Family Summer Fun

Summers are always so much fun because Mckenzie and her family come to stay with us for a couple of months. They are living in Doha, Qatar, and we love having them here. Every day is an adventure. The places we like to visit are; Thanksgiving Point, the bowling alley in American Fork, the Dinosaur Museum, water parks, the malls, Kangaroo Zoo, BYU campus, the duck pond and each of our houses. No matter what we do we always laugh a lot, eat a lot, and enjoy each other immensely.

Kenzie is helping Will bowl while Mitch (Avery's hubby) watches.





Avery and Mitch helping Taylee (2 years old) and TJ (4 yrs old) bowl.This is cute litte Taylee Mortensen (2 years old)

This is cute little Sidney Eden (2 years old









This is Drew Eden (4 years old) with me at graduation

Kylie Genetti (9 years old), TJ Mortensen (3 years old), Will Genetti (3 years old) and Megan Genetti (7 years old) at bowling alley

Relaxing in Avery and Mitch's backyard.

TJ and Will just chillin







Fun with fireworks on the 24th of July

Earning a Master's Degree

This May, I am very proud to say, I graduated from Southern Utah University with a Masters Degree in education. It was a great deal of work, especially because I chose to work towards National Board Certification as my master's project. In addition, I worked diligently toward and received a big fat reading endorsement. Yee haw! I was so excited to be able to walk across the stage, receive my master's hood, with all of my family proudly watching. It was a wonderful weekend.

Here we are (all except Kenzie who was in Doha) at my graduation. (Mandy is expecting her first baby and thinks she looks awful, but I think she looks so cute.)

Getting a master's degree in education had been a goal of mine for several years and for many reasons. First, I wanted the increased pay it would bring to my salary and ultimately my retirement. I also felt having a masters degree would increase my credibility as I worked with administrators, teachers and parents. So I reached my goal in May of 2008. I did this with a cohort group from Jordan School District. We actually had a lot of fun working together on projects and presentations. Am I glad I did it? I really am, even though it was a lot of extra work and effort.

It was neat to have Ross's parents with us.











I was so lucky to have my mom be able to see me graduate.