To Infinity, Candy, and Beyond!

For the past month Buzz Lightyear has been running, jumping, and falling (with style) around our house. Last night, we unleashed him upon the neighborhood so that is chubby-faced cuteness could melt hearts, ensuring candy bowls tipped freely allowing generous amounts of sugary, gooey, chocolatey goodness to tumble into his orange pumpkin pail. And what a success it was!

In case you're wondering, yes, Linc is wearing flip flops, and yes, it's warm enough for them.

Linc and his neighborhood girlfriend, Olivia (YaYa)

John and his friends came over this week for a pumpkin carving party. Good times were had by all, with stellar displays of carving talent.





Earlier this week Monica and I were milling through ideas for how we should dress up. We couldn't think of anything really good until Monica finally suggested we go Emo. That's right, Monica and Shawn Jensen . . . Emo. We did our best without having to walk into Hot Topic, borrowing skinny pants and Airwalk shoes from John's friends. We completed the transition with some black eyeliner and fingernail polish. The hardest thing about being Emo is that you're supposed to be sad and whiny about life. I couldn't really be Emo because I'd be laughing all the time at how ridiculous I look. :)



I don't know if it's just our neighborhood but there were hardly any kids trick or treating and much less people actually handing out Candy. Makes it hard to get a good stash. On the other hand, people were shoving huge handfuls of candy just trying to get rid of it all so Linc did alright for himself, which of course means Monica and I did alright for ourselves too ;)

Keeping up with the Jensen's

We have been quite busy lately= this will be a very long post =). Shawn has been traveling quite a bit for work, almost every week for the last 6 weeks, but we have managed to squeeze in some family time. Kara and Tyler stopped in on their way home from LA and spent a couple of days with us. We visited the Mesa Temple grounds and took them on the Merkle Trail hike in Usery Park.






We spent last Saturday at Vertuccio Farms with my cousins and their kids. Lincoln had such a great time. There was a tractor ride, a bounce house, tricycle racing, a corn maze for adults and a haybale maze for kids. They had a small farm with a cow, a couple of goats, pigs and chickens and a donkey. Lincoln really enjoyed making friends with all of the animals. It was money well spent.

We could use one of these at home!!!

AND the piece de resistance....my sister Emily is engaged! Jarrod and Emily live in Boaz, Alabama where Jarrod is a college basketball coach at Snead College. Emily and Jarrod met in Hawaii at Hawaii Pacific University while Jarrod was finishing up his Masters degree in Education and Emily was finishing her Bachelor's in Economics. They have set a tentative date for sometime next summer, probably in July. We are very excited to welcome Jarrod into the Bullen Family!

La Reunion des Marseillais and Fall in UT

Last weekend I made a quick trip up to Utah for my mission reunion. It was our first reunion with the Dansie's (my mission president and wife) in probably 8 years. We had a great time and for the most part, we all look basically the same save a few extra pounds here and there. :P

President and Soeur Dansie and moi

My mission trainer Ivan Laplante flew out all the way from Quebec. It was the first time I'd seen him since the mission, over 10 years ago.

A couple of my goofball missionary pals, Shaun and Mary Nicole

Fall in Utah is pretty impressive. I took a Sunday drive up the canyon and took these pictures for Monica since she loves and misses fall. Monica, here's to you!

Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon

Don't "Labor" Day

As far as Labor Days go, this one easily goes down as one of the best ever. We got up early, mostly because of Lincoln's latest habit of coming in to our room at 6ish am, climbing in bed and pretending to sleep. His ulterior motive is, of course to get us up. His strategy is to climb in, lay there for a few seconds until we think he's fallen asleep so we doze off slightly, and then he starts tossing and turning and ends up kicking one of us out of bed, usually me (Shawn). Anyway, that's how this morning started.

We packed some goodies and headed up toward Payson, AZ, made a right, and headed east, ending up at Willow Springs Lake. Now, for those of you who think Arizona is some ugly, dead, horrible wasteland, check this scenery out!

All kinds of wildlife here, we saw crawdads (crayfish), ducks, grasshoppers, and this little guy who ended up hitching a ride on my back for a little while.

Go Jazz!

Here's our little dude roughing it in the buck with a 30 pound lake soaked diaper.

I really need to get myself a little tripod. I'm tired of the whole camera on rock or log with little piece of bark to stabelize camera balancing act. Nonetheless, not bad pics.

Higher above the lake on the Mogollan Rim

Why not celebrate Labor Day by making someone else work? Yippee! We ran for the border because we quiero'd Taco Smell!

Grandpa Harvard Nielsen Jensen

Here's a tribute to one of my greatest heroes, my grandpa Harvard Nielsen Jensen.

There are three main things I've always loved about Grandpa Jensen. First, his laugh. He's got the greatest laugh in the world, one that makes anyone else lose it when they hear it. My grandparents used to do laughing exercises together. Grandma had Grandpa start laughing and that got her going and they would just laugh for several minutes every day for the health of it.

Second, Grandpa's hugs. This guy invented the bear hug. It was something like being harpooned, pulled in, and then being repeatedly squeezed 5 or 6 times in a pretty effective Heimlich-type technique, ending with a few good thumps on the back. That sounds pretty violent but the result was actually the greatest, warmest, and most wonderful feeling of grandfatherly love ever to be transmitted by way of a hug.

Finally, Grandpa was the epitome of a great husband. He lived for Grandma Jensen all his life. His concern for her well-being and comfort was unparalleled. In the last several months of her life, he was constantly doing everything he could to keep her comfortable even as he was struggling with his health. His grandkids don't have any excuses for not being the best spouses on the planet. We had one of the greatest examples in our Grandpa.

Almost exactly 4 months to the day after my Grandma Jensen passed away, Grandpa Jensen decided it was time for him to join her and passed away very peacefully on August 19th.

Click here for Grandpa's obituary

Monica = 30 Years

And now the story of a young couple and the one husband who created a phenomenal birthday weekend together!

We decided to start the festivities off right and eat Chinese food. That was a good choice on our part. The whole family hung out and a good time, and good spring rolls too.



The original plan was to drive to St George, UT and meet family and friends there for a surprise party. Unfortunately, most of our plans changed due to events outside anyone's control and St George didn't happen. Fortunately, Monica and I were still able to go do the biggest surprise part: I took her to Sedona, AZ for the weekend. As you can see, the weekend started out great!


What you see here is most certainly not a slab of dragon steak (that was a direct Harry Potter reference). It is actually a slab of grilled American cactus. We saw it on the menu and were suddenly all intrigued and thought, "What the hey!" Looks really good right?


Nope, it's totally nasty! At first it kind of tastes like asparagus or broccoli stem. And then it gets slimy. Really slimy! That's when it made me think of what it would be like to eat aloe vera. You squeeze it and all this slimy jelly stuff comes out. Yeah, it was really nasty. Don't ever order grilled American cactus! I've just done you a huge favor!


Sedona is kind of like a cross between Park City and Moab. Cute little shops and art galleries downtown with red rock mountains all around. It sprinkled on us a little bit but it felt really good to feel rain. Yep, you just heard Shawn Jensen say he enjoyed rain folks!


This hike is called Cathedral. If you don't know about Sedona, AZ, you should know that it is the center of the universe, at least according to scores of hippies and spiritualists. There are "vortexes" all over Sedona which apparently draw in the powers of the universe and you can yourself receive these powers if you are close enough to a vortex. At the top of this hike we actually so two ladies in matching fluorescent yellow jumpsuits sitting on the ground holding hands meditating and calling upon the forces of the cosmos to envelope them. We just walked quietly around them so as not to disrupt their Chi.


I thought universe powers would be pretty cool so I tried a little meditation of my own. I can now leap tall buildings in a single bound and see through anything, including lead!


Monica found a fountain and I forced her to sit next to it for a picture. You can see from the huge grin on her face how happy she is that I did that.


It's actually difficult to tell who is more concerned, me or the giant iron elk.

We had a really great time, and even scored a 2-Night getaway at a local resort that's just opened there. So, mission accomplished! We had a great time and Monica, my beautiful, intelligent and amazing wife is 30! Congrats to her and her extreme awesomeness!

Ode to Monica on year #30

There once was a girl named Monica,
who had never played the harmonica
but her husband did and so will her kid
and they'll play them as they ride in their Mazda

This beautiful girl loves her birthday
she wishes it happened every Thursday
each August she waits and anticipates
the goodies, ice cream, and cakes

We all love this wonderful girl
She's so pretty it makes Shawn's bald head swirl
We love when she laughs and how she cleans this and that
a perfect wife mother daughter, a pearl

Ok, that was a little bit cheesy
but doing this poem thing ain't easy
But I love you so much, so here's the last touch
hurry come home for a nice birthday squeezy (hug)

Love you! Have a great day!