Utah trip

 We were able to get a good deal on flights which made this trip much more doable.  The boys did great on the airplane! Benson was awake the whole time but was excited about everything that was going on and was easy to keep entertained and happy!

 When we arrived we went straight to the BYU creamery for a yummy dinner. Dad picked us up and Andrew came to the creamery to meet up with us.

The next day we had a little bit of time before we headed to BYU for the 1st part of graduation. It was nice to have some time with Uncle Gavin and his family.  Fun to get Benson together with his cousin that is the same age!

Finding sticks together at the park!

We got to graduation about an hour early to make sure we got parking and good seats. While Mom and Dad were saving our seats and really during the first half of graduation the boys and I walked around campus.  It was fun visiting the bookstore together and showing them the library.  They didn't get a complete tour this time...maybe next time.

At the bookstore Alden really wanted to spend his 25 cents he found at the park in the morning, he wanted to get something for his cousin he would see later in the day.  He was sooo excited when he found some suckers for 20 cents! He bought it and was excited that he still had 5 cents left over.
My favorite place at the bookstore has always been the children's section.  I just love children's books and I also have this thing for puppets, I think they can be fun when teaching my boys or in preschool.  So I let them pick out a puppet.  Benson really likes rabbits so we let him get a rabbit. It actually was nice to have the rabbit puppet during the trip because it brought some entertainment when Benson needed it!

Taking pictures with the new graduates. (Can you see Alden with his BYU bookstore bag, holding his sucker he bought for his cousin.)

It was just after this picture above that we all got one of the biggest surprises I have ever had!

My brother Austen has been in Thailand over the last school year, we asked him when he was coming home, he wasn't sure but it was looking like it would be August at the soonest when we would see him.  We definitely did not expect to see him on this trip.  While we were taking pictures we looked up and guess who walks up to us to be in the pictures! We were all fighting tears as we hugged our dear brother.  What a fun surprise to see him!

Here we are all together after Austen joined our group! We were all floored at how he was able to do it.  I guess he had just bought the tickets a week or two earlier, he had been traveling for over 24 hours to make it, he had a friend pick him up at the airport and bring him to Provo so he could be there just in time for graduation and to surprise us all!