Welcome to the Family!!!!

Matthew and Alli are engaged!!!! We are all so excited. Matthew purposed Thanksgiving morning at sunrise. She is the nicest, sweetest girl and we can't wait until the big day. Which is may-ish, possibly May 15th.

Happy Birthday Alli! We got to meet her mom, sisters, and nephew. We laugh a little too loud for the little guy, but I think he got used to it by the end.

Alli wanted to see the temple lights for her birthday. As always we had lot of fun but it was freezing cold!!!!
Thanks for smiling Matthew!

Fall Fun

I thought I would post another update on our fall activities for those of you who don't have Facebook. If you do have Facebook, then you probably have seen these pictures already.

Jeni and Crystal fell in love with Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point last year and decided to introduce Jessica and I to its wonders this year. It really was fun. We jumped on a giant air pillow, raced in small tractors, slid down giant slides, explored the inside of a dinosaur, played in a building full of dried corn, and explored the corn maze. Well, we really didn't do the maze justice. We had no idea where we were going and after 20 minutes we ended coming back out of the entrance. However, we had fun. These are my two favorite pictures of the evening.

Then, of course, Witches Night Out at Gardner Village has become a tradition. Each year we add little bits and pieces to our costumes. This year we got sparkly spider bracelets, which, unfortunately, you can't see in this picture.

Also, we were very excited that Jessica could join us for the first time this year. It just isn't as fun if it isn't the four of us. This picture doesn't do them justice, but she had fabulous eyes for the evening.

Crystal talked me into having pink hair. Unfortunately, it turned out orange. Oh well, I guess it goes with the goofy hat.

Crystal went for an elegant look this year and added a classy polka-dot scarf.

I think Jeni's favorite part of Halloween might be having the opportunity to streak her hair with bold colors without seeming rebellious. Isn't she a trendy witch?

Now Jeni and Crystal just need to make it through the official school Halloween party and we can call this fall a success!

Halloween Crafts

Lauri and Lisel inspired me, so I thought I would share our Halloween crafts. A couple of weeks ago, Crystal, Jeni, and I went to our ward Super Saturday activity to make these really cute crafts. The cats were so cute that we couldn't resist. That is right. We now have three black cats to add to our Halloween decor. The wooden pumpkins also turned out really well and have the added benefit of being able to stay out for a couple of months.

When we got home, Crystal was still in a crafting mood and and went straight to work on these cute fabric pumpkins. We have a very festive living room now. Everything looks really cute, but I am not sure where we are going to store them when it is time to put them away!

The Men in Our Lives

In September, we hit a couple more concerts. We went to see Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, and Brad Paisley. Both events were spectacular! We had lots of fun and did a lots of singing, clapping, and laughing. Most of you have probably already seen more of our pictures on Facebook, so I am going to keep this short and just say that we had FUN.

Sorenson Family Reunion

This post is two months overdue, but we have to include something about the Sorenson Family Reunion because it was one of the highlights of our summer. After the Barnes reunion, Jeni and I lounged at a hotel for a few days while Mom and Dad looked at houses. Jessica joined us Wednesday night and on Thursday we headed up to Swan Valley, Idaho, for the much anticipated Sorenson Reunion. Norman and Brenda did a great job finding a beautiful location and planning fun activities for us.

On Thursday, Jessica and Jeni went with several of our cousins on a "little" hike. Everyone had a great time. I am especially impressed that Zack kept up on any hike for which Jessica and Jeni picked the trail. As usual, they went a little farther and it took a little longer than they had planned.



Crystal, Matthew, and Ali joined us on Friday evening. As you can see, there were lots of fun things going on. Smores, babies to hold, little kids to entertain us, nail painting, crafting, more babies to hold and little kids to entertain us.

Of course, one of our favorite activities is the family sing along, which was held each night. It was fun to have so many guitar players!

On Saturday, we all (and I mean all) piled into the truck and took a drive into Jackson and then through Teton National Park. Since our parents met while working in Jackson, they took us on a trip down memory lane. We went to see the house that we lived in. Well, at least Dad, Mom, Jessica, and Sarah lived there for a while. Jackson has changed a lot since we were last there and we barely recognized No Name street. Then, Dad took us on a tour of all of the Bar-T-5 camp sites in the Tetons. It really was a beautiful trip . . . cold, but beautiful.

We had a great time and are looking forward to our next Sorenson Family get together.

Barnes Family Reunion

On August 2, all of the Carl and Anavoe Barnes family (or at least most of us - we sure missed Casey, Stephanie, and David) gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the afternoon. It has been a long time since all of us have been together and it was good to catch up. 

Check out the slideshow below to see how much fun we had. 

Aren't the little kids cute!

Josh Turner

We have a ton of catching up to do on our blog. So we are going to try.... Here it goes! July 25th we went to the Josh Turner concert at the Unitah County Fair in Evanston, Wyoming. We decided to arrive early because we thought we could hang out at the fair for a while. WRONG! It was pretty dead. There were like five rides and Jeni treated us to this really awesome ride. It is similar to the music express at Lagoon, but the carts are attached to long arms and you spin around really fast and go up and down - not just like a little hill, but we are talking about a big huge bump in the air. This is Jessica and Alli before the ride began.

Matthew is a wimp when it comes to rides and he opted out. He did enjoy watching and listening to us scream.
We were going so fast and laughing and screaming so hard we were crying. The tears ran sideways instead of down our cheeks. We all felt a little sick when we got off.
After the ride, we weren't sure what to do. So we hung around the fair. There was nothing there, not even the livestock were there yet. It was very disappointing. :( But we were lucky enough to find the obstacle course set up for the dogs and Jeni was kind enough to demonstrate a few of the skills for us.
Since not much was going on at the fair, we decided to go into town to get dinner. And what did we find... the whole town on main street! Beerfest was going on and everyone, and I mean everyone - pregnant ladies, kids, grandparents, was there. We walked around for a while, but lets be honest, beerfest isn't much fun if you aren't drinking and smoking with everyone else. After wasting several hours it was time to go to the concert. Let me just say, I was not pleased with the seating or lack thereof. We walked in and you had your choice of sitting on wooden, splintering, paint-peeling bleachers or standing in the dirt with all of the drunk people. Luckily Josh Turner made up for it all.
Matthew and Alli at the concert. Enjoying the show! We were so glad they could join us and put up with us for so long. Thanks!!
Josh singing - don't know which song, but every song was amazing. I would definitely like to see him again!
All of us kids after the concert. Alli was kind enough to take our picture. We definitely enjoyed the show!

There's more to come, but it is so overwhelming. Does anyone know how to make collage pictures for blogs? If you do, I'd love to know. Thanks!

Happily Unemployed

After ten years at the Church History Library, I quit my job this month. Yeah! While I have made many good friends and had many good experiences there over the years, it is the right time for me to move on and do something else.

I have been happily unemployed for a week now and I love it! I know that it can't be permanent, but I plan to enjoy it while it lasts. I have already gotten lots of sleep and am making lists of all of the (free) things I want to do while I am looking for a new job.

Sarah

Catching Up!

What can we say?  It's a long time over due.  I have no excuse, aside from laziness, but Jessica has been very busy and stressed with school, and Crystal and Sarah have been working very hard and going a little crazy.  So here is a brief update on our lives.

In March I went and visited my parents.  They are so much fun.  I can never get enough of them.  They need to come back. We went to the temple, the rodeo (I've been teaching them how to do self-portraits), the beach (it wasn't too pretty so there are no pictures of that), and we went out to eat a lot.  I miss you guys!

Then they came to visit for Memorial Day.  We took our mom to get pedicures at Gardner Village.  The best place ever for pedicures.  We love it, and they love it when we come. 

Me and Jessica have been hiking a little.  I wish it was more. I'm always looking for people to come with me.  We went up little Cottonwood Canyon at the temple quarry.  And also down south to Kolob and Zion's.  Kolob is my new favorite hiking spot.  It's gorgeous and there weren't too many people. 
Oh, and we REALLY love our camelbaK's.
For Crystal's birthday we went to Vegas. We love Coke Floats, M&M's, and the Bellagio.  I could watch the fountain show all night. Happy 30th Crystal!

This past Thursday we went to the Western Stampede.  It was totally awesome!  However, Matthew didn't enjoy the noise we were making quite as much as we did.  If you can see it, he's stuffed napkins in his ears to block our screams, well, mostly Crystal's. :)  But we really all had a lot of fun and I think we are living proof that you can be crazy and have a lot of fun without using alcohol. 

For the fourth of July weekend we went to Cedar City to visit the Shakespeare festival.  We all saw The Secret Garden and we loved it.  Honestly I think it's my favorite musical EVER. Crystal even admitted to letting a few tears escape. Then Jessica and Sarah went and saw As You Like It. They really liked this one also.

So that's us! We're hoping to have more adventure's this summer so hopefully it won't be so long before you hear from us again.

Winter Sun

In January, I decided that I needed to get out of the cold and away from work for while. So a couple of friends and I headed to Cancun for five days. We stayed in a brand new, all-inclusive hotel. It was so new that they were still painting the walls in the hall outside of our room and the front desk wasn't finished. Though the accomodations were interesting and it wasn't the warm paradise we were hoping for, it was lots of fun.

During our stay, we took two excursions away from Cancun -- my favorite part.


Each of the excursions involved very long bus rides. This is Jenny and I getting ready for a three hour ride in our comfy tour bus.




Our first excursion was to Chichen Itza. This is El Castillo, the main pyramid, which is situated in the center of a large complex of buildings and acts as a very sophisticated sun dial.


Patrice, Jenny, and I in front of the East steps of El Castillo. If you clap while standing dead center in front of the steps, the echo comes back as the sound of a quetzl bird.


Me, standing in front of the observatory.


One of my favorite places in Chichen Itza is the Plaza of a Thousand Columns. The columns represent warriors, which are arranged in rows around a small pyramid. When you go behind the pyramid, the columns just seem to stretch on forever.


We took our second excursion out to Xel-Ha, an ecological water park formed where a river joins the Carribean Sea.



Although it was a little cool, we took a bike ride, floated in an inner tube, did some snorkeling, and relaxed for a few mintues in a hammock.

Sunday morning we went to church, which was absolutely fabulous! The ward was very friendly and welcoming, and I actually understood the majority of the meeting.


We spent the rest of our vacation on the beach. We found this shady spot so that it would be peaceful.

It was very hard to come back to the cold weather and the caos at work, so I am just going to have to plan another vacation.

Sarah

Bald Eagles at the Bay

About a year ago, my friend Becky discovered that bald eagles nest at Farmington Bay in February and March. Who knew? So this year we decided to make an excursion to Farmington Bay to see the eagles. Allisun, Becky, and I loaded into Becky's truck and set out for the bay. The 3 adults in the front seat and 

the 3 kiddos in carseats in the back. 
It was a tight squeeze, but we managed. It did however make it a little difficult to eat our "picnic" lunch in the truck. 

Once we arrived at Farmington Bay, we drove our muddy washboard roads. Amazingly the babies did quite well and slept a good portion of the time. 

Seth (Becky's littlest) 

Nora (Allisun's little one)

We saw eagles almost immediately. I wish I had Matthew's scope and a better zoom on my camera, but alas, Matthew does not lend such expensive equipment to his sister. However, you can still tell the birds are eagles in most of the pictures. 

We figure we saw about 30 eagles that day. On Saturday (Valentine's Day), they were having the real Eagle Day. They do a controlled carp kill and all the eagles come for the feast. They were expecting 300 + eagles that day and a lot of people (that's why we went early). 

 

After watching the eagles and other birds, we headed back to Becky's house. Fortunately, Becky always has live entertainment at her house. Her son Luke is HILARIOUS! He decided to ride my purse like a horse. He is a funny little boy with quite the imagination! 
The babies Seth and Nora were also adorable. We had to take their picture in their cute winter hats. We sat them next to each other and they held hands all by themselves. It didn't last long, but it sure was cute! 
It was a fun day and I look forward to doing it again next year! Maybe in a bigger vehicle. Thanks girls and cute kids! 

Crystal