A Big Week

Wow, what a week!

We had a couple of events pending. The grandparents were going to be here, so we decided to cram as many important events into the same week as we could.

Ryan turned 8 years old on Sunday 11/27. He had a party with friends on Saturday (complete with pinata, pin the fly on the chameleon's tongue and freeze dancing) and a family party on Sunday.

I love the look of pure happiness at the sight of Legos

Cute boy with his birthday apple pie

Since Ryan turned eight years old, that means it was time to get baptized! Grandpa and Grandma Lindsey came to town on Monday and Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson came to town on Thursday. (You would have thought the sets of grandparents were the oldest and dearest friends with the amount of conversation flowing between them. It was fun.)

The baptism went great! Grandpa Sorenson gave a talk on baptism and Grandma Lindsey gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. I ran into Quentin L. Cook in the bathroom after we changed our clothes. We are proud of you, Ryan!

Derek and Ryan getting ready for the baptism

Ryan with Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson

The whole group after the baptism

Ryan's new baptism scriptures

We had a lunch at our house after the baptism. We had four kinds of soups, salad and rolls. It was delicious. Because of a scheduling change with the baptism, we had to scarf down the food and head to the church for Mark's Eagle Court of Honor. He finally finished! We had a very non-traditional Eagle Court of Honor. We didn't do the typical scouting things you might expect. Grandpa Sorenson talked about scouting (pulling double duty with his baptism talk as well.)

Mark played a Mozart's Sonata in D on the piano. Before he played, he said, "This is something that you've probably never heard at a court of honor." He was probably right. You can see the the video of him playing by clicking here.

Marsha and I both did a little Mark tribute (i.e. embarassment) and Grandpa Lindsey presented Mark with the Eagle award.

Grandpa L. presenting the Eagle award

Mom and Dad with the newly minted Eagle Scout

Great job, Mark. We are proud of you!

Lest you think that the fun was over at that point, we were just getting started. Since Grandpa Lindsey was called as a Patriarch, he is able to give Patriarchal Blessings to his grandkids. We figured that this would be the perfect time for that to happen. Sunday after church was the selected time. It is a pretty awesome experience to listen to your child receive a Patriarchal Blessing (own personal scripture) and even more incredible to have grandpa give it.

Mark and Grandpa L. just before the blessing

Both Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson and Grandpa and Grandma Lindsey were going to leave on Monday, but both changed their flights to be able to attend Lauren's piano recital on Monday night. It was a Christmas recital. Lauren played "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It was a really fun version of it and she did really well. Unfortunately, my camera malfunctioned and I was not able to get a video of the performance. Hopefully I can get one from grandpa to share at some point.

After the recital, we went to dinner at Chili's (should be called Salty's) We had a fun time and Ryan and Joe demolished a Chocolate Lava Cake like piranhas on a cow.

Eating at Chili's

In addition to the above, we also attended a live Nativity in Alpine that was really nice. We had several dinners together with Sorensons, Lindseys, Lindseys and Ogborns. Lauren also found riddle buddies in her grandpas. It was super cute to see her sitting there chatting with her grandpas.

We are glad our parents could come and visit. We had a great time with them.

Puppy Love and Stuff

The biggest news is that we got a dog. Lauren has been after us for years to get a dog. She finally wore us down and Belle joined our family on Friday. Belle is a six month-old, miniature, apricot poodle. She is very well behaved and doesn't bark much. Lauren has many more pictures on her blog (here) She is super excited and loves that dog.



A happy Lauren and Belle

Since I missed a Halloween post, I have included pictures of the kids in costume here.



Joe was a red pepper from Plants vs. Zombies



Ryan is the zombie to counter Joe's red pepper

The cute nerd, Lauren

Headed out trick-or-treating

Mark didn't wear a costume, but he came home from work covered in flour from making pizza dough. He said was a dough boy.

A couple of other pictures that we have taken recently that make me laugh.

Joe with a wicker basket on his head



Ryan making a face he practiced during Stake Conference

 

Who Is That?

For spirit week at the high school, they had twin day where you had to dress up like someone else and be twins. Mark and two of his friends dressed up alike (I guess they were triplets.) He came into my office after school wearing this. I couldn't stop laughing.

The other day a girl in our ward said to Lauren, "Mark is cool." Lauren was flabbergasted at that revelation.

Fruit Trees Run Amok

Our fruit trees are taking over!

Our peach tree has always produced fairly well. Our apple tree does pretty well every other year. Our pear tree has been too young too produce much until this year. The problem is, the fruit on these trees all ripened at exactly the same time.

Our apple tree did awesome this year. I thinned and thinned the apples. I probably threw out more than 700 apples and it still wasn't enough. The apples were perfect - red, juicy and delicious.


Apples still on the tree



Man, that guy can paint a bowl of fruit!

We picked half of them one week and made apple sauce. Really it is more like a pie filling. We love getting it out and eating it on waffles, crepes or anything else throughout the year. Ryan and Joseph were the champion peeler/corers. Ryan liked eating the long strings of apple peels as they came off. He probably ate 6 or 7 peels just plain.

Marsha was the chief canner. Mark and Lauren spent most of the time looking for canning lids at the store. It would be too easy to ask someone where they were.

The next week we picked the rest of the apples and are storing them for eating. Hopefully they will last us a long time. We probably picked over 150 lbs of apples.

At the same time, the peaches decided they were ready and started jumping off the tree. The peaches didn't get as big this year as they usually do. I probably didn't thin them enough. We picked the peaches the same time we finished picking the apples. We probably picked around 100 lbs of peaches as well. We probably didn't even make it through half of them yesterday.


All the peaches piled on the counter



Marsha canning (freezing) the peaches



The finished product

Ryan is the resident peach lover. He would rather eat a peach than about anything else. He likes all fruit in general. That would be a Sorenson trait.

We picked the pears the same day we did apple sauce. You are supposed to let pears ripen off the tree, so they have been sitting in our laundry room ripening. They are really flavorful. We probably picked about 70 pears. (I wonder if they are ginna pears.)

We have also had tons of tomatoes, and squash this year. Anyone care to join us for some fresh produce?

Daydream Believer and a Homecoming Queen

Last Saturday, Mark went to Homecoming for Lehi High. This was his first date where he actually did the inviting. He went with Marcie Ahlstrom. They have been friends for a while. To invite her, he wrote a message in Chinese. He then wrote the same message again, but cut it into individual characters with the translation on the back. He mixed the cut up characters (put into tiny ziploc bags) into a big batch of chow mein noodles. He put his name in a fortune cookie and mixed it in with other fortune cookies. His Chinese speaking friends delivered everything pretending to be Chinese takeout delivery boys.

She answered by writing yes in several different languages and decorating our doorstep with them and a bunch of candy.

Now for the most humorous and interesting part of this. About a week after Mark asked her, Marcie was voted Homecoming Queen for the dance. Way to go Mark! Ask the Homecoming Queen out for your first date. We thought that was pretty funny.



Brett, Jessa, Marcie and Mark



Marcie and mark

They had dinner at a friends house (Chicken Cordon Bleu) where the above pictures were taken. They then went to the dance and finished up with frosties at Wendys. The following are the official pictures from the dance.


Homecoming group picture

 

Mark and Marcie Homecoming 2011

Another kind of funny thing was that both Mark and Marcie took the ACT earlier in the day. How romantic

Rise and Shout

The other day, Lauren showed me a picture that she drew. She is not a football fan, but apparently is getting caught up in rivalry week.

I eat Utes for Breakfast

I thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Go Cougars!

The Solo Recital

Mark had his solo piano recital on Saturday August 27, 2011. He had several songs he has been working on. He and his teacher settled on six songs for him to play. The recital was at his teacher's house and about 35 people were in attendance.

We wondered if the recital would actually happen since we had an attack of stomach flu the days leading up to the recital. Most of us were over it by showtime, but it was touch and go for a while.

Lauren made the programs for the recital



Mark warming up before the recital



Mark playing Brahms at the recital

 I have uploaded videos of each song to vimeo. The links below will take you to the videos. The times of each piece are listed next to the link. (We also have an audio recording of the recital that is a little better audio quality than the video. If anyone is interested in the audio only, I can make it available to you.)

Mark talked a little bit to start the recital. He played three songs, took a little break and then played the final three songs. He talked briefly before each song. I have added some of his interesting comments. They are direct quotes, so they are in the first person.  Click on the links below and press play on the Vimeo site to watch the videos.

Debussy Arabesque No. 1 (4:05 - Missed the first few seconds of the piece)

"From this point on all of the pieces I'm playing are generally in chronological order. I'm starting with Beethoven. He lived during the 1700s and 1800s"

Beethoven Sonata Op. 10 No. 1 in C Minor (5:16)

"The next piece is Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor. This is one of the hardest pieces I've learned to date and it's the longest one in the recital."

Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G Minor (8:54)

"Now we're going to take a short break, for my sake mostly."

"An Intermezzo is a lullaby"

Brahms Intermzzo Op. 117 No. 1 in E-Flat (4:16 - Missed the first few seconds of this piece)

"As we get nearer to the present, the composers start to get a little... weirder. It's less regular harmonies than we are used to, so these last two pieces are kind of an acquired taste. This next piece is the most contemporary piece I'm going to be playing."

Ginastera Danza de la Moza Denosa (3:19)

"Yes it's supposed to end like that."

"This last piece is another one of my favorite pieces and hard pieces. It's also really long. It has a lot of different themes so don't applaud until you're sure its over because it sounds like it's over a few times."

Prokofiev Sonata No. 3 in A Minor (7:48)

He got a standing ovation when he was done.

He did awesome. We are proud of him.

The ULCER

For those of you who don't know, I bought a new road bike right at the end of May. I've been thinking about getting one for a while, but finally took the plunge. I found a great deal in the classifieds on ksl.com (beats Craig's List locally hands down.) The bike is a Specialized S-Works Roubaix.

I've been riding two to three times a week with an eye on riding in the Utah Lake Century Epic Ride (ULCER.) This is a 110 mile ride around Utah Lake starting and ending at Thanksgiving Point.

Leading up to the ride I had been going longer and longer distances. My longest ride was a 70 miler the week before the ULCER. I did some rides with Brent Estes (next door neighbor and bishop) and Adam Whitefield - both of whom were also riding in the ULCER. The ride was August 6th (happy anniversary, mom and dad.)




Brent and Derek before the ride



ULCER 2011 route going clockwise around the lake

The ride went pretty well, all things considered. At about the 45 mile mark, I blew out a tire. This wasn't just the normal innertube blowout. Both my innertube and tire blew out. I had a spare tube, but not a spare tire. Just after the blowout, when I was thinking that my ride was over, a nice lady stopped to help. Her name was Wendy. She was around 60 and her husband was riding in the ULCER. She volunteered to drive me to a bike shop to buy a new tire. John Reese, who I was also riding with, volunteered to put up some cash for the tire. I had forgotten my wallet. So with the aid of these Good Samaratins, I was able to continue the ride. Thank John and Wendy!

At around mile 65, Adam started to feel sick ("bonking" or "hitting the wall".) We rode slowly with him for several miles until he got his second wind. We finished strong, but our time wasn't great.

I was pretty tired and a little sore after the ride, but I felt pretty good for having done it. That's the farthest I have ever ridden in one day. It is a fun accomplishment.

The following link is to the professional photos taken of me during the race.

http://www.zazoosh.com/events/searchPhotos/456?evtId=456&query=1586&x=20&y=9

Looking forward to it again next year. Anyone care to join me?

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland! It had been 8 years since we had been. We were expecting Ryan the last time we went. We went with our friends, the Warrens. We decided to go right after school got out because the California schools were still in session and we thought the crowds would be smaller.


At the entrance of Disneyland on the first day


We drove down on Saturday. We stayed in the Desert Palms hotel which is on the same block as Disneyland on the south side.

We went to the church Sunday morning in the "Disneyland ward." We then went to Uncle Dennis' house for a waffle breakfast. It was great to see Dennis and Susan again. Andy and his family came as well. Dennis and I discovered a mutual enthusiasm for bicycling. We even have the same model bike, but mine is a bit older.

After Dennis' house, we headed down to New Port Beach. We LOVE the beach. We wish we could go more often.

Mark, Lauren, Melissa and Steven at New Port Beach

 

Joe, Arianna and Sam at New Port Beach

 Some of our favorite rides at Disneyland were:

The Matterhorn, Ryan and Joseph's favorite (I was reminded of the story of going to Disneyland when I was 5. I refused to get on the matterhorn, so mom and dad had the people behind us in line watch me while they went. Could you imagine that happening today?)
 

Mark and Lauren on the Matterhorn



Ryan and Joseph just after riding the Matterhorn


Splash Mountain, Derek's favorite


Lauren and Marsha riding Splash Mountain

 

Marsha, Joe, Lauren, Derek and Mark on Splash Mountain

Space Mountain, Mark and Lauren's favorite


Lauren and Mark excited to ride Space Mountain

 Star Tours, Marsha's favorite. This ride was newly refurbished with new scenarios and in 3D. It was really fun. For those familiar with fast passes, we would get a fast pass at around 9:00 AM with a return time of around 6:00 PM. The fast passes for the day were gone by 9:30. The standby line for the ride was as long as 210 minutes (3.5 hours)
 

Derek, Lauren, Marsha and Mark prepare to board Star Tours. Love the lightning flashing from Marsha's eyes

 

C3PO welcomes us to Star Tours



Ryan and Joseph shot the wad on a dual-bladed light saber

Other fun rides:

The Go Coaster in Toon Town (Joseph loved this one)


Joseph on the Go Coaster

 We also went on Soarin' Over California and Grizzly Rapids in California adventure. Mark and I went on the California Screamin' roller coaster. I thought this picture on the Roger Rabbit ride was pretty funny:



Joe, Lauren and Marsha try not to crash on Roger Rabbit

 Lauren took some fun pictures that she wanted to add to the blog as well:

Joseph and Derek on Autopia

Joseph holding a sucker

Derek looking comtemplative while watching Chip and Dale

How cute is that face?

We met Marsha's cousin, Adam, in Downtown Disney for lunch one day. It was fun to see him.

A good time was had by all. The kids are asking when we can go again. Lindsey reunion in 2013 anyone?