A Good Excuse to Go to Utah

I am so proud of my little brother, Justin (or as I like to call him: Bubba or Bubbaloo) for working so hard and graduating from BYU at the ripe old age of 22...and that includes serving a 2 year mission in Bolivia. So the whole fam (except for Brett) got to drive up to Utah for the special occasion. My mom and dad took Bradock in their truck and left from Pinetop and Sarah, Chance, baby Kai, Raylee and I drove up together. I was a little worried about staying in Utah after we hit a nice little snowstorm on our way...not exactly how I wanted to spend my time up there (it actually only rained/snowed one day while we were there and the rest was fairly nice). We got to Provo Wednesday night and had a fun couple days of graduation fun.

Thursday afternoon was the BYU commencement ceremony and Elder Christofferson was the guest speaker. He did a great job and it was so neat and refreshing to hear about education and religion in the same speech.

I could not believe how packed the Marriott Center was.

McKai took a nice little nap in between the bleachers during the ceremony...a definite plus of having a baby...they sleep anywhere.

Friday morning was the actual graduation ceremony where Justin received his diploma and degree in Latin American Studies with a minor in political science.

Later that night was the big grad party. What would a party be without lots of dancing?! And boy did Mr. B and Raylee get down.

Bradock was busting out all his break dancing moves.

My two little dancers were the center of attention and the dance circle. Bradock is usually so shy, but he sure came out of his shell to bust some moves.

On Saturday I headed up to Sandy to hang out with our friends, the Frys, for a couple days. We had so much fun hanging out with them. Bradock and Raylee loved playing with Easton and Broden and all their fun toys.

Nate became the favorite after taking all the kiddos on a ride on the 3-wheeler.

We had to say goodbye to our friends and grandma and papa and head for home on Monday morning. Chance, Sarah, McKai, Justin, Bradock, Raylee and I packed in the car and made a suprisingly great 10 hour trip home. The kids were seriously awesome (thanks to the dvd player) and I was so proud of them that once we got to Flagstaff they got to get a treat at the gas station. Let me tell you that ring pops are a great treat to entertain kids for a couple hours. Raylee was a little messy with hers, but who really cares when it keeps them quiet and happy for awhile.

Ray was so sticky that her hair was just plastered to her face.

What's a good road trip without an open-mouth shot?