Our Utah Trip

We recently took a trip up to Utah to visit family, and to attend my brother's graduation from the U of U Medical School. (Way to go!!) He surprised us all when the graduates were filing in and going to their seats and he and one other girl went up on the stage and sat down. I was like, "What is he doing???" So I grabbed the program, and low and behold, my brother was Co-Class President! AND he was giving a speech! That little rascal! His speech was hilarious - check it out on his blog. He is going to do his residency in Anesthesiology at the Univ. of Texas in San Antonio - I can't remember the full name. But, we are super excited for them, and hope to come visit them (and a few old friends) some day!

After the ceremony, we headed up to a luncheon in Ogden with the whole fam...YUMMY! Then we hung out over at my parents' house in Layton and later had family pics taken. I can't wait to see how they turned out!

Brad's cousin Jarom and his wife Liina were also graduating the same day -- funny, huh? So we got to visit with them, and then on Sunday went to their ward for the blessing of their new baby girl. They are off to South Carolina -- Good Luck guys!

For Memorial Day, we revived our Greek Fest tradition and my bro-in-law Curtis whipped up some yummy greek food for everyone. We hung out over at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Orem and the kids swam and played all afternoon. It was delish and so much fun! We had a fun time staying with my sister Heather...it was the first time and I hope not the last! Jakob and Joshy loved sliding down the slide they have off their deck in the backyard -- dang it, no picture of that! And Joshy had so much fun with Hannah's cat, S'mores who he affectionately called "Snores." We'll miss you guys! Thanks for everything!

On Tuesday we packed up and went over to stay at Brad's folks' house in Lehi. Brad's sister Sara and her kids have been living there for a while, (while her husband commutes from San Jose) and so my kids couldn't wait to get over there to play with their cousins. Wednesday morning, Brad went golfing with his brother, and while they were gone, all the kids were out gardening with Grama. It was pretty funny! But they loved it and Jakob got quite good at grabbing the weeds by the roots and shaking out the dirt.

Later that afternoon, they took the kids to this awesome park in Cedar Hills. The kids had a blas there and we hope to go again next time we come up! I can't believe we had never heard of it before!!!

Uncle Curtis was nice enough to take all the kiddos fishing this year...at Utah Lake. They caught quite a few white bass, and had fun throwing them back. Jakob's poor fish hit a rock and we thought it was dead...until about 5 minutes later it started flopping around and so I went to push it further into the water where it continued to float semi-upside down and swimming in circles. Poor fishy!

On Friday (our last day) we really packed it in! In the morning we went to the museum at Thanksgiving Point - one of my kids' favorite things to do. Then we drove up to Salt Lake, where we met a friend of mine for lunch at the Gateway. It was SO good to see her! Then we took Trax to Temple Square and walked around for a bit. The kids totally loved Trax, and I think we definitely need to do that again sometime. Later that night there was a neighborhood party, with bounce houses, BBQ and a band. It was a blast. The kids got totally worn out! (And so did we!)

We had such a fun time visiting everyone...wished my Dad could have been in town longer...but it was a great time. Thanks for everything, everybody! We love you!

For some pics...check out the slideshow below: