Kirtland

I'm sure in the next few years that I live in Cleveland we will be visiting Kirtland, it is only about 15 minutes from our new house! It is really a neat place, and the church has done an amazing job restoring it.  It has changed a lot since I was there about 10 years ago! We had a great little missionary couple take us on our tour, and it was there last day on their mission! So, here are a few photos....

The saw mill and ashery. The church used these for building the temple,

after the temple was complete, they sold the goods and made a profit, much of which was given to the church welfare program. 

More of the saw mill and ashery, which was powered by the water wheel...

This is an amazing little room.  When I was on my church history tour just out of high school, we visited this room and I remember feeling a very special spirit here.  As soon as I walked in this room again, that same incredible feeling came back, it was a feeling that instantly came to my mind and made me remember the last time I was here.  

This is the school of the prophets.

In this very room, several men saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, they were witnesses to the Book of the Mormon and wrote their experiences of what they saw and felt in this room.  

This is a little sign that I just loved.  Kirtland is such a pretty little town, nestled between rolling hills, and in the summer is SO green and lush.  It is an amazing historical site for our church and really was a place where the early Saints had to have faith, trust, and perseverance through their trials while in Ohio. 

This is the Newel K. Whitney Store.  Newel Whitney was the first bishop of the church, and was a very large part of church history.  He was an incredible man and friend of the prophet Joseph Smith.  He gave of goods, traded people food for their home grown goods, and started the welfare program of the church. The Whitney's were generous with their time, food, and even their own home while the church was rapidly growing in OH. Upstairs in the store is the School of the Prophets.

Kirtland was a very special place to visit, we were so happy to be able to go on Easter Sunday.  I am excited to go back and show these special places to Will, let him run around on the beautiful grounds and feel the special, holy spirit that is there.  The early Saints were so faithful and endured many hardships for the gospel, I'm so grateful to them and their strong wills! 

If you are not a member of our faith and want to know more about Kirtland or our beliefs, go HERE: www.mormon.org

Cleveland In a Nutshell

Not really a "nutshell" just not so many pictures.  On Saturday afternoon while waiting for our house offer to go through, we took a drive to Downtown Cleveland.  I guess sports are HUGE here, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Browns, get the idea?  So, the stadium was a must see.  This is the baseball stadium, the football stadium is on the other side of the city and we ran out of time, so that will have to wait.  

Here's the Cleveland skyline, out my window, in  a moving car.... definitely not the best shot, but it will have to do.  Do you like the beautiful blue sky?  Does it look warm?  Well, if you think so, you are wrong.  It has been FREEZING here.  I feel like I'm pretty tough when it comes to the cold weather, and I don't know what it is, maybe more humid?  Whatever it is, it is cold.  But we really enjoyed the sunshine!!!
Have I mentioned that we got a rental car?  Maybe not.  Well, we didn't get just any rental car, it is a very chic dodge charger.  We feel really weird driving it, it's just not quite like our earthy outback! So this is us driving our in charge Charger......

We have a house!!

Well, here we are Easter Sunday sitting our little hotel room in Cleveland, thinking about how blessed we are.  No matter what your trials, our Heavenly Father is aware of us and our needs and desires.  We are so blessed in so many ways and I'm so greatful to a loving Father in Heaven who guides and directs us in the choices we make.  

We got here on Thursday, found out our suitcase missed our flight out of Chicago, figured out our rental car, then rushed over to see our first house.  This house we found on a real-estate website and as we were looking through it we kept seeing things that eluded to the fact that the owners my be member of the LDS church, like us! So, we called the realtor and she let us talk to the seller of the home (very untraditional), and they are members of the church, and told us about their neighborhood and how much they love it, how there are TONS of kids, etc. We were instantly in love with the home and the neighborhood and most of all the location. 

So Friday morning, we were up bright and early and off to look at houses.  We had a list of 15 homes that were our "favorites" and we saw them ALL in one day.  If you've ever been house hunting, you will know what it feels like when I saw we were TIRED, anxious, nervous, and excited all at the same time.  After seeing all the houses we sat down with our realtor and narrowed our search to our 4 favorites.  All along, we had our eyes (and hearts) set on this one house, but thought we better be safe and explore other options as well.  We mulled over "our" houses, had a great BBQ with some members of the ward here (who's house we were also looking at), and went home to crash at our hotel.  

Saturday was sunny, bright, and COLD.  I think the cold followed us here to OH because it really is COLD right now.... anywho.... we headed to take a second look at our top 4 choices and then try to make a final decision.  So, we carefully looked at the last four, then got something to eat (I make better decisions when I'm not hungry.... hehe).  After lunch we went back to the office and sat down to write up a contract and make an offer! It was exciting, and overwhelming.  We put in our offer at like 2pm, and by 8pm we had a HOME!  

We are SO excited and happy that we got the home we had been wanting since before we had even come out to Cleveland.  We are even more excited to move here and get to know the area and learn about Cleveland and what is has to offer. What an exciting day! We are headed home in a few days and we are ready and excited to see WILL.  We MISS him dearly, and talk about him constantly.  More than anything we are happy with our house choice because we think it will be good for him, I can't wait for him to see it, explore it's nooks and cranny's and have room to RUN!

Pictures and more details of the home coming soon!

Ready, Set, Hunt!

Our complex had a community Easter Egg hunt.  It was great, there were over 700 eggs!  Will loved it, especially finding candy inside the egg....

Enjoying the goodness.....

Good job Will! A blue one... good think Dad and I had a game plan for you,

otherwise you might not have gotten any eggs! We only had to elbow one 

other kid out the way.... hehehe

Buried in the sand?  What a tricky Easter bunny!

Working out the game plan with dad...

He sees them, now he has to hurry and pick them up,

he did eventually!

It was a fun little activity.  Cold, but at least not snowy like last year.  Will had a lot of fun and keeps asking me about the Easter Bunny.  We also spent time with cousins this weekend, it was great.  Will is very excited to go spend the night for a few nights this week! Mom and Dad are off to house hunt in Cleveland! Whoopee!  

My little helper, and a little project

Will is my little helper!  He loves to help me clean, organize, and do dishes.  Here he is, hard at work, Batman cape and all!  He's been loving his cape and hasn't taken it off for like three days.  Oh, and do you love the outfit, he picked it out and dressed himself! I can't complain, although when we went outside it was really cold, so he had to wear his snow boots with his shorts.... what a great kid, I love him so much!!

Washing washing, squish the sponge and see the soap come out, then wash wash some more!
Scrub scrub scrub, too bad he is scrubbing the wrong side of the plate! :)
Finished.  Looks clean right?  Ummmm, maybe not, I tried to explain what is clean and what is not, he's doing much better.
And one last item of fun.  I made a table runner.  I just couldn't resist the lemons, they are too fun and WARM looking.  Then I added a few little fabric flowers.... you can't tell because you can't see the stems, we like it though, it brightens up our house!

Our handsome little boy is growing up

..... I can't believe it.  He will be three in less than a month!  He is so fun, he's always full of life and saying something that makes us laugh.  

Don't mind the lovely gray air matress, it was from a Daddy/Son party the night before.  They had a blast, and I didn't have time to clean up before church. Just pretend like it's not there.

An Easter Project

Easter is coming! I love Spring and I love Easter, it is such a peaceful holiday.  I love the Spring colors and seeing everything come to life again.  When I saw these on the Purl Bee website, I couldn't resist.  Will and I made a handful of them today using my endless scraps of felt.  They are FUN!

Will thought they were especially cool because he loves jelly beans and is pretty ecstatic about the prospect of hunting for plastic eggs full of jelly beans.  Happy Easter and enjoy your jelly bean bags!!

Last BIT from Scott's Life - FLORIDA

I know that Kara already wrote about our relaxing trip to Florida (the beach, Sea World, and especially being with FAMILY) but I figure I might as well add to it. We really had a wonderful time and feel so fortunate to be able to make time to visit fun places and family at the same time. This is my favorite picture of the trip. I love our little family and am so happy to have Kara and Will!
Wes (my brother doing a medical rotation at Mayo in Jacksonville) and I went and visited TPC Sawgress, the home of the PGA Players Championship. The course was absolutely amazing!

This was a sign near the course.....it made me realize that most golfers must be dumber than we think (jk)...I mean who would just jump into a pond while they were golfing, and second why would you do it if you knew there were alligators.....duh!

As you drive up to the TPC Club House there are signs honoring all the past Players champions, including Jack Nicklaus (the man, the myth, the legend).

And of course Tiger Woods (get in the hole!).

This is the apartment that we stayed in while we were there....NOT! This is the TPC Sawgrass Club House. Absolutley stunning AND huge. I asked them at the front desk where I should go to sign up for the Players tournament and they looked at me all weird (okay, I didn't).

This is TPC Hole #1. It was great to see the whole and just picture that in a few months a croud of thousands would be standing around the tee box listening to the legends being announced. I could just hear, "Next on the tee box, Scott Mortensen, hailing from North Logan, Utah".

Another cool hole (not sure which one it is but it we know it was close to #17, the famous floating green).

Wes and I were able to practice our game a bit....let's just say that neither of us (especially me) would have made the first cut at the Players. It was really fun though and it was nice of Wes to pay for my round....I owe him big time!

While we were visiting Wes had his Anesthesia Boards in Gainseville, FL so we decided to make it a "Daddy Night" with the kids and left the girls to relax...they deserve it! Gainseville is around 2 hours from Jacksonville so we got a hotel for that night. We took the kids out to eat at Burger King, played games (pretty just jumped on the hotel beds all night), watched a movie, and went to bed way too late (we had to stay up and watch the Jazz beat the Nuggets...booyah!). While we were there I figured I might as well check out "The Swamp" where the Florida Gators play. What a complex!

Here are the kids that wouldn't even pause to smile for the picture....too in to Monster's Inc. You should have heard them laughing at the very last part when Mike swallows the microphone and makes the kid laugh. I have never heard kids laugh louder!

Wes took me by Mayo Clinics hospital in Jacksonville. It would have been fun to work there for my residency rather than Mayo in Rochester, BUT hey why should I complain? Mayo is Mayo!

Another BIT from Scott's Life - COSTA RICA

So, in January I attended a study abroad seminar on sustainability and "green" business in Costa Rica....I know rough life. We were acutally in class a ton BUT we also got some free time and so I though I would share a bit about my experience there.
A major part of Costa Rica's economy is the coffee industry. Not being a coffee drinker and not knowing much about how coffee is grown, harvested, roasted, OR selected I found our visit to a coffee bean plantation extremely interesting. This first picture shows coffee beans from many different locations (altitudes, humidities, and soil types) around Costa Rica. A Costa Rican entity goes through all coffee that is to be exported or sold within Costa Rica and tests them to ensure quality aroma and taste. They smell, feel, view and taste all different types of coffee to ensure that they are of highest of quality. I never knew there was such a strict process that was followed.


Check me out, smelling the amazingly beautiful aroma of freshly brewed coffee beans. Actually, I thought this part was kind of weird and don't really understand the dynamics of how many different smells coffee can have.

While I was there I was able to attend the LDS Temple in San Jose. This picture obviously doesn't do justice (it was taken with my iPhone while I was on the move....in the dark), but the temple was beautiful (here is a link to see a better picture, http://www.lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-122-2,00.html)

I had an amazing time flying through the jungles (actually cloud forests, which are the same as rain forests just at higher altitudes) on zip lines. The experience was amazing and adrenaline-pumping. Don't I look comfortable in that harness!!

Costa Rica (Rich Coast) isn't Costa Rica without going to the beach. I went to a beach on the Pacific Coast with a group of MBA students from Thunderbird (AZ). The beach was absolutely stunning. The dark sand that warmed up so much that when the incoming waves hit it it would steam was breathtaking. The hills covered with foliage behind the beach was picturesque. And the beatiful Great White Sharks swimming the shores were ginormous!.....jk!! We had a great time though, and I was thrilled to buy my cool sunglasses for $4!

Need I say more? Probably not!

Here is a really neat picture of part of the cloud forest. This tree here is actually the roots of a tree that has grown around a "host tree". The reason that there are holes through the tree is because the "host tree" trunk was squeezed by the new tree roots and ended up dying and rotting away. The experience at the "cloud forest" of Monte Verde was extremely interesting. Costa Rica has prided itself in making Eco-Tourism a top priority and now I know why.

Even though we were in Costa Rica during the dry season we were able to experience a huge down-pour that was extremely beautiful. About 10 seconds after I felt the first drop the rain came down like cats and dogs (or should I say gatos y perros....hah!). It only lasted for 30 minutes or so but it was definitely pouring.

One of the most memorable/crazy/scary/fun parts of the 2 week study abroad session was the 6.1 earthquake that occurred. The picture below is about 30 seconds after the earthquake when almost everyone (at least locals) was calling family and friends on their cell phones to make sure they were safe. I had just entered the classroom when all of the sudden a rumble started that lasted what seemed to be minutes. White debris started falling from the ceiling, light fixtures started falling down, and the few other students that were in the class either hid under their desks (thanks to Ms. Packard for teaching me that in 1st grade) or ran out of the building. Since most of the Ticos (Costa Rican natives) were running out of the building I decided to follow suit. After the quake there were tons of after-shocks. The US Geologic Dept. said that there were over 100 after-shocks but I only felt 20 or so. One of them happened about 5:45am the next morning....speaking of which, it is a crazy-weird feeling to wake up to an earthquake....I thought it was my phone alarm on vibrate mode until the vibrate started shaking the WHOLE BED!

In the end we (members of the Carlson group) all got out safe even though over 20 people died from the quake whose epicenter was only 20 miles away at a volcano. A professor that was travelling with us and a fellow student's wife (who is expecting) were visiting the volcano (Poas) where the epicenter occurred when the earthquake hit. They were stranded on top of the volcano for around 36 hours due to a huge land slide that wiped out the road. They ended up hiking out for over 3 hours to get to civilization. Crazy, and yet fun for me....the last time I felt a single earthquake was in Utah when I was about 9 years old or so. For the first 3 weeks or so after getting back from Costa Rica I thought that any movement whatsoever (like our neighbors in the apartment complex coming up the common area stairs) was an earthquake.

A Blurb from Scott's Life

Well, the long lost husband has finally taken the time to make a post on the blog....if that is the correct blog-lingo?? Kara does an amazing job keeping family and friends updated on the happenings and "not-so-happenings" of our "simple life". However, I wanted to make sure that I could also keep everyone abreast on other things that we haven't yet blogged about (some of which only I was able to do). So here goes...
Not too long ago I got some crazy idea to make homemade donuts and so I made them with my own two hands...are you proud of me Mom? You better be! The recipe made a ton more than we could eat (well, it made more than we "should" eat....we probably "could have" downed them all in one sitting) so we took some to friends AND kept a few for ourselves.


I have also been plenty busy with school believe it or not. Through the Carlson School of Business, and Ventures Enterprise I have been doing a consulting project on innovative approaches to managing chronic diseases in the baby boomer population by 2015.....la-dee-dah huh!? Our clients include HealthEast (a health system) Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN (payer/insurance), UCare (payer for Medicare qualifying enrollees), and Ecumen (a long-term care organization). I was able to faciliate an amazing ideation session with corporate leaders from most of the organizations. Here is the group of students that I have been working with. Don't we look professional!

In my free time I love playing or watching most any sport. On Wednesday evenings (from around 9pm to 11pm) a group of 8-10 friends play racquetball at the University Rec Center. We tried to play a few weeks ago but very quickly found out that all of OUR racquetball courts were occupied by the National Collegiate Handball Tournament. So, I stayed and watched the tournament for a little. Man, what a sport!

Speaking of sports. Three of my Utah MHA friends and I (Justin Atkinson, Brian Lee, and Dave Henriksen) all bought season tickets to the Minnesota Gophers Basketball games. We bought four tickets so that two of us could go with our wives each time. We usually had amazing seats (5-10 rows up) but this particular game against Illinois we got there late, and look what happened.....we got to see HALF the game. Needless to say Kara told me that we should have gotten there early and that I am always late! We were happy to see the Gophers make it to March Madness with their coach Tubby Smith but unfortunately they were ousted yesterday by Texas. My two other teams (Utah State and BYU) also lost.....USU (my alma-mater) lost by ownly 1 point ....maybe next year!

A Couple Forgotten Pictures

In all my posting excitement I seem to have missed a few photos of our trip.  Here are the kiddos in the tub.... it wouldn't be a true visit with cousins without a tub pic, right?  I love these kids, they are so fun.

Here's Will and Caleb just chillaxin' in the car after a great day at the beach.  See how Will is copying Caleb?  Well that is how it is.  Our little guy absolutely admires, adores, and idolizes his big cousin, and I'm so glad because Caleb is amazing little man.  A great role model for Will, I love this picture it really shows how it is. 

A little family pic by Dolphin cove.  This is where we fed the dolphins.  I got more pictures on our video camera, and it was a crazy thing!  The dolphins are smart, and they know if you have a fish for them or not, and if you don't, they won't even come by you so you can pet them.  Will got a little nervous when we pet them, but afterwards he thought it was pretty cool.  I thought it was fun.... but once again, watch out for seagulls, they tried to steal the little smelts right out of hands!  Seagulls are not my favorite bird, too bad they are the Utah state bird.....