Trip to Utah!

We returned last week from a trip to Utah where we got to visit Jen's family and also my younger brother with his wife and newborn daughter. We had a really good time catching up with everyone and Max loved the chance to play with all of his cousins. As you will see from looking at the pictures, I took advantage of the opportunity to brainwash my son into a love for all BYU sports. You should have seen me running across the baseball park carrying Max and trying to catch up to Cosmo so we could get a picture with him. Some have argued that I wanted a picture of Cosmo and used Max as an excuse. Say what you will, but Max recognizes the BYU fight song and has also been known to yell, "Go Cougars!" while pumping a fist in the air. I have rarely been so proud.

One of the highlights from the trip was visiting Jen's brother Scott at the Fire Station where he works. He gave us all a tour and let his nephews try on some of the gear and crawl around in the ambulance that he rides in. It was impressive and inspiring. By the end of the week we had seen two stations and all sorts of rescue vehicles. Max immediately began reliving the experience by offering a tour of his own fire engine and repeating what Scott had explained to us. The difference was that Max's fire engine was invisible. A 911 call came in during the first tour and Scott had to jump in the ambulance and go. That seemed to be the coolest moment for everybody to watch Scott head off to work. I think we all felt proud to have been there and to know someone who dedicates so much to taking care of other people when they need it the most.

We feel like we ran from one thing to another. Instead of trying to give you the play by play I will give a quick rundown: Jumpin' Jacks in Springville, the obligatory Chuck E. Cheese visit (I ended up in the play tunnel tower thing twice), visits to both of our alma maters, mother's day celebrations with Jen's family and also with Sam, Courtney and Bria, Max's breakfast with Grandpa, Max playing with Scott's new puppy, visiting the Stoddards, Max and Cael having an argument over who had the most cougars and then who had the most grandpas (they are cousins), Max threatening to have the BYU Cougars put Cael in jail, dinner at Holly and Andy's house with everybody (thanks Holly for dinner), a baby shower for Jen's cousin Lisa, swimming and probably a billion other things. Here are some of the photos:

It was a great trip that thoroughly tired everybody out. I guess that's the point. We hope that everybody we intruded on enjoyed themselves as much as we did. Thanks again everybody.