may days: Utah trip for Dr Sam!

Another month, another brother graduating; this time it was Sam, from the University of Utah School of Medicine. He's a doctor now!

I mean, I can't even carry on a conversation and walk in a straight line, but these two managed to kill it in med school and raise three bright happy kids at the same time. Some people.

My dad and Carma and I drove down together, leaving Friday morning and having such a smooth trip - Carma did fabulously well and Dad and I got to talk and talk. Carma was thrilled to arrive at Sam and Terri's and find three little girls there to gawk at and toddle around with. And Bailey and Hazel were quick to school Grandpa on all things princess, including a demonstration of how they 'freeze' bad guys ;). Bailey also showed me her favorite spots to hide and climb amid the moving boxes:

Dad treated us all to dinner and then we called it an early night and headed to our hotel, which was loads less sketchy than the online reviews led us to believe, so that was a relief, haha!

The next morning we got Carma all settled in with Aunt Sue and then headed to the graduation. Dad took this picture of me to commemorate the one time I willingly wore Ute colors:

Dad and I found Quinn and Eden saving our spots up in the balcony and settled in; Mom, Terri, Bailey and Robby were somewhere below us in the premium seating. Quinn and I passed some time by taking pictures of ourselves and texting them to Sam. #supportivesiblings

The actual ceremony was pretty cool, Jon Huntsman, Sr. spoke and holy moly he's a pretty amazing guy! I knew a little bit about him before, but hearing him speak and watching the video about the Huntsman Institute gave me a much better understanding and appreciation for how much he's done for cancer research and patient care. And now I can say I've been in the same room (granted, the "room" was the size of a large lecture hall...) as a billionaire! #bucketlist

And mostly it was just so, so fun to be there and hear Sam's name announced and watch him be hooded and clap really hard and cheer "Yay Sammy!!" with my dad and Quinn and Eden (at the last minute we opted not to use his childhood nickname of 'Scampers' - I mean, this was a classy occasion.)

At long last it was time to exit Kingsbury Hall and find the good doctor - which was harder than you'd think; it was prettttty crazy out there. At one point I accidentally walked between an elderly lady and the young graduate she was taking a picture of, and oh man if looks could kill. Eden can back me up; we were both terrified and fled the area as quickly (and carefully) as possible.

Fittingly, Sam's wife, daughter, and mom found him first! 

And then a nice brother reunion:

A very proud dad!!

At this point I think we just started playing Sardines with the pictures - you know, adding one person at a time...

(Please enjoy these outtakes of this picture grouping. For future reference, this is apparently how I look explaining to someone how to use a camera phone? I feel like I should start making youtube 'how to' videos; it'd be a shame to waste an obvious talent...)

Eden took a break from being my bodyguard to be in the picture (seriously, at this point I was still sure that the elderly lady I offended was still lurking about, waiting to strike):

And then Dad joined us as well!

At this point we were informed that there was a luncheon in a nearby building - apparently it's usually out on the lawn but worrisome weather moved it inside, but word wasn't circulating well so there was nary a line and plenty of delicious food:

Fun story: that photographer was standing near Eden and myself with some sort of stick and I made a random joke about it being a selfie stick... and the nice gentleman took that opening to become our new best friend. It was hilarious and only slightly unnerving - suddenly he was explaining it was actually a 'mono-pod', but hey, he can get pretty great selfies and THEN HE WAS TAKING A SELFIE WITH ME AND EDEN and then just chatting a lot and randomly pulling out his phone because he "thought" he got a "text". I'm pretty sure no one else had acknowledged his presence the whole time he was there working and he just kind of grasped onto the fact that we could, I don't know, see him?, but pretty quick after that we bid a fond farewell to the banquet tables and hit the road.

Everyone else headed straight for Sam and Terri's; I took a detour to retrieve Carma from Aunt Sue's care. She seriously saved the day, there's no way that Carma would have done well at the graduation ceremony (the bajillion babies we saw being carried out at various points during the two hours testified to that) and I really appreciated Sue being so willing to help us out! Thank you Aunt Sue!!!

Carma and I rolled in just in time to put this hat slounch-ily on Miko's head and then sit back and admire the adorableness:

We were able to hang out for an hour or so and enjoy the company - inside there was apparently very engaging conversation, if my eyes are any indication, and some fun on the farm with Grandma Pam and Isaac.

Outside there was all sorts of fun just the right size for Carma, and a Grandpa on hand to photograph all his cute granddaughters! And also Isaac eating green strawberries, hahaha.

And of course I found time to take a couple more selfies before we left ;). It sure is fun to be a grown-up and be friends with my brothers! The drive home went almost as well (Carma wasn't super thrilled the last hour or so) and we arrived safely in Nampa a mere 36 hours after starting out on our journey! I'm so grateful that I was able to be there for Sam's special day and travel with my dad and spend that time with him.

All of which wouldn't have been possible without my fantastic husband encouraging me to go and holding down the fort in my absence, even if that did mean picking up another bike off craigslist, haha. They spent Saturday afternoon at the bike park, ensuring that no one missed me!

And the new bike has pegs, which the boys were happy to demonstrate for me :). 

And now in a few hours, I'm heading back to Utah alllll byyyy myyyyself for a couple days of girl time with my BFSCs. Have I mentioned lately what a superstar Chuck is?