Visitors

The very day we moved into our new house, we had visitors come visit us. Oma, Auntie Tylee, & Pierre all came to stay with us for the weekend. Oma flew in from LA & Tylee & Pierre drove from San Francisco. The kids were SO excited to show off their new house.

Everybody brought some fun surprises for the kids. Tylee & Pierre brought chocolate for everyone from San Francisco Ghiradelli Square. . . & then they brought a bat & ball for Lorien, bubbles for Taya, drums for Bladen (revenge will come, Tylee. . . revenge will come), & SLIME for Cadence.

Everybody liked their surprises. Oma brought us all MORE chocolate & then brought the kids a bunch of fun beach toys (which are bath toys as well) & some SUPER FUN crafts. Everybody was SO happy with all the treats & fun things. Thank you everyone!

They slept over (all of us on air mattresses since we didn't have our stuff yet) on Friday night & then early Saturday, we all had a classic McDonald's breakfast on the floor of our dining room. (Did I mention I miss my chairs & kitchen supplies?) We had SO MUCH FUN sitting there eating our breakfast. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. What a fun way to start a new life in a new house!

The iCadence Show

So Cadence & Lorien's favorite TV show right now is iCarly. They think it's hilarous, so they put together their own version of iCarly for their cousin Korbyn (because it's HIS favorite show too. . . MISS YOU BABY BOY!)

Hope it makes you smile as much as it did me.

Well, here it is! 3255 Monterey Rd. Seaside, CA 93955.

Welcome to our beautiful new home (for the next 2 years at least). When I drove up the first time I just about peed my pants. THIS is a military house??? This is what they offer us for FREE? Are you kidding?

2400 square feet, 5 bedroms, 2 1/2 bathrooms. . . walk in closets . . . new kitchen appliances (including a ice & water machine in the fridge). What more could we ask for?

I won't show you pictures of the entire house because who wants to look at pictures of empty rooms right? I promise to take pictures as soon as our household goods arrive because then they might be worth looking at. ha ha ha. But I did take a couple pictures so you could see layout design.

When you walk through the front door, to the left is a little living room. It's not very big, but it meets our needs which is all you can ask for. Right by the front door is a coat closet & the half bath (which is quite large for a half bath). When you walk passed the living room & the stairs, you enter the "great room" & kitchen. There's a massive "hidden" room that goes under the stairs. We're going to make that into an arts & crafts room for me & the kids. Then in the great room we'll have the piano, computer desk, dining room table, & our big buffet from Germany.

The kitchen is small, but again. . . it does what it needs to. Everything is new & state of the art which is SO MUCH FUN!!! I've never seen such a big microwave in my life! And to have a gas stove again is HEAVEN! There's a bar on the one side so we can buy some bar stools so we can eat at the counter for breakfast & lunch. That was kind of fun.

Behind the kitchen is a comfy little laundry room & in the laundry room is the door that leads to the massive 2 car garage.

Here's a picture from our kitchen window. It's cloudy, but you can see the ocean line. It's SO beautiful on a clear day. And wait until to see the view from the upstairs windows!

Upstairs we have a little loft (perfect for a Christmas tree) for the kids to sit & play in. And then we have the 5 bedrooms all around the loft. The 1st is going to be a toy room for the girls. The room next to that is going to be their bedroom (with a huge walk in closet). The room next to them is going to be the guest room until the new baby comes. Then it will be Bladen's room. The "nursery"/ "Bladen's room now is next to that room & then the kids' bathroom is next to that.

Next to the bathroom is the water heater closet thing & then a linen closet. And then it's the master room which is 2 times the size as our room was in our last house. It's SO wonderful. I especially love our massive closet. Aaaah closets . . . how I've missed you. (That's one thing I DON'T miss about Germany) And then we have a huge bathroom just to ourselves. It even has a double sink. Trek was pretty excited about that.

The one thing I DIDN'T like about the house is how small the backyard is. It's liveable, but very tiny. And it's full of woodchips instead of grass. But we go permission from the housing development to take out the wood chips ourselves & pay to put in our own sod. We're definitely going to do that when we catch a breath. There's so much to do first, but I definitely want a "lawn" in my backyard. On the plus side, we have a cute little park with a playground just one house away from ours. So I send the kids there a lot when they want to play outside. And if we're in the mood for a 5 minute walk, there's a HUGE playground just up the street. Having those 2 parks so close veto's out the tiny backyard.

It wasn't a very clear day when I took these pictures, but you can kind of see the beautiful view we have out the back windows of our house. We are literally 5 minutes from 2 different beaches. I love to sit upstairs & look out the window & watch the sun reflect off the water. It's like living in a daydream.

So that's it! We're SUPER excited. We love it. It's the perfect house for us. And it's completely free. We have truly been blessed here.

Moving to California!

Well, I have no pictures for this entry so bear with me. You know that nothing can ever come "easy" for the Potters. No, it has to be an outright adventure & our move was nothing less than that.

Our first real problem was rental van issues. I called every rental dealership in the state of UT trying to find a rental van for the day we wanted to travel. There were NO vans in the state until Thursday the 5th of August which was TOO LATE! We had to get there on the 4th. I was SO discouraged & called Trek asking what I should do. Luckily I've got the best father-in-law in the world who "convinced" Hertz to find us a van. Unfortunately, we could only get it in Cedar City which was 3 hours OUT of our way. I guess you learn to roll with the punches! So instead of leaving on Wednesday as planned, we had to bail early & leave on Tuesday. We were all heartbroken about it, but it had to be done. My wonderful dad took the day off of work & drove us all the way to Cedar City (that's 6 hours of driving he had to do. What a sacrifice! We love you Dad!) We got to Cedar City at 3, but they seriously wouldn't let us pick up the van until 4:00, so we had to find a little park to play at for an hour while we waited. The kids enjoyed playing with Baba on the swings. Once 4:00 hit, dad dropped us off at the teeniest tiniest airport we've ever seen. (Who knew Cedar City UT had an airport? Delta even flies there!) We picked up our AWESOME NEW Toyota Sienna & loaded it up with all our stuff for the move. We said our goodbyes to my dad & we were off on our next adventure.

Our plan was to drive to Tonopah, Nevada & stay the night. We were now traveling to Monterey in the opposite direction we had originally planned so we really needed to break it up. (It ended up being 17 hours total in the car.) Trek reserved a room at a National 9 hotel in Tonophah, so we just had to focus on getting to that point. Let me tell you, Nevada is just a whole lot of NOTHING! No towns, no food, no gas stations. It was almost scary. I would hate to break down on that road. There's nothing for miles & miles. But we made it at about 9:3o UT time (8:30 NV time). Next to our hotel was the "Clown Hotel." We were laughing hysterically at this. It reminded me of a hotel from Stephen King's "IT." I would be TERRIFIED to stay there! ha ha ha. We checked into our little "dive" only to realize they had "accidentally" given our NON-SMOKING room to someone else. All they had left were smoking rooms. I was SO angry! I walked into the room & started dry heaving. Being in a smokey room is one thing, but being pregnant in a smokey room is a whole other ballgame. I thought I was going to die. Cadence was upset too. She's very sensitive to things like that. But we made do with what we had & we were in & out as fast as possible. We went right to bed & got up at 4 & were on our way once again.

We stopped at Tonopah's one gas station to get gas & breakfast. They were out of milk. Poor Bladen hadn't had milk in almost 24 hours. What's wrong with Nevada? So we got him some juice instead & donuts for everyone & headed out. We weren't in Nevada much longer & it was nice to know we were finally in California.

HOWEVER, we did not realize we had to drive through Yosemite National Park to get to our final destination. Not only did we HAVE to go through, but you have to pay $20.00 to drive through it. Grrrr. I've always wanted to see Yosemite, but not like this. Well, & being a "forest" the roads were very twisty & turvy. My stomach was churning from morning sickness when all of a sudden I hear the horrible sound of one of my kids throwing up. Let me remind you WE ARE IN A RENTEL VAN! I turn around & Taya is covered in puke. We quickly find a place to pull over & I clean her up the best I can. As soon as she's clean she looks at me again & "Blughghghghaaaa!" AAAAAAAAAH! I start scrambling through all our stuff looking for ANYTHING that would resemble a bucket of some sort for her to throw up in. We resort to her brand new plastic tinkerbell stool (for potty training). We had to flip it over & it became her throw up bucket. Poor baby. She threw up over 25 times driving through Yosemite. About 30 minutes into Yosemite (about 15 Taya pukes), Lorien says she's going to throw up too. Luckily we found a little supermarket where the girls could go potty, walk around & little bit, & get MILK! I started to gag as I walked around. I'm so nauseous as it is & to be surrounding by so much puke was making me really sick. We got back in the car & Lorien started to dry heave. I immediately threw the tinkerbell stool to her & Taya started to puke again. What was a mom to do? I grabbed my cute apple make-up case & handed it to Taya. She threw up 5 times in it. Unfortunately it's made of cloth & not plastic. RUINED! I grabbed the stool from Lorien, gave it back to Taya & gave Lorien the puked in apple. Could this trip get any better? PLEASE? We only had to drive another 40 minutes through those crazy forest roads before we made it safely to a "normal" California road. Our rental stunk. The kids were pale & dehydrated. I just wanted to die. Now THAT'S what I call a road trip!

The rest of the trip went really well. Once we left Yosemite, Taya stopped throwing up & Lorien's stomach settled. We drove straight up past San Francisco & Oakland up to the Richmond Port where our van was. I can't believe our van beat us from Germany. HOORAY! We spent about an hour getting everything squared away at the port, but then we were able to simply drive away in our mini-van. Trek drove the puke filled Toyota, while I followed him in the van. The poor kids were starving so we found a Burger King to eat at. Talk about a scary neighborhood. If they weren't so hungry I wouldn't have stopped. We hurried inside & got our food. Everybody just stared at us. We were definitely the minority with our pale toe-headed kids. A couple women would stop by our booth & touch each of the kids' heads & comment on their blue eyes. I'm sure they were just trying to be nice, but it was a little scary. We ate super fast & piled back in the vans.

The drive from Richmond to the Oakland Airport was pretty easy. It was only about 30 minutes is all. The hardest part was trying to keep track of Trek in the Toyota with all the traffic & lanes on the freeway. I had forgotten how to drive the CA freeways. I've been away much too long!! But we made it, & they took the rental back no questions asked (thank heavens because it smelled like puke).

Then Trek drove OUR van to Monterey. It was about an hour & 45 minutes from the airport & the drive was quite beautiful. We were on Hwy. 1 for most of the time which drives right on the ocean line. I was THRILLED when we started pulling into the Monterey Bay area. It was like a photo from a magazine. It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. And the best part? This was our new home.

We arrived at our friend's house right at 4:30. It was WONDERFUL having such good friends willing to let us stay with them as long as we needed to to get settled. We feel so blessed. The kids were excited to get out & run around with their boys & I was just happy to be on solid ground. They had a fabulous soup ready for us when we walked in the door, & then after the kids went down to bed, some ward members came over & we all played our favorite German games. It was a long eventful trip, but it ended beautifully!

It's good to be HOME!

Sorensen Family Pictures

Trek flew in on Sunday August 1st & we had to leave for Monterey on Tuesday, the 3rd so all we had was Monday night after work to get family pictures done. We all got cute bright shirts for the occasion. A photographer came & took the actual photos (which I will post as soon as my mom sends me a cd. . . .hint hint hint mom), but we took a few with our camera because the kids looked so cute & summery & bright. Enjoy!

The men decided to be nerds for one picture so they hiked up their pants as far as they would go. I laugh because Trek's waist is so small that no matter how high he hiked them up, a second later, they'd fall right back at his hip. Skinny Minnie.

The Living Planet Aquarium (Salt Lake City)

So Mimi & Baba took all the kiddos to the Aquarium the day before Trek came home to keep their minds off of everything. My kids LOVE aquariums. They love fish & everything that has to do with fish. Little Korbyn is a "Nemo" lover. He was SO excited to go see Nemo.

The kids were SO fascinated with all the exhibits. They seriously could watch fish for hours. We just went from tank to tank & watched them all. Korbyn liked the Nemo tank (of course), & my girls seemed fascinated with the jellyfish & octopus. Cadence especially loved the seahorses. Did you know that it's the male seahorse that gets pregnant & has kids? Strange stuff you learn. ha ha ha.

Further along in the museum they have a giant tank full of sharks & a giant sea turtle. That was super fun to stare at. Then in the middle of the room they have a "pond" full of sting rays that they allow you to "pet." The kids LOVED this. They would get SO excited when a sting ray would get close to them, but as soon as they could feel it, they would pull away in fear. Taya summed it up nicely, "Ewwww, sticky!"

After petting sting rays, we headed over to the penguin exhibit. I think we spent the majority of our time there. The kids wanted to watch them forever. They were pretty entertaining. They would dance & waddle around on the land & then they'd take turns jumping into the cold water. The kids would laugh every time they jumped. It was so much fun for them.

Bladen thought the penguins were amazing. He loved pointing at them & laughed every time they did anything amusing.

After looking at penguins, spiders, an alligator, & a huge anaconda snake, we went back & played in the "coral" playground. We got a few pics of the grandkids all together. It's hard to get a good picture of all of them, but we tried.

Justin was goofing off & got his hand stuck in one of the corals on our way out. Dorkdot.

What a fun day to spend with family.

Visit from Uncle Talon & Auntie Carolyn

Talon & Carolyn came to visit us while we were in UT with my mom. It's been YEARS since we've seen Talon & we've NEVER met Carolyn. So we were SUPER excited for them to come visit. They came on a Thursday night, stayed the night, & had to leave Friday at lunch time. But we made the most of the time we had with them. They woke up with the kids on Friday morning & Talon wrestled them until they couldn't move! They LOVED it. I think Bladen was a little confused because when we called Trek on the computer, he kept looking at "daddy" & then he would turn & look at Talon with a confused look on his face. I think he thought Talon WAS daddy! They look so much alike it wouldn't surprise me. They were so cute with the kids. It was SO nice having them there.

For lunch we all went out to Talon's FAVORITE: Taco Time. I love Taco Time too. He had his usual crisp meat burritos, but Carolyn got him to try the crispy chicken ones (which are MY favorite) & he LOVED them! We laughed. He said he had no idea what he was missing out on. They are seriously THAT good!

But we had fun. We miss them now. WE LOVE YOU AUNTIE CAROLYN & UNKIE TALON!

Fiesta Days Carnival

For the 24th of July, we went down to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days carnival. In Utah, every town has their own "days" during the summer. Ours just happens to fall over the 24th of July weekend. I loved it as a kid & I was super excited to share the experience with my kiddos. We went with Korbyn & Jaxon too. The more the merrier right?

Baba bought all the kids tickets to ride 2 rides each. All 3 girls rode in a little car that went around & around while Korbyn & Jaxon had a little hot rod.

The big girls went into the "funhouse" for their 2nd ride. They loved that.

And Taya opted to ride the boats with the boys. They all had a blast.

The girls had been earning money all month (from me, Mimi, & Mamoo) by doing chores & helping out & they wanted to spend their money on carnival games. They each had about $5 so they found this duck game that cost. . . you guessed it, $5.00! For $5.o0 you got to pick up 5 ducks out of the pond. If the bottom of the duck had a "prize" marked on the bottom, you win.

I was super surprised! All 3 girls won pretty big for a silly carnival game. Taya got medium prizes on 3 of her ducks so she got to pick whatever she wanted from the entire pile of stuffed toys since she got 3. She picked a cute purple bear that wasn't huge. (Thank heavens because she could have gotten something huge & we don't have room for that right now!)

Lorien got 1 medium duck & 1 small duck prize so she got a "medium prize". . . a pink elephant.

And Cadence got 2 small prize ducks so she picked out a "duck!"

I was happy they all got something fun for themselves with the money they earned. It was fun.

Then Uncle Zach surprised the girls with one more ticket to ride one more ride. Baba took all three of them on the giant slide. They had a BLAST!

So, happy 24th of July from Spanish Fork!! We had fun!