Experiencing Pearl Harbor

On Saturday we went to the Swap meet at the Aloha stadium. There were tons of little trinkets and fun souvenirs. We spent a few hours walking around looking at a ton of random stuff!  

Aaron decided to jump this poll. Don't worry he got over it safely! 

 When the boys and I were done shopping we headed over to do some exploring at Pearl Harbor. We didn't go over to the Arizona but we saw lots of pieces that they used in the war. 

Look how huge this anchor is!! 

The chain for the anchor 

Father and sons. 

This missile is 18 feet long!! which is probably about 2 aaron's (with his hands down)

If you ever go to Hawaii this is a must. This was Andrew and I's second time being able to go to Pearl Harbor so we weren't too bummed that we didn't go over to see the Arizona and the other ships but if you can get over there you must go to Pearl Harbor. It is such a wonderful place to learn about the history of our country. It is incredible to think of all of the men and women who fought that day and gave their lives for our freedom. It is sad to think that on a beautiful peaceful morning just like the one we were having the day we were there, all hell broke loose and many families world's came crashing down. I am so grateful for the men and women who served then and who serve today. I love my country and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to go to Pearl Harbor and learn about that horrific day.
love,alex&andrew

Hawaiian Treasures

So there was this one time on December 25th 2012 that we got on a plane and went to Hawaii for a week. It was simply wonderful. It was so relaxing and warm. Exactly what we needed for the holiday break. We got in at about 12am California time and 9pm Hawaii time. We were all starving and because it was Christmas everything was closed. We searched for about an hour and settled on a 7-eleven. Hot pockets, pizza, and granola bars. It was a great Christmas dinner :) 

Our view from the house we stayed in 

We talked Aaron into running and jumping on this vine. 

I won't flood you with the tons of stories that I could be telling you but I will be showing you a bunch of pictures that I took :) 

We had a blast checking out the island. We went to a couple different beaches and went snorkeling, body boarding, walking, exploring, and finding lots of little treasures. 

We ate lots of great food. Went shopping and found beautiful things. 

Every time we snorkeled I felt that I was one of the fish just swimming right along in the ocean. 

In one snorkel trip we saw THREE sea turtles. The first was medium and then another medium one and the last one we saw was HUGE. it was so cool to see them just swimming along and go up for air. They are such beautiful creatures! One night Richard and Aaron were walking along the beach and saw the biggest turtle we had ever seen, so we all came running to see and it was ginormous and just a beautiful sight to see. Right after we got there the waves came up and he went back into the ocean. It was wonderful to see these creatures in their natural habitat. 

Andrew found this crab

Andrew and Jordan exploring the reef by our house.  

The view from standing on the reef towards our house. 

Treasures that we found

One night we went out to eat and then we were going to go to the movies so we kept trying to find a place to eat but we weren't having luck with something that was quick but good. 

We finally found one that looked like a long john silvers and just decided to go there. 

When we walked in we knew right away it was not a long john silvers. It was something completely different and completely hawaiian. It ended up being verrrry fresh and different.. sea food. We got to test some things and Andrew, Aaron, and I tired octopus, raw salmon and tuna. It was actually pretty good. Aaron loved it so much he got the octopus for dinner. I got this amazing shrimp dish with this delicious sauce on it. Andrew got an ahi ahi Cajun stir fry dish and he loooved it. Then we went and saw Les Miserables. Which, no words can describe how amazing that was. 

The Peacock that we ran into and I wanted to bring home.

Andrew coming out of the water from body boarding

Andrew riding the wave. 

This is just the first a few posts on Hawaii, so stay tuned for more!!

Happy Friday! 

love,alex&andrew  

Christmas 2012

If you are a stocker or maybe you are just our bestest friends you know that for Christmas this year we had the incredible opportunity to go to Hawaii.
Instead of presents on Christmas morning we were all waking up and getting ready to head to the airport. Was that a little weird you ask? Yes.. Andrew and I realized that was the first time either of us had left "the house" (wherever we were staying that year) on Christmas day.. Crazy. But honestly, we were headed to Hawaii so there wasn't much complaining on our part ;)

Andrew and I still spent a little money on each other for Christmas and we still had family come over on Christmas Eve and do a little celebrating. Julie and Val came over and we had a wonderful clam chowder dinner and lots of yummy munchies and then we exchanged presents.

This year Andrew got me a vinyl record player. I had talked about it a couple times and he picked up on it and got me one. Because it was not something we wanted to have to bring on the plane I got it at the beginning of December which I loved because then I was able to listen to some beautiful christmas music. Needles to say it is a beauty. And of course the music is timeless. I love listening to Frank sing :)

Like I said in this post I wasn't really sure until 4 days before Christmas what I was getting Andrew. But after some wonderful shopping I found some awesome things. Like two pairs of vans. two Neff shirts. Some quirky socks and a tie. I even got him a 99 cent mountain dew chap-stick! ha

and he got this beauty.

And he loved his gifts, or at least he says he does and he has worn pretty much everything at least once already so I am pretty pleased with my findings!

Ready to go to Bethlehem 

While we were in California we were able to attend Andrew's home wards Christmas party. It was incredible. They had it in a members, aka the Sorensen's best friends, back yard. It was a sight to see let me tell you. It was made to look like Bethlehem. They had crafts for the kids to do and animals to pet and food to eat and even a manger with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. What a fun night. Everyone.. well most everyone even dressed up like they were from that time.

My little friend in Bethlehem
They had Neff beanies back then right? ;) 

Oh and I almost forgot to tell you that at the beginning of December we went to The Forgotten Carols with Marilee. It was beautiful. I had never heard the story so I did not know what to expect but it was perfect. It was sentimental but still had plenty of humor and really shared the true meaning of Christmas.

I feel that overall we had some really good experiences in basking in the Christmas Spirit. What a wonderful, beautiful, magical time of the year. It is sad to see it go but I know we can keep it around all year and look forward to its magic next year as well.

Merry Christmas from the Sorensen's 

We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season :)
love,alex&andrew

ps- can I have him pleeeease

A different kind of Library

While we were in California Andrew and I decided to do a few things that I had never done and he hadn't done in a long time. So on one rainy day we went to the Ronald Reagan Library. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I mean a library is filled with books.. not stuff you walk around and just look at. I did know it was a museum and I was excited to learn about the life of President Reagan.
And Andrew would always talk about seeing Air Force One there so I was pretty stoked to see that!

The library sits at the top of the hill and over looks the whole valley. It is breathtakingly beautiful! Although it was rainy and cloudy it was still an amazing view.

Andrew Sorensen for President! 

A piece of the Berlin Wall 

The breathtaking view 

An EXACT replica of the Oval office when Reagan was president 

Oh hey Mr. Pres 

Just hanging out under air force one. 

Yeaaaa we took a lot of pictures. There was a lot of cool stuff! We saw a replica of the oval office. Read lots of facts on Reagan. Saw the outfit he was shot in. And a x-ray of the bullet in him! We saw the dictators he had to deal with. His love for horse back riding. Air force one of course, we even got to go through it! And they had two rooms of Christmas trees decorated for each decade. They were pretty amazing. One had a large train in it, another had life size guns or a violin, some had different animals, pictures, books, then when you got closer to our day and age you saw lots of stuffed animals like big bird, then their was facebook and youtube. It was crazy detailed and pretty intense. We also saw some of Nancy Reagan's clothes and learned a little about her. We even learned some etiquette for presidential dinners! 

Then they had this special section that is only there for a little while of disney artifacts. They had the original snow white and the seven dwarfs, cinderella and sleeping beauty in beautiful large intricate books. Then they had a bust of every president that looked reallllly realistic. And there was the original mickey and just so much!! In the last room was probably the best thing ever! It was a bunch of original artifacts from disney movies or the attire from broadway show of a disney movie. They had cinderellas dress and beautiful outfits! Then we saw everything pictured below as well. The ships are the original they used to film. so you know how it looks huge in the movie well really that is the true size of it. HOW CRAZY IS THAT! And we saw Iron Mans suit which Andrew was mesmerized by... I must say it was pretty awesome. It was such an amazing sight to see. So many cool things! I could share so many more pictures but I will spare you ;) 

The beautiful books

Original Tron Bike..not really sure why andrew is red..

Original Iron Man Suit 

Original Caption America's Bike 

These are the ships they used to film Pirates of the Caribbean 

The Black Pearl 

If you are ever in Southern California this is a good place to spend a little time learning about the History of America and the Life of President Reagan and Nancy Reagan. 

love, alex&andrew

Wrapping up 2012

Guys I have a lot to talk about and I really just need to get it out of my brain and into this wonderful blog so I can share all the amazing things we have been up to.

How I felt after finals 

Uhm so its 2013?? uh yea I would have never known with all of those Facebook posts ;)
But really when did this happen and when did January just show up and kill off December. I am really not okay with this. But like any new beginning and change I am excited to start this semester and see where is takes me. I learned so much last semester I am excited to dive back in and fill my little noggin with knowledge. And I know Andrew is really excited to find a new job and start working again. (If you have any good leads for us please contact us asap)

We made lots of treats 

Well like most of my posts lets go back a little bit. HA
If you didn't know Dec 10-14 is finals week for BYU. Most classes you can take the final whenever you want. Thats how it was for all of my classes but one and that was just on Monday so it was pretty legit. As for the other 3 I took another one on Monday and two on Tuesday. Did I drive myself crazy...yea I really surly did. It was a stressful, exhausting, not caring, but really caring couple of days. I must say though that I was SO happy to get them over with than to sit around and study my booty off and get the same grades. Overall finals went very well and I am pleased and happy to say that one more semester is behind me.
We left for California on Thursday the 13th so that we could work and earn a little money while we were on break. And can I say that I am really glad we did because first of all we missed the after finals rush and we missed the sky dumping snow all over the place.

Went to a Clipper game while in Cali 

That whole next week we worked our little booties off but not forgetting to relax and enjoy this break time.

Jake looks creepy but it was so cute they were all cuddling! 

I made some jewelry for Christmas presents, and honestly I thought about keeping if for myself ;) 

So you should probably stay tuned for my bunches and bunches of posts about CHRISTMAS! yea you know that awesome Holiday time :)

love, alex&andrew

P.S- Here are some more awesome photos from the Clipper game. We went to The Pantry before the game. It has some a-m-a-z-i-n-g home cooking. We were verrrry satisfied.

A Misters Birthday

yo. yo. yo. Christmas is in a day and like 3 hours.

uhm I don't know where that came from. it just poped out.

GUYS CHRISTMAS IS HERE! and it kinda makes me sad because then all the treats, and cheesy movies, and beautiful songs, and shopping is over. yup it gets depressing after Christmas. But these next 24 hours I plan on living it up some how..

I finally finished Christmas shopping on Friday. Before Friday I had NOTHING for Andrew..ha oh man. But I was so focused on his birthday and then I had no idea what to get him for Christmas sooooo I just kept waiting and waiting and waiting and then I was like welp I will just buy him some stuff and hope he likes it. So I am crossing my fingers. but I must say I think I got some good stuff. Although when I say that it usually means he doesn't like any of it.. ha ohh we will see.

Speaking of Andrew's birthday, I completely failed at taking pictures. although he hates having his photo taken so how about we just say that he wouldn't let me take his picture ;)
Ironically his birthday was my last day of classes for the whole semester so skipping in my mind wasn't an option. BUT I still tried to make it one spectacular day.

I didn't have class until 12 so I got up early and decorated the apartment. Just the way my mom would when we were kids. She made sure there were signs all over the house saying things like happy birthday, or your age, or happy happy happy birthday. So I made sure Andrew had some signs of his own. and I decorated our ginourmous white board. It pretty much looked like arts and crafts time in elementary school.

so thennnn I made some yummy crepes, aka swedish pancakes or whatever everyone else calls them.
they are delish and we love them. Andrew was then nice enough to rush me off to class. but after words it was time to play. we got a cake from cold stone which honestly I was disappointed in. next time I will be sticking with Dairy Queen - which is the bomb digity :)

that night we splurged a little and went to Benihanas which was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. yum yum yum in my tum.

and ya know it was a good night. yummy food. good company. and we officially have an old man in the house. he is 23 ya know??! I know, so old ;)

Well I love this old man. and I am so happy I have gotten to spend the past 3 years together celebrating his birthday and I can't wait to spend a bunch more together. 

I hope your day was wonderful and you enjoyed every moment of that day devoted to you! 

Stay tuned for Christmas break updates :) 

love,alex&andrew

 p.s- hope you enjoyed my random photos of andrew from the past few months

Thanksgiving 2012

All weekend I was thinking oh I should blog about Thanksgiving and what not but I kept thinking ah no I'm not in the mood yet.. Well here it is Monday and I should be doing all my lovely homework and studying and what does my mind say, LET'S BLOG! yippie. SO I gave into my mind and decided okay lets procrastinate a little more and blog.

Guys, Thanksgiving was great. It was relaxing but crazy and fun. We played, maybe a little too hard, cough andrew cough, but it was great and hard to come back but at the same time I was excited to come back and finish the semester because then it is CHRISTMAS! Oh happppy day.

Well this year we went to St. George for Thanksgiving. Andrew's family was there. There was his parents and brother, Aaron and two of his Aunts and their husbands, then 2 cousins and their spouses and four second cousins. did i get that right... ha oh well. Lets just say it was fun to have a variety of people and different ages around. Usually the youngest person around is Aaron who is 17 but this time there was two younger boys and I think they added a little spice to the group. I feel that they kept us on our toes!

Do you guys know about geocashing? well one of the boys loves it and was telling us all about it one night and Andrew was getting pretty interested... well I will admit so was I. It is such an interesting concept. So the next day we went and found one and then another and that totally hooked Andrew. I think it is so cool that you can find them all over the world! And if you don't know what it is.. talk to andrew or do a little research :)

While we were there we did a little shopping, went on many motorcycle rides, played with our niece Haizlee, watched movies, played basketball, went and explored where our cousin Katie works aka the ambulance.. place, hiked in Zion, got a sweet deal on movies at BlackFriday, and ATE a lot! great great great :)

I am so thankful for this amazing life that I am living. When I take a step back and really see the amazing opportunities and experiences that I have had and that I am having, I can't help but think wow this is a great life.
I am grateful for the wonderful husband that I have and the life we have built together in the past two years. I can't believe where it has taken us and I can't wait to see where and what happens next.
I am grateful for a healthy body. I feel that with all my experiences with health, I can't seem to express enough, how amazing our bodies are and how extremely grateful I am that I am a healthy(okay to an extent) person. I think that with being grateful for Heavenly Father for this body, I have a responsibility to take care of it and do all that I can to keep it healthy and make it even better!
I am grateful for education. For schools, books, and the ability to learn. There are so many wonderful things in this world and I love learning about them. I am grateful I have the opportunity to go to such an incredible university and learn from these intelligent professors.

I am grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It has made me who I am today and shaped my life to be the wonderful thing that it is. I am grateful that I know that Jesus Christ lives, that he loves me, and that he died for me so that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father again. I am grateful that I was married in a place and with the authority so that Andrew and I can be together for eternity. I am grateful for the missionaries who sacrifice two years of their lives to share this gospel. Especially for my little brother.
I am grateful for a a wonderful, loving family who supports me and loves me.
I am grateful for this time of year. For the love, humility, and service it brings.

I could go on and on but I need to stop somewhere.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And a wonderful week.
love,alex&andrew