Trip Week 2: Utah

This will be a long post. We did a lot this week :) Tuesday, June 2, was my sister, Dani's graduation open house. It was from 7pm to 9pm. We had a yummy bbq full of hot dogs, salads, fruit, and chips.

My mom had an awesome cake done for her at the Costco!



The guest book table. There were scrapbook pages there where you could sign your name and write something nice or some advice for Dani.



She had a really nice turn out! Here are some of the guests at the party!

Dani and some of her friends



Some of my parent's neighbors and friends



Some more of Dani's friends



My cousin, Lisa and her family, and my Grandma



Me and Mike (as you can tell Mike was having fun)



The parents of the graduate!



Unfortunately, Lee's aunt passed away this last week. My Aunt Elaine came down from Boise for the funeral. She was able to be there for Dani's party though, so that was fun.

Lee and my Aunt Elaine



The kids enjoying their hot dogs



My sisters, Melissa and Tiffany, at the guest table



Mike and the kids



Me and the kids



Emma and Joey had a lot of fun with their cousins. Everyone dog piling on Aaron!



On Thursday, June 4th, was Dani's graduation. She graduated from Valley High. Her graduation was very different from any other graduation I had ever been to. It was a really nice ceremony though.

They had 2 musical numbers by graduates from Valley. This guy was really good and he actually graduated with a record deal.



All the graduates weren't in alphabetical order, which stunk when it came to the diplomas being given out, but it was nice for Dani, she got to sit next to her best friend, Ian.



After graduation, we of course took a ton of pictures!

Dani and My Mom and Lee.



Dani and Me and Melissa



Dani and Joey and Emma



After her graduation, we all went to Spaghetti Factory to celebrate. It was a lot of fun! I love Spaghetti Factory and of course we don't have one in Moscow, so it was nice to go while we were here.

On Friday, Emma had her nails painted for the first time and loved it!




Emma, so proud of her hands!



Friday, June 5th, was also our 5th Anniversary. We haven't been back to the Salt Lake Temple since we got sealed there. So we thought our anniversary would be the perfect day to go!



It was really nice to go. I have wanted to do an endowment session there for a really long time. I have always wanted to see it done live. It was a great experience and I just love that temple. It is gorgeous!

After the temple, we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. It was yummy as usual!

Before we went to the temple, we went and got a bike for Joey. I have been trying to find a bike for him for a really long time. He is outgrowing his trike and has wanted a "real" bike for a little while now, so we decided it was time for him to get a bike and give Emma his trike. KSL.com is way better than Craigslist.com here. I can't believe how many people post on there. On Thursday, I finally found a bike for Joey (children's bikes go so fast). It was 25.00 and it came with knee pads and a helmet. It hadn't been used very much at all so it was practically brand new. I think we did a pretty good job and Joey loves it!




Saturday, June 6th, we celebrated my nephew, Aaron's, birthday. His theme was Spongebob Squarepants. We went to this really fun place called Hollywood Connections. It has games, rides, minature golf, skating, movies and a bunch of other stuff. We had pizza, pop, cake and ice cream there. It was really fun!

Aaron about to blow out the candles.



Aaron and his cake



After we ate and opened presents, it was time for the rides. Last year, Emma was so afraid of rides, but we decided to try again this year.

We started simple and took her on the carrousel. At first she was a little scared.



but once the ride started, she actually enjoyed it. I was very proud her!



After that ride, she thought she could do anything! So we put her on the flying bus! Here she is smiling and ready to go!



And once the bus went in the air she started screaming!



They stopped the ride and let her get off and then Mike and Joey went up again!



Mike, Joey and Dani then went on the roller coaster.



Then they had to go on the Hot Air balloons a couple of times! It was like Tilt-A-Whirl but in the air.

Dani, Joey and my nephew, Jordan.



Emma got sick of watching the kids go on rides, so Dani took her upstairs to play games. She actually did very well! She won about 200 tickets!




Dani and Emma excited as the tickets came out!



Mike and Joey on the race cars



Jordan did awesome! He won the jackpot and got 1,000 tickets! Here he is proudly standing by his tickets as they came out. At this point, there were only about 500 that had come out.



As we were waiting for a magic show to start, Spongebob made a special appearance.

My nephew, Zach, and spongebob!



That night, we had the opportunity to go to the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was fun to be able to take the kids through the whole temple. It was a gorgeous temple and they made it like the Salt Lake Temple...you get to move rooms.




After the walk through, there was a reception in a large tent outside the temple. They had cookies and bottles of water.

It was so gorgeous as well! I couldn't believe all the chandeliers and decorations in there.

Dani, Joey and Emma eating their cookies






I just love this picture. The sky is so blue!




So, as you can see, we had a really busy week! I don't think I have ever worn a dress so much in my life :) It was a lot of fun though and I am glad we got to be here to do all of it!