Rochester

Scott, Will, and I spent a great weekend in Rochester. We are so lucky to have family so close! We decided to spend the weekend in Rochester, so we packed up and headed down Friday afternoon. We had a lot of fun, Will really loves playing with his cousins. Scott and Wes got to enjoy some golfing and we always have yummy food while visiting Wes and Lorinda. It was a fun weekend. Scott and Will helped Wes plant some of his garden, can't you tell what a good helper Will is?

We're famous!

I didn't know my family was famous! Scott and I were driving around, and ran into this cute little suburb HOPKINS (my maiden name), MN - It comes equipped with all the significant details of a small suburb, a theater, library, city hall, a Wendy's, and some trailer courts. Hahaha, just kidding, it really was a cute little city.

Our Walk Around Como Lake

Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of a 4 year old, and two 2 year olds? It is next to impossible, but it sure is fun to try! These are Will's friends Parker and Mayli. We went for a walk with them (and our other friend Brielle - she was in the stroller) around the lake that is a few miles from our house. It was a lot of fun. Will had a blast, and they really liked trying to find ducks, and all the people who were walking their dogs. They only had to be bribed with food a few times :) I'm not really sure what Mayli is looking for in this picture, I think she is showing us her princess shoes, Will is saying cheese to Cassi, and Parker is starting to tell Will something. Now, Parker is looking at me, Will is saying "Cheesy Cheese!" and Mayli is looking at the duck.
Finally, all three are ALMOST looking in the right direction. Will is saying CHEESE to Parker and the other two and saying CHEESE to their mom!
Finally, I opted for a close up of Will looking at who knows what and saying who knows what.
The greatest part of this whole picture scenario was us three adults saying "say CHEESE" over and over and all of a sudden little Brielle, who was sitting so nicely in her stroller, who is not even a year old said "CHEESE!" and all three of us turned around and looked at her in shock! It was an amazing baby moment, Brielle, you are a genious!

It wouldn't be complete without a picture of the cute little ducklings following their mom! They were really cute, we saw quite a few of ducklings with their Mamas.

Graduation Dinner

Since Scott is doing a dual degree, he has one more year of school. His classmates that he started school with are all graduating... or graduated as of yesterday. So, we still got to enjoy a beautiful dinner with his graduating classmates. This dinner was on the 50th floor (of 51 floors) of one of the tallest buildings downtown. It was an awesome view, I knew Minnesota was flat, but I didn't realize just HOW flat - I felt like I could see for miles. It was fun to enjoy a nice meal, talk to the graduates and their families, and dream of next year when we REALLY will be celebrating!!
This is the view out one of the windows, if you look closely you can see two lakes, right in the middle of the city. Minnesota is really pretty this time of year, it is so green and there are trees everywhere. It's very pretty right now, not too hot and humid, no bugs and mosquitos are out yet, and we can actually enjoy being outside.

These are our friends the Jenkins. Jeremy is graduating this year and moving to Jacksonville Florida with a fellowship at Mayo. Congrats Jeremy, we sure will miss you guys!!!
PS - doesn't Scott look handsome without his beard? I think so ; )

***BEARD ALERT***

So, Scott here again for my second post ever....all in the same day as my inaugural post! As you may have noticed (or may not have noticed due to my lack of keratin around the frontal facial area) I have been growing out my beard. I decided about a month ago that I would try to compete with my brother, Tyler, who is in Alaska for the summer working and growing a beard. We wanted to both show up with enormous beards at my sisters wedding at the end of May without telling her...and then shave them off (at least I would) the night before the wedding. Well I didn't quite make it....BUT I did take some totally awesome progressive pictures as the beard morphed into a flavor-savor/fumanchu/thing that Kara really hates. Here are the pixels of complete goodness!....

First, the full beard (I at least shaved my neck beard every day to maintain some sort of cleanliness)

Next is the chin strap (and mustache) just to make me feel cool and hip!

Then came the goat (with mustache), I felt like a Frenchman named Pierre

Oh, the lovely mustache that demonstrates why they are rarely in fashion throughout the world...luckily I don't have a picture of my Hitler version of the mustache!

Finally, it is all gone except for my flavor-savor/fumanchu/thing that Kara hates! I shaved that off the next morning as well.

Anyway, I am now back to my old self (it is a good feeling), BUT I enjoyed the facial hair journey and hope that you each appreciate the many looks/personalities that come with Mr. Scott W. Mortensen!

Adventures with Dad

Will is learning lots of new things from Scott. Scott took Will camping for the first time ever, he can give you the details later. He is also teaching Will how to do this.....

Father Son Campout

So, this is Scott here.....a rare poster of the Mortensen Family blog. BUT, I had to share the experience that Will and I had last weekend. We went on our very first Father-and-Son camp out! It was a blast. I have sour memories of Father-and-Son outings just because the one I remember was at a ranch in Idaho and I stepped on a rusty nail, ended up with scar tissue in my foot, and like 10 years later had to have surgery to fix it (freak accident, I know)!

Anyway, Will and I stayed in a HUGE tent with 7 other people, and let me tell you about the experience.....

It all started with us getting to the campsite by about 8:00pm. Close your eyes and picture 300 men and boys running around like chicken with their heads cut off. Then picture that until about 11:30 at night! Will and I got in the GINORMOUS tent around 9:30 and laid out our sleeping arrangements, which is key in this story because I forgot any sort of matress or pad to sleep on. I put my sleeping bag next to the corner of the tent in hopes that Will would stay warmer being next to me and someone else......which from above you can see this obviously worked (man I am smart). Then it was time for bed. Close your eyes again and picture this, Scott changing Will's dirty diaper in the dark....sweet experience. We finally got situated and as I lay down I realize that not only is my hip strategically situated on top of a huge root under our tent but my head is also enjoy a comfy rock pillow!!! On top of that I realize that the corner I chose to sleep in was the only corner that wasn't on flat ground. I was sliding right to the edge of the tent. And so the night went, sleeping for 10 minutes, waking up for 30 minutes to rub feeling back into my numb hip, sleeping for 10 minutes, waking up for 30..... In the end I calculated that I probably got around 3 hours of sleep. BUT, don't worry Will made up for my lack of sleep by snoozing away through the tent clean-up, and packing. Once again close your eyes and picture this, A 12 man tent the size of our first apartment with one little tike named Will sleeping in the middle of it. Will was fast asleep in his cozy little sleeping bag with his head resting on a, you guessed it, Dinosaur pillow until 8:00am. Oh what I would give to be a heavier sleeper, or for some Tylenol PM, or for the ability to plan and remember mattresses!!!
In the end, I have to say, we had a BLAST! I even warmed up Will's milk by pouring water into the reused peach can from the dutch oven peach cobbler, boiling the water over the fire, and then placing the sippy cup into the hot water for a few minutes!
Tired dad with my future pyro (look at that stare into the fire)! Thanks Will for a wonderful first ever, Father-and-Sons outing. I look forward to many more!

Posting overload

Okay, I just did like 5 posts in a row. It has been busy, and I haven't been able to post all of our fun stuff, so I knew I had to do it all, right now, while I had a few minutes. I just thought I would warn you all that there is a lot to read!

Oh, and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! 5 YEARS!

MMMMMM GOOD

My friend Kendra was wanting me to help her make some homemade bread. I don't know what it is about this stuff, maybe it is just the simplicity and "back to our roots" feel of baking your own bread, but I LOVE doing it. I love the basic ingredients, and the fact that it is so healthy. I love grinding my own wheat to have the freshest whole wheat flour, and I especially love the way it makes my house smell, so homey and inviting.

This batch that I helped Kendra with turned out SO amazing. See for yourself. Don't you wish you had a big slice with butter and honey on it? I do. We were very proud of ourselves, and I can't wait to bake bread again in a few weeks. Since I got a wheat grinder for Christmas, we stopped buying bread. This is so much tastier, and so much better for you, and since my bosch is amazing, it can make four BIG loaves at a time, so we just freeze the others and I end up only making bread about once a month... sometimes twice, depending on how much I eat when it comes out of the oven the day I bake it. It's so hard to resist.

So, go ahead and take a look, then wipe the drool off your mouth and think about how good it tastes! Maybe if you're nice, I'll bake you some. Maybe not. Bread goes to the highest bidder! Just kidding. Isn't it pretty?
....and isn't it perfect looking? I think so.

The Kiddie Kandids Adventure

I took Will to get his pictures taken for his birthday. Since I know that he's not keen on the idea of strangers, or wierd people trying to make him smile and do things, I thought he needed a little prepping. So the day before and the morning of, I talked to him about it (always getting a little "No want to!") and was a little worried about how I was going to make this happen.

So, we had a practice round. I told him this was how his pictures were going to be, sat him on his chair and told him to smile and say cheese. Well, as you can see, he is definately cheesin' it! He sat there and said "CHEEEESE" for like 3 minutes (a long time for a 2 year old). So, I was glad I at least got a few cute pictures at home.

After our practice round, we set off for Kiddie Kandids with bribery in hand (Twizzlers). When we got there, nobody had even talked to us and he was already clinging to my neck crying and asking to go home. This wasn't going to be easy.... I thought. So, it was his turn and he picked out a little brown chair to sit on, I sat him on it, and whoa, the tears starting flowing! He was SCREAMING. It was funny because there was a lady waiting for us with newborn twins, and all I could think of was "She has no idea what she's in for with TWINS.... wait until she has TWO doing what Will was doing... Poor lady!"

So I was trying everything, and the picture taker lady was NOT helping. She kept trying to tickle him with a feather duster and talked to him like a baby. I asked if she had any dinosaurs and she said "no" - this was not going to work. I almost gave up, until the weird picture taker lady finally showed Will the screen with himself on it, screaming. He looked at himself, stopped crying instantly and starting performing. I always knew he was a performer at heart. He started waving, saying "CHEEEEESE" just like we'd practiced, showing us his muscles, and saying "can I have a treat?" It was pretty hilarious. So, all our pictures are pretty funny, with his teary eyes, bright red face, and funny expressions, but cute nonetheless....

Next year, maybe we'll forget about professional pictures and go with our homemade photo skills. It's cheaper anyways.

Will's Birthday!

The morning of Will's b-day! He was SO excited to walk downstairs and see all

his birthday treasures!!You can't see it, or hear it, but Will was yelling "DINOSAURS!"
and more... "DINOSAURS!"
"DINOSAURS!" Are you seeing a common thread?
The goods... lots and lots of treats too!
This was the day before Will's b-day.

He got a package from Grandpa and Grandma Mortensen

He still talks about getting that package, he LOVED it.

When we ask him what was in the package, he says

"Chocolate!" He really likes his new "bug" jammies, dinosaur books,

and the treats, especially the chocolate :)

Reading his book from Uncle Owen and Aunt Ashlie
And the cute little umbrellas, it is so easy to please a child!
Thanks for making Will's birthday special, everybody! We love this little boy and are so greatful for all the wonderful family he has!!

Honey

Honey is the newest member of our ward. She was baptized a few Saturdays ago. Scott and I have known her since the missionaries found her and she asked me to speak at her baptism. I really admire the converts of the church, it would NOT be easy, but they have such a strong testimony of the gospel and that what they are doing is right and good. We've loved welcoming her to our ward family, and have enjoyed having her over for dinner and family home evening.

In His Mother's Footsteps

Isn't there a quote or something about following in your mother's footsteps? Well, Will really is, he LOVES to wear my high heeled shoes around. I recall Martha telling me that Scott used to do this, and she even asked Glenn if he thought they should be worried. I'm not worried one bit. I've got a tender hearted little boy who loves dinosaurs, bugs, dirt, and high heels. What could be wrong with that?

Can you tell Will is saying "CHEEEESE?"

Oh, and don't you just love the sweats and high heels combo?

I do it all the time...

NORAH

YAY - she's here! The long wait is over. Little Norah gets to share Will's birthday! We are so excited to have her here, she is a beautiful baby! Will got to spend his b-day at his cousins house, playing, and seeing the new baby. It was a fun day! Congratulations Wes and Lorinda, we are so happy for you!!