Utah trip continued...

Graduation day 2

All the cousins with Uncle Austen.  There couldn't be a bunch more excited when they saw Austen walking up the stairs.  (This second part of graduation was the first time these cousins had seen Austen.)

Benson running the track at the Smith Field House.  He is a good little runner!

During a big chunck of the graduation the cousins and my boys all played over in this half of the Smith Field House.

After graduation we all went over the the Bean Museum.  Mom and Dad had ordered catering from the BYU creamery but we had about an hour before it was ready, which was just the perfect amount of time so we could spend some time looking at the animals at the Bean Museum.  Benson loved it!! Of all my boys  Benson really loves animals! Maybe the others did more at his age but Benson gets so excited when he sees animals.  Sometimes I will take him to petsmart just because I love seeing how excited he gets when we go see all the animals.  So as you can imagine Benson loved the Bean Museum!

When we go on trips without Michael this is usually what happens, all four of us end up snuggling in the same bed.

Playing in the backyard.  How I love the grass in Utah! I love to run on it, roll in it, sleep in it and just look at it. This is a pretty time of the year there.

On Sunday afternoon Austen, Andrew and all of us went to visit Temple square. Which was the perfect close to a perfect trip.  I got to see all of my siblings, and visit all of my favorite places in Utah.  It was a great trip!

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!

Grandma and Grandpa come visit!

The boys made sure to go to the park and get in some games of baseball.  They love it when anyone will throw them a ball!

Saturday afternoon we did an Easter Egg hunt in the boys matching Tara shirts! It was fun to have them all matching and to have them all doing an activity together.  Benson loved being able to search for eggs with them!

Grandma bought Benson this little bunny.  He loves it and will often sleep with it.  Benson loves animals and will often try to chase birds, dogs, cats, etc because he wants to hold/ pet them. He likes having his own little animal to snuggle.

Below is Calvin with Murkat.  He loves Murkat and often sleeps with him and when he saw Benson with a picture of him and his bunny he wanted one of him with Murkat.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here we went to Tubac and visited a museum there.  It was a well done museum and was fun to go to all together.

Michael and I were able to go on a number of dates while they were in town.  One night we went to "The Gaslight Theatre".  It was fun to be able to get a way for a few hours and enjoy some time together.

Easter pageant in Mesa

This is our second year being here for the Easter Pageant in Mesa, AZ.  They always do an amazing job. It was neat this year because we got to have Grandma and Grandpa in town to go with us. Everyone stayed awake for the late night adventure except for Calvin who fell asleep as soon as it started!