Jensen Family Bear Lake Trip

We went to Bear Lake this last week with a bunch of Tara’s family. TJ and Marsha, Troy’s family, Bret’s Family, Jaylynn Z., and my brother Dustin. We had all sorts of fun boating which includes; wakesurfing / waterskiing / wakeboarding / tubing / swimming / kneeboarding / playing our own version of wipe out (Kaylee the champ has some serious balance, Makenna was the runner up, good job girls!) / hanging on the beach / and even falling off the boat in motion, although I would not recommend it, it was SCARY. We also spent some time playing Golf at Bear Lake West, had a family tennis tournament (thanks Nate), explored the Minnetonka Cave, and went to the funniest melodrama I have ever seen at the Pickelville Playhouse titled: The Hanging of El Bandito, go see it if you get the chance and be prepared to laugh your fanny off.
It was a GREAT time. Thanks to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Dee for being so generous and letting us stay at their cabin, you guys are awesome!

The Great Salt Lake

You know your bucket list – that list of things you want to do before you bite the dust. I got to check an item off this last month. I’m not really into sharing all my bucket list items but this one was a weird one.
Ever since I was a young boy, every time I drive by the Great Salt Lake I have wondered what the water was like. Somehow in the back of my mind I knew it probably would not be a pleasant experience, nevertheless it has been pestering me for years.
We went to visit a few of Tara’s best friends from Highschool, Marci and her 5 children and husband from Arizona and Becky and her 4 children and her friend Bobby and his daughter from Colorado, we all met in Tooele UT, we were closer to the Salt Lake than I had ever been before, so I convinced the group to check it out. As we approached the lake we all noticed a real stink in the air. When we got to the beach we were greeted by a few billion little black flies (brine flies) and a kind of gross green/orange algae along the waters edge, it was lovely as I am sure you can imagine. Since none of us really wanted to hang out on the beach we headed out into the lake, the water was surprisingly warm and shallow. It took us at least 100 yards before the kids got up to their waists, most of them did not last long since the concentrated salt water did not agree with there most tender parts. Mason managed to get his eyes wet but after a good cry he was ready for more, he was really fascinated with the fact that he could float so easily and he was enjoying just bobbing around. A breeze came across the water and we started to get pelted with those tiny flies that seemed to be everywhere, it felt like it was raining bugs. The rest of the group had already made there way back toward the cars so Tara and I drug Mason in so the others would not have to wait. Just as we were coming out of the water I noticed that what I thought was a large sand bar was actually a large pile of bird dung, the salt water must preserve it and the water washed it up on the beach in a sand bar like formation, unfortunately we had to walk over it to get out. We also noticed that as we dried out, our skin and cloths were covered in salt, in fact the towels we used to dry off became stiff with all the salt. We all drove back to the swimming pool as fast as we could to get the nastiness off. On a good note: the salt water seemed to have some healing effect on one of Mason’s toes that has been cut and infected and was having a difficult time healing since the kid will not keep shoes on for anything.
So there you go – If you enjoy stink, bugs in the millions I mean billions, having your “tenders” irritated, stinging eyes, bird dung, and salt residue all over your skin and cloths then the Great Salt Lake is THE PLACE for you.
Here are a few interesting facts Tara discovered after our experience: the concentration of salt is 3% to 29%, the dead sea is 30%, Brigham Young came here for healing purposes, lake effect storms happen 4 or 5 times a year and thus that is the reason Utah has the best snow on earth. One question I had was why after all this time of dilution of fresh water has the Great Salt Lake remained so salty? Well the salt level does fluctuate but because the salt is in the ground it will always remain nearly as dead as the dead sea.

Lake Powell

Our friends Jeff and Maja McMinn invited us to go stay on their houseboat with them on Lake Powell. Of course it was a family vacation so we took Makenna and Mason, and the McMinn’s brought there little ones: Ryan, Kaylee, and Taylor. The kids are near the same ages so they had a great time playing together.
The houseboat was at Bullfrog so from there we went upstream and stayed at one of McMinns favorite locations (I won’t say where in case it is a place they are trying to keep the crowds away from). Our first night was really interesting as a heavy rainstorm moved in and we were able to witness a display of Mother Nature’s power. Within a minute of the rain falling there were waterfalls everywhere on the cliff walls above us, it was incredibly beautiful but eerie. We knew we were safe on the boat but it was obvious that any living creature in the canyons or above the cliff walls was fighting for its survival. It made me realize just how quickly very dangerous situations can occur.
We woke our second morning to the calm glassy waters, it was Sunday so it was a bit tempting, however we had already committed to not playing in the water on the Sabbath. We spent the day relaxing and took a boat ride to see some of the historical sites at lake Powell. We went to some Indian ruins called Defiance House. It was a short hike through a swamp and up a cliff, but well worth the effort. The ruins were really awesome and the kids loved seeing them. We had also planned to go see Hole in the Rock, and Rainbow bridge but the water got so choppy that we decided to go back to the house boat and relax some more. The rest of the week was time to play on the water. The mornings and evenings were reserved for waterskiing on the glassy waters, while the rest of the day we worked on our wake surfing, tubing and some wakeboarding. The kids all did great, Makenna at 8 years old did everything we did, she surfed (deep water start), wake boarded, slalom water skied (got up on only her 3 try), and of course did some tubing. Mason at 5 years old was really only interested in swimming the first few days, he started doing more tubing as the week went on and the last day he decided that he wanted to do everything, he got up waterskiing on his first attempt, and got up wakeboarding on his second attempt. Mason said something that I thought was really funny while we were there: it went something like this “you guys keep saying the water is glass; can you please tell me what glassy water entails?” We all had a good laugh and explained what our analogy meant; it’s kind of funny how we just assume people know what we are talking about. We also hiked Smith Fork slot canyon, I figure it wound up being 3-4 miles and was really cool, we saw all sorts of critters, thousands of tad poles, frogs, toads, lizards, and even a really strange snake. The hike was great but when we got back to our boat some Ravens had raided the boat, they opened some chips and spread them all over, they ate an entire bag of starburst candy and crapped all over the place.

The trip was great, THANK YOU McMinn’s for inviting us on this wonderful adventure!

MOAB spring 09

I know this one is way overdue since our Moab trip was all the way back in late March but I told several people I would post some pictures of the trip, so I better follow through on my word. You know many people say, “You are only as good as your word” so I better not blow that. As always Moab was great, one of my favorite places! We ran the Moab (or Canyonlands) Half Marathon, Tara’s 4th and my 3rd there, it has become an annul tradition. We go because of the half but what really gets us down there is the incredible mountain biking, and we just love the atmosphere. Several of our family members and neighbors have also made this trip an annual tradition. We had Dustin, Jaylynn, Grandpa and Grandma Jensen, Bret & Jen, Orr’s, Melancon’s, Hawke’s & Workman’s to hang with. It is always an adventure! While driving out to Bartlett’s wash for a ride a guy stopped us and let us know that we were dragging a bike behind the truck. Opps it was Makenna’s (Sorry Mak) so while the rest of our crew went for a ride Mak and I stayed at the truck and tried to repair the damage (bent brake levers, broken spokes, flat tire, torn off cable etc.). We were able to get it together enough to get out for part of the ride. It’s one of those life lessons - you can never have to many tools and knowing how to use them is equally important as having them. Even though Mak was a bit upset at first it was really fun or us to get some one on one time out there, and she forgave me for damaging her bike. The next day while we were running the half Lannie Workman took it to the bike shop and got it fixed up for Mak (THANKS Lannie). The run was fun, Tara and I stayed together and we bumped into an old friend - Nylyn, who we ran the half with last year and Tara had run with during the Ogden Marathon 3 years ago. You know Tara; she makes friends everywhere she goes. You can never have too many friends. After the half Tara, and the girls took the kids out on Slickrock, and sand dunes, while the guys and myself went on a more difficult ride. We rode most of the Whole Enchilada; we could not ride the Hazard County section since it was covered with snow. It is a downhill epic starting high and coming down, Kokopelli, the upper and lower Porcupine Single-track, and Porcupine Rim. They are all pretty good rides by themselves. I believe it was around 25 miles. It was quite the adventure especially since most of us had just run 13 miles. We started in the mud and snow and missed our first cut off so we had to do some extra climbing, but eventually got on dry single-track and of course some slickrock. It took us a bit longer than we had expected and we ended up coming out in the pitch black darkness, only a few of us were smart enough to have headlamps with us. I have to mention that poor TJ did the whole trip with a bent disc brake. TJ you are one tough 60 something dude! We went to Arches National Park on the way home and saw some beautiful scenery; it always amazes me how diverse the world is, and I always feel fortunate to be able to witness some of its grandeur! Until next year our good old friend - Moab.

Ogden 1/2 Marathon

We got home from Maui just in time to run the Ogden ½ Marathon. Actually we came home one day early to run the thing, Tara really loves to run! We were able so stay at the Bailey’s place down in Liberty Utah with a bunch of friends (Thanks Jordan and Heather). We had some great company in Tara’s great running partners. It makes it really nice to be so close to the start line and not have to wake up a 4:00 am to get shuttled up the canyon. The weather was great and the course was beautiful. Grandpa TJ and his best friend Lowell ran the full marathon and TJ won 1st place in his age group, Lowell got 2nd!

More on Maui

I had hoped to have more updates from our trip but I ran into some problems with my laptop, but hey that’s life, and since we were on Maui time none of that really seamed to matter too much anyway. The trip was totally awesome; we had an absolutely incredible time! I will try to just give a “brief” description of our activities so I don’t bore you all to death. After the great time we had on the Hana (eastern) side of the Island we started to explore the western side of the island and ocean, we snorkeled all over the place in the crystal clear water, some of our favorite spots were: Honolua Bay, Black rock, and 5 graves/caves. We were able to see tons of beautiful fish; we swam with a bunch of sea turtles almost everywhere we went. One turtle was almost as big as our kitchen table; we saw a reef shark, and a couple of moray eels, one of which was huge and pretty scary. We surfed some more, one day at Lahaina Break Wall and, one day at Launiupoko Beach for 6 hours straight, Tara got pretty good at it but we both got totally fried. We drove all the way back to the southeastern side of the island so we could hike the trail through a bamboo forest to the Waimoku waterfalls and swim the seven sacred pools in Haleakela National Park. We went down to the Wailea and Makena area where we did some more boggie boarding/body surfing, and beach hangin. We went all the way to the north and drove the one lane road through the small village of Kahakuloa, there were some breathtaking views but the road was a bit hair-raising at times. We drove a bit inland to the Io needle; by the end of the trip we were able to drive the entire perimeter of the island. Can’t wait until we have the chance to go back someday!

Maui

ALOHA!
I promised both Makenna and Mason that I would post some updates of our Maui trip so they could see what we were up to. So here goes POST #1: After landing we went to the Hawaii State Park office to pick up a camping permit. We got there at 4 PM and the office was closed. Office hours for Hawaii Government are 9 am to 3:30 pm, who would have thought. Well I figured OK since I had a backup camping plan. We took off for Hana soon after and we soon learned why the road to Hana has such a wild reputation. Hana is 50-60 miles from the airport and it takes around 3 hours to get there. The local literature says it has over 600 curves or turns and I lost count of the one lane bridges, but WOW it is one unbelievably beautiful drive. So we made it to the Wai’anapanapapa State Park where we had planned to camp. I found the camp manager and she said that we could not stay there since I did not get the permit. I figured OK the backup plan was to go to Kipahulu which is right at the base of the Seven Sacred Pools since that is what we had planned to hike and swim the next day anyway. Well can you believe it the road to Kipahulu was closed since one of the bridges fell down, what terrible luck or maybe a bit of bad planning on my part. The lady at the state park told us we should either go back to the other side of the island (which meant another 3 hour drive) or stay in Hana. She said we should be able to pick up a room in Hana for around 40 bucks a night so we decided to stay there. Well after arriving in Hana the only available room we could find was at the Hotel Hana and the available cottage was $1,600 a night. By this time we were totally beat and we decided to stay the night in the car, so we parked at Hana Bay and slept the night away. We woke up to a beautiful view of the ocean and the bay. We were pretty much the only people awake at 5:30 am except for a few fishermen so we had the whole beach to ourselves; we did a bit of exploring and found a gorgeous red sand beach. After a great breakfast at a very casual Hawaiian diner we headed for Hamoa beach to do some boggie boarding. We were the only people at the beach for a few hours when some local surfers started to show up. Tara checked with the only rental shop on the beach and the next thing you know we were out surfing. It was great we were both catching waves right away (and sometimes the waves were giving us a serious beat down) but neither of us have got standing up and steering down yet, but by the end of the week we hope to have learned the trick. Hamoa beach has got to be the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. We were getting quite a bit of rain during the morning which was fine since we were pretty wet anyway, but the way the sun was shining through the rain with the lush rain forest in the background was breathtaking (I had a Forest Gump moment while I was waiting for the next wave to come carry me away). After we left the beach at noon we headed back on the Hana Highway, but this time we took the chance to stop at several waterfalls, swim is some freshwater pools (our favorite was the China Pool), and explore the Wai’anapanapapa state parks black sand beach and incredible scenery. We finally made it to our condo and hung out for a bit looking at the ocean out our backyard. Tara and I are already missing the Mak and Mas a bunch, hope we can make it another 7 days!

Took our annual Big Sky Montana ski trip in early March. This year we took Grandpa TJ, Bret and Tanner. Wow I don’t think I can ever get bored of that place, it is so beautiful. We had a great time, however Tara and Mason became ill while we where there. Tara spent the first day hanging out sick while I played with the kids at the outdoor swimming pool and hot tub. Why is it that kids can never get enough of that stuff? The second day we were off to ski, we were in line for lift tickets and we noticed that Mason was getting a pretty high fever. I went to the store at the resort and used my life savings to get the kid some medicine; you know how prices are at resort areas - OUCH! Well I went back to the ticket line to give the medicine to him, as soon as he put it in his mouth he gagged and pucked right there in line. Tara and I spent the rest of the trip taking turns skiing with Makenna and hanging out with Mason, luckily we brought the Wii along so Mason did just fine.
Lone Peak is one of the steepest runs in North America so of course Tara and Mak had to go ski it. I was a little surprised that my wife took our eight-year-old daughter on such a dangerous run, even though Mak has no sense of fear in her whole body. But you know Mak, she did great and Grandpa TJ said he was more scared than she was. I took her back to Lone Peak after lunch so she could teach her old man how to rip out a double back diamond run, wow what a kid! It was a great trip and we were even lucky enough to see a wolf on our drive home.

Mason's 5th Birthday

Mason tuned 5 on February 26th. He is really into Star Wars right now and his favorite character is General Grievious so Tara made him a General Grievious cake. Mason took his cousins and good friends to play laser tag, they all had a great time. He got some Star Wars Lego's so his birthday was everything he wanted. Tara and I got him a DSi but he had to wait until April to get it, since they were not available at the time, poor kid.

We went to Brian Head ski area in southern Utah in late February for the bi-annual Jensen brothers ski trip (Tara’s dads family). It is an interesting ski area, kind of lame for more advanced skiers but great for kids. Brian Head also has some pretty good terrain park features. It was kind of like spring skiing in Idaho, but we don’t get to do that until April. Grandpa TJ took some big air on some of the jumps and showed us all up. Not bad for 66 yrs old. Tara got to see many of her cousins, and we all had a great time. Check out the video!

Winter of 2009

It's been to long since I have posted anything. I have been watching conference and listening to some of the historical stories. I started to feel guilty that I have not been keeping up on my own little family journal so I figured I better get on here and make an entry. Sometimes life just gets so busy.

We have had a great winter. We went on several fun ski trips to Targhee, Snowbird, Sun Valley, Brian Head, Big Sky and of course lots of little trips to good old Pebble. Mason turned 5 years old, seems hard to believe. He is getting so big he is not our little baby anymore. Went to Moab for the Canyonlands half marathon which Tara and I ran together. Makenna is doing very well in gymnastics, she had her first competition and got 4th in mini trampoline, and 1st in tumbling. It's been a long cold winter we are ready so ready for spring to come so we can get the boat out! Stay tuned for posts detailing some of our winter activities.

Mason the Prankster

Last week my dad took Mason and Myself ice fishing. It was a very nice day and the fishing was great! While we were fishing Mason was getting board (can you believe it). He slide all over the ice and fell so many times I lost count. Of course he managed to get wet but it didn't slow him down a bit, thank heaven it was such a nice day. Anyway I think he decided that he needed to pull one over on his dad and grandpa. While we were sitting there checking our lines and such he laid down on his stomach and started squirming around and shaking his legs. As Grandpa checked on him he got an alarmed look on his face. Grandpa looked at me and said "his tounge is stuck to the ice". Of course I started to completly freak out, wondering what we should do. I imagine we where probably running around looking like a couple of idiots. Grandpa yelled that he would go and get the hot chocolate to pour onto the ice in hopes of releasing poor Masons tounge. As soon as we had both run around for what seemed like forever, Mason jumped up and pointed at us laughing and yelled GOTHA HA HA HA. If the little guy wasn't so stinkin cute we would have wrung his neck for getting us both so worked up.