Graduation!

Graduation was a few weeks ago but we do need to go through all the details!

My parents arrived Wednesday night and the kids were all so excited to see them. I was inside and the kids all outside and Max ran to the backdoor early able to talk with all his excitement "they're here! Granny and papa are here!" Low and behold that had come. The twins warmed up to them like ti was nothing, that's what those boys do (have I mentioned before that when we're at the park they go up to strangers ALL THE TIME and beg to be held by them? Yep, I'm the mom who doesn't hold her kids enough because they're BOTH 32 pounds!) Papa played with those boys endlessly on the swing set he was so sweet to push and push and push them all evening long to their hearts content.

I can't even remember what we did Thursday...probably just played outside because that's literally what we do all day everyday if possible. Casey, my mom, and I took a trip to Sam's club while all the kids slept to get food for graduation. My what good sleepers I do have.

That evening was most WONDERFUL. My parents were so kind to offer to watch the kids and give Casey and myself a night out alone AND let us stay at their hotel room while they slept at our house and watched that kids. Breaks people, I just need more awesome breaks like this and I'd be more sane! We went to Outback Steak house (this is where my new obsession with steaks has come in) courtesy of Bill and Jean for a kind graduation gift card, Kohl's for a $10 gift card where we of course just looked for all things kid related, can't get too far from them littles! And back to the hotel where we crashed almost immediately. Actually I do recall watching a few episodes of Arrested Development. Slept in (it's like my love language I swear) but have you ever noticed that when you're not pressed to wake up, you can easily wake up early. It's when you have to be up by a certain time or certain little are forcing you to get up, that is when your body is like "MORE SLEEP!" But if you can sleep in no matter how long you begin waking up at 6:00 am like "i am fully rested and could happily be awake" but force yourself to go back to bed.

The hotel we stayed at wasn't super crazy fancy or anything but their continental breakfast is seriously delicious. Biscuits and gravy, waffles, endless pastries, and of course more, that was just the damage I chose.

My parents then brought the kids to the hotel and we went swimming! All the children so totally loved it. The babies had no fear even though the water was kinda cold, it was hilarious to watch them, I imagine we're going to be busy busy parents around swimming pools this summer, Max too was immediately back where he had been last summer, jumping in, holding his breath, kicking, man I love watching the courage and passion for life in that boy!

We came home got ready for graduation, Casey's parents showed up, took some pictures, and then off to the graduation ceremony it was!

My dad went early with Casey to save some seats and I got us all there exactly when I wanted to, RIGHT when the ceremony started. Max loved watching the graduates walk in to all the music and was so excited to spy daddy at the end! We loved that he turned around and looked at us as much as he could smiling and waving, man I got teary eyed during all those silly little waves and smiles! Here he was, GRADUATING FROM DENTAL SCHOOL!

It feels like just last year we were laying in bed in our Provo apartment just the two of us contemplating "what if you don't get in to dental school? Then what will you do?" The scary unknown future! But he did it. He sucked it up through all those crappy tests and extra little things you have to do and became a dentist.

We took some pictures afterwards with the family and some friends!

 Our WHOLE family could not have  made it through dental school without Katie! She helped Casey with school and me with the house and was always so willing to help with the kids. There is no way we can ever repay her!

When we got home we got a knock on our door to a most wonderful surprise by our cousin Jim Long! He came all the way from California and we couldn't have been happier to have him! He of course came bearing cars shirts for the boys which they all LOVED.

Back at home we got ready for the family and friends BBQ! It was such a fun evening with great food, so much wonderful family supporting all the graduates, all together at the same time, corn hole and water balloons. So grateful there was shade because it was a hot day! There's something special about having so much family and friends around to celebrate occasions like this. It was just the best.

Saturday we got to all go to Maxson's last soccer game! Both grandparents got to be there wasting that stuff of a boy! I'll do a separate post about this :)

That afternoon we tired to go see the Blue Angels air show but it got cancelled due to bad weather, it totally stunk.

But we made up for it by coming home and teaching Max to ride a bike! Again with all the grandparents around it was so special! I'll do another post about that too.

Saturday night and Sunday evening my parents were both sick unfortunately.

Sunday morning mom and dad Cutler came to church with us (so lucky to have grammie C for mothers Day! Event though I'm a really terrible child and forgot to do anything for our moms on mothers day, it was still nice to have her presence!). The skedaddled out quickly for their long drive home!

For mother's day I got breakfast in bed and no changing of dirty diapers that day, it was great. And if I remember correctly my kids weren't way too awful either!

My parents were feeling much better and came over in the afternoon, after more bike riding (max loves it!) we drive over to an open field to see if we could catch a glimpse of those blue angels flying again! And man we sure picked a good field! Front row seats without being in the stadium, it was great! Those air planes are sure amazing! All my boys re obsessed with air planes in the sky so this was just so cool for them to see them lower and hear them so loud! And us adults were so impressed by all their amazing tricks!

And that was our graduation weekend of fun! And oh boy was it fun and celebratory! Thank you everyone for your kid wishes and congratulations and cards. It's been a long road and I just can't say it enough of how proud I am of this husband of mine!

A graduation trip

We had a  most wonderful graduation trip this last weekend to Vail Colorado with some other dear friends who also graduated dental school with us!

Details!

Our dear friend, Katie, made it known that we could probably use her family's cabin up in Vail and we were stoked! Our plans fell through with the beach house we were going to do from someone's uncle because another one of our graduating friends would be too pregnant to join, so to Colorado it was!

Originally it was going to be us, Hinckleys, Blomstedts, and Welchs. But through a series of unfortunate circumstances, the day before it turned out to be just us and Hinckleys. We dearly missed all our other friends but still had such a fantastic time with the Hinkcley's.

Tayli, Casey's sister, bless her heart volunteered to be flown out to come watch our kids by herself for 5 days!!!!!! I am so indebted to her. Seriously. I was needing a break so badly from my wonderful children (love them! but definitely needed a break!). We had to rent a car but totally worth it.

She flew in Wednesday afternoon and we left Thursday morning! It was a long 8 1/2 hour drive but we made it! The Hicnkleys arrived just 15 minutes after we did, great timing!

The first night we watched a movie (I think? I honestly can't remember right now!) played a great game of wise or otherwise (love me, love my dog. once i've had enough, i want one more. cut your own loaf, pinch your own loaf- some hilarious fun). Carolyn made a delicious chicken tortilla soup with all the fixin's!

Friday we slept in nice and long, so wonderful!!!!!!! Drank delicious apple cider to wake up, watched the movie Cinderella and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Casey and walked down the hill not knowing where we were going really, the Hinckley's picked us up later and we drove to their downtown busy village area. We walked around the area by the river, threw rocks, found new walking paths and just enjoyed being in nature. Also not having to nag at anyone to "stop doing that!" "come back here!" "no no no!" was quite refreshing. I actually got to hold Casey's hand as we walked and even walked with arms around each other lazily! Whew that hasn't happened in ages!

We came back and watched another movie, Guardians of the Galaxy maybe? Made sandwiches for lunch, maybe even took some naps! IN the afternoon we drove an hour away to some hot springs. The car ride through the curvy mountains made me real sick, blah. And then when we got out of the car I had a big whiff of sulfur from a bad area of the hot springs and that just about did me in. Luckily I kept my pride and did not vomit everywhere, uck. It quickly got better with fresher smelling air and being out of the car.

The hot springs were so much fun! It was two very large pools. One was a most most VERY comfortable 93 degrees and the other 104 to 106 degrees. We mostly hung out in the 93 one since our friends had their 8 month old little boy with them. We did get in the 104 one for awhile but the 93 one just felt so wonderful! The mountainous background was so beautiful too! The weather was so awesome we just couldn't feel luckier. We talked about everything under the moon with our friends during that hour and a half; politics, finances, kids, futures, friends, school, it was just a really fun afternoon.

We came home that evening to STEAK! All I want lately is steak, it just tastes so dang good! Steak, potatoes, carrots, sparkling cider, it was a really fun celebratory dinner. The combo of steak and sparkling cider in wine glasses and no children made it feel really special. I wanted to soak in every minute. That night we watched Avengers Age of Ultron which I fell asleep half way through, we'll have to watch it again later!

Saturday morning was another great long sleep in morning. Lon made up a big hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, orange juice, it was so delicious. The whole trip I just wanted to eat more and more food but was constantly so stuffed!!!!!! We ate real good that trip, real good. I think we watched a James Bond movie that morning.

In the late morning after we had lazed round long enough to feel greatly relaxed, we went searching for downtown area, but didn't quite find it. Instead we found a  couple waterfalls! One we kinda hiked to was a little pretty one, and then once Casey saw the freshly looking bear paw print in the snow and then a little cave not far away and that was quick enough to scare us back down the little mountain we climbed.  We found some other large houses to gawk at on our way to the downtown area again where we pretended we were high class walking into all the shops looking at the WAY overpriced items, haha. Like I said, it really was just fun to be with friends talking and laughing and being out in the wonderful open mountain air!

in the picture below you can see the cave to the left of Lon's head, nice and dark and scary, perfect nesting place for a bear!

if we were already practicing dentists for 5 years these would have been our souvenirs. 

We came home, watched Man of Steel (I don't think I had watched that many movies in the whole past year!!!!), had a lunch, lazied around and just chatted. We all kept talking about what we wanted from this trip and for me it was I just didn't want responsibility. I wanted to be able to sit and do nothing when I wanted or get up and immediately go when I wanted to and I got just that.

In the afternoon we went on a little walk up the neighborhood of the cabin which turned into finding a little hiking/walking trail we followed for a little bit. Lon turned into Gandalf the grey with his ginormous walking stick. It was fun being in the mountains and looking out over the gorgeous mountainside.

We came back to delicious soup leftovers and played games and just chatted for the rest of the evening while sipping fancy sparkling cider in more fancy cups. It was so great being with friends. We hope so much to stay in close contact with the Hinckleys. They are such a great friends. They are headed off to Oral Surgery school in Ohio for the next 4 years, those crazies!

Sunday morning was more sleeping in, cinnamon rolls, intense sausage mcmuffins, cereal, and apple cider for breakfast. We cleaned up the house and waited for church to come. I seriously sat on the couch with NOTHING to do before church began, so strange yet such a nice change for once!

Our 10 am meeting was 2 miles down the road in the next town over and to our surprise it was a bilingual ward- what fun! Half the speakers spoke spanish while the elders translated for us with little headsets so we could listen. It was a wonderful sacrament meeting. We went to the english Sunday school class, and then relief society was in spanish again! A kind sister volunteered to translate for us with the headsets again, so grateful because the lesson was wonderful! It's so fun how the spirit can all speak to us, language does not matter!

After church we came home and had yummy taco salad and packed up the rest of our stuff to go! We were going to stay one more day but we were sure missing our cute kids plus we didn't feel like there was much to do Sunday afternoon.

The drive home was LONG, but we got home a little before midnight and went in to look at our beautiful sleeping children. How I missed them and loved them but oh how I needed that break!

Our next morning was quite drastic to our previous ones, Max abruptly woke us to "mommy!" at  6:00 am and the babies followed at 6:30. They were all so happy to see us (mostly, but Bryson just kept looking at me with a big frowny face on the verge of tears when I tried talking to him, I think he must have been very offended I had left).

The trip was wonderful. I'm so glad we were able to go. I'm so grateful Tayli would watch our kids. I'm so proud of my husband for finishing 4 long years of dental school!