BYU Education Week

After arriving in Salt Lake City after midnight we made our way down to Provo to spend the first three days of our vacation attending Education Week at BYU. I had attended 3 years ago with my sister and had been looking forward to the opportunity to attend with Sam since then. The event is really set up just for adults, but our kids did an impressive job being juggled back in forth between Sam and I while we attended classes throughout the day. My parents and Sam's mom even took a turn watching the kids so Sam and I could attend a class or two together.



It was a great 3 days with an almost overwhelming amount of good advice and uplifting messages. Three weeks after the fact we are still trying to digest most of it and, even more importantly, trying to figure out how to implement some of it.

I am really bummed that I only have a handful of pictures from our time at BYU. I had grand plans for taking more, but our days were jam packed, literally running from classes to kids and back again with few photo opportunities.

The kids loved BYU campus. It really is the most beautiful college campus I've ever been on--even more beautiful than when I was a student there. I guess the boys have heard us talk about how they are going to go to BYU often enough that it really meant something when they were there. They were so excited to get BYU T-shirts...so much so that Reed nearly had a meltdown trying to decide on which shirt was the coolest. Thankfully it only took a few tears to make the final decision. The boys really wanted to get Ruby the little BYU cheer leading outfit, but I convinced them that a pink BYU T-shirt would be just right for her instead. I don't know why I don't have a picture of them all in their BYU gear, but here is a blurry picture of a thrilled Max in his new BYU T-shirt.


One of the games the boys played on campus was "I-spy a Y" and they would shout "Y" when ever they saw a "Y". I am glad they found a way to entertain themselves, but I can say that is not my favorite game for them to play as we are walking through a crowded BYU Bookstore covered in school paraphenalia.

Another bonus of our time in Provo was that we got to see our friends the Stopczynskis from North Carolina who have since moved to Lehi. The Stopczynskis were some of the first people we met when we moved to North Carolina 6 years ago. A lot has happened in that time (including the addition of 5 kids between us!), but it's always great to hang out with good friends.


It didn't take the boys anytime at all to rekindle their friendship. They had a ball running all around the park collecting rocks, sticks and leaves. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing, but whatever it was they were all enjoying themselves.

The girls were pretty cute too. Here is Ruby trying to "get to know" Eliza in the only way she knows how.


On the way back to our hotel one evening we made an impromptu stop at the Malt Shoppe for old time's sake and shared some gigantic shakes. Either those shakes have gotten larger or I now understand how I picked up so many extra pounds my freshman year. Reed was so excited to see a juke box in real life and when he saw Thriller on the play list he needed to look no further.


Max definitely approved of the selection...


We have so many good memories from Provo and it was great to make a few more with our kids. They were a crazy few days, but it was so worth it.