by my husband who barely knows how to play :) I'm just grateful he'll play with us.

Anikah came over one morning while Hyrum went to the movies with the Andrews and Grandma Shauna let Lydia and Anikah put on make-up with her. Definitely one of Lydia's very favorite activities!! They posed for me afterwords showing me how pretty they were.


Lydia enjoys sitting in footbaths with people... a little strange to those of us who know how gross they are. It's a little machine that pulls toxins out of the body through the feet and the water usually gets pretty nasty. Nonetheless, Lydia enjoys them and Grandpa Fred let her join in. Note the headphones on Grandpa-- he loves his Tri-City American's Hockey team and listens to the game whenever he's not able to be there in person. Talk about commitment!