The Amazing Race

This post is for all of the husbands who occasionally check the Sorensen blog (all two of you). If you didn't already guess, this is Shawn writing. Last week was my first week without law school so I volunteered to help out the 16-18 yr old scouts for half of a week. Their high adventure this year was "The Amazing Race". It really was AMAZING. I was only there half of the week and for those days that I was there we had a ton of fun. There were pushup competitions, rifle shooting, archery, we bribed someone to let us in a REALLY long ferry line (cookies and drinks); we went trail running to a waterfall;
we had a kayak race that was followed by a dive and then a swim; we visited many historical sites; the scouts had a bicycle race down a mountain; stopped off in a little town that nobody has heard of...Forks, what kind of name is that?

we went to the Hoh Rain Forest, where the scouts had to identify some of the plant life; we stopped at Ruby beach, where the scouts built a fort with a flag pole out of drift wood;

we stopped at some really, really BIG trees;

we had fire building contests at Kalaloch beach; we had a horse-shoe competition; and that is just a few of the competitions that we got to have while I was there for half of the week.
Now an added element to all of this is that it was timed, so everyone was trying to do these things as quickly as possible. The boys could also earn extra points by memorizing scripture masteries, or passing off Duty to God requirements, but the whole group had to do it. Out of 8 teams in the stake, our boys placed 5th. I had so much fun and now I have a lot of new ideas where to take my family camping.

Things have been pretty typical here at the Sorensen home--BUSY! Shawn finished his last law school final ever a week ago and we couldn't be happier. Yesterday we spent the day doing simple family stuff. We went to the park for a picnic with Shawn's work, and spent the rest of the evening with the Davis family playing games. It was so refreshing to be hanging out without the task of homework and school looming over us.

Last week we also had the privilege to have my cousin Natalie stay with us for a week. She flew out from Colorado so I could take her senior portraits. It worked out great for her although I think I got the better end of the deal. She's the sweetest girl ever! The kids loved her, she was incredibly helpful around the house, and just fun to be around. Natalie we'd love to have you back anytime!



We spent one day doing some touristy stuff in Seattle. I took her to Pike's Place Market and down to the Pier for a visit to Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe and then some yummy fish n' chips. The street performers were out in full force that day. I snapped a couple photos of these eclectic folks, who by the way are super talented. The Tallboys (the guy and girl pictured in the top photo) were performing out in front of the first ever Starbucks. They've been playing with their little string band since Shawn and I moved here. We're always entertained when we watch them. The girl can play the guitar, sing, and tap all at the same time--pretty incredible!


On Natalie's last day we had dinner down at Mukilteo beach. Natalie snapped this photo of the kids while we were eating dinner. I just had to include it because it's the perfect snapshot of the kiddos little personalities. Kinsley is always is your face being too cute for words, and Grant is usually found in the distance stuffing his face with fruit. That day it was strawberries, YUM!


We spent the rest of the time running errands, taking pictures and working on orders from my etsy shops. I had a great big wedding order that I had to get done the week Natalie was here and what a great help she was. I had to include this picture of my latest creation: Button Boutonnieres, pretty cool, huh?


And finally today we had the special opportunity to bless Rylin. The blessing was beautiful. The only thing that was missing was our family! Wish you guys could have been there! Here's quick shot of our family out in the backyard. I forgot to bring my camera to church so I had to settle for the good old "set the timer and run into the picture" method. It looks a little awkward but at least we got something, right? This last photo is of Rylin in her beautiful little blessing outfit. It's the same one Kinsley wore four years ago. I wanted it to be a little different for Rylin so I made her that little hat yesterday. She looks to precious!