St. Quentin, France

We arrived in St. Quentin in the early evening of July 23rd. After 2 very long days of traveling, all we wanted to do was crash. Instead, we stopped by Bonjourno Pizza (Pascal's Pizzeria) and we got a few pizzas for dinner, a great way to start off our stay in St. Quentin. St. Quentin was the 4th city I served in. I was called to be a zone leader there and my first companion there happened to be Elder Hafen, who I had already been companions with in Mons. I feel like this is the place where I really grew on my mission. I learned so much here that I still think about on a regular basis. This city and the people in it have made a huge impact on my life, which is why I like to go back and visit them. This is my 4th trip to Europe since my mission and each time I have spent time in this little town. Over the past 10 years since serving there, I have kept in contact with the 4-5 core families in the ward. I talk to them on the phone occasionally, email them, follow them on facebook, etc... In particular, Pascal has become a very close friend of mine. He used to take care of not just me, but all the missionaries. He would cook us lunch several times a week, he would go to appointments with us, he would help investigators with whatever they needed. On Christmas day, he invited all the missionaries to his house and provided us with an 8 hour, 8 or more course meal that included caviar, salmon, ostrich steaks, escargot and so many other delicious items that I hope I wrote down in my journal. At times, we would break into his house and toilet paper it or recycle all of our pizza boxes in random places like his bed. Then, the next day we would go out to our car and find it covered with flour and water (which makes a nice sticky mess that didn't come off for months, even after washing it several times). On P-day we would spend time with him, eating pizza and talking and playing card games. When I first got to the city, Pascal would tell you that I had a stick up my butt, meaning that I was very strict to the rules and very reserved. When everyone else was hanging out, I would be in the kitchen doing all of the dishes. I don't know, it was more comfortable for me in there. It became his mission to change that in me. He would not allow me to do the dishes and he would make me hang out with him. Overtime, I guess I lightened up. I later got the nickname Mimi and it stuck with all of the missionaries and all of the ward members. Everyone in St. Quentin calls me Mimi, even after 10 years! I served in St. Quentin for 7 months and it felt like home to me. It still does. I feel so comfortable there. In the 7 months of serving there, I learned how to open up to people, how to love people, how to share that love both through actions and words, and how to let people love me and form life long friendships. I LOVE St. Quentin.

As soon as we got there, Sam immediately loved Pascal too. It may have been initially more about the big candy jar, but eventually Sam just loved Pascal. We stayed with him for the 4 days we were there and Sam would always ask, "Pascal, where are you, Pascal?" and "Pascal, what doin?"

We ate some delicious pizza and went straight to bed. Everything was going smoothly until 2:30am rolled around and Sam woke right up, happy as a clam, and wanted to be awake for the day. BRUTAL! I ended up watching Scooby Doo with him for the next 3 hours. We did this two nights in a row until he was able to adjust to the new time.

The first day we were there, Pascal took us miniature golfing down by the lake. We also went mini golfing with him in 2009 when Trisha and I came to visit him. Take a look at the amazing transformation that he has had in last 3 years. It is incredible!! He had gastric bypass about 18 months ago due to some esophageal and stomach problems he was having. What a difference! I am really proud of the changes that he has made. He is a new man and it was great to see him more healthy and happy. Just look at the difference in these two pictures, you'll see it too.

Me and Pascal 2009

Pascal in 2012

Sam loved mini golfing but he is so big that he wanted to try and hit my ball. We had to keep putting him on the next hole and let him go at it by himself.

A view of the cathedral from the minigolf course

Trisha and Pascal posing

After playing minigolf, we went to this neat ice cream truck and Pascal bought us ice cream. Sam especially loved his oversized otterpop

Later that evening while Pascal was working, we took a trip to centre ville to look around and have dinner. This is the beach that they set up in the middle of downtown every summer.

Sister hanging out in her baby carrier. She is still happy in this picture because it was only the first few days of our trip. She spent a lot of time in this thing and by the end she absolutely hated it. But for now, look how cute she is. She was a very good traveler, all things considered.

Trisha eating her crepe sandwhich at a little shop we found

Sam being as big as can be eating his fruit cup

Sam playing in the sand

Photoshoot with all of us

I went into Pascal's room to find him and Sam sitting on the bed. Pascal had out his tablet which was playing all sorts of french children's songs. Pascal was singing along to them and Sam was contently listening, laughing at times when pleased.

The next day we were invited to eat lunch with the famille Bonamy. They moved to St. Quentin about the same time that I got called to serve there. Yves (the dad) works for the church building maintenance department. Now, he is the boss over all of the building maintenance in France. One night, Elder Hafen and I were invited to their house to eat dinner. Elder Hafen was in charge of the message and he chose to share something that we had been taught in a meeting that really touched him. The message was a little bit long and I could tell that they were not as into it as Elder Hafen was. They played along. After that night, they only invited us to their house under the stipulation that we would not share a message with them. We all laughed about it.

Sandra (the mom) put these clothes pins all over Sam and it kept him entertained for a while

Their backyard BBQ

Trisha hanging out with Kate

Pascal playing with Sam. This kid still loves to be thrown around

Here we are. Sam, Mike, Trisha, Kate, Sandra, Yves, Lucas, and Thomas

Since Pascal got a new body, he decided to get a new car. What a pimp! He let Trisha drive with him to McDonald's for breakfast. They were both too cool for school. The shiz, if you will.

The last day, Pascal shut down the pizzeria and he took us on a mini-trip about an hour away. The first stop was the Imperial Palace at Compiegne. I had been there once, but never visited the inside. We ate lunch at a small cafe on the adjacent street and then made our way to the palace. We were a little bit late to the tour but they let us in. It was a guided tour. The minute we got in the room, the tour guide was not that happy about us being there. Whether it was because we were American, or because we had kids, I have no idea, but it didn't get better. We proceeded through about 4 rooms in the palace and each time our kids said anything, she would shhh them. Now, yes our almost 2 year old was talking and yes our 5 month old was goo-ing a lot. However, they were not being overly loud and nobody seemed to be bothered by them except the shushing tour guide. We did our best to contain them. Finally after deciding it wasn't worth it, Pascal explained to the lady that we would like to be escorted out of the tour. He got into a small argument with her, but refused to get into it. As she got us an escort out of the tour, she was so happy and acting all pleasant. I said to her sarcastically, "Thank you for being so nice." She replied (obviously missing the sarcasm), "You're welcome." To which I said, "Actually you were not nice at all. You were very rude and our kids were not even being that loud. You clearly don't want children to be on this tour." At this she was very surprised that I could speak French and then she tried to backpeddle and say how much she loves children. I was so disgusted with her behavior that I wasn't having any of it. As we had to walk past her to get out, she said to me in passing, "I really do love children." and I said, "No you don't. It's very clear that you don't." and we left. Lucky for us, the nice lady that was escorting us out, after having heard what happened, decided to show us some of the rooms further on in the tour. She was very apologetic for her collegue. After a few minutes she said to us, "We better get out of here because if my collegue finds out that I am giving you this tour..." Well, there you go, apparently we are not the only ones that have such a high opinion of this lady.

This is a picture of the empress' room

The conversations that we had after leaving the tour were hilarious!! We laughed and laughed and laughed about the rude tour guide as we walked around in the gardens.

Me and Pascal posing in the gardens area

The facade of the imperial palace

Our next stop was the castle of Pierrefonds

A look at the castle

Another look

The front of the castle

A door that happens to be the perfect size for Trisha

Sam walking down the hill

After walking around in the heat at the castle, it was time for ice cream

Sam enjoying his popsicle

The last night we were there, we got to go over to Georgette's house. One of my favorite people. When Pascal wasn't taking care of us, Georgette and Andre would take over. I remember lots of delicious meals at Georgette's house. She always made the BEST soups, generally straight from the vegetables in Andre's beloved garden. You could always count on having soup, bread and cheese, a salad of sorts and then a delicious entree everytime you ate at their house. Over the years, I have played lots of card games at all hours of the night chez Georgette. I remember one time on my mission during transfers, I got to spend the whole day with Andre and Georgette after sending off one companion and waiting for the next to arrive. There is never a dull moment at their house. Sadly, Andre passed away a few years ago. I remember it was a friday afternoon in January and I was on my way to work at CVS in Massachusetts. Pascal called me to deliver the news and I pulled off into the parking lot of a nearby store to think about Andre and all the good times I had with him. I cried a little bit. I mostly remember how he used to get so upset while playing cards because Pascal would get mad at him for stupid plays. He also taught me the verb "rompre" which means to break the bread. He was a very great man. I was sad to learn that Georgette would be visiting the London temple while we were in St. Quentin. Lucky for us, she and the Famille Carpentier got back just in time to have a pizza party with us. It was a really fun night!

Sara, Mike, Christian, Sam, Lucette, Celia, Maeva, Nathan, Georgette, Trisha, Kate

Trisha, Kate, Georgette, Mike, Sam

A video of Sam talking to Pascal. Also exhibits Kate's ramblings.

And just as quickly as it came, it went. Our time in St. Quentin ended. It was really hard to leave but exciting to move on to our next destination!

A la prochaine fois St. Quentin! Merci pour la gentillesse!

Bon Voyage

The preparation for our trip to Europe started two years ago when we committed to save up money each month so that we could go and visit Trisha's brother, Todd, and his family is Switzerland. We saved vigilantly and are so grateful that we were able to go on this trip. When it got close, we knew that we had to pack as lightly as possible due to small cars in Europe, traveling while holding two kids, etc... However, this is hard to accomplish because of said two children. Toys, food, formula, diapers, wipes, medicine, many changes of clothing. It is hard to fit it all in. We got it all down to 3 big bags and 3 carry ons. Seems manageable.

Our bags are packed and we're ready to go

We left SLC on July 22 at 11:00am

 Sam loving his own chair on the plane. We debated whether to buy Sam is own ticket or not. We decided to buy him one to keep him contained in his carseat. It was the BEST decision we made!! It was worth the loads of pennies that we paid for it! Sam loved it to. He felt like such a big boy.

We flew from Salt Lake to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, and lastly Amsterdam to Brussels.

This was the awesome contraption they set up for Kate to sleep in. Wow, this thing has some serious potential and with Sam in his own seat, we really hoped to get some good sleep on the flight. Well, Kate would not sleep in that cardboard box thing. She can't be blamed for the no sleep, she slept pretty well in Trisha's arms. Unfortunately, Trisha and I both decided to watch the Hunger Games and therefore got no sleep.

We arrived in Brussels around 11:00am (the next morning). One of our bags got lost in transit so we got our rental car and we went and sat in it in the parking garage and slept for a few hours before our bag showed up in Brussels. Then we started our drive into France, but not until we took a small detour to a little town in Belgium.

Mons was the second city that I served in on my mission. I have not been back since I left it 10 years ago. That means we got lost several times trying to navigate around the city. It was a nice reminder of the wonderful streets of Europe; all the one-way streets. I profited from the detour by buying a millefieulle, which was delicious!! We walked around town for a minute and with every turn we made, thoughts and experiences came to mind of the many times I walked down these streets with Elder Shannon and Elder Hafen on my mission. It was cool. The city is more beautiful than I remember it.

Trisha rubbing the head of the lucky monkey who sits right in centre ville for all to pass

A view of centre ville

The belfry (bell tower) which I had never seen without scaffolding on it. It's all cleaned and pretty

These are the cobblestone streets that gave me my ingrown toenail which I had to have removed while still serving in this city. I went in to a shady hospital, fitted with equipment and furniture straight out of the 80s, for a simple ingrown toenail removal and came out with no toenail and NO pain medication plus a 1 hour ride on the bus back to my apartment. It was the most pain I have ever experienced in my life! Brutal. As a side note, I do not think that socialized medicine is the best way.

This was my favorite eatery. I know what you're thinking! Salmonella? Ring worms? Pin worms? This place looks more than shady. I swear that it did not look like this when I was there, although I am sure that it was not upscale. I used to love to eat frites (fries) and a frikandel (a deep fried hotdog type thing that is rumored to occasionally have horse meat in it) at this place. It was only a block away from our apartment. I also watched some of the opening ceremonies of the olympics in SLC from this frite shop. It was crazy to see SLC and the University of Utah on tv but it was a really cool thing for me.

It is crazy that it is all so familiar and yet the details I can no longer remember. It took us 20 minutes of driving in circles (literally on the same streets) for me to find my old apartment (we passed it 3 times before I finally decided that was the right place). The place that I lived for 6 months. I use to could walk there in my sleep from any point in town, but no longer.

Other things that I can remember from this city. Working on activating Sister Tammy Jesse. We worked on her for 6 months and finally got her to come back to church after being very offended by the bishop of the ward. I remember lots of walking the streets. I remember lots of American food, since there was an American airforce base nearby and a European army base, both of which supplied about 3/4 of our ward members. They would buy their delicious food on the base and just drop some of it by our apartment (including Taco Bell and fresh milk). We were eating in style in this city. I remember walking to the store every week. I remember walking to church which was about an hour away because the bus system didn't run on sunday. I became a senior companion here after only being out on my mission for 3 months. It is here that I learned French because I had to in order to communicate and do the work. I remember traveling to nearby LaLouviere every week for district meetings with two other companionships and the nicest older couple from France. We also traveled to LaLouviere frequently and played soccer on P-day. I met and became friends with Elder Nick Hafen, with whom I would serve again in another city and with whom I am still very close.

I love MONS! It was cool to be able to go back and walk these streets again and recall the sweet memories in my mind.

Growing a Garden

We planted our first garden this spring and boy has it grown! It has over-grown actually! We got back from our trip to Europe and could not believe what our garden had turned into. We are so happy to have it. We love to go outside, walk 20 feet, pick the vegetable/herbs and walk back in and use them for our food. We also enjoy walking outside and picking tomatoes and mint leaves and just eating them straight from the garden. There is nothing better than that.

Sam loves to go out to the garden with us. He helps us pick the vegetables and eats a few tomatoes as we pull them off the plant and then he usually walks over the mint plant, picks off a leaf and sucks on it on his way back to the house. He is so funny!

Several days I have been able to go pick all of the ingredients I have needed to make salsa. Tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cilantro. I LOVE fresh salsa. Since we are starting to get more and more tomatoes, I think I will enjoy a lot more salsa in the days/months to come.

What did we plant?

zucchini

butternut squash

watermelon

cantelope

green peppers (x4)

regular tomatoes

roma tomatoes (x2)

cherry tomatoes (x2)

yellow teardrop tomatoes

green beans

cilanto

parsley

basil

sweet basil

green onions

mint

rosemary

This was the first fruit of our labors

This is the garden when it was young, before we left for Europe.

Funny note: Trisha went out and weeded the garden one day shortly after we planted it. I went out to look at it afterwards and noticied that all of our green beans were gone. I asked her what happened... She said, "those were plants? I thought they were weeds. I pulled them." Needless to say, 2 plants survived the weeding and we got about 6 beans for this seaon.

After Europe, after some pruning and after propping up the surviving tomato plants because they had fallen over. While we were in Europe, our neighbors and friends took turns coming and picking the vegetables and herbs and using them. It was a win-win situation.

Salsa ingredients

Another day of picking...

At the same time that I love our garden, I am also getting ready for it to stop growing. In particular, the squash. Why in the world do squash plants get so big and produce so much? I don't know but they have strangled several of our tomato plants. As much as I like zucchini, I think I will pass on it next year when it comes time to plant.

Happy gardening for the next few months!

Inagural Reunion

A few months ago, we had a family meeting. We discussed several different things, one of which was having our very first family reunion.

First Carl Sorenson Family Reunion

When: July 12-15

Where: Condo at Bear Lake West

Activities: Day at the beach, El Bandito @ Pickleville Playhouse, hike to Bloomington Lakes, Paris Ice Caves, and lots of fun hanging out.

The family at the Paris Ice Caves

Sam is the cutest with his curly hair

The family at Paris Ice Caves again

Kate hanging out at the beach

Sam playing with his sand toys. Who knows what he's doing?! As long as he's happy

Our view of the lake from our condo

Our family at Bloomington Lake. So pretty up there!

Most of the long weekend, we just enjoyed spending time with one another. However, we did have some pretty memorable moments. There were some great thunder/lightning/rain storms that luckily waited until right after our day at the lake. We all got to go on the boat and ski and enjoy the lake. We had another huge downpour while at Bloomington Lake. Unfortunately we were not able to miss that one. We tried really hard to wait until it was over and it gave us about 30 minutes of clear skies before it poured down on all of us as we tried to run down to the cars with all the kids screaming and everyone muddy and wet. It was beautiful up there, so I think it was well worth it. Also, it was a great memory.  The kids particularly loved visiting the Paris Ice Caves and hiking around for a minute. It was crazy to go from 90 degree weather outside to like 60 degree weather in the cave (which is only 20 steps down from 'outside'). The last hightlight was The Hanging of El Bandito. I was a huge skeptic. I did not expect anything great but went along with it because I generaly like theater productions. I haven't laughed so hard for many months. It was hilarious! I would say that the writer of this production is a genius. Very well written. Although some of it is made up as they go, ad-lib, so props to those actors who are quick on their lines and absolutely hilarious! Apparently the main character is always the same, but every year the story changes. I would definitely go again.

We split up the meals, each family was responsible to cook one big meal for everyone. We had some great food! Mom and dad took us out to dinner at a pizza joint.

The condo was a deal! Thanks to Matt for knowing people that could hook us up with that. We were really glad we didn't end up camping at those times when we stood at the doors/windows and watch the rain come down in sheets.

All in all, it was a success and I think everyone enjoyed it! I hope that we keep it going because I love spending time with my family. Plus, it's fun to go experience different places.

Las Vegas (with a kid or two)

Viva Las Vegas--> Fast Forward 3 Years

The last time we came to Las Vegas it was for our honeymoon 3 years ago. Now, we return with 2 kids for what promised to be an adventure.

The McKesson IdeaShare convention was held in Vegas. My parents were going so we decided it would be fun for us to go too. We headed down on Sunday and spent 4 days there. Lots of the time I was attending classes and presentations. I went to some good classes and I hope to be able to implement some of the things I learned to improve the pharmacy. A few of the classes were awful boring but I got CE credit for them, so it was worth it. All of us spent quite a bit of time on the trade show floor getting free food (lots of food!), free samples and learning about all sorts of products and services that people were promoting. We did find some time to swim in the massive expanse of pools on the property and get some sun. Sam loved being at the pool and in the water! We also had a chance to walk up the strip one night and catch all the outdoor shows that play on the strip. It was a short, fun trip.

We had some time to play at the pool. Sam loves playing in the water!

Kate didn't really appreciate the heat but this nice pool girl brought us some cool towels (which smelled of eucalyptus) to put on her head. That was better for her.

Walking down the strip. I guess Sam was too tired. He woke up after this to watch all the shows along the way.

Grandpa taking a minute with crazy Kate

Trisha and I at the Bellagio Fountains. Do you know that after this we walked around the Mile Mall for about 30 minutes trying to find a virgin daquiri? Don't waste your time. Don't have them there anymore. I was thoroughly disappointed. Good thing I found one later at our hotel!

Our hotel room at the Palazzo. It was the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in and it was great to have some space for Sam to run around. Plus, my mom and dad were in the room next door, so Sam would open the door and have their whole room to play in as well. He loved being around them.

Sam practicing his swimming moves with his mommy

Sam jumping off the ledge

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the sun

Our family at the pool

Sam in the kid pool at the Venitian

Sams favorite part of our hotel room? Not 1, but 3 telephones for him to play with. He likes to call his pappa and talk to him about lots of things we don't understand.

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Sam on the trade show floor. We spent quite a bit of time there. Got free things, free food, etc... Lots of fun

The final night party at the Palms Resort pool. We got to see a concert from a mock-Beatles band.

Driving back home, we were greeted by lots of wildfires burning in Utah. It was incredible to drive up I-15 and pass one after the other. From Delta to Vernal the sky looked like this. This picture was taken overlooking Strawberry Reservoir.

Wasatch Back

Months and months of preparation all led to this... Ragnar Wasatch Back 2012

With a few weeks to spare we got a full team and ventured out to conquer the Wasatch Back. I bought all the food and drinks. This is most of it loaded up in the car, it pretty much filled my entire car. So much food! So much liquid!

The totes of food for each car

My mom at her first exchange waiting to start her first run

Mom at the end of her first run

I'll tell you what, my mom went in to this completely blind. She had never run a race. She didn't look at the schematics of her runs and she didn't want to. I think she wanted to kill someone when she got to her second run and looked at the mountain in front of her (knowing that she was gonna have to run it). That wasn't the only mountain. Her second leg was hill after hill after hill and it was nearing midnight. We tried to follow her and support her the best we could but when it got close to the end and I asked her if she wanted water and she glared at me, I knew exactly what it meant. It meant, leave me alone and let me do this. Pure determination to get to the end of that leg!! I asked her after it was over if she thought that the race was easier, harder or the same as she expected and she said, "Definitely harder." She was sore and hurting, but she finished all 3 legs. Much of the family was there to cheer her on in her last leg through Heber so I think that helped her get to the end. I just want to let her know how proud of her I am. I knew going into it that it would be really hard but I knew she could do it. I hope that she looks back on it as a huge accomplishment. For me, running is all about the satisfaction of pushing myself further than I thought I could go. I hope you feel that same satisfaction, Mom. Congratulations on your first race!

My ragnar tatoo. I am a little bit sad that it washed off. I would consider having it permanently.

Since I was the team captain, it gave me freedom to choose my own runs. I gave it a lot of thought and assigned myself runs that I thought would be most challenging for me and yet fun. I may have picked wrong. Or I may have worn the wrong shoes. My first run was 7 miles uphill to Snow Basin Ski Resort. I wore my five finger shoes. I actually killed it during the run, especially one small portion that was downhill. I was running 7 minute miles. However, by the end of the run I knew there was a problem. My left heel was killing me. I could barely walk on it or put any pressure on it. I knew that the rest of the race would have to be done in my normal running shoes and I was scared that I wouldn't even be able to do it in those. My second run was basically flat for 5 miles. It was an alright race for being 3 in the morning. Slower than I hoped but I was able to work through the pain and do what I could to finish. The last run was 7 miles straight down hill into Park City. It was absolutely brutal! I was so relieved to be done with all three legs!

I'm pretty sure that it was achilles tendonitis due to the stress on my achilles from the first uphill run. It took about 2 weeks for me to walk normally. I'm almost ready to try running again and see what happens. Hopefully everything will be healed up, I wanna get at least a half marathon in by the end of running season.

Our team at the finish line- Great Job!

Jaime, Camille, Lori, Shayne, Ben, Brooke, Stephanie, Mike, Karli, Laura, Dan

 

I have now done the Wasatch Back twice. It was an interesting experience to be in the second van this time and see the differences. I think that there are some pretty big differneces. It was an incedibly hard but really fun race! Thanks to all my team members who made it a great race!

We finished in 34:31:56.3

My brother also ran on a separate team. His first big race. Congrats CJ!