december

Against my better judgment, I'm going to try to cram all of December up until now into one blog post.  Reason being is that I'm stuck in the very back of my car, as we speak, on our way home from the Las Vegas bowl...which we won't really talk about.  The Utes had a very poor showing, but that's for later.  

The month started off with my good friend, Nan, who's dog, Mimzy, had 9 puppies.  I couldn't wait to take the boys over to see them, but I also knew what was coming..."Moooooom, can we pleeeeeeease get a puppy??"  I didn't cave in, but they were sure cute.  Then Nan had me come over to take pictures of them for her flyer that she is putting up around town.  It was a fun project, and something that I would like to perhaps get in to more.  

Next were the boys' Christmas concerts at school.  Jake was finally old enough to be in his own concert. It was cute how all week long Ben was so excited for Jake saying, "Can you believe it Jake?  You are finally going to have your own Christmas concert!!"

Jake is on the top row, in the middle

all of the first graders

Ben's concert the next day:  all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, and Mrs. Reinhard, 

getting ready to sing "Everlasting Fruitcake," Ben's fave song this year.

Ben is on second row from the top, in the middle

Also on that last day of school, we celebrated Jake's teacher's (Miss Neal) b-day, her dog's, Perry Mason, b-day, Christmas, and we sadly said good-bye to one of Jake's classmates, Anders, who is moving.  Whew, it was one packed day!!

Last Saturday was the annual Mortenson family Christmas party.  Santa and his elf were able to make it.

Gma Train's tree is always a work of art

And there was the traditional die-cast cars given to each grandchild.  Even the girl's love 'em.

Ben wanted his own photo shoot with the cars the boys got this year

And finally we are caught up to the past couple of days.  Ben and Jake were already out of school, but we had to pull Will out a couple days early to go to Las Vegas to see Utah play Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl.  We stayed at the MGM Grand...you know, the big green hotel with the gold lions. :)

Fortunately we left late enough in the day to miss the big storm that went through 

central Utah and the traffic jam that went with it.  

It was so wet the next day, still raining off and on, that we were looking for some excitement indoors, and what better place than GameWorks?!  It brought back memories of back in the day when Daren and I used to go there in California and play games.  

The boys liked this car game, mostly because it looked like a Delorean (Back to the Future)

sloshing through Las Vegas...

...to see the real lions in our hotel...


...and then on to the game!  We were well prepared for cold weather, but it wasn't bad.  The best part about the whole night was no rain, amazingly enough!!

As we were walking up to the stadium the Air Force jets were doing a fly-over for the game, and it looked awesome with the fire coming out the back of the jets.  Jake was by far the most excited and enthusiastic child to be there.  To say the other two didn't want to be there would be an understatement, but they survived. 

Ben read a book the whole time

Us and Daren's brother, Dakon, who is very good at child crowd-control!!

At half-time we hunted down Jake's friend, Nathan.  They were so excited to see each other outside of the neighborhood.

The game was a huge disappointment.  Boise State was pretty great, and we got our tushies spanked 26-3.  Even though we ended the season 10-3, it was a huge let-down at the end with losing 3 of our last 5 games.  But, we're headed off to be part of the Pac 12 next year, and there will always be bitter, as well as the sweet, and we have had a pretty sweet ride in the last few years.  

We had to get a picture of our hallway at our hotel, which looked like a mirror at the back, 

but it just went on forever and ever!

Some sights around town this morning, including the sun!

Jake was the most enthusiastic of all the boys at the game, so he got to choose where we ate breakfast today.  That was a no-brainer for him...ihop!

Goodbye Las Vegas!!  Thanks for pretty good times!  Now I have to get home and finish up all the preparations for Christmas.  I might even brave the mall and take the boys to see Santa.  We might camp-out for it early in the morning, because Julie said there was a huge long line.  Hmmm...Merry Christmas everyone!!

still thankful

I realize this is waaay past due, but I wanted to share some highlights of our Thanksgiving trip to Mazatlan.  A big ol' snowstorm hit Salt Lake just before we left, and we had to drive 25mph on the freeway on our way to the airport...and the boys were actually sad to leave such a great storm.  Don't worry.  They got over it.    

day one

 This was the book Ben had been looking forward to reading on this trip.  He started it 

the second we walked in the airport, and because our flight got delayed (de-icing), he 

finished the whole thing before we even took off.  Book junkie!  

 Like I said, it didn't take long to adjust to shorts and t-shirts.

I knew that tacos were a staple in Mexico, but what I didn't realize is that they are a dinner staple, and they only open at dinner time.  We met up with our friends, Chris and Lucia, in Mazatlan.  Lucia's family has a house (right on the beach) and a condo, (right across the street) where we stayed.  Every day at 1:30 we ate a big meal at the house and then just ate tacos or something smaller for dinner.

day two

 our condo

 the pool right outside the door of the condo, and the "floating beds," which were Ben's favorites

 This is the beach right outside the door of Lucia's house.  Jake was always playing out there.  He loved playing in the rocks and water so much, but then he got stung by a jellyfish and didn't like it so much.

 We went out for a walk on the boardwalk near the center of town.  

The moonrise was beautiful.

day three

Lucia's family owns this beautiful sailboat.  We went out on it for a few hours on this morning.

 This is Lucia and Chris, with their son, Roman.  And Jake.

 Jake showing off his jellyfish bite.

 "Captain Will" was all smiles to steer the boat for a while.  He wants to be a captain someday. 

 The boys did a little kayaking from the boat to an island.  I was just grateful to anchor the boat for a while so my stomach wouldn't be so queasy from the rocking of the boat.  

 This is the other pool at the condo--a salt-water pool.  

The boys LOVED this place, and spent most of their condo time out there.  

 Dinner one night at the Seafarer Restaurant by our condo, with our three boys and 

our adopted-son-for-the-evening, CJ (aka: Churro), Chris' older son.  He could easily fit in to our family!

 These three--CJ, Daren, and Chris--went out golfing almost every day there. 

Yes, we hauled Daren's clubs all the way there, and he couldn't have been more happy!!

The other place they spent much time at was the hot tub...until the motor broke and it wasn't so hot anymore.  The boys didn't care, they swam in it anyway.

 Our night at Senor Frogs was very memorable for the boys.  Their favorite parts?

The loud music, the big hats, and the MARSHMALLOW WAR!!  

day four--thanksgiving

 Is this one of the most beautiful settings for a Thanksgiving feast (fiesta?!), or what?  This is the main house where everyone else stayed.  Lucia's parents, Caesar and Maria, cooked up a huge turkey and invited 12 or 14 of their closest friends in Mazatlan to join us for Thanksgiving.  Maria really had to search for a turkey, but she found one.  Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a turkey, yams, mashed potatoes (with about 2 lbs. of mozarella cheese in them!), shrimp, rice with cashews, garlic bread, pumpkin pie and guava pie (yum!).

 I am not a mushroom fan, but these were amazing.  And that was just an appetizer!

 Caesar had his sailboat "tiled" into the bar.  Very cool. 

 Caesar has been taking singing lessons, and he was amazing!!  Maria got up and danced with these clicking things that went along with his song.  

Not to be outdone, Ben, Jake and CJ had their own fun copying a Mexican dance...with golf clubs. 

 Jake sat outside with me to watch the sunset on our last evening in Mazatlan.

day five

And Will was up the next morning with me to watch the sunrise.   

We had the greatest time.  It really didn't matter where we were because we could still be thankful for all we have and for each other...but being in Mazatlan didn't hurt.  Much thanks to Chris and Lucia for the best time!!

some highlights to remember:

no buckling up in Mexico

Chris' 2 rules:  have fun and NO WHINING!

dominoes

Berta, who cleaned our condo every day

Phase 10

the kid's lifesavers--a tv room at the condo and McDonald's one night for dinner

Lucia and I get a 1/2 hour massage for 100 pesos ($10!)

no tivo + no internet + no cell phones for a week = catch up on sleep!! :)

Of course, the boy were thrilled that there was still some snow left over when we got back, and then a big storm came in a day later, so they got their first "snow day" from school in a long time, and had a blast playing in it all day.  Now the snow is all melted and gone, but we are crossing our fingers for a white Christmas.