October

Hooray! Kendall received his Arrow of Light and is now moving on to Boy Scouts.
One Mad Scientist, one Vampire, one Devil, one Witch, and one stinky Skunk = a very fun Halloween.

Change is Constant

One day in July, Dale called me to tell me that the Milwaukee guy over the West had just called him and asked him if he would like to take over the Northwest region which needed some help. This would mean moving. I told him it was up to him, but really I was thinking, I SOOOO don't want to move again. Within a few weeks, I was living in my parents basement in Utah so we could get the kids registered for school and Dale was in Florida finishing out his job there. It took a lot of searching, but this is the house we found to rent. This is what I'll miss about Florida: Warm winters, the beach, great friends, friendly people, the running trail, wearing sandals all year round, Disneyworld and Sea World, our awesome ward, palm trees, squirrels scurrying everywhere, oranges to juice, and the beauty of the green everywhere.
This is looking up our street - yep, that's the church. That is a definate plus about Utah. You're never too far from a church. Our neighbors are VERY friendly.

From our front porch, you can see the Draper temple, Jordan River temple, and Oquirrh Hills temple and of course the beautiful mountain range. Look how far you can see - no trees.

The best part of this house is that it has this huge extra garage in the backyard. Dale is in love with all the cement too.

Dale's parents just left for a mission to South Africa. They will be missed, but we did sneak in a BYU game in the loge before they left.

Shelby turned 5 and we celebrated by giving her cake.

We've had fun playing with cousins.

Max is now in a big boy bed and we are attempting to wean him from the binki.

Max had a birthday - he's 2!! How time flies. My Florida baby won't even remember Florida. He had to be held back from the candles because he wanted to blow them out so bad. He got a sand and water table for outside - too bad it's already starting to get cold.

Vacation to Utah

Pardon my ignorance, but I couldn't figure out how to put the pictures from top down, so you'll have to read this post from bottom up.

The last day, we all went to church with my parents and then went and had my brother take our family's pictures. This isn't the one he took, but you get the picture - no pun intended.

After the Mortensen reunion, we had the Hyer reunion. First we went miniature golfing and pigged out at Golden Coral. We saw Elder L. Tom Perry there. The next day we went to the park and played softball and went swimming at Cottonwood Heights (very fun pool). This is my oldest brother Todd and his wife Joy and me with my neice's husband.

Dale won the horseshoes competition at Aspen Grove.

The spray from the water was FREEZING, but the view down was so beautiful.

The canyon was gorgeous. We took a hike up to the falls.

This is Taylor on the wires.

The boys did it too.

Then repel down which I had never done before. Exhilarating, exhausting, and totally scary at the same time. Then you had to climb up this rock wall. Then climb around these wires in the trees, but I refused because my muscles were completely exhausted.

This was the ropes course. First you had to climb up a telephone pole.

Each night we'd gather around the tables and play cards. Here are some of the boys playing Texas Hold'em. Can you say "Thanks grandma for the poker chips"?

This is the huge lodge we stayed in at Aspen Grove. We were on the top floor- that's Katie on the balcony. All meals were included, all entertaiment for the kids all day - what a fun week.

This is the Bean Museum on the BYU campus. It hasn't changed one bit, but they tore down the dorms I lived in when I was a freshman. We went here with the Colsons.

My mom made the most glorious dessert for us.

We visited Wheeler Farm.

We used to play with this old toy called "The Flexie" and my parents still have it so the kids played on it.

Isn't this a gorgeous view in the early morning. Too bad the running trail is a hill - everywhere you go you have to run up hill.

We crashed our old ward's BBQ and Summer had fun playing with her Eliza and Rachel.

Summer's 6th Birthday Tea Party

Summer decided she wanted a mommy-daughter tea party this year. We made fans and painted nails. I made everyone a tea party hat and we played pass the parcel and had tea party food of course. She had a lot of fun and she has some very cute little friends. It was fun to have the moms their too. I can't believe she's already 6!

Sea World fun

It is officially humid here so we went late to Sea World and it was still 90 degrees at 10:00 pm. We did manage to get a lot of the kiddie rides in though.
These seals were so cute. The kids are cute too :)

Dale's Triathalon in Jacksonville

A couple of guys in the ward joined Dale for a sprint Triathalon in Jacksonville. We stayed by the famous Sawgrass golf course and watched out guys compete. First they had a quarter mile swim in the ocean.
Then they biked 13 miles then ran a 5K.

They did really well and we were so proud of them.

Things you may not know about Me

Marissa this is for you (especially since we only briefly met)

I have 4 older brothers and was a Tomboy as a kid - I wanted a sister so bad, but now I'm lucky enough to have 2 daughters
I lived in Hawaii for 2 years when I was 4 and 5
I think blue cheese and sweet potatoes are disgusting
I like the smell of dead skunk on the road and garlic
My favorite movie is 'Pride and Prejudice'
I learned to cook from my awesome mom (Dale really appreciates this) and we put a cookbook together of all her yummy recipes
I played tennis and ran track in high school
I'm training for a sprint triathalon
I met Dale at the singles ward
I sucked my thumb until the 2nd grade and had to have braces
I had laser surgery to correct my vision
I like to plan ahead and be organized
I graduated from the LDS Business College as valedictorian and was a medical assistant for a podiatrist.

Can't wait to go to Utah!

Amy's Baptism

I can't believe my Amy is already 8.
Dale's parents came to visit for the baptism which Amy thoroughly enjoyed.

Here we all are after the baptism. Doesn't Amy look beautiful?

The two Taylors. I think they played Go Fish 100 times.

This and That

Kendall just earned 4 Webelo pins - Hooray!
Max got into my makeup pencil and had fun drawing on his nose.

On Memorial day we went to Lake Louisa - Max is daddy's buddy.

It rained and rained here and filled up the ponds. The gator came back for a few days.

Summer lost her first tooth.

We've had some birthdays -shout hooray!

Taylor's now 12! He is now a deacon! Where has time gone? He went golfing for his birthday. This cake was sooo good. If anyone ever needs a good chocolate cake recipe, I'll send it over.
Here he is in his new suit

Amy is now 8! This is her getting ready to take treats to school.

The untraditional birthday pie.

Amy had a cooking party. A lot of work, but very fun. The kids made their own pasta dishes, salad, and mini pies.