utah trip part 3

Part 3 of our Utah trip. All the kiddos were pretty excited to spend time with Uncle Braden!

Braden wanted to do a family night lesson with the kids. He did a great job and we could tell he had a lot of teaching experience from his mission.

Then it was time to... wrestle Grandpa!

We all went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point along with Jenny and LeAnn's kids. They had a great time.

Evan wasn't a big fan of the Megalodon head replica.

In the evening we went to go spend some time with Laura's side of the family -- her parents and siblings were in town for her brother Jon's graduation and we all went to her aunt and uncle's place in Orem for dinner and time together.

Looks like Evan will be no stranger to entertaining people at parties. This was our first time meeting cute Jade, who is a June 3rd baby just like Evan!

Austin played Bang! with Jon and David and Laura's cousins Michael and Jason.

The next day we got to go back to BYU...

...for Jon and Lindsey's graduation!

It was great to spend some time with Laura's family on our Utah trip.

We always love going to campus -- we've got fond memories and are so happy we met while going to school there!

We got to go bowling for a birthday party -- Austin's cousins Daniel and Nathan turned four! The kiddos got to have bumpers and a ramp... Austin kinda wished he'd had them too.

Evan loved hanging out with Aunt LeAnn!

We had a great time together -- it was a lot of fun!

We heard that BYU was having an open practice/scrimmage and couldn't pass up the opportunity to step foot inside LaVell Edwards Stadium. We miss having season tickets with Austin's family -- but we always do our best to cheer on the Cougars from Washington! (as in cheer on our BYU Cougars remotely, not cheer for the Washington State Cougars)

Brooklyn got a photo with a special buddy... Cosmo!

We didn't last very long at the practice -- it was super hot and we were hungry for something we can't get up here in Washington... :D

Laura and Brooklyn got to go see Breanna's new apartment and hang out with Gus the adorable kitty.

Cousins!

Time for sprinkler fun in the front yard...

...the kiddos loved it!

Braden brought back some special gifts for everyone from New Zealand. He was super thoughtful and it was fun to see all the things he brought from a place that he loves so much.

We love our Evan guy -- he's a cutie.

Here's one of the things Braden got for Evan -- a little Kiwi bird.

Braden got us all greenstone necklaces to wear -- they are very special to the New Zealand/Maori culture. What a cool gift!

Laura thought it was pretty cute to see Daddy playing ball with Evan on the court where Austin grew up shooting hoops until it got dark each night.

We had so much fun seeing family and friends the Sunday Braden spoke in church.

We officially celebrated Daniel and Nathan's birthdays with cake. Yum!

Evan and Grandpa!

Someone liked the cake :D

Our main reason for going to Utah was to see Braden -- he was a fantastic missionary and loves the New Zealand people and culture. We're glad to have him back. We got the bonus of catching most of the Taylor family reunion and Jon and Lindsey's graduation, which was great.

It was finally time to head back. We had a great time in Utah with family and friends!