The Mortensen Family

Todd and I had a little getaway weekend to Vegas to see Shania Twain.  We had such a great time.  I read an entire book, we did some shopping, we ate a lot, we stayed at the Trump Towers which was amazing, and Shania was awesome!!

It happened.  Carson asked me the other day if it was OK for him to start calling me Mom. He told me he was kind of embarrassed calling me Mommy in front of his friends. Now even Owen is calling us Mom and Dad. I knew this day would come...but what a sad day nonetheless!

On our way to Joshua Tree Carson was the DJ in the truck using Todd's iPhone so, of course, he played Gangham Style over and over and over.  Finally I said enough and asked him to just put it on shuffle. Owen was very sad at this, since Gangham Style is his favorite song so Carson told him it might play again, you just never know. 

I decided to take a teaching moment since Carson was learning about probability in school. So I asked him  since there were 1191 songs what was the probability that we would hear Gangham Style again.  He said, "The probability is good...if we're lucky!"

Spring Break started with a fun camping trip with a couple of friends to Joshua Tree. We had fun staying up late talking around the campfire and being attacked by kangaroo rats.  The kids were too scared to go on a bear hunt, so they went stargazing instead. The next day we found a spot to do some climbing on rocks.  Owen was getting into everything so I decided to put him in the pack and take a 2 mile loop hike.  I swear it was more like 5 miles and I didn't have water or anything with me. I thought everyone back at camp was waiting for me so I was walking really fast, but in fact they were on the hike trying to catch up to me.  Regardless it was a fun trip!




We then made another trip to Knott's Berry Farm and ran into some "bad guys" who gave the kids bullets!


Next up on the agenda was potty training.  I have to say Owen was the easiest kid ever to potty train.  All we needed was the right incentive--gum.  He had 2 accidents the first day and has been dry every since.  He even goes poop on the toilet without a problem. The kids even made up a Gangham Potty Style.  It's officially the end of an era.  My last child is out of diapers.



Our Knott's passes get us into Knott's Soak City and there just happens to be one in Palm Springs so we had to go check it out.  It was a lot of fun, though the water was REALLY cold. The water park was small enough I didn't worry about loosing any of my kids.  The kids had a great time in the wave pool and going on the tube rides.  I think my favorite thing was the Lazy River (am I getting old?)


We ended our Spring Break with a 7.5 mile bike ride. It was a ton of fun.  Except the part where Emma lost control and went into a very busy street and almost got run over.  Except for that, it was a blast.  We started our ride at Central Park and rode to Red Hill park, played, fed the ducks and turtles and then rode back.  There were 14 kids and 4 moms.  Wow! We got some compliments on how well we managed all those kids, and we got some sneers as we were blocking the whole path.  Todd was our savior as he thought to throw in a wrench and a couple of screwdrivers just in case.  I laughed at him thinking, "and what pray tell am I supposed to do with those?" But they came in very handy when we had to do some minor repairs on the fly.

I received a call from my bishop saying that Sister Wixom, the General Primary President was coming for a conference and she wanted to visit our primary.  WHAT?!! 

I was a little intimidated and nervous, but when she got there she found me and assured me that she didn't intend to see a "perfect" primary and was just excited to spend time with us. 

It was an incredible opportunity.  She sat in primary with us, went to visit a class and visited nursery.  She also wanted to talk to the kids during sharing time.  The minute she got up, the kids were silent.  They were hanging on her every word.  She definitely has the spirit with her guiding her in her calling. 

After church she talked to our presidency and told us what a great primary we had.  She loved the way we worked and laughed together. She said to never think that laughing and having fun with the kids was irreverent. She said if we ever need anything she is just a phone call away.  What an amazing lady!

 We did a fun picnic party in the backyard.  It was catered with good food from Naples' Ribs.


We had about 50 of Grandma's family and friends show up to wish her a happy birthday! The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time.  Grandma felt very loved.

Grandma and her best friend, Jeanne

I got to see a good friend that I grew up with, Christiana who I haven't seen in 15 years!

and meet a new cousin, Brooklyn