"shining, shimmering, splendid..."

A couple weeks before we left Utah, my brother Jason graduated from BYU, and my little brother Justin was getting ready to go on his mission (he's headed out to the MTC in London, and then off to serve in Ireland for 2 years!), so Logan and I drove up to Provo.

Nathan spent the night with us, and he and I played cowboys and bad guys most of the time. He's awesome at dodging bullets, but even better at playing dead if he does get hit. I was laughing so hard I could barely handcuff anyone. He kept handcuffing Logan and then just leaving him for a long time in a room before he would "go check on the bad guy" and come back to make sure he was still behaving. He'd even get an extra shot at Logan for good measure.
The best part was, we were running around in our boots the whole time, and if I ever tried to take mine off he would reprimand me pretty good. The next morning he got up bright and early so we could play some more and when I took off my boots after a couple hours he took one glance at me and turned to me and said sternly: " HEY! i THOUGHT we were playing Sheriffs! Put your boots back on!!" So of course I obliged.

At Jason's graduation Rebecca and I played with Nathan and Jack-jack the whole time, and they were just adorable. Nathan kept waiting for Jason to walk out at the graduation and then when he did Nathan clapped and cheered so loud, it was the cutest. 

Nathan was mesmerized by the tassel. ha ha. Daddy and his 2 boys

waiting for his Daddy to walk the stage

this might be my favorite picture ever. "how YOU doin'?"

I'm sure going to miss those fun kids. When Nathan was getting ready to leave, Melinda (in her Captain America shirt) was going to drive him, and I was hugging him and saying good bye, when he casually said "see ya Sheriff, Captain America is goin' to take me home now..." I gave a big "awwww" with a sad look and he said "hey, don't be sad!" and that was that and he was off. 

Later that week, Melinda came down to visit us in St George, and we went to see Aladdin at the Tuacahn Amphitheater. It was a fun show, and we were sitting in the perfect spot so when it rained we didn't get wet. yay us! They even had a carpet that flew Aladdin and Jasmine over the audience while they sang. It was pretty magical. They have real camels in the show, and you can ride on them outside, which Logan, Rebecca and I did a week or so later, when more of  my family came to visit. They take you on a ride in a little loop and the whole thing is very strange because you're randomly riding a camel, but very cool. 

haha, I love how his camel is just looking at the camera posing

So my parents and Justin and Rebecca came to visit us for a couple days and we hung out and went to Tuacahn and took some pictures of the pretty scenery outside. It was pretty scorchin' hot but then, when isn't it during the summer in St George? 

I also introduced them to The Lorax, which might be my favorite movie of the year. After that they left, and Logan and I got to start on packing up our things and getting ready to move out. But we'll get to that next time...