The Utah Trip--and one BUSY social agenda!

Busy doesn't begin to describe the how May 2009 is ending up. However with all this busyness comes fun! May 7-May 10th we went to Provo, Utah to see Nick's brother, Jake and his family. Jake is married to Jamie and they have three kids (Penny-6, Liam-3, Henry-6months). Jake was graduating from the Police Academy and Nick of course wouldn't miss it for the world so a road trip was in order. Provo is about 9-10 hours from Phoenix (depending on how crazy we drive). We couldn't leave until about 6:30 Thursday night so we decided to stay in Kanab, UT. After hitting up priceline.com we stayed at the Shilo Inn and Suites. I must say that it was pretty nice and very clean. Nick was a huge fan of the breakfast in the morning of course! So, if you ever need a place to stay on the drive-up to Utah we would recommend staying there.
Friday morning we finished the drive to Provo, hung out with family for a few hours before leaving to Jake's graduation. While waiting for everyone to get ready I decided to practice our funny face picture taking skills with Penny and Liam. I must say they did pretty well.

That night at Jake's police academy graduation he was honored as with several awards (top of class, shooting skills, most professional and highest moral standard), and even gave the speech at the ceremony! It was so great to be there to support him. At the end of the night when we were walking back to the car Penny said, "Aunt Jen, today was the best day of my life so far." So precious!! I am sure she is so ready for dad to be home more now. Jake was hired on full-time by a department and we are so excited for him to start this new adventure.

The Styer Boys!

We returned home for cake that night (so funny--see pictures below) and of course Jake's brother in law (who is also a cop) brought Jake his first box of donuts!

Saturday proved to only get busier. We had committed ourselves to 4 parties--so we somehow were going to make this happen! First thing was the BBQ that Jamie had planned for Jake at a park near their house. With hotdogs from Jake's favorite place, and tons of the above cake leftover, we had to burn off all the calories on the playground with the kids. Pictures of Party #1:

Party #2---A short visit with my sister at a BBQ she had for a friend who graduated. Here are a few pictures of us on the 'oh so famous' porch swing (thank you Paul).

Party #3--Russ Stout's graduation party! Russ is the husband of our friend Sheryll, who took our wedding pictures. Russ is 30 and just graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Utah. I think the cake said it all!!!

Party #4--Cory Bendixen's 30th Surprise Birthday party! Cory and Nick have been good friends for several years now. They started out as roommates and still share a love of softball and hunting that keeps them friends. Cory and his family live down the street from us, so when his wife told me that they were going to be in Utah when we were going to be there we were excited to hear that we would be able to go to the Hawaiian themed party!

Finally a trip to Utah wouldn't be complete with seeing some old BYU friends of mine. I was so excited to get in touch with Kristin!! She got engaged this last summer and is getting married in October. So it was so fun to get to hear all the details. Nick and I went to breakfast with her on the way back to Az. Love ya girl!

We had a great trip to Utah! I can't believe all the stuff that we did in just two full days. Whew! Congrats again to Jake!!!

And then the long car ride home took place.....ugh.