30 August 2011

Sorenson Family Reunion

This years Sorenson Family Reunion took place August 11-13 in Cedar City, Utah. We spent a lot of time at the new Park Discovery, the aquatic center, hanging out and swimming at the hotel pool.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and checked in and then headed off to Cafe Rio for dinner. Next we raced back to the hotel and spent the evening swimming in the pool. Trisha, Sam and I shared a room with CJ, Tania and Clara and they didn't arrive until later in the evening. And once Clara got there she was not ready to sleep. It was hilarious. She kept saying things like "Mama," "Dada," "Sammy," "Trisha," "Mommy singing, Mommy singing" until 2 in the morning. She is so cute, it was hard not to laugh at.

Friday morning we set out to hike to Kannaraville Falls, just south of Cedar City. There must have been at least 50 of us Sorensons making the hike. My immediate family got there late so we lagged behind most of the time. We brought Sam and CJ brought Clara in carriers and hiked about half of it. Lisel (extremely pregnant) and Matt came with all of their kids. We decided that the kids had had enough about half way so all the kids headed back with Mom and Lisel and Matt. CJ, Tania, Me, Trisha, Dad, Landon and Zach made the trek all the way to the falls.





It was well worth it, the falls were really fun. To get to them you have to hike through these slot canyons that wind along with the river. The water was absolutely freezing cold, but once your feet became numb it was bearable. The hike was beautiful. We passed all the rest of our family as they were hiking back down and all of them kept talking about riding down the slide and how we had to do it! We finally got to the top of the hike where the slide is and I was the first one to ride down it. I sat down in the cold water and went for it, screaming as I hit the freezing cold wall of water at the bottom and jumped out as fast as I could.


Next we tried to convince CJ to ride down it but the only way we could get him to do it was to wear my shorts cause he only had jeans on and didn't want to get them wet. So, I wrapped my shirt around my waist and donated my shorts. My dad took pictures of my butt and giggled like a school girl, but I'll spare you those pictures. 


CJ rode down and screamed the same as he went into the small pool at the bottom and jumped out as fast as he could.


Next was my Dads turn. I never thought that my dad would go down but he really wanted to. He proceeded down the slide screaming like the rest of us.


Zach and Landon refused to go down. We had a great time though, giggled ourselves silly and just enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of shooting the tube and made up for the fact that I didn't get to do that this year.




The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Aquatic Center. It was fun with all of the kids. They had a lot of cool toys to play on/with and they had this awesome blacked-out water slide .

Saturday afternoon was spent at the swimming pool before we headed off to dutch oven dinner at a park that evening. We had dinner and dancing and singing and talking and fun! I love Sorenson Family Reunions!

Grandma Sorenson and all of her kids

All of the Sorenson grandkids that were present when this picture was taken (many, many people are missing from this picture)

Sam's birthday cake

I forgot to post this video of Sam eating his birthday cake.


26 August 2011

Sam Turns 1

Sammy cammy wacky brown turned 1! It's hard to believe that it's been a year since he was born but on the same token it definitely has been a year. He is a grown up little boy on the verge of toddler-hood. Soon he will be running all over the place causing all sorts of trouble. But for now he is taking a moment to celebrate his first birthday. We had a BBQ and party and invited all of our friends and family.

Trisha made his "button" cake because he loves to eat buttons

Sam and all of the kids playing with his presents

Cousin Caleb trying to lift him up, classic face

So many toys!

Lily sucking her thumb and Sam sucking his fingers waiting for the cake

Shoving his cake in his face. Once he played with it for a minute, he ate about half of his mini-cake

"I think I'm done now"

We are so grateful for all of our friends and family that were able to make it to the party and celebrate with us. It was really fun and Sam continues to love all of his new toys that he got. They are so much better than all his teething toys that we made him play with.

My favorite things about Sam at 1 year

1. His little hugs that he gives
2. His speedy crawl to chase after people
3. Shaking his head no (whether it fits in context or not)
4. Screaming when he wants you to give him more food or drink
5. His giggle when he is tickled or tackled
6. How he pokes people in the face and laughs
7. Knowing how to walk but refusing to do it
8. His gymnastic abilities
9. Sucking his two fingers makes him so happy, and us too sometimes
10. Chattering to himself at all hours of the night

Nicknames so far: sammy cammy wacky brown, sammer, baby bam, sam sambo, sammy and many more to come.

I love you Sammer, Happy Birthday!!!!!

Alive after 5

Alive after Five is a local, Uintah Basin, competition similar to the well-known "American Idol." Both Trisha and I became aware of the competition in past years because we had a friend that did it last year and won. So, Trisha was really excited at the chance to pick up her guitar and warm up her voice and do some performing. She made it through the preliminary screening by sending them a track from her cd. The first week of competition was on opening weekend of the Uintah County Fair. Luckily Trisha's parents were in town for it and were able to go and support her. She sang (and accompanied herself) two songs, "Mean" by Taylor Swift and "The house that built me" by Miranda Lambert. She rocked em and of course she moved on to the next week. This week proved to be more challenging for all of the contestants because they didn't get to completely choose their own songs. They had to sing one song that was sung by the group The Black Eyed Peas or one of it's members. It took us some time but we found this awesome accoustic version of the song "Meet me Halfway" and she decided on that one and she also sang, "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson. I was so glad that I got off work a little bit early to go and see her it was way fun and she did so well. Unfortunately we didn't get enough people to the event to vote for her (only those present can vote) so she didn't make it on to the next round. However, she was by far the best and most talented performer there. I am really proud of her for doing it and look forward to seeing her light up the stage next year.

Here is a clip of Trisha singing "Meet me Halfway"

You rock babe!!

25 August 2011

LakePowell.2011

Another chance to go to the best place on earth and we loved every minute of it!

Swimming





Sleeping




Waterskiing

Fishing


Riding on Papa's big boat

Scenery




And fun








I really hope this tradition lives on forever! It has become a part of my life that I don't ever want to change or give up. It is a week of fun! Can't wait 'til Lake Powell 2013

17 August 2011

Fourth of July

I wasn't that thrilled to know that I was stuck working all weekend of the fourth of July. I have ongoing traditions with my family that take place that weekend every year but I guess when you grow up and get jobs you don't always get to have every weekend and holiday off. On the other hand, Trisha was really excited to stay in town and hang out with our friends. It turned out to be a really great day. First, we went to breakfast on Main Street and watched some of the parade as it went by. Then we went fishing with our Friends, Justin and HayLee. We went to Matt Warner Reservoir and had a really successful day. It was lots of fun!


Sam enjoying the day fishing and Justin and Trisha in the background

My first catch

All of our catches

Trisha showing off the fish that Justin let her reel in

After fishing we invited all of our friends over and we had a big party. It was fun! We were supposed to go see the fireworks in town but we got carried away with the party and the fireworks went off while we were driving to see them so we ended up enjoying the new firework regulations from our friends front lawn. There were fireworks like crazy all weekend long. Party all night!

These are the decorations that Trisha made. She was really happy about them.