Life Brings Changes, Growth, and Humor

The next five years in Thousand Oaks brought many new experiences in my life which gave me opportunities to learn and grow.  My main focus at this time was my family and trying to be a better mom.  I worked harder at having quality Family Home Evenings.  With seven children now ranging in age from a a new baby to those dreaded teenagers it was hard to reach them all.  Jeanie and Debbie were now in high school having graduated from Waverly Junior High school (Jeanie was valedictorian.  Kathi was in sixth grade and Jon had started kindergarten.  That left me at home with just the baby for at least part of the day.  This gave me an opportunity to attend the traveling "Education Weeks" which were held in California in areas where there were a large number of church members.  They were kind of like the education weeks now held on the BYU campus every year only on a smaller scale.  These usually lasted 2 or 3 days, and you could attend classes you were interested in.  I loved these opportunities to learn more about the church.  When one was being held in the San Fernando valley, about twenty miles from our home, I decided to take Lea and go.  I packed her up in her carrier, took extra bottles just in case I couldn't find a time or place to nurse her, and took off for the day.  I didn't know how this was going to work but I took a chance.  I wasn't disappointed.  Lea was SO good through all the classes so I was even able to take notes.  Dad and I also took the opportunity to attend the monthly "Know Your Religion" series which were held in stake centers in the evening.  I loved learning all I could about the church and my testimony grew from these opportunities.

A great tradition was established during those first years in Thousand Oaks.  The bishop in our ward arranged a campout for the all the members of our ward  Every summer he would reserve a camp sight at Lopez Lake, a resort about 150 miles away.  We went that first year and every year after.  But that was only the beginning.  When the ward quit going, the Mortensens did not.  Our family loved to camp, and as the resort grew and grew with boat rentals, waterslide, and slack lines added our family grew and grew with it.  At first we would rent a "patio" boat for our family until it no longer held our growing family.  We have been going every year to Lake Lopez for the past 48 years and counting.
Those now attending range from the 60 to 70.  About ten years ago we buried a time capsule at the lake which we will did up on our 50th anniversary.  I just hope I will still be around.  I hope to do a whole posting on just our experiences at Lake Lopez over the years.  So many wonderful memories.

I just have to include some humor in this post.  I hate to read boring histories that are more like travelogues.  So .... I cannot help but laugh even now when I recall this incident.  It began when we decided to buy a few chicks with the idea of having our own eggs and even some home grown dinners.  Dad had had a lot of experience killing and preparing chickens for eating in his youth.  That last idea soon came to an end when the kids started naming all the chicks.  I only remember one of those names which was, "Roadrunner".  They loved playing games with the those chicks until they grew into hens and one rooster.  It was that rooster who soon became a problem.  He would roost at night in the tree in our back yard right in back of our bedroom.  Do roosters crow early in the morning?  Yes!!  And sometimes all night.  It was one of those "sometimes" nights that my husband could not sleep because that rooster would not stop crowing.  I could only watch as he jumped out of bed, and dressed only in his underwear, he ran outside, climbed up that tree, grabbed the rooster by the neck, shook him violently five or six times while yelling, "shut up you dumb rooster" (or something even worse), then threw him to the ground.  Needless to say that rooster ended up on our Sunday dinner table.  The boys favorite part of this incident was when Dad chopped of the roosters head and talked him into letting go of its' legs.  You don't have to guess why they thought that this was "cool".