Utah Trip!

This first picture has nothing to do with this post, just threw it in cuz I think it's funny! Love ya Stephen!

So, about two weeks after we moved to Arizona we got a call from Icky (Emily) saying her boyfriend Tyler had proposed and that they would be getting married in the middle of March. I was so happy for them but also sad because I had just moved and couldn't be there to help plan the wedding. I helped as much as I could over the phone, but it's not the same.
So, a few days before the wedding, we packed up and started the drive to Utah. We decided to be smarter than we were on the move down and split the trip into two days. Our kids do not do well in the car so it was much easier breaking it up into 6 hours a day vs. 12. Still rough though. Here's a cactus when we hit the desert just outside of the Phoenix suburbs.

Parking lot of the little motel we stayed at when we'd moved to Arizona. It didn't look so awful in passing, but I will always have bad memories of that place.

Gas station by the motel.

We spent the night at David's brother's house in Las Vegas, and had so much fun hanging out with him and his wife and kids! The boys love seeing their cousins and had a blast! The next morning we got up super early and hurried to St. George to meet my family. Emily took out her endowments at the St. George temple, so we went straight there. It was such a neat temple experience! I was able to be Emily's escort, and help do my grandmother's temple work. I felt the spirit so strong that day and felt the presence of so many family members who have passed on. I hope I can always remember that special day, I truly believe people are waiting on the other side to have their work done and are so grateful when we do it! I could feel how happy my grandma was!

After eating lunch with my family, we continued up to northern Utah and went to my in-laws house! It was so fun to see them again and stay with them. On Sunday we just relaxed and let the kids play with their uncles. On Monday we got to do some fun stuff, every year for my father in-laws birthday, they go to the park and fly kites, so we got to enjoy that tradition with them!

Johnny was so excited, this is totally his type of activity! I love the look on his face in this picture!

Johnny was being so careful with Grandpa's nice kites that Grandpa let him fly them!

MaKay loves his Uncle David, I love watching him follow David around!

"GG" helping Johnny fly one of the kites!

Makay is so sweet! I already miss his little voice!

Nate loved feeding the ducks at the park! We really lucked out with the weather while in Utah, it wasn't too much colder than Arizona, so we were able to go outside and do fun things!

This picture was taken after Emily's endowment! Such a beautiful temple, I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see it!

My family there for her endowment, David and Charity ended up with the kids because of crazy traveling circumstances.

On Tuesday I spent the day with Emily doing last minute wedding stuff and having a girls night with her, my step mom Mary, and my pretty much Aunt Marcia! It was a crazy but really fun day! I could not sleep the night before the wedding because I was so worried about Emily sleeping in, or something messing up her wedding. She woke up and was ready on time though, and the ceremony was beautiful! They were married in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Wednesday, March 14! It was so nice to see so much of my family all in one visit! I'd been worried about Emily's wedding day since my mom passed away and how it would go without her. It was definitely an emotional day, but you could feel my mom's presence and that was very comforting. And my mom's sister and 2 best friends were there, which made it feel even more like she herself was. I think Emily was very blessed to have so many mother figures there, we are very blessed to have such a wonderful step mom that is just like a mother to us as well!

Mr. and Mrs. Cragun coming out of the temple!

I thought this was a nice pictures of my dad and Mary!

This is Marcia, one of my mom's best friends that was there, I'm so grateful I got to spend some time with her!

Siblings, Ben commented when we were taking this picture that it felt weird with just the 3 of us there, our family used to be so much bigger. I do miss the family that has passed on and those that couldn't make it to the wedding, I thought about you all day!

Just cute..

Such a neat temple, again, one I'd never been too, it's really amazing!

I had to post these...lol, I look funny, I can't remember what I was saying to her, but the photographer wasn't happy that I was talking to her while he was trying to pose us, I think we had a few with really weird looks on our faces from laughing at what we were whispering!

Again...weird look on my face...

And I had to post this, they were trying to get a niece/nephew pic, but the kids were having nothing to do with it. Luckily the photographer had a few tricks up his sleeve and I think he eventually got a decent photo!

Love this pic with them and their parents.

And I thought this was a sweet one of Emily and my dad!

This is for you Stephen!

The day after the wedding we were exhausted! I slept til eleven! We had to head home friday, so we took Thursday to visit with family some more and let the kids play with their cousins! Grandpa Graves got the boys Jungle Jim's passes again so we hung out there most of the day with cousins! And I guess this is the only picture I got!

Friday we headed out at a decent time, but the car was acting funny so we had to stop. 2 hours and 2 tires later we were on the road! We still made decent time to Las Vegas and were able to hang out with cousins there again for a couple hours. After that we decided to head over to the strip for a bit! I know, you have to be crazy to take little kids there, but it really wasn't too bad. We kept there attention upwards and not looking at the ground, and because St. Patrick's Day was the next day there were a lot of fun kids characters out! We got pictures with a couple, watched the Bellagio fountain show, and looked at the buildings. We had planned to eat there, but it got too crazy so we picked up some food to eat back at our hotel! I have to admit, it was one of my better Vegas experiences! Because we had kids, people didn't offer us the dirty pics and a couple people actually apologized for their language when they noticed our kids!

Johnny wouldn't smile in this pic, because Bumblebee talked and it was a woman, and he got mad that it wasn't the "real Bumblebee" which is a boy!

This guy was really cool. I'd seen people do this on tv but never in person. It's crazy how well they hold still and actually look like a statue!

LOVE the Bellagio show! It's probably my favorite thing in Vegas! It's so neat how high up the water goes and watching it dance to the music! There are some good things there!

When Nate saw Woody there his eyes lit up! He jumped out of the stroller and ran right up to him and hugged him! I was surprised cuz he's usually so so shy! Woody was really good, almost better than Disneyland Woody! He took a lot of time with them and played with them and posed about 10 times!

Johnny was so excited, he thought this was the actual Eiffel tower!

and the actual Statue of Liberty!

We headed out early St. Patrick's Day morning to come home and beat the rain storms that were coming. You could see huge black clouds behind us the whole way home, and about 2 hours after getting here the rain hit us too! On the way home we stopped at the Hoover Dam! It was really neat! I've never been before and the kids thought it was awesome!

I can't believe how huge it is! I was scared standing by it, I held onto my kids so tightly!

The part they climb on in Transformers! Johnny loved that part! He kept asking if Optomus Prime was going to be there!

It was REALLY windy there! It blew me and Johnny and Nate over at one point! It was only cold because of the wind, and this was actually the only time the whole trip that we had to use our coats!

The bridge is amazing! I can't believe how high up it is! It was scary after seeing under it, to drive across it a few min later! I'm so glad the sides are high so you can't see down!

Home at last! It was hard leaving again after spending a whole week with so much family! I felt kind of like we moved all over again! But we're getting back into the swing of things and it's nice to sleep in my bed! Johnny asked me to take this picture a couple hours after we got home, and to send it to all the family we'd just left!