20 swimming holes in a single summer!

This summer I set a goal to swim outside as much as possible. To me, swimming outside is what summer is all about. 

The other day I explained to Carmen why swimming in open-water is so much more fun than swimming in a pool. Open-water provides a sense of accomplishment...more like hiking a trail or climbing a mountain. When you have swam in a lake or river you have explored, and more fully experienced, it than simply looking at it.

Most of these swims were with my girls Aja (9) and Anna (7). Carmen and our littlest, Liv (5) swam with us if the water was warm enough. ;-)

My favorite? Hard to say. Probably, #20 the glacier-blue waters of Diablo Lake were breath-taking (in beauty and it was the coldest). Which one would you like to swim in?   

June
1. Cle Elum River

2. Leech Lake @ Ensign Ranch (rope swing!)

3. Clear Lake (near White Pass)

4. Falls in Mount Rainier NP - Christine Falls?

July
5. Lake Easton (bridge jump with Aja!)

6. Latourell Falls

7. Fairy Falls

8. Oneonta Gorge

9. Lake Sammamish (June, July, August...this is my home)

10. Puget Sound @ Deception Pass

 
11. Grand Teton Glacier Melt

12. Snake River Tributary near Moose, WY

August
13. Stillaguamish River (near Jordan, WA)

14. Farmington (Utah) Pond

15. Dewey Lake @ Mount Rainier NP

16.  Skykomish River

17. Eagle Falls near Levenworth, WA

18. Lake Chelan

19. Methow River near Winthrop, WA

20. Diablo Lake near North Cascades NP (including one last bridge jump)

Nov/Dec 2012

Lighthouse Park in North Vancouver BC.

Ferry Ride to Bowen Island from Horseshoe Bay, BC.

Ward party Christmas picture.

Jensen girls with best friends Maren and Maren.
(Yes both girls are named Maren)

Carmen's September 2011 Update

I feel like the past month has been an absolute whirlwind.

Summer Wind-up
As the school year approached we went into a mad dash to squeeze in as much fun as possible before the end of Summer.  We managed to start the first annual "Bye to Summer Biathlon" at the start park that is right down the road from us.  Of course the day was rainy, but quite warm as we swam in the lake and ran around the park.  The girls all won "recycled" trophies and we stuffed ourselves with donuts and cupcakes afterwards.  The attendance was small but it was a great hit and will do it again next Summer.

The big highlight for me was getting an e-mail from Casey Swoyer saying he was coming into town for a week.  We were able to spend a Sunday afternoon/evening with him for dinner, looking at scrapbooks and watching the sunset over the Olympic mountains as a bagpiper played.  I loved spending time with him and witnessing first hand what an amazing person he has grown into.  Later in the week, the girls and I went on a hike with him to Twin Falls.  It is hard to put into words the emotions and thoughts I had as I watched my girls bounce around him as we hiked and then Liv taking his hand.  If you would have told me 20 years ago I would be living that scene I wouldn't have been able to imagine how cool and how much joy it would bring me.

Jeremy managed to bookend the Summer mountain climbs but stayed sort of local for the last one and climbed Mt. Adams the end of August. 
We also hit a Storm game (WNBA) had the teens we MA and PA'ed at TREK over for a pizza dinner.

School, 1st Grade, 3rd Grade
School officially started August 30 for us.  Aja is in 3rd grade with the only male teacher in the school and super excited to have him.  Anna is in 1st Grade with only 3 other kids she knew from last year.  Liv is doing pre-school at the elementary school as well and loves it so much.  She goes in the afternoon and starts asking me how many more hours until school at 8:48am when her sisters get on the bus.  It is good to be back in school and I am pleased with all the girls classroom situations.

Early Morning Seminary
I started teaching early morning seminary this past week (6-7am). Wednesdays are off.  Our course of study is the "Old Testament" and I have 24 sophomores in my class (23 have been coming).  I teach with a team teacher, but am still feeling like this is a daunting task.  I am excited about the opportunity to teach and preparing.  The hard part is giving up my early morning exercise time.  I am pretty amazed that the kids are so committed to come.  It isn't easy.  I am starving by 10:30 in the morning and I can squeeze a nap in if really need to.  The kids have to go straight to school and many of them have sports after.  It is a good thing they are young. They inspire me.
Kelso, WA
Yesterday, we got up at 6 am and headed to Kelso, WA  (2 hour drive) for a Highland Dance competition.  Aja and Anna both competed and did better than I had expected after a month of no classes and even less practice (end of Summer fun got in the way).  The day was beautiful and it is always fun to wonder around a Scottish Highland Games.  It really is its own sub-culture/world.  After the awards we drove out to the WA coast to an area called Long Beach.  The temperature dropped about 25 degrees on the beach but that didn't stop our girls from jumping in the surf.  They get plenty of beach time but we don't get to the ocean very often.  It has such a beauty, power and peace about it.

Aja's Creative Endeavors

Aja has come up with some crazy, creative projects lately. She disappears in the backyard for hours, day-after-day. Then, she will come back into the house (quite muddy) and announce her latest creation. Here are some of my favorites.

A "sculpture made for Carmen (yes, she calls her mom by her first name) to hold the scriptures on." She spent 3 days stripping the bark off this cedar log. The other sticks are bamboo. She tied them together with a stolen piece of twine from our square-foot garden boxes.

These are hydrangea leaves (that she picked, against my will) with hand-made mud balls. Later, she told me that fairies use leaves as plate.

26 Crazy Things That Happend to Me on My Mission in Scotland

I thought I was too cool to do these cheesy list things. I actually had fun writing it. Cheese can be good.

1. Glasgow (Cathkin): Trying to land burnt pieces of toast on top of the phone “box” (booth) thrown from our 14th floor balcony.
2. Glasgow (Cathkin): President McConkie starting our first one-on-one interview with the question: “Well Elder Jensen, have you ever heard of bleach? Your shirt is looking pretty gray.” Nice to see you too President, I thought. I was mortified.
3. Somewhere in Glasgow: One Friday night we tracted into 11 drunk people in a row. Perhaps this isn’t too crazy.
4. Glasgow (Cathkin): From our 14th floor balcony, regularly seeing a woman gazing from her balcony in the next high-flat over. We named “Miss Lonely Heart.” We decided to go knock on her door. A few months later, she was baptized. Great memory.
5. An unendowed Zone Leader/companion (the London Temple was closed for renovations at the time) who wore leopard print skivvies.
6. Edinburgh: 9:30PM each night Elder England and I held “TIF” meetings that we told others we “had” to go to. Here’s the secret…TIF = tennis is fun.
7. Baptizing 4 different women named Karen. All of them in different areas.
8. Dalkeith: Baptizing Karen Fairgrieve (now Beveridge) in a font of brown water. Very unsightly. However, our clothes remained white. Great memory.
9. Edinburgh: Jumping our Ford Fiesta 26 feet off a hump-back bridge.
10. Edinburgh: Going to the Pat Metheny concert and meeting him back stage while in my suit and nametag. He was very gracious. He must have thought I was nuts. President Swanney gave me permission to go. He was still “green.” McConkie wouldn’t have allowed it. Great memory.
11. Edinburgh: A young woman investigator who had a severe crush on the Zone Leader’s Companion. We finally got her to pray. Here’s the word-for-word text of that prayer: “Heavenly Father. We thank thee for Elder Hunt; We ask thee for Elder Hunt. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
12. Glasgow (Springboig): Elder Frank and I greeted with “F*** the Mormans” spray painted on the side of our new flat.
13. Glasgow (Springboig): One morning, my daily ritual of drying my wet, semi-polyester suit by kneeling in front of the gas heater resulted in it catching fire and melting into my leg.
14. Glasgow (Springboig): Getting to know Sister Green and her 11 year old twin girls. My brother Rich—in the then Scotland/Northern Ireland Mission—taught and baptized her 10 years earlier!
15. Glasgow (Springboig): In the pre-caller ID days, at the precise time of week I regularly received the “stats call” from Elder Kay, I received a “Happy Birthday” call from sweet (and very proper, I might add) Sister Swanney. Thinking it was Elder Kay, I answered, “Hey dude, what’s going on?” Imagine Sister Swanney’s (and my) surprise…
16. Dumfries: Sleeping out on the roof of the garage on P-Day Eves. Elder Martindale and I even ate our morning Wheetos out there. Good times.
17. Dumfries: Way out in the country, we set fire to a pile of old suits on top of a stone monument commemorating the Battle of Waterloo. Missionaries do the dumbest things…
18. Dumfries: “Falling” into the moat at the Carlaverock Castle and a little English boy shouted, “Look mummy someone has fallen into the water!”
19. Lockerbie: Getting a call the morning after a dinner appointment. “Are you guys feeling okay? We’ve discovered there was bleach in the milk we served last night.” We felt just fine. Amazing.
20. Glasgow (Govan): Teaching and baptizing a great guy named Hugh D. Brown. Not to be confused with the late Apostle, Hugh B. Brown.
21. Dumfermline: Freezing cold winter and the heater was broken. So, we heated the house by leaving the full-blast lit stove burners on all night. This one could have qualified us for a Darwin Award.
22. Dumfries: Getting a free kilt and shoes from a guy we befriended who owned a kilt shop. The reason? His horse had just won and he cashed in his bookie bet.
23. Dumfries: Somewhere on Holy Island (just off the west coast) there are two trees planted in honor of Elder Bentley and myself. Long story…
24. Eating Donner Kababs. (see the BBC story that says they have 1,000 – 2,000 calories each!)
25. All areas: Having so much fun on P-Days that we had to do preparation (e.g. grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning the flat) on other days. Lame, I know.
26. All areas: Telling the cheeky street kids who cursed at us incessantly, “no matter what you yell at us, never, ever yell Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God.” Naturally, they would yell it to us every time we came around. Great memory.

Sinatra, Jobim & Lou Rawls

Sorry I've fallen of the blogging wagon. I'll get going again in earnest when my life gets back to normal. In the mean time, enjoy these videos.

Frank Sinatra with Antonio Carlos Jobim. Wow! Wow! Wow! Makes me wish I lived in this era. I love medleys...


Lou Rawls on the Muppet Show singing "Groovy People." Primo artist, primo show, primo song. What else could you want?

Reflections on a New Year

January is a doubly (Is that a word? Or just what David St. Hubbins girlfriend on Spinal Tap called Dolby?) reflective time of year for me. It's the New Year and my birthday.

In years past I've complained that it is a dark, cold, unfestive time to have a birthday. True, true, and true. However, this year I've decided to embrace my Capricorniness (another cool made-up word) and think about all the great things I have in my life.

For example:

• Soft-serv & snow-cones (the picture makes me smile)
  
• 3 super sweet girls who love their daddy
  
• A lovely and amazing wife
  
• A certainty about God and the purpose of life
• A rat-free basement (ask me about that one later)
• The Earth Wind and Fire music catalog
• 2 smurf figurines (Brainy and Vanity, in case you we're wondering)
• A Ute football team that went undefeated
• A dented Saab
• A love for learning
• A love of 99.999% of people (I'm an extreme extrovert)
  
• The best mom ever who taught me valuable life-skills from how to sew to the lyrics of Burt Bacharach tunes (Happy Birthday today Mom!)
  
• Friends from all eras of my life (thanks Facebook!)
• A sister who happens to my favorite artist--I have 20 of her works on display for my daily viewing pleasure
• A evergreen, optimistic outlook. 2009 here I come!

It's going to be a great year. Happy new year everybody.