The AZ Jensen's

Finally. . . .Finally, we got my parents to come down to AZ again. They've had this silly excuse about it being hotter than the sun with a fever here and that's kept them well out of visiting distance for a few years. We were able to entice them with promises of 70 degree weather and extra pie.

Since it was still nice and warm and in the 80s, we celebrated not going to Black Friday sales by going to the Phoenix Zoo instead. It was awesome! We are now proud owners of a PHX Zoo membership so we'll frequently be enjoying wild caged animals for the next year.

For the past month Buzz Lightyear has been running, jumping, and falling (with style) around our house. Last night, we unleashed him upon the neighborhood so that is chubby-faced cuteness could melt hearts, ensuring candy bowls tipped freely allowing generous amounts of sugary, gooey, chocolatey goodness to tumble into his orange pumpkin pail. And what a success it was!


John and his friends came over this week for a pumpkin carving party. Good times were had by all, with stellar displays of carving talent.





Earlier this week Monica and I were milling through ideas for how we should dress up. We couldn't think of anything really good until Monica finally suggested we go Emo. That's right, Monica and Shawn Jensen . . . Emo. We did our best without having to walk into Hot Topic, borrowing skinny pants and Airwalk shoes from John's friends. We completed the transition with some black eyeliner and fingernail polish. The hardest thing about being Emo is that you're supposed to be sad and whiny about life. I couldn't really be Emo because I'd be laughing all the time at how ridiculous I look. :)



I don't know if it's just our neighborhood but there were hardly any kids trick or treating and much less people actually handing out Candy. Makes it hard to get a good stash. On the other hand, people were shoving huge handfuls of candy just trying to get rid of it all so Linc did alright for himself, which of course means Monica and I did alright for ourselves too ;)

We have been quite busy lately= this will be a very long post =). Shawn has been traveling quite a bit for work, almost every week for the last 6 weeks, but we have managed to squeeze in some family time. Kara and Tyler stopped in on their way home from LA and spent a couple of days with us. We visited the Mesa Temple grounds and took them on the Merkle Trail hike in Usery Park.






We spent last Saturday at Vertuccio Farms with my cousins and their kids. Lincoln had such a great time. There was a tractor ride, a bounce house, tricycle racing, a corn maze for adults and a haybale maze for kids. They had a small farm with a cow, a couple of goats, pigs and chickens and a donkey. Lincoln really enjoyed making friends with all of the animals. It was money well spent.

Last weekend I made a quick trip up to Utah for my mission reunion. It was our first reunion with the Dansie's (my mission president and wife) in probably 8 years. We had a great time and for the most part, we all look basically the same save a few extra pounds here and there. :P