Our Fabulous 4th

This year for the long holiday weekend, we ventured to California to visit Patrick's cousin Emily and her family. We had SO MUCH fun. The boys played and played from the second they woke up in the mornings until it was long past bedtime. Emily has twin girls that are just a few months older then Conner so they had a blast together. She also has a 12 year old son (who just received the priesthood this weekend, which was the reason for our trip, to be there for that awesome milestone!) His name is Dallin, and Brayden pretty much thinks he is the greatest thing ever! Dallin was so great and played basketball a ton with Brayden. He loved every minute of playing with his older cousin.

Patrick and Conner got in on the b-ball action too. Conner was so excited when he "got a score"... or as we all know it... a basket. He was getting pretty good at it too.

Something funny about Brayden... he's in this phase where he complains and says he doesn't like to go to church.... every week. I ask him why, and his answer is always because he hates to wear church clothes. I can very rarely get him to even wear a tie. So I totally used his adoration of his older cousin to my advantage and made sure to point out that Dallin had the SAME exact church shirt that he did, and was wearing a tie to church that day. Brayden had no complaints about wearing a shirt and tie to church that day. Let's see if it will stick!!!

One night while we were there, Landon discovered he likes loves pizza.

He ate it and loved every bite!

The boys went to a fun swimming party (I didn't go, therefore there are no pictures) but they had a blast and ate lots of good food and enjoyed swimming with their cousins.

The kids spent a lot of time outside playing ball, riding scooters and bikes, and swinging was a favorite by everyone. If Landon was getting too grumpy, the swing was where he would go. He could watch the dogs, the other kids play, and enjoy the breeze in his hair!

Ali helping to push Landon....

Like I said before, Brayden thought that everything Dallin did was great. This included listening to the ipod. Dallin got a new ipod for his birthday and was listening to it a lot, so Brayden kept asking to use ours so he could listen to his music to. 

He thought he was pretty hot stuff struttin' around like this. 

On Sunday we took some time to take pictures before church. 

All the Priesthood brethren in the family...

Dallin, Scott, Tom, & Patrick

The idea for this picture was to get Landon with Patrick's Uncle Tom. Landon was having none of that, so we settled for this with us and Uncle Tom and Aunt Leah. Landon's middle name is Thomas after Uncle Tom. He is an amazing man and this trip reminded us just how blessed we are to be apart of this family and how honored we are to have named our youngest son after him.

We used to see Tom and Leah every week for Sunday dinner when we lived up in Utah and we miss them a lot. The boys always ask about them and it was great to be able to see them again.

That night, we watched fireworks from Emily's balcony... well most of us did. I didn't get to see many because right about the time they started, 2 out of my 3 kids decided to melt down from complete exhaustion. So I went in to put them to bed, but Conner was the trooper and watched every single firework and loved every second of it. 

It was a great weekend full of good food, chit chatting, telling funny family stories, relaxing, and playing. 

I love weekends like that!