The night before Hans' birthday, he got a ride on a motorcyle.(Peter, a young adult from Cam 4th ward stopped by with Bonnie Harrison and he gave Hans a big thrill )
Hans turned 9 years old yesterday on July 25th. It's hard to believe it has been that long since this little guy came into our lives. I reminded him of his memorable birth, being born at home when I realised in the early hours of the morning that I had waited too long to go to the hospital. I had John help me back to my bed after I had tried to make it to the front door. He came minutes later and Kirsten and Else got to be my midwives. Else called Dr. Swanson after Hans was born, Kirsten got my shoestrings from my tennis shoes to tie off the cord and John took care of cutting the cord and getting Hans warmed up and crying to get him nice and pink. It was quite and exciting entrance into the world for him and for all of us. Big brother, Erik, was coming home from his mission in Korea 3 days later and Kirsten had just come home from her mission 3 weeks before! It was a busy time to be having another baby...especially when Kirsten and Jonathan got engaged a couple days after his birth and we had a wedding to plan. What can I say...our lives are never dull!
To celebrate his birthday yesterday, Mette and Tyson decorated his room the night before (after he had fallen asleep...he's a very deep sleeper once he is out). Mette also wrote him signs all over his mirror and the bathroom mirror. He was nicely surprised when Mette woke him up at 7:00 am before she had to leave for school. Here's some pictures of what he did on his birthday...from early morning to bedtime! He got a Wii Video System (actually it's for the whole family of course). I took him to Lazerstar with some friends for a couple hours. Then he played Wii for the afternoon with his friends, Ethan and Drew Hunter. We had pizza and more Wii with the family in the evening until Mette came home from work and we had cake and candles and sang the Happy Birthday Song. Today he is out sailing with his dad to Santa Cruz Island with other friends and familiy. It's his first time to actually go out sailing that far and long and he was looking forward to it the whole week. One day he watched "Sinbad" and held his toy sailboat in his lap to help prepare him for his big sailing adventure today.
Happy Birthday dear Hans!
Our family vacation this year started out to be just John and I and Hans going up to Northern California, past Stockton on CA-4 to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. But by the Saturday night before we left, we had children and grandchildren who found a way they could join us and we are so glad they did! 
