from us to you.

wishing you a very merry christmas.

filled with so much joy and laughter.

with lots of love,

♥
the mortensens

We're the Croooooooods.

  

 

*My first time "making" Halloween costumes. I wanted to say it would be my last... but by the end I actually enjoyed it.  Not necessarily during.  But after everything was said and done.  It was fun watching the kids getting excited about the process.  The sense of accomplishment when everything is finished.  I just might be brave enough to try it again... as long as no fur is involved.  Never again with the fur.  Can we say asthma anyone...
**Also are we the only people out there that LOVED The Croods Movie?  I could not find a toy "Belt" anywhere.  Only the miniature one that came in the movie.  Lame.

Mine.

Fall Break

We planned on spending the week in California.  Couple days in San Diego.  Couple in Anaheim.  We left our house at bedtime, in hopes that the kids would sleep the entire time.  Not too far into our trip our tire blew out.  It was late.  We weren't too far from home.  So we turned around.  Drove home nice and slow, on our cute little doughnut tire... it was awesome.  Found out there was another tire that wouldn't be far behind the first.  Even more awesome.  And as luck would have it we couldn't find any shops near by that would have the tires we needed until later in the afternoon.  Basically our quick trip to the beach was off to a great start.  Sigh.
By the time we were able to get new tires and head out again we had lost a day and still had a six hour drive a head of us.  Not cool.  Change of plans.  We headed to Sedona. 
Our first stop was at the dog shelter (the one we fostered the puppies from). Since they were on our way.  A halfway point from our house to the resort.  Perfect.

We got to Sedona.

Explored the resort.  The kids (and daddy) did some swimming.  I did some watching. Ate some yummy food. And went to bed. Had an incident with cleaning up after the previously mentioned yummy food  that didn't sit so well with one of the kiddos, in the middle of the night.  So it would seem that our Sedona trip was starting out just as fun as our "beach trip" did... yay!
Good news though.  In the morning everyone was good to go.  Ordered some room service breakfast and headed to the zoo.
Watched, and really enjoyed the tiger splash show.

Went and fed the tigers.

Saw some Hyenas. Lions. Bears. Black panthers. And so many other animals.  The kids really did love that we were so up close to all of the animals.

Good luck trying not to yell "For Narnia" when you see this guy climb up and pose on the platform {wink}

Or busting out and singing "I like to move it, move it" when you see this guy. The kids and I weren't strong enough to resist...sorry Mike.

Then we fed some giraffes and called it a day.

The next day we woke up and it was cold, wet and gray.  So our hiking plans got canceled.  And we headed up toward flagstaff to do some more zoo-ing.
As we started driving it was sprinkling a bit. Soon it was pouring.  Then we saw a few snowflakes.  By the time we reached Flagstaff it was snowing so hard we could barely see the road.  Yes I mumbled and grumbled about "being at the beach".  But only for a few minutes.  The kids were so excited to see snow.  And it really was pretty seeing all the pine trees covered in snow.  Even if we were only two and a half weeks into "fall"  :)

We love Bearizona.   And even better...This time around the animals were all out and about. Walking right up to the car.

 At the end of the drive through section you can get out and walk around a small zoo.
Always a hit.  The cute baby bears.  Really nothing cuter than watching a cub climb a tree.

And the teenage bears were doing what teenagers do best...

After bearizona we met up with my Cousin and her little family at the Deer Farm.  (Thank you government for shutting down, so they were out of a job for a couple weeks and could hang out with us... or something like that...)
I didn't get a picture of Mozart (the talking cockatoo), but as always he stole the show.  He is the funniest bird ever.  Absolutely loves people, and knows how to put on a show.

Took turns feeding Gracie the Camel.

 Said hello to Ponies, the same size as the kiddos. (Gwen thought that was hilarious).  Pet the Lamas and Coatimundi's. And had a trail of deer following us the entire time.  As always a good time to be had at the Deer Farm.

After the Deer Farm we headed to my parents house.  Hung out with them a couple hours and headed back to the resort for our last night.
In the Morning we took some quick pictures.  Explored for a few minutes.  And then headed home.
Stopped by the shelter and played with the pups again.

  

While it wasn't the trip I originally was planning.  It was spent with the people I love most.  Making our quick little trip the perfect mini vacation.