Earth Day Festival

Joy and I headed to Memorial Park today for Pasadena's annual Earth Day Festival.

There was a display on Eaton Canyon wildlife (complete with live frogs and snakes) . . .

. . . free tote bags and soda from Whole Foods (huzzah for free stuff!) . . .

. . . a climbing wall . . .

. . . and a U.N. booth where you could make a unique bouquet.

I think Joy's favorite part was the train ride.

The highlight for me was a display on a local family who are trying to be as self-reliant and eco-friendly as possible. They've installed solar panels, eliminated all possible electrical appliances (except the fridge and TV), and—most appealing of all to me—they produce thousands of pounds of produce a year on their scant one-fifth acre of land. While their bike-powered blender is a little more eco than I'm prepared to go, I am curious to learn more about their gardening techniques.

Life's Rosy

It seems like there's always something blooming in our neighborhood, and I love trying to capture some of the beauty on (digital) film.

This rose picture just makes me happy.

I have no clue what these dime-sized green things are, but they sure look cool.

Baby Crossing

We've managed to teach Joy that she's not supposed to play in the street, but our clever girl has discovered a loophole:

The crosswalk.

She's figured out that if she walks to the corner and starts crossing toward another corner, it's somehow OK for her to be in the street. I guess she gets a thrill out of this narrow gateway into forbidden territory, because she often crosses back and forth ten times or more before finally moving on to another activity.

You know, I used to think kids had short attention spans, but I now realize that kids and adults are just interested in different activities. Joy loves crossing the street and I love typing at the computer, but we each tire of the other's favorite activity after about 1.7 seconds.

Life Lessons

You can learn lots of important things from grandparents . . .

. . . like the value of literature . . .

. . . and the proper way to wear a giant stuffed lizard.

Local Garden Tour

Joy and I went for a walk today to see how some of the local veggie gardens are doing. Here's what we saw:

Ever wondered where artichokes come from? Now you know. This plant is taller than I am. At what point does a "plant" technically become a "tree"?

Scarecrow Garden has a lot of lettuce recently put in, as well as some tomatoes and a few squash plants. Their artichoke plant hasn't approached "tree" status yet, but the season is young.

Terrace Garden has some lively tomato and kale plants, and the rose backdrop adds a rather dramatic flair, don't you think?

And here's our little garden. Everything seems to be doing pretty well, and the tomato even has a few little yellow flowers already. The pot on the left is rosemary, and the one on the right is cilantro gone to seed to start the next generation.

If you look closely, you can see that our enthusiastic thyme plant has some tiny, white blooms on it. The chives on the right have some purple, puffball blooms, too, and the purple sage on the left is barely out of it's nursery pot. I hear sage is pretty hardy, so hopefully it will keep its neighbors company for a good long while.

Parrots, Pools, and Hammocks - Oh My!

We headed out to visit my parents and sister today. With the exception of Joy's soggy face-to-faucet encounter with a sprinkler (no pics of that, which is just as well for all concerned), most of the day was relaxing and fun.

The fam needed more food for their parrot, Turbo, so we paid a visit to Omar's Exotic Birds. The store has a dozen or so hanging perches with a variety of parrots on them, and you can handle any of these birds that you dare to (MOST of them are friendly, but a few will nip you). We let Joy pet one of the more docile ones, a black-headed caique (pronounced "kie-EEK").
After that, we went to Borders and I spent part of my treasured gift card on one of the Klutz thumbprint doodle books (the animal one, specifically). Joy's a little young for it yet, but I think it will be fun when she's older. My mom bought two cookbooks with ideas for making food look fun for kids (arranging pizza toppings to look like faces, making sailboat sandwiches with slices of cheese for the sails, etc.). I may just have to borrow those books at some point . . .

Back at the house, Joy cooled off by dabbling her feet in the pool . . .

. . . then she relaxed in the hammock a while. You gotta love lazy Saturdays.

Important Info

Ever wondered what would happen if you fell on your face in the sandbox with a runny nose?

Now you know.

New Do

When I returned from vacation and was reunited with my daughter yesterday, my first thought was "Yay! It's my precious angel!" My second thought was "Dang! Her hair is getting long. Probably ought to do something about that." So . . .

. . . here's our first attempt at pigtails. Not bad for a couple of rookies.

Joy says pigtails ROCK!

Home Again

Vacation was fun, and Conference was wonderful . . .

. . . but it's good to be home with my little family again.

Conference Saturday

Happy Conference Day, everyone!

Moroni was up bright and early today . . .

. . . and so were we. It was bitter cold and windy, but fortunately we found a nice corner of the Conference Center to shelter us a bit while we waited to get inside.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir provided the prelude music, which was lovely. I really enjoy Mack Wilberg's arrangement of "Praise to the Man."

Of course, once the meeting started I put my camera away like a good girl. Besides, most of you have already seen the session so it would be a little pointless to post pictures. I will say, though, that I was so grateful for the opportunity to attend the solemn assembly and be in the same room with the Prophet when we sustained him. We little imagined when we planned this trip that we would have that chance.

Of course, there are always protesters outside the Conference Center waving signs and shouting about how mistaken we are, but there was at least one sign I was happy to read. Amen, sister.

Speaking of signs, my sister who is passionate about American Sign Language discovered that our cousin Jason has also started studying ASL. She has spent most of the trip teaching him everything she knows about ASL grammar, vocab, and Deaf culture. Here she is teaching him the sign for "Jesus Christ" at our post-Priesthood Session dessert party (the Tuxedo Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory was diviiiiiiine, as always).

Temple Square

After the Brigham City Tour Mom, Dad, and I poked around Temple Square a bit before heading to the Lion House for the Grandma's birthday dinner.

It's been so cold lately that most of the Square's flowers aren't up yet. You could find a few vibrant pansies here and there, though. I think pansies get a bad rap--they're actually pretty hardy little flowers. Incidentally, I love how this picture turned out. Wish I was this lucky with every photo.

We spent most of our visit strolling around the temple itself (I confess I found the above photo on the web somewhere--the ones I shot of the temple as whole didn't turn out well).

We were particularly drawn to the ornate doors--what a labor of love for a bunch of frontier pioneers with limited resources.

Temples in general are special to me because they represent opportunities to draw nearer to God and seal families for eternity. I feel a particular love for the Salt Lake Temple when I think of the great faith and sacrifice of those who built it. As I surveyed their loving handiwork, I couldn't resist gently running my hand along it. The place felt sacred for so many reasons.

Brigham City Tour

This morning, Sorensons of all ages piled onto a bus to tour Grandma's hometown of Brigham City. Grandma marveled that her posterity fills an entire bus. After months of planning this tour, Grandpa was eager to get on the road. Moments after we drove away from the hotel, the bus came to a halt. "Why are we stopping?!" Grandpa asked. Grandma calmly replied, "We're at a stoplight."

In Brigham City, we visited many places that Grandma knew and loved in her youth. They included the beautiful Brigham City Tabernacle . . .

. . . and the little house where she grew up. Her father's dairy farm has long since been replaced by new homes, but Dad and Uncle Nile still have fond memories of their adventures in the old barn and orchards that once adjoined the house.

We ate Maddox fried chicken for lunch, (eat your heart out, Colonel Sanders). Grandma worked for Maddox as a teenager, and learned their secret chicken recipe. I could be biased, but I think she makes Maddox chicken better than the restaurant does.

The highlight of the tour was our visit to the Third Ward chapel where Grandma attended church as a girl. The building has a stunning stained glass window of the First Vision, which Grandma says kindled the first sparks of her testimony years ago. She also recalled bearing her testimony in that church when she was about eleven years old. When she finished speaking the Spirit strongly confirmed the truth of what she had just said. Her faith has remained unshaken ever since.

De Mass Diner Dinner

General Conference Weekend finds me in Salt Lake with my family. We decided to celebrate Grandma S's 80th by touring her hometown of Brigham City, then attending some Conference sessions together. Alas, it didn't work out for Phillip and Joy to come, so I'm representing the Hendrickson clan on my own. Those of you who follow this blog just to see Joy (and I know there are a lot of you) may want to skip the next few entries.

We rolled into town this evening and had dinner with Aunt Joan and the De Mass cousins.

Here's Crystal and baby Abby.

And here's my big cousin Matt (a sophermore in high school) with my little sister Heather (about to graduate high school).

The Gardening Class

In case you missed the container gardening class a couple weeks ago but are interested in the info Angela's friend Alice (a professional gardener) had to share, I've just posted all my notes on my blog. You're more than welcome to read them on my other blog.

'Cuz happiness is a blooming nasturtium (among other things).