Birthday and 3rd Marathon

Jared turned 41 this year! 

This year, Nan decided she would be in charge of the cake and ice cream - she got a Milk Bar cake and Milk Jar ice cream. The cake was great and the ice cream was delicious! The birthday cake flavor of ice cream had large chunks of frosting.

Jared also ran his second official marathon, again in Louisville. I went down with Bracken Webb the night before and ran together for a little while before Bracken started distancing himself a little.

We ran in front of the Louisville Slugger museum

and through Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is run.

The second half of the marathon was a lot harder. I had only been able to get up to 16 miles in my training runs, so the last 8 miles were especially hard. My goal was to finish in 4:15, and I finished at that time. At one point, I passed Bracken, who has laying down trailside. He recovered, ate a donut, and finished too. We had parked a ways away, but we found a single scooter and shared it for a mile - almost crashing a time or two - until we found another to rent.

It was a great memory and proud accomplishment again.

First Date

I went on my first date about two weeks after I turned sixteen. I asked Abigail Brown out to go to Chick Fil A and then go Bowling. I picked her up around 5 to go get Chick Fil A. After eating and chatting, we then went over to Cross Gate Lanes where we played two rounds of bowling. We each won one round (I also learned that I am not very good at bowling). We had a good time. Claire still needs to go on a date (as of February 19th, 2023).

Construction continues

Construction continues - the dormer has come together and the exterior framing has been completed.

The back side of the construction, where they are re-building the area in between the house and the original garage roof were. This will be the storage room. 

A great day - April 24 - when all the exterior framing was completed and the windows were installed, and we are completely dried in!

A few weeks late, May 5, we had our siding!

With the majority of the exterior work done, the interior has a ways to go, but is coming together.

Spring Sports

The kids are all in their spring sports conditions. Jacob and Claire in are in track and Kate, Liam, and Torin are all in soccer.

Springtime sports sounds like it is a time where the flowers are blooming and the weather is turning warm, but especially in the early part of the season, the weather can be chilly with cold winds. Fortunately, Dani won a fundraiser silent auction that came with a big blanket that she has used frequently.

We didn't get many pictures this year of the track season - Jacob and Claire had a good season, running the 800, 1600, and 3200.

The kids had fun seasons. Jared again coached Torin's team and had an especially fun season. From the first practice, Jared came back saying how good this team looked, and in the end, they won every game until the last one that they tied, winning the league's championship. The boys (and Jared) were so excited about the season. Jared continues to love coaching - he loves the joy that the kids feel.

 

Claire joined the ranks of Jensen family referees this year. It was fun to watch her take responsibility for her schedule and to watch her ref games. 

Jacob continued to referee, and got to ref a few of Liam's games.

Coming into 2022, Jared and Dani knew that it was going to be a busy year. One Saturday, it was so busy that Dani's way of getting a run in was to run from the game at the Blue Ash Sports complex back home.

 

There go our children!!!

Jacob, days after getting his license, drove off with all our posterity in the car! Their first trip? To the church for activities.

Dani commented how strange it was to see all our children drive off all together - What a surreal feeling!

Celebrating 16 - and a new driver!

Jacob and Claire hit a milestone birthday! We are so proud of these two and can hardly believe they are 16!

Claire is a bright, sweet and loving daughter. She has a strong testimony and personal drive. She made a goal last year to 'learn something from the scriptures each day' and has faithfully read and recorded her thoughts each night. She loves puzzles, reading, bubbles, and EVERYTHING about the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack. She is the queen of the awkward hug.

Jacob is a fun, loving big brother. He specifically makes time for his little brothers. They have had phases of Star Wars Destiny, dice football, Lego football, backyard football, Pokemon, and all sorts of games. He is organized and excels at school. He is continuing to improve in his French horn and plays beautifully. He has a strong testimony and can't wait to serve a mission.

Jacob celebrated the next day by getting his DRIVERS LICENSE!!! As he was preparing to take the in car test, the 3 drivers before him failed. No nerves showing, he properly used his blinker, smoothly came to a full stop at each stop sign, and deftly maneuvered through the cones of the maneuverability section.

For his party, Jacob decided to take his friends to Full Throttle to go kart and throw axes.

Jacob happily (and appropriately) took the top position on the podium. Well, at least, when Jared wasn't in the picture! The boys had a great time racing.

In between go karting, they got to throw axes.

 

Manly men!!!

We followed up the fun with a yummy Mongolian Grill lunch.

Easter Sunday

Another beautiful Easter Sunday

Papa helped to monitor the Easter Egg hunters. Look how beautiful and green it is outside!

Jared did some extra special hiding, putting eggs in trees, beyond the fence, and in the basement egress.

It left the hunters pretty perplexed and needing to be serious about their egg hunting.

We had some especially creative egg creations this year in including minions - a normal minion and a purple one.

and a collection of Harry Potter characters, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luna. They were pretty great!

We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. He is our strength and the light of our lives, and we strive as a family to build our lives on His gospel.

Pixar @ Union Terminal

Pixar has a traveling exhibit that came to the museum center in Cincinnati, so we decided to go take a look. It was AWESOME! It walks through the stages of putting together a feature length animated film. 

They had exhibits about rigging, modeling, animation, lighting, rendering, and many other things. They also had exhibits that were hands on that showed how things worked. It was really cool!

 

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TO THE RESCUE!!!

It was the kids first time in the Museum Center (at least since they were really little), so they loved seeing the huge mosaic and testing the acoustics where you speak into the wall on one side and you can hear on the far side.

We finished off the day with a CLASSIC Jensen family picture! So much going on here looking so good - Liam with a cheesy grin and thumbs up, Kate's hand on hips sass, Jacob flexing (yup), Torin pretty much doing whatever he's doing. Claire, you're looking good!!! Dani, you are too - at a 15 degree lean.

 

Reds season starts

Opening Day 2022 was different than past opening days. Due to the lockout, MLB missed their first week, which meant that the Reds started on the road!!! So they arrived in Cincinnati with a 2-2 record. But that didn't stop the typical opening day festivities, the flair and pomp and circumstance!

This year, Jared and the crop division accounting department took a walk to 5th Street to watch the annual Opening Day Parade.

The typical marching bands and local celebrities (Barry Larkin below) were part of the parade. 

Icky Woods was even part of the Bengals float, which definitely drew a cheer and was one of the few non-red floats!

Unfortunately, the game wasn't really ever close. And in the end, their 2-2 record was about as good as it would get. But as usual, the crop division enjoyed its view of the stadium!

 

Home Construction begins

After a few months of planning and the delivery of a dumpster into our driveway, construction has officially started! This is a view of what the roof trusses look like prior to construction. The loft room will occupy this are with a dormer window. Having the trusses gives us a pretty good idea what the size of the room will be.

The project started with the demolition of a "perfectly good roof," as Dani called, which felt a little stressful to us.

 

It felt especially stressful to us as the heavens opened multiple times per week and the rains fell - through the tarps and into the garage.

Hole in the roof #2 was made a week later, and we could see a little better how the bump-out was going to look.

With the dormer roof completed and framing under way, we realize how much this bumped-out space really opens up the room. It adds a lot of square footage and will add a lot of light once it is completed.

The workers are at the house many hours, and Dani makes sure they are fed cookies and Gatorades, and they seem to appreciate it. They're doing a great job.