Tyson's Graduation

Me and the kids had a WAY FUN weekend. My brother, Tyson was graduating from the University of Utah, so the three of us took a trip down. We were so sad to leave Dave at home. He had a concert he had to film over the weekend. And, we want to save as may personal days from work as possible so we can use them when the baby comes. I wish he could have gone...it's just not the same without him!

My mom flew up from Albuquerque and brought my sister and her new twin babies. (I don't know why, but I didn't manage to get any pictures of my kids with their new cousins!). We spent a ton of time with my brother and his adorable girlfriend (whom we are hoping becomes more very soon....cross our fingers). It was great!

I knew when Dave bought our camera, he was getting a really good one, but I never appreciated it until now. Anyone who has been in the Huntsman center at the UofU will also appreciate this incredible picture. We had to pick up my Aunt before the graduation, so we were running a little bit late. By the time we found parking and found the shuttle to take us back up the hill, we were about 15 minutes late! Luckily, there were several department scheduled to graduate at the same time, so they hadn't even started on reading names yet. But, we were literally on the BACK row of the balcony! I had no idea the zoom on our lens was so INCREDIBLE!!! I never dreamed we could get a picture of Tyson getting handed his diploma! Pretty cool!

Right after the graduation - my mom is right behind me and my aunt Ann is on the other side of Tyson.

After the graduation, we went to a celebration lunch at Red Lobster. Our kids were incredibly good! I got compliment after compliment. Not that I don't think we have pretty good kids - they are just very active and energetic! They were acting exceptionally well behaved at lunch. I finally decided that they must have been so sleep deprived by this point that they were just being lethargic!

We got to go to a park and play with one of their other cousins - Bion. He is the twin's older brother. The park had an stream and a little waterfall. It was cool!

But, as cool as the stream and waterfall were, Max couldn't get over the REAL popcorn tree!

We did quite a few other things, but I was lazy and didn't take very many pictures. My brother took us all to Ikea - none of us had ever been. The kids had a blast!

And, of course, we went to Temple Square to see all the gorgeous flowers. No matter how many times I go, I am always amazed at the gardeners that work there. Please - Help me with my backyard!!!

Tyson lives just about a block away from Temple Square - how cool is that!! He doesn't even have a car because he can pretty much just walk everywhere he needs to go. We couldn't resist taking some pictures of him and his girlfriend, Jalim.

Max absolutely LOVED staying in the hotel with Grandma. The plan was to have the kids share a bed with me so she could have her own place to sleep. When we were settling in, Max was very frustrated with me because I was taking all the room and there was no place for his dragon. I told him that either his dragon needed to find another place to sleep, or he was welcome to sleep on the floor with his dragon. (I mean, really, he was sharing the bed with ME not the other way around!) Max quickly got out of our bed, walked over to Grandma and very politely said: "Grandma, can we sleep with you in your bed?" It was so cute!! Who could resist! He cried for quite a lot of the drive home. He was so sad that we couldn't stay in the hotel and sleep with Grandma some more!

It was such a fun weekend! We all came home so exhausted, but it was soooo nice to get out of the house for a few days!