The Lights at Temple Square

This year we made it up to Salt Lake to see the fabulous lights at Temple Square!

To add to the excitement, we took the Trax train downtown. (Also to avoid the prospect of the non-existent parking spots downtown.) Our kids thought the train was the greatest. David was MUCH more excited that he looks in the picture. Here he's trying to perfect his Ralphie impersonation.

And to increase the level of fun even further, we invited our Sorenson cousins to come along.

Here we are in the world famous Tabernacle.
Partly to thaw our fingers and toes.

When I took this picture of Spencer and his cousin Mary I said, "I'll take your picture and we'll send it to Grandma Rosie!" and Mary looked at me very quizzically and said, "How does Spencer know my Grandma Rosie?" What a small world!

Catherine and Madeleine

Emma and Beth

The reflecting pool in front of the Temple was so pretty.Lights of the Temple reflected in the water.

Thanks again for braving the cold with us Sorensons!

For our Grandmas (and anyone else who's interested)

November piano recital.
(November is always duets.)

Also in November Catherine won an award for her photography entry in the Reflections contest at school. Her entry will now go onto the District Level! Way to go Cath!

A trip to San Diego

Earlier this month Michael and I had the chance to get away for a weekend to San Diego. Michael had a conference he was attending in the same Marriott Marina hotel that we stayed in for our honeymoon 12 years ago. I was only there Saturday through Monday morning, but it was heaven. I slept 10 straight hours the first night. I guess I needed it. Many thanks again to my parents for taking our kids and making it possible.

We landed Saturday morning and spent most of the day on Cornado island. We ate good fish tacos and ceviche and spent the afternoon at the beach and visiting the Hotel del Coronado.
Michael liked climbing on the rocks and we both liked sitting on the sand, reading our books in the sunshine.

For anyone unfamiliar, the Hotel del Coronado is an old resort (over 100 years) and kept up beautifully.
I stayed at the Hotel Del with my parents and sister when I was six and it has been a family favorite ever since. This is me and my sister Jenni. (Jen - I love the Mrs. Stott pose we've got going.)

Michael and I also visited our first trip to San Diego.

Wow - we look so young.

Sunday after church we drove up to the San Diego temple.Another throw-back picture:
we also visited the Temple on our honeymoon.
Of course, planning where and what to eat were also a big part of our trip.
We ate lots of sea food and quality Mexican food.

This is Michael's platter at dinner in Old Town.
He almost ate the whole thing.
Getting away is a good thing.

Halloween 2009

Pictures of Halloween 2009.

Our friendly neighborhood fireman.I loved this costume because we already had all the pieces.
But then I saw these boots at Target and couldn't pass them up.
The perfect finishing touch.

Emma the East High cheerleader.

Except she said the E on her uniform was for Emma, not East High.

Our brave knight.
A bit of a Monty Python look here.

Our beautiful fairy.

Off to hit the new neighborhood to see what kind of treats were to be had.

David counting his treats. He was totally enamored with the idea that he went to people's doors and they all gave him candy.

Nerd Day at school

Spencer the mountain climber

Michael here. Back in the summer, Spencer was fascinated after hearing me telling about how a friend and his 4-year-old son “hiked the Y.” The “Y” is a giant white letter “Y” high up on a mountain side above the BYU campus. It was first painted up there in the early 1900s and the story is that they were going to do the full “BYU” but got too tired after doing the Y first.

Here’s how it looks from the BYU campus (over Spencer's left shoulder, to the right of the tall pine tree):

Hiking up to the Y is kind of a BYU tradition. I had only done it once, during my junior year. At a certain age, all of our kids have hollered when they could first spot the Y during a drive to Provo. Spencer is at that age and really wanted to climb up to it, esp. after hearing that someone younger than he had done it. I promised him I’d take him. Then every Saturday became consumed by moving and its aftermath. So finally I just picked a Saturday morning in mid-Oct and said that’s when we would do it. Older sisters were invited but declined, much to Spencer’s delight. We surrounded ourselves with positive-thinking symbols and went for it:

We went with my friend from work, Joe, and his son Lincoln, who had been the trailblazers for the experience. Joe really had to negotiate to get Lincoln to do it again, and I threw in the promise of some goldfish (his favorite) at the summit. You can see the Y in the background of this one, taken at the trailhead, but since we are much closer to it, it's harder to make out:

The trail is well maintained but very steep. It’s 1.2 miles one way and rises from 5100 feet to 6200 feet. I actually wasn’t sure Spencer would make it. He’s got good anaerobic muscles honed from battering his sisters but not a ton of stamina for long walks. I brought lots of extra snacks to use as bribes to get him to the top. But he was so excited, he just trucked along - he was even running at times. This video shows how he was at the beginning:

The trail is all switchbacks back and forth across the slope of the mountain. There are 11 turns, clearly marked, which gave Spencer a great sense of progress as he climbed. I held out the fruit snacks until we reached the halfway point at Turn 6.

Getting even closer!

I swear he never slowed down once. Never complained, barely got out of breath. He could have easily climbed it twice. Here he is reaching the top (and you can kind of tell how winded his dad was):

That white behind us is the top of the Y.

Being at the top of the Y wasn't good enough; he wanted to keep climbing up behind it. But alas, there were quilt store customers that need servin' by our Mom, so we had to stop somewhere.

Sitting on the bottom of the Y:

Joe and Lincoln's dog Lady never complained, either:

At the trailhead on the way home:

Now he's asking when we can do it again.

Our new 'hood.

Dunh, da, da, DUNH! I finally present the new house.
I am sorry I've been slow. We are slowly making progres and getting into a normal routine. So hopefully I will be back to blogging regularly soon. And hopefully I will soon find the box that camera cord is in so that I can finally download any pictures from our camera over the past few weeks.

This is a view from our front porch. Not too shabby?

The kids love going to the park across the street.

The kids walking home from school. I love that it's so close.

Here are a few other views from nearby the school. In this one you can see the school on the right. To the left you can see the spires of the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We live only a few blocks from the Temple itself and we love seeing it everyday. I've really been surprised by how much that has affected me - I really feel a peaceful spirit in my life, just seeing the Temple every day. It's not totally common to live by a Temple - even in Utah, so I don't take it for granted.

Here's a close-up of the Temple. In the background is Mt. Timpanogos.

Here's another view looking south. Lovely. We have nice neighborhoods with beautiful homes and parks, but we also are surrounded by a lot of rural farmer's feilds, orchards, horses, cows, silos, etc. I love it. I can't get over how beautiful it is where we live. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. I'm so happy we are here. I never considered living in this area, and I know that we were led to this house and this area by the Lord. I feel so grateful that He knew something that I didn't and got me here!

So come visit!