WONDERFUL AND SWEET!

When I think wonderful and sweet I think Abby and Briana!!!!



Miss you guys ;)

Ode to my semester at BYU!

Well I have finished my first semester here at BYU and I must say that this has been an amazing and very unique experience. I have decided to go back to BYU Hawaii in the January but it is not because I have not enjoyed myself here. To be perfectly honest this place has been a blast.The work load here has been substantial but not over the top and I have not had great grades but have done fairly well overall.
BYU is a unique place. Its the land of the over achiever. Nearly everyone here is a good student, good person, who has some sort of talent in music, sports, art, dance, or they can at least speak another langauge. As far as girls go there are a LOT of pretty girls!!!!! The problem is there is also a lot of cool guys.
Its actually is a funny thing. Lots of people at BYU get married, however very few people date. The other day I was in a hot tub and I asked how many of the eight guys in the hot tub had a steady girlfriend......no one raised there hand and these were eight, cool guys who played sports, had served missions and were good looking. However almost all of them had been on a date in the last week. Everyone here is afraid to hook up because in most cases they are a cool guy hooking up with a cool girl...and when that happens then the inevitable is that the relationship will work out. So everyone dates casually. Its weird but I have been able to date a lot of girls this semester.

The religious atmosphere of the school is great. It is so refreshing to see so many people honestly trying to stand for something. So many people my age are just out looking for a good time and something to please themselves. Its great to see so many people looking to serve something greater than self. Not everyone here is perfect but there is an honest effort to live better and it shows. My classes also have been awesome. OK ANYONE GOING TO BYU MUST TAKE AMERICAN HERITAGE WITH BROTHER HOLLAND!!!!!!! Best class of my life. Its this amazing class, not so much about history as about ideals and principles that America is all about. Still, all of my classes were interesting. The work sucked but the lectures were entertaining, engaging and thought provoking.

This semester like so many was filled with good times, great friends and adventures!

Like driving through the mountains of Utah in the fall in a BMW convertible that your super cool uncle let you borrow!










Like Waking boarding in the coldest lake ever





Like Going eighties dancing every Thursday we could



Like going to southern California on an "epic surf trip"














Like Caroling with real Llamas to random people!



Like Snowboarding!











AND ALL THE OTHERS!!!!!!



Really my life is so blessed and I am thankful for the time I have had here. Still, I have a chance to live in Hawaii and I have decided to investigate it futher by trying it out. We shall see, perhaps my heart will call me back to this place, perhaps not. However, regardless of what happens in the future this semester has been a great time and I hope to have more like it!

My Dad is a tough BAD A!

Well I decided I had to dedicate a blog to something that is pretty cool about my dad. My dad is a trapper! Yeah you heard right. Just like Daniel Boon and Jim Bridger my dad is a real life fur trapper.



Now I myself am an amateur trapper and can skin a bobcat pretty good but if you want to see an expert look no farther than Ira Hansen. All hyperbole aside, what my Dad does is impressive. My dad is no weekend warrior trapper, his trap lines will stretch over the course of several hundred miles through some of the toughest terrain Nevada has to offer (again this is not hyperbole).







Sometime I even get a little nervous about him doing it as it is so incredibly demanding and he is in areas that are so remote.







Actually trapping has been a major part of my life. Many of my baby cloths were paid for with fur money. Also my mission was paid for with fur money. I helped my dad trap the year before my mission and of the 25000+ dollars we made doing it, my cut was the money for my mission.

My dad has trapped everything from beavers to muskrat, to kit fox, grey fox, to coyotes, to our number one and most important animal.....The Bobcat.



Trapping with Dad is always so fun. Still, its also tough. Waking up at 4:30 and spending the whole day bouncing in the hills of Nevada checking sets in every gully, canyon and rockpile along the way is tough. I remember on one of the checks, pulling up in the frosty night to an old shack in the middle of nowhere. It was an old cowboy line shack that cowboys use while moving cattle over long distances. Sleeping in the complete silence of that cabin with my just my dad and me there and no civilization for more than 50 miles in any direction, is a cool feeling. Then waking up to the beautiful desert sunrise just gets you ready to take on another day.



There is something very satisfying about going out into nature and making a living from the raw materials nature provides you with. And there is nothing more thrilling after a hard days work than seeing a nice big Tom in your trap.



Like father like son.




I only hope to be half the man my Dad is!

NEVADA MEN!

I have not blogged in while.......yeah i know i suck! Anyway I am now finishing my first semester at BYU and upon thinking on the events of this past semester, I have decided that our yearly deer hunting trip and the trapping adventures with Dad deserve a full blog!

Every year since I can remember all of us Hansens gear up for the ultimate man adventure in the wilderness. We head up to a remote area north of Elko and engage in around a weeks worth of hunting, hiking, camping, shooting.....shooting....shooting, bomb making, football playing, fort making, jeep driving paintball playing, army playing, story swapping, candy eating, super man adventures. Its so much fun every year and some of my fondest memories growing up are of this yearly trip. This year was no exception.

We had a blast doing all of the stuff we love to do.


We hunted sage hen and rabbits.





We fished for trout


We shot guns


we shot more guns


we shot bigger guns


we did dumb things!



We blew up propane tanks by shooting them in a fire with a 30-06!



And we hunted deer



Still more than just the cool things we do there is the environment. Its a chance for us as guys to embrace our rustic natures and abandon civilized life and get dirty and have fun. Its great to forget about girls, work, school, and drama to simply bask in the joy that comes from watching a propane tank explode like something off Bond flick! Its fun to share these adventures with dads brothers and cousins and then swap stories in the cabin at night!


I sure hope this trips tradition never fades!

A New Life At BYU

Well after a dream summer it was time to get to work. I got home from Hawaii and spent the last month or so working like a dog in Reno.





Still I was happy to have the work considering I BLEW all my money in Hawaii.


Hours and hours under sinks was fun and all but after a month I was ready for a little change. So Off it was to the new adventure. BYU!!!!


My first impressions have been great. Ita really is a fun place, though the classes are challenging. I am currently taking 16 credits and working 25 hours a week so I have a pretty full schedule. And like most college students a complete lack of sleep nourishing food and money.....lol. I am taking American Heritage from Elder Hollands son and it is an incredible class. It explores the real roots of the American founding and what America is all about. It is very pro American and still is honest with some of Americas mistakes. I am also taking Physical Science from a really funny professor. I am taking an intro to dance class which is fun and a Book of Mormon class. I am also taking a health class and a very interesting class called western polital heritage where we study the great philosiphers of the west from machiavelli, to hobbes, to locke, to nitezche. Its a very interesting class. My classes are interesting but also VERY HARD. Still I manage. Work has been very good though pretty mundane (it makes plumbing seem exciting). I am a sales qualifier and I am still learning how to do it well but I am doing good and I am very thankful that Patrick helped me find this job which gives me some good business experience. Still, I know you all dont really care about my school and work....You want adventure stories. Now its different here than Hawaii....But I am JAKE THE SNAKE HANSEN and come hell or high water I will find the way to have an adventurous life wherever I am (even if it is a little tougher to do here than hawaii) Well the best and favorite of mine is ...... 80'S DANCING every thursday night. (and yeah the girls here are pretty cute)

Also it is extra cool when you have a great uncle who lets you borrow his BMW convertible.



You have no idea how cool you feel rolling up to the place with your long blond hair in the wind bouncing Micheal Jackson and MC Hammer. Every time hot chicks walked by we would wind up the engine a bit....you should have heard the gleeful squeals. Yeah it was pretty much unreal plus 80s dancing is the white mans specialty...hahaha. SO FUN. Anyway another fun thing are the BYU football games.


BYU is really good this year and right now are 4-0 and just beat UCLA 58-0. Yeah it was great. I am also on an intramural football team and after dominating our first team we played 35-6 we then got the favor returned and got beat 40-12. ouch! Still we will recover and do well. I think some of the best things about my time here has been the chance to see mission buddies and other friends I haven't seen in a long time. The other day I went to go see my trainer "ELDER HEWLETT" and my first zone leader "ELDER ENCE". They were probably two of the most influentual guys on the begining of my mission when things were tough for me. Seeing them again was sooooo great, it was so nice to they were still the same wonderful guys I had met 3 years pior. Also seeing them married with kids was great. What stud examples.

Guess who the single one is....hahaha yeah i think when you get married you get bigger automatically.
It really is fun here but very different than Hawaii and to be honest I am not sure what the future holds. I am considering returning to Hawaii and going to school full time there. This is not to say I don't like it here because I REALLY DO. But a once in a lifetime chance to live and study in Hawaii is in front of me and it is very tempting and in the long run could be the thing that I see myself happier doing. But I have this whole semester to think and pray about it and I am sure that no matter what the future will be bright.........because I will make sure it is. For now it is time to focus on the here and now.




The pretty mountains ...(and girls..lol)


The Good friends





And the good times.

Love you guys.

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Hawaii.....A Dream Summer of the Aloha spirit

Well it has been a while since my last blog. I now am back from Hawaii. Back to reality. Still its nice to be back with the family. Its nice to finally make some deposits in my bank account instead of only withdrawls. hahaha. But I want to write a little something now looking back at what this last summer was......it was a dream. I think I annoy everyone around me telling stories about this last summer. Have you ever seen one of those movies about an amazing summer of friends, beaches, adventure, romance, fun and excitement. THAT WAS THIS SUMMER. Honestly a dream! It also came at a great time in my life. Coming home from the mission was hard. You feel out of place, you feel uncomfortable, you feel like everything in your life has changed and you have to find a new niche in life. Going to Hawaii was the perfect remedy. See in Hawaii they believe in the Aloha spirit. Aloha means, Hello, Goodbye, and I love you. It really can be seen in the friendly loving and accepting feeling that permeates the Island. It was like Hawaii took me in and gave me a big hug. It helped me to feel comfortable again, it was like I readjusted there. I feel like I am back to myself again. I have found my niche again. I want to thank my Mom and Dad for getting me there and encouraging me in everything. They are perfect parents for me and made this time possible for me by paying for school and the plane ticket. Still, the friends and the memories are so priceless to me. As I look back on it I often think to myself, "wow I really did it, I did what everyone dreams of". Actually I feel kinda bad talking about it because not everyone get the chance at things like this. I guess its something personal, something I should keep to remember in the hard times. I will never forget my perfect summer. To try and describe it is in vain. friendship, fun, surf, love, adventure,.....ect....ect...ect........................................A DREAM



Now on to the next chapter of the story of my life!