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?

Teenager at last (and stuff)

This post is a little late, but Lauren turned 13 years-old on April 10th. She is officially a teenager. As usual, she wanted to organize a party. She loves that type of thing. She had several friends over. They did a scavenger hunt at the mall. They ate pizza and they watched "Tangled" which Lauren got for her b-day.

Here are some pictures of the happy day.

Lauren with her loot



Cupcakes with curly candles

The Easter Bunny also put in an appearance at our house recently.

A couple of eggs in the easter baskets

Lauren also recently had a piano recital. She played "Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini. She did great! Check it out for yourself below. (Sorry about the shakey-cam.)


Lauren Recital - Baby Elephant Walk from Derek Lindsey on Vimeo.

You are awesome, Lauren!

Happy Birthday Mr. Bowling

Joseph's obsession with bowling started at an early age. Just before his second birthday, he came across two tiny plastic bowling pins. He found out he could set them up and roll a tennis ball to knock them down. He entertained himself for hours with this sport and his love of bowling took off.

About six months later we got him six foam bowling pins with a big foam bowling ball. He played it constantly. He called them "color pins."

For christmas the next year he got his "big ginormus bowling pins."

Joseph turned five on April 8th. He had some friends over for a bowling party. He had a bowling cake.

They then went bowling.

Most of the kids were done by about the seventh frame. Joseph and Andrew (the one to the right of Joseph in the picture) stuck it out to the bitter end. Joseph ended up getting two spares and a strike during the game.

We were happy that Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson were here for his birthday as well.

Happy Birthday, Joseph. We love you.

Addendum:

Shannon reminded me that I forgot to mention that Joseph was a bowling ball for Halloween. I had meant to include that, but forgot. Here is a picture of Joseph as a bowling ball.

Glass Blowing

A few months ago we went to Thanksgiving Point (a place about 2 miles from our house that has a dinosaur museum, movie theater, petting zoo, out door amphitheater, gardens, shops, etc.) At one of the buildings, the Art Institute of Utah teaches art classes, does glass blowing and other things. We went to watch the glass blowing one day. We found out that you can pay $25 and create your own glass flower with help from the glass blowers at the art institute. Ryan watched for a minute and was obsessed. He wanted to create his own glass flower really bad. We told him that he needed to save up his own money to do it. As time went on and he had his money saved up, he would constantly badger us to take him glass blowing. Last Saturday was finally the day to take him. He was so excited.

The guy in the background of this picture is the glass blower who helped Ryan with his flower. He has just pulled the molten glass from the furnace and is starting to shape it into a cone that will become the flower.


Glass Blowing from Derek Lindsey on Vimeo.

This video shows Ryan actually pulling the glass into a flower shape.

He couldn't take his flower home that day because it had to cure. We picked it up on Monday. The following pictures show Ryan with the flower and just a picture of the flower.

The Tophams came for Spring Break and actually accompanied us to Thanksgiving Point. While they were here we went to the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU museum of art. For those who don't know who Carl Bloch is, look him up. He was pretty impressive.

While we were at BYU, we also stopped by The Brick Oven for pizza.

We had a great time with the Tophams while they were here. The kids played a lot of video games and watched some movies. The cousins had lots of fun playing together. We are glad the Tophams live close enough to see them occasionally.

The Quiet Extrovert

People who know Mark, you know that he is a man of few words. His worst nightmare involves talking on the telephone. Those that don't know him well may think that he is shy and introverted.

We have a different term for him - the quiet extrovert. He is involved in so many activities it makes my head spin some times. He keeps surprising us with other things that he has signed up to do. He likes to be involved in groups, but likes to stay on the fringes of the groups - as little talking as possible.

Many people are aware of Mark's great skills on the piano. He rivals that on the violin. He is first chair violin in his chamber orchestra at school. The following clip is from a concert the orchestra put on last week. Close your eyes and pretend you are driving a sports car through the Swiss Alps or in a diamond commercial. The piece is called Paladio.


Paladio from Derek Lindsey on Vimeo.

He has early morning orchestra starting at 6 AM every other day. With that and his heavy class load this year, you might think that he would have enough on his plate. He's just getting started.

• Weekly piano lesson
• Weekly violin lesson
• Marching band in the fall - someone talked him into playing the synthesizer for the band. It was a time committment similar to playing a sport.
• Technology club - someone asked him to help program a game for a programming competition. (It appears that he is no longer doing that.)
• Chinese club
• Jazz Christmas ensemble - He was going to play the piano for them. It didn't work out, but he was ready if it went ahead.
• Piano festival - played a Bach Prelude and Fugue and a Rachmaninoff piece for a judge. We call them his Bach and Rach pieces.
• Prepared pieces for orchestra solo and ensemble competition and is going to state for his solo piece.
• Accompanied three people on the piano for their solo pieces for the same competition.
• Is on the tennis team. (The piano and violin lessons stop while tennis is going on because he has no time.)
• Took the American College Test (ACT) for the second time.
• Is studying for three AP exams.
• During summer "vacation" he plans on attending as many of the following as he can: Summer Music Festival at BYU (week long music camp), Priest Quorum High Adventure Camp, Disneyland, Family Reunion, Especially For Youth (EFY), state technology camp.

Wow, I'm tired just typing it.

In addition, and much to his dismay, Lehi High School has large number of girls choice dances. He usually manages to get asked to them. (He hasn't actually managed to ask any one out yet. See comment about the telephone above.) This picture is of him just before going to the valentines dance. His date's name is Jessa Bates.

Kind of a funny story about one of the invitations. We were sitting at the dinner table when there was a knock at the door. Joseph loves to answer the door so he thundered in there to answer it. He came back and said, "Mark there is a fairy at the door for you." The girl had her younger sister dress up like a fairy and deliver a pumpkin to Mark with the invitation inside. Mark knew what it was for and did NOT want to talk about it. Lauren and Ryan could not figure out why there was a little girl delivering a pumpkin to Mark and could not leave it alone. Finally we had to tell them to cool it and we would tell them what it was about later.

Another girl (Jessa) asked him by creating a code and then creating some matricies that Mark had to solve in order to get the right number combination to find out what the message said. The way to a man's heart is through his mathmatical equations.

We are glad Mark is part of our family.

Handel's Messiah

Here is an awesome version of The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.



Merry Christmas.

The Rock Star

As seems to happen every year around Thanksgiving, Ryan had another birthday. He is now seven years old. A lot of elementry school classes have a student of the week for the kids with birthdays that week. In Ryan's class, they have a funner title - Rock Star (teacher's maiden name was Rock.) Ryan talked about this for weeks leading up to the day. He got to make a poster of himself and things he likes to present to the class. Here are some pictures of Rock Star Day.

Ryan presenting his rock star poster

Ryan with his teacher Mrs. Sylva

Ryan has already had two birthday parties and is gunning for a third. Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson and Aunt Christine were in town for Thanksgiving. We had a party with them before they left.



Ryan loves pumpkin pie, so we always have to have a pumpkin pie cake.



Opening presents from the grandparents

 Ryan's second party was on his actual birthday (11/27.) The Meyers were in town for Thanksgiving as well. They were here to help celebrate on his actual birthday.



Ryan with the traditional birthday pancakes



Someone is excited about the Legos he got



Cute kid



Cupcakes that night

 We are glad you came to our family, Ryan. You are our rock star, too. Happy Birthday!