2024 Spring Fling

 Ken and Jeri Sorensen hosted the Spring Fling again this year! It was so fun to get together with a little bit of the Sorensen family.

Aunt Tuny drove down on Friday, hung out with Mom for the afternoon, and ended up NOT spending the night with us after all. I had called her and said we'd be gone around 3:00 and maybe through dinner, but I guess I wasn't clear enough that we would be home in time for her to come by after dinner with Mom and spend the night here with us. At MY house, as opposed to OUR House, or her hotel. Mike and I just left for 2 hours to go to the Home and Garden show between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. it was fun. It's like trick or treating for adults! And I ate Candy for the first time in a while, and way too much of it apparently. I was pretty sick that evening. (It's probably good that Aunt Tuny wasn't here, with me stinking up the bathrooms. Haha)

The next morning we met at Our House Assisted Living, packed mom and her stuff into Aunt Tuny's car, and we all headed to Southern California! They were going to follow behind. We had lunch at Stateline. Just fast food at Carl's jr. Traffic wasn't too terrible, and we were able to watch them in the rear view mirror. But when it came time to switch from I-15 to I-215, Aunt Tuny was watching the wrong black truck and followed it to the wrong freeway. We were separated! I was trying so hard to get them called as Mike could see they were not in the correct traffic lane to be following us off to the right. Between having a move my glasses, turn off the noisy navigation our audio book, SEE my phone, dial the number ( which is really just pushing one button, you know) , make myself be heard and understood by Mom over the phone with her new hearing aids that don't work too well in a noisy car while trying to talk to two people . . . well, Mike just watched them drive away on I-15 while we drove away on the other interstate highway. "What? Huh? We ARE on the right freeway. We are on I -15." " NO, you are supposed to be on TWO FIFTEEN. GET IN THE RIGHT LANES. MOVE OVER". 

"What? Oh, I can't hear you. What are you saying, Tuny!?" 

Well, 35 minutes or so after WE arrived in Beaumont, Mom and Tuny arrived. Via interstates 15 and 10. They were very stressed , to say the least. But they made it. It WAS a bit tricky getting them into the community and finding Ken's place, however. They did get a bit lost and flustered ("They wanted our Birth Certificate before they'd let us in!!!!" Mom said.)

We visited, ate, visited, snacked, visited. It was fun. 

In attendance:

Ken and Jeri, Kara, Jorge, Gina, Logan. Steven Sorensen plus his girlfriend Francesca and her visiting grandparents from Maine. Randy & Brenda Sorensen, their daughter Mary and Nick Bruque with their two littles Andrew and Marigold. Christi and Skully. Me and Mike, Mom and Aunt Tuny. Jorge is not in the picture for some reason.

 We missed a bunch of folks.  ☹️

Aunt Tuny revealed to us, AFTER the sun had gone down and Mom was exhausted and we were getting ready to leave the party, that she doesn't drive at night.

 Oops! 

So I drove Mom in Tuny's car, and Tuny rode with Mike, who followed me 30 minutes away to Redlands to our hotel for the night. Dynasty Suites. Two rooms, three beds, some good sleeps. A good breakfast in the morning, and then we drove our little caravan down  to Riverside to the Veterans cemetery. Aunt Tuny said she could follow us--IF we trusted her! Haha. Aunt Tuny found Uncle Gary's grave and that is where we parted ways. She was going to go get flowers and come back, and then after she'd spent some quiet time there, head on to Huntington Beach for some days. We loaded Mom up in the truck with us and headed home to Cedar City.

One stop for lunch at IHOP in Barstow, a drink and bathroom stop in Primm/ Stateline, and on home with no difficulties or major traffic, illness or discomfort. Success!!

(I actually drove from Stateline NV to home. )

Ken Sorensen

Kara and Steve Sorensen.

Skully, Christi, Mike

Kara and her dad, Randy Sorensen.

Sisters

Jeri and Brenda Sorensen

I've always loved these big rock outcroppings in the Cajon pass area. The mountains in the area were still snow-capped, the surrounding hills as green as I have EVER seen them and covered in wildflowers and beautiful flowering shrubs!!!  It really was a gorgeous drive.

Pretty roses and a pretty Mama at our Motel

There was a fountain, too. ( a few of them, actually)  And a pool, hot tub, putting green, Gazebo. Hot breakfast. "Fire" places in our rooms!

Dinner and a show

  (But first, I played pickleball with Cindy and friends in the Cedar Stake Center from 7-9 am. It was fun!)

Or, rather, a movie at the theater and then dinner afterwards at my house.

Mike and I went with Mom to see "Escape From Germany." It was really good. Really. True story of getting the Mormon Missionaries out of Germany just prior to the start of WWII. As in mere hours to spare before Poland was invaded and war was declared, borders closed, etc. 

Afterwards, we came home to a nice tender chuck roast I had cooked in the crock pot. Yummy! It was a bit early for dinner, but that's okay. 

Tomorrow, Mom and I will go in the afternoon for her pre visit for a back shot for pain. It's going to be interesting!  Her blood sugars soar with steroid injections, so we are going to try to regulate it ( her blood sugar) during the weeks that the steroid affects it. We hope!.

Also last week, Mom and I took a little drive after one of her appointments. We drove up the canyon the week prior, but only far enough to observe the Gypsum mine digs. She was curious about a white spot on the red hill at lunch time.

More recently we explored around the golf course and found the Trailhead to Thunderbird Gardens. Fun! I had no idea you could drive so close. We found lots of new apartments, enjoyed the sunshine and lovely views.

And yesterday ( Monday April 15) we had snow! Haha

 Fooled ya! Happy Spring!!

Mike and I drove up the canyon another afternoon to check out the April snowpack. Navajo lake is still covered, and Blowhard. It's not REALLY deep, but there's still lots up there.

Eclipse

 If you look hard, even thru the cloud our partial eclipse is visible. 

We used our safety glasses. It did not darken at all, but Mom and I got some good crescent shadows outside of Smiths grocery store.

Saturday Spring Break Fun

 We went out to eat lunch today at Warren's in South Jordan. It was nice.  

But, there were other fun things this rainy. Saturday in Spring.

An EZ roller toy to ( assemble and) share. It's green and even lightweight grown ups can give it a try!

Logan bought some magnets at the Thanksgiving Point gift shop. Hematite. They are lots of fun. 

And these blue inflatable camping couches were fun, too. Well, it WAS all fun and games-- until somebody got hurt. So, those went away. 

Egg decorating was accomplished early in the day, too! This egg spinner is really fun. Only one at a time, but less stinky than vinegar and dye tablets. Less messy than spilling and tipping cups of dye, too.

The long and roomy insulated unfinished basement was the perfect place to practice riding the easy roller. My job was to be the time keeper for taking turns. And sometimes referee.

Spring Break in Herriman

 After Mike and I ate lunch with Mom at Our House, we headed up to Nick and Kaylee's house on Wednesday, March 27. Their kids were home from school all week for their Spring Break. They have been doing a swim camp at a private pool/lessons in in South Jordan. Thursday was their last day, so we went along to watch. Walking in to the backyard pool house was a glasses-fogging experience! Warm and very humid. The student/teacher ratio is 2 to 1, the kids make really good progress and have a lot of fun.

Rachel is doing her warm-up with swim fins and a kickboard, and Jane is working on learning to flutter kick with straight legs. (above)

After swim camp, Mike and I took the four kids to Scheel's sporting goods store in Draper to 1) go on a bear hunt, and 2) Ride their indoor ferris wheel. It was such a rainy day!

It was so hard to get a photo of all four in front of the big stuffed bear! Silly kids were trying to look at its butt.

We DID ride the ferris wheel.

And we rode the escalators. Oops, my photos got out of order! Walk, then Swimming , then Scheels on Thursday. We played with squeaky chicken and pig toys, observed all the stuffed game animals throughout the store, AND Logan got to try his hand at a shooting arcade and did a pretty good job for a first time experience shooting something that big.

Emily is an observer for this swim session, but will probably join in the fun soon enough.

At home, there is an art gallery on the living room wall.

Mike and I walked on Thursday morning about 3 miles. Can you tell it was windy?

Friday, we tended for a bit in the morning so Nick and Kaylee could attend a temple session. After lunch, we met Kaylee's sister-in-law, Robin and girls at Thanksgiving Point and we spent time in their  Children's Discovery place.

It was busy, crowded, but a lot of fun. There was tons inside to do, and some fun things outside as well.

An auger is dumping rubber chips on Logan.

This spinning toy was all the rage for the five girls. They were very strong to be able to withstand the centrifugal forces attempting to hurl them off!

There was plenty of sunshine. Mike walked the parking lots and got all his steps in. Mike and Robin ate sitting on the bench, Kaylee is standing by them blocking the sun from her face with a kid's jacket.

The indoor things were varied and fun. It included a reptile show and the opportunity to pet a snake.

And back at home, we play games, we do gymnastics on the living room floor, create obstacle courses, we play with toys and do arts and crafts, we eat lots of yummy foods that Kaylee feeds us, all three meals a day.

And we try on on Big sister's high heeled shoes!

And read or play on Tablets and watch TV.