Spelling Bee

Ben was one of the two winners for his class Spelling Bee, which means he got to go on to the School Spelling Bee. He was in the younger grade Bee: Kindergarten through 3rd grade. He got out on the word, "brew" but I was proud of him for getting that far. Last week he finished the book, "Ender's Game." Dad told him if he read it that he would take him to the movies to see it. It just recently came out in the movie theater. Ben got that thing read in about less than two weeks, so he and Dad had an outing at the movie. Ben said Dad bought him a big soda and they shared a popcorn together.

Fall Soccer 2013

Ben played another season of soccer - this is his 4th season now. His coach was Craig Weston (whose son, Nick, has been on Ben's team for two other seasons and was also in Ben's class last year at school). He moved up to U-10, which means he started playing on the bigger field using goalies and off-side calls. Ben took a turn as the goalie a couple of times at the very beginning of the season. He did pretty well, but I think he would rather run the field. As the season went on he was better about running hard through the whole game. He scored a couple of times (once on the last game of the season, along with a good assist too). He loves it. We've thought a little bit about getting him signed up with a competitive team because he seems to enjoy it so much, and although AYSO is a great program, it is run by all volunteers and I know he could improve his skills more with a private program. We'll see - he likes the friends he has made on these teams and enjoys the more relaxes environment too. He got this crazy rash under his skin guards after about the second or third game. We put cream on it and guaze over it. It seemed to improve for a while and then it would flare up again. Then it really started to dry up by the end of the season. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Messy Face

Over the past year and a half or so Ben has definitely started showing more of an interest in older movies - he still likes the cute, fun animated Disney flicks, but he also likes the Super Hero movies and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Sean took Nathan and Ben to see "Man of Steel" at the cheap theater one night, which Ben totally loved. They went out for Baskin Robbins ice cream afterwards. Sean looked over in the car and Nathan was clean as a whistle and Ben looked like this. HA! Totally uncharacteristic of him. He also has become quite the reader. He's read three of the Harry Potter books and is anxious to get the others from the library. He read The Hobbit. Actually he came to us and asked us if he could read Lord of the Rings. We suggested that maybe he should start out with The Hobbit first. Dad went out and bought him a nice, hard cover copy of it. He got right to it - finished it in about a week. He's done that with several other books as well. I love that he enjoys reading so much!!

State Fair

We took advantage of School Days at the State Fair again this year. We saw a Cirque Nirvana show, a Wolf show, pig races, Chinese Acrobats, Native American Fire Dancers, saw the model trains, went to the McDonald's Farm fun zone for kids, got a milkshake from the Dairy, saw a cow get milked, checked out the arts and crafts (including the Lego displays), played on John Deere tractors, went to the petting zoo (complete with all the normal animals as well as an ostrich, zebra and baby camel), ate a picnic lunch.....a full day of fun. And all of that for me and 6 kiddos for a whopping...$4. Yes, my friends, that is how it is done.

Dirty Dash

We saw a groupon for the Dirty Dash race a few months ago and we decided to buy tickets. It was held at the Wild West Zoo right here in our own town of Edgewood. We got a deal on 4 tickets so we asked Caelan and Ben if they wanted to do it with us. They decided to. It was a fun race through mud puddles, over rope walls, through mud tunnels, sliding across blow up slides, etc. We did a lot of walking through the course, but we all made it. Ben was a pretty good little runner. We walked a bunch, but he and I ran ahead at the end. He was a little nervous on the high rope walls, but he was a trooper. At the very last puddle he completely dunked himself all the way under. He was a disaster!

Fun times.

Back to School

School has started again. Ben is in the third grade with Mrs. Vallejos as his teacher. Caelan had her last year. She's great. A couple of Ben's close friends switched schools to the charter school, but he still has some good buddies in his grade and/or class this year: Josh, Jonas and Nate.

Cub Scouts

Ben started Cub Scouts when he turned 8 years old in April and he has already earned his Wolf Badge (along with an arrow point and several belt loops and pins). He loves his leader, Lorie Payne, and they have really worked hard and completing things each week at Den meetings. We also did several things as a family this summer. He loved Cub Scout Day Camp. His favorite classes were the archery class, BB gun class and the science class (taught by our good friend, Misty Buck). He came home every day super excited about what they had done and anxious to go back the next day. During our summer travels we also did the requirements needed for the Family Travel belt loop and pin and the Hiking belt loop and pin. He earned bunches of awards at this month's Pack Meeting. His leader just loves him. She has told me several times what a special boy he is.

Yellowstone

We love camping in this family. We don't do it nearly as much as we would like to. So when my sister said that she was getting together with some of the Sorensen clan to camp in Yellowstone for a few days my ears perked up. Sean wasn't going to be able to take off that much time especially since we were meeting his family in Duck Creek, Utah the very next week. But I started to contemplate the idea of heading up to Yellowstone with the kids and then meeting Sean in Utah afterwards. I got some crazy glances when I talked about my plan to some people (and I even wondered about my sanity to myself a couple of times), but the pros outweighed the cons to me and so I loaded all six kids (one being a two month old baby)and made the 18 hour journey up to Yellowstone by myself. I actually broke it up a little bit, which was nice. We had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen, Jesse, Caleb, Corbin, Charity, Chad, Coren, Risa, Haakon, Garrett, Melanie, Genevieve, Aeris, Cian, Leia and even a super quick meet up with Kyra at Burger King on our way to the airport to pick up Sean. I knew it would be a bunch of work (physical and mental....HE HE HE), but Sean and I have always felt it important to make sacrifices to get together with family, especially since we don't live near any. I loved getting together with cousins at family reunions when I was a kid, and I want that for my children. I want them to know and love their cousins and get excited about spending time with them. Not to mention how much I love it when I have the chance to hang out with my family. And what better place to do all of this that at the awesome National Park of Yellowstone while we camped together. Camping is such a great outlet for kids for be free and explore. Staying up too late at campfires, tasty eggs and potato and sausage breakfasts, running free through the campsites and nearby nature, seeing wildlife close enough to touch, sleeping in the chill of the late summer with nothing between the fresh air but you and a thin tent layer, getting a free pass from bathing for a few days :), etc. So, here's a quick run down of our adventure: Thurs: Got up early and hit the road. Made it all the way to Price, Utah (8 full hours of driving) before making our first stop. We only had to pull over to the side of the highway for one quick minute for Nathan to go to the bathroom. Every one else made it the entire 8 hours - even the baby (drinking a couple of bottles along the way). Made it to Charity and Chad's house that evening. Fri: Hung out at Charity and Chad's. Headed up to Rexburg. Made it there by about 8 PM Sat: Went to the grocery store to stock up. Hung out at Garrett and Melanie's for the morning. Took Ben and Caelan and went and saw a town production of "Les Miserables" which Garrett and Caleb were performing in. It was so great! I love that musical and it was especially fun to see two of my brothers rocking the vocals (several solo parts each). And the kids loved it too (which made my heart happy). We spent the rest of the trip listening to the soundtrack. Headed up to Yellowstone late that afternoon and made it there around midnight, at which point we quickly set up camp. Sun - Wed: Saw all the sights of Yellowstone: West Thumb Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, Artist Paintpots, Mud Volcano, Fountain Paintpots, Norris Geyser Basin (where Austin completely lost ALL control for a good two hours - Yikes), Steamboat Geyser, Gibbon Falls, Mammoth Hot Springs, Virginia Cascade Scenic Loop, Upper and Lower Falls (where we hiked down 300 steps for a great view and then hiked back up), LeHardy's Rapids, and more. At the Upper and Lower Falls, we were contemplating the hike down (deciding if it would be a good idea with all the little people we had with us). When we ultimately decided against it we noticed that Garrett was already gone and Ben was missing also. He's not a wanderer at all, so I was quite sure he was probably down on the trail with Garrett, but I wanted to make sure. So pregnant Charity and I (with two month old Ian in the carrier) hiked down the trail. We met up Ben along the way (who was in fact with Garrett) and we continued all the way to the view of Lower Falls. Then we hiked all those steps back up. Caelan tells a cute story about how she thought Ben was lost. She stayed up with Grandpa and Grandma and all the others while we went down the trail. She was nervous, so she sat down and said a prayer. A tear came down her face so she took off her glasses to wipe it, and when she put them back on she looked up and there was Ben walking up the path. She was so happy she ran up to him and hugged him. We saw thousands of bison which delayed us on several occasions, elk, deer, and lots of birds. We swam in the Boiling River (where a hot springs joins up with a river - the kids were sick of hiking up until we told them we were heading to water where we could get in and swim. Then you should have seen the speed they came up with

), we found a shop with $1 fudge bars which we purchased more than once, we went on lots of hikes, we went to church at the lodge at Old Faithful, we saw a quadruple rainbow (that's right friends) and we got some tasty ice cream cones in West Yellowstone. And we battled the rain through the entire trip. We ate dinner one night all huddled under a canopy while it rained around us. The kids were real troopers. The kids earned all sorts of money counting bison and deer and elk. It was wonderful!

Duck Creek 2013

We did our annual Family Reunion at Duck Creek in August this year (since I was due with a new baby the weekend of Memorial Day). We stayed in the same cabin that we stayed in two years ago. We had a fun filled weekend of hiking (we hiked to some "falls" which were somewhat of a disappointment to the kiddos once we got there....more like a little trickle), crafting, resting, spotting wild life, chatting, playing games, zip-lining (Sean got a part for the zipline in the yard and fixed it the first day. The kids spent hours on that thing...and even all the adults took a turn or two as well), cooking, scenic drives (we drove to a look out point one evening which was gorgeous - same look out point we went to when Caelan was just a couple of months old and we were together with the Crusaders), swinging, 4-wheeling, nightly family devotionals and just enjoying time together. We were challenged by Grandma and Grandpa to read the Book of Mormon by next year as a family. While Grandpa was giving his devotional he started off by talking about Lehi having to take his children into the wilderness. Ben shouts out, "I love Lehi." Later I asked Ben why he liked Lehi so much and he said, "because he's a hero. He goes on adventures and protects his family as he took them to the promised land." It makes me happy that he has a love for the scriptures.

Swimming Lessons

The kids really wanted to do swimming lessons this year. We got into a session where they could all go together (in different waves, but all at the same time). Ben and Megan moved from Wave 2 to Wave 3 after the first day because they could free style swim. Ben did great - learning the back stroke, improving on free style, and being introduced to the breast stroke as well. He loves swimming and can make his way all around the pool. He even tried his hand at diving a few times this summer at Grandma's house.

Reading Book of Mormon

When Grandpa gave the talk on the Holy Ghost at Ben's baptism he challenged Ben to read from the Book of Mormon every day - that it would help lead and guide him and that we could be closer to the Spirit as he studied the scriptures. He emphasized this challenge by saying that if Ben read every single day from that day (the day of his baptism) to the next time that Grandma would be at our house which would be for Ian's baby blessing at the beginning of July, then Grandpa would take him to Bricks and Minifigs (a great Lego store in town) and get him a little something there. Well, Ben did it. I think he may have missed one day (because he simply fell asleep), but he made up for it by reading extra the next day. He read the Book of Mormon faithfully for 3 full months. Grandpa took him to Bricks and Minifigs and Ben picked out a Lone Ranger set AND a Lord of the Rings set. Grandpa got the extra set partly for the other kids to enjoy. He was pretty excited. I told him that now that it is a habit he should just keep it up forever. I'm proud of him for doing it and finding his own testimony of the scriptures.

Spring Soccer 2013

Ben is playing soccer again. I volunteered to be an assistant coach. A couple of weeks before the season started one of the regional representatives called because they hadn't secured a coach for the team yet. They were calling all the parents to see if anyone could do it. I usually would totally volunteer but I told them that I was due the week before the season was over (which also means I would be 8 and 9 months pregnant throughout the season). He said he would call around to see if he could find anyone. A week later I emailed to see if they had found someone. They still had not - they had one guy that was an option but lived in Albuquerque and would want all the practices to be in Tijeras. Well all of the members on this team lived in Edgewood or even farther East so that wouldn't really work out for them. They were thinking they might have to dissemble the team and refund the money. So, I volunteered to be the coach and I volunteered Sean to be my assistant (so that he could easily take over if/when I had the baby). So, here is our soccer team. They were an active bunch of boys. Some of the boys have played with Ben before so we knew them and their parents. Some others were new - but a few of them were from the other Edgewood ward. We had some challenges, but overall if was a great season. It was neat to see them play better and better and especially to watch some of these newer players really start to find their own way. We're doing okay too - winning some and losing some. Hopefully I can make it through the season (with my record I don't think it will be too much of a problem - I might miss the last game...we'll see). With all the time we are spending at the fields for soccer and baseball practices and games, Austin is really getting in his practice with the balls...and loving it.

Cliffs

We got tickets to Cliff's Amusement Park for Christmas. They expired at the end of May, so we figured we better get there before school got out for the summer. We took the kids out of school one day and spent 5 and a half hours at the park (it had just opened so it wasn't yet opened for extended hours). I got there and noticed bunches of school buses and school groups lined up out front - I didn't think about all the end of the year field trips that would be happening. It actually wasn't too bad. Some of the bigger rides had long lines but most lines were quick. Plus we spent a bunch of time in the little kid area which was totally empty. The kids had a blast - going from ride to ride.

There wasn't one ride that any of the kids were too scared to go on (I mean this isn't anything close to a Magic Mountain or anything but it still has some pretty fun and fast carnival type rides). Austin could ride all of the little kiddie rides and loved those. Honestly the only one who didn't go on hardly anything was me...because I was due later that week. I went on the Carousel one time. Actually I didn't mind at all - it was kind of fun to let the kids take the lead and just follow them wherever they wanted to go. It was a fun end of the school year family trip. It did make Sean and I decide that it's about time to take Caelan and Ben to Magic Mountain for some serious roller coasters....and to take everyone else to Disneyland. I think we might try to make the trip to CA in the Fall sometime.

Baptism

The Baptism of Kenneth Benjamin Dick Pianist: Charity Brooks (aunt) Chorister: Tera Dick (mom) Conducting: Bishop Foutz Opening Song: If the Savior Stood Beside Me Opening Prayer: Rick Sorensen (grandpa) Talk on Baptism: Mike Dick (grandpa) Musical Number: When I Am Baptized sung by Caelan and Megan Dick Baptism of Ben by Sean Dick Talk on the Holy Ghost: Lindsay Dick (aunt) Confirmation of Ben by Sean Dick Remarks by Primary: Kathi Hilbun Welcome to the Ward: Bishop Foutz Closing Song: I Am A Child of God Closing Prayer: Preston Frey (uncle) Refreshments Served Anyway, Ben's baptism day was very special. What a great date for a baptism: the Savior's birthday, the anniversary of the organization of the church and this year it also happened to fall on General Conference. Sean went over to the church about an hour early to make sure the font was being filled up. Nope - he actually couldn't even get in the church for over a half an hour. Luckily the water comes out pretty fast, so when he finally turned it on it only took about 25 min to get full. It was a nice simple program - mostly family was there with a few other friends. Grandpa Dick talked about baptism and making a covenant. He made a deal with Ben that if Ben reads from the Book of Mormon every day until Grandpa sees him again at the end of June, then Grandpa will take him to Bricks and Minifigs to pick out something fun. Lindsay talked about the Holy Ghost and how He is like a light that helps us see in the dark. She gave Ben his own CTR ring that can also help him to remember to Choose the Right so that he can always have the Holy Ghost with him. We had plenty of cookies for refreshments and then headed home for the afternoon session of Conference. What a special day!

Happy Birthday Ben

Ben turned 8 years old on April 5 - one of the big birthdays. We had quite a bit of family that had come into town for his baptism (which was the next day), so we had some fun celebrating. Dad and bunch of the family went to our friends, the Edward's property and rode quads. Ben decided he wanted a camping cake (we looked at Hobbit cakes, Lord of the Ring cakes, Harry Potter cakes, etc, but none of them were really catching his eye). Charity and I fashioned a teddy bear camping cake, which turned out pretty cute. We had hamburgers and chips and fruit for dinner that night. Ben got some fun gifts: The Hobbit DVD, a couple books, a few Lego sets, and a bow and arrow (from Mom and Dad). He was pretty happy with the day. Ben is our mellow, happy, good-hearted kid. He is very rarely moody. He goes with the flow. He knows what it right and even though he can be silly with his friends he always knows where the lines are for doing what's right at the right time. He has come home on several occasions telling me that so-and-so is not his friend anymore because he doesn't like another boy that Ben is hanging out with, and Ben doesn't act mean but he just tells him that he is friends with everyone...and he really is. And within a day or so the boy will be back hanging out with Ben and the other boy. Ben is a great student. He recently brought his report card home with straight A's. He does great on the standardized testing as well. He is our little reader. He asked if he could read the Lord of the Rings books one day. We told him maybe he should start with the Hobbit. Dad made a deal with him that if he read Evertaster (a book his friend from college wrote), then he would get him his own copy of the Hobbit. Ben had it read in less than a week. Then he got the Hobbit and finished that up in less than a week too. He likes to read on the bus ride home from school and also at bedtime. He is respectful and kind and obedient and helpful. He is good at saving his money. He will just accumulate it until he has enough to buy something big he wants. He was so excited to start Cub Scouts - his first meeting was the Tuesday after his birthday, and he has already done all the things required to earn his Bobcat. He loves hamburgers, cereal and fruit. He will choose a bowl of cereal for his snack probably 80% of the time. His best buds are Nick, Aaron and Nate, and he also really enjoys playing with his own brothers and sisters. He has a soft spot in his heart for babies - he loves them and always has. He takes after his Mom and has a special name for all his siblings: Caelan is "Sinska," Megan is "Gainy," Nathan is "Capsason," and Austin is "Nin." We love Ben. He is our peacemaker. He is tender and good and kind. We can't imagine what our home or family would be without his influence.

Color Run

I bought a living social deal for a Color Run back a few months ago. I knew I would be over 7 months pregnant when the race came around, but I found out kids under 8 years old could run for free, so I thought maybe Ben would run with me. It happened to land on the same day that two of Ben's closest friends were getting baptized. At first he wasn't sure he wanted to come because he really didn't want to miss the baptism, but I think he felt bad that I was going to go by myself and so he came along. I'm so glad he did. We were a good team together. I jogged a lot of the way. I stretched a stomach muscle the week before at soccer practice, so I couldn't really go fast, but my legs and lungs felt great. It was one of those runs where you get squirted with colored powder at several different stations along the path. We were a colored mess when we were done. Since they started the race a little late we had to head straight to the baptism - we didn't have time to go home and shower. Man, some of that color (especially the green) just would not come off. I was leading the music at the baptism and felt a little like the Wicked Witch up there with my green tinted face and neck. We had a great time.

Harry Potter

Here's our own little Harry Potter. Ben was playing out in the forest in the backyard and a tree branch swung and whacked him in the face. The next day when it started to scab over it looked very similar to a Harry Potter scar. He went over to his friend, Aaron's house where they made some awesome wizard wants out of chop sticks and hot glue and paint. They looked great. We've made several others here at home since then (so that all the other kids can have one of their own as well). I am constantly hearing spells being yelled out all over the house these days. Ben has read the first two Harry Potter books and is in the middle of the third one now.

Explora

The kids had three days off of school a couple weeks ago. We just hung out for the first couple of days, so I thought we should do something fun on the last day. Caelan brought up the idea (she's the planner in the family). We went to the library that morning for story time and to make snow trees out of tissue paper. Then we headed over to the Explora Children's Museum in Albuquerque. Caelan had gone a couple of weeks earlier on a special field trip, but none of the rest of us had ever been there. The kids loved it. There are lots and lots of different hands-on exhibits for the kids to try out. Some things they just watch, but a lot of things they get to try out themselves: water experiments, air experiments, different physics activities, sound activities, learning with shapes and colors, currents, bubbles, electronics, etc. Even Austy was loving it - running from place to place. Ben's favorite part of the museum was the water section.

We went over to the park right next to the museum (it was pretty chilly so we didn't last there too long, but the kids got out some energy) and then we grabbed some food and headed home. We will definitely have to make that place an annual trip.

New Year 2013

A bunch of the Sorensen clan was getting together in Utah for New Years. At first we had no intention of traveling at all during the holidays, but then Sean got half of his work bonus early (a little extra $ - yeah) so we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately the tires on our van are pretty shabby in the snow and there was supposed to be weather that week and the Suburban wasn't starting. Sean worked on it over the weekend (we couldn't leave until Sunday night no matter what - Sean was singing in a holiday music program) but had no luck. So on Monday he exchanged one of the brand new parts he got from AutoZone when he was out of options...and what do you know? The car started. The brand new part had been bad. Anyway we got on the road at about 3:30 PM and got going. It's a good thing we didn't take the van because we ran into quite a bit of snow. We rang in the new year in the Suburban somewhere along the way - all the kids had fallen asleep in the back of the car. We got there at about 1 AM and enjoyed a fun week. We took a day hanging out at BYU (the dinosaur museum, the book store, the Creamery on 9th, etc), we got some Gandolfo sandwiches, we saw "Rise of the Guardians" at the cheap theater, the adults went to "Les Mis" late one night, we went to BYU basketball game, we did a late Christmas exchange at Brittney and Porters house and then we spent a night at Charity and Chad's house (where four people came down with the flu - luckily no one in our family), we went and stayed with Jenny and Kelly and took them and Lani to The Cheesecake Factory, Sean and the boys worked on cars, and we tried not to freeze our buns off (it was FREEZING while we were there)...but all in all it was a great time.