Utah

On our way to Indiana we stopped in Utah for a few days to see a much family as possible.

The kids loved getting to spend time with their cousins (Kaitlyn and Benjamin)
Alyssa and Josh are only 5 weeks apart in age

We even got a family photo with all of Kevin's immediate family. (unfortunately Bryson and Kaitlyn had been up all night the night before with a stomach bug but they were still good sports and smiled when they had to)

Kaitlyn and Bryson with Great Grandma Mumford
Great Grandma Thacker and Alyssa
Great Grandpa Thacker and Alyssa (we were so glad they flew in from Arizona the night before we left for Indiana)

Kevin, Dacia, and Alyssa made a quick day trip to Idaho for Alyssa to also get to meet her Great Grandma Garner

Family Photos

A good friend at Stanford offered to take some pictures of us on campus. What a great way to remember so many wonderful years! Thanks Sean!!!

Cancun

Chichen Itza

After Chichen Itza, we stopped at a sink hole to swim (cool down).

6 of us crazies all jumped together: Brody, Brett, Thayne, Mom, Shantel, Dacia
Mom spoiled us by taking all of us to Cancun for dad's 55th birthday! It was a FABULOUS week! This is our hotel which was right on the beach. (this photo was taken looking out our hotel room - dreamy!!!)

One of my favorite activities of the week was sitting by the beach under the little hut sipping pina coladas.
Alyssa loved being down by the beach because it had a nice breeze to keep her cool.

Kevin and Brody made a great sandcastle!

Alyssa's favorite part of the week was swimming in the afternoon. It helped her cool down and she smiled the entire time :)


On Saturday we stopped at Tulum before going to Xel-ha.
Xel-ha was great! There was great fish to see while snorkeling - we even saw Dori from Finding Nemo.



Thayne and Shantel swam with the dolphins while we were at Xel-ha. The funnest part was watching the dolphins push them "waterskiing." (It is hard to see but one dolphin is pushing on one foot and another pushing on another foot)

Thayne is the one in the above picture and Shantel is in the one below.

Stanford Graduation

Kevin graduated from Stanford yesterday! It was a great day! The commencement ceremony took place in the new football stadium. It was a little warm but not as bad as it could have been.
Find Kevin!?!

This is the fancy hood you get when you get your Ph.D (I think he looks like a wizard - watch out Harry Potter)

This is at the actual ceremony where they "hood him".

This is Kevin's main advisor, Michael Boskin.

This was another of his advisor's, John Shoven.

This is the "gang" that Kevin worked with: Colleen, Kevin, Shoven, Boskin, Gopi, and Anita. We love you all!!!


The economics department ceremony was much cooler because we were able to sit in the shade. It was in front of the Hoover Tower. Kaitlyn worked on stickers that Grandma Mumford brought for her.

Alyssa kept up her tradition of spending her time smiling!

Disneyland!!!

We couldn't live in California for 5 years without taking the kids to Disneyland, so we did a quick trip this week.






Kaitlyn's favorite thing was the princess area.


She didn't want to wait in line to take a picture with the princesses, she just wanted to watch them. Cinderella is her favorite (for today)
While the girls were doing the princesses, Bryson and Kevin went on the Matterhorn and Star Tours. Bryson loved them both!
We thought the jedi training was fun to watch even though Bryson wasn't interested going up himself.

After Kaitlyn heard Bryson and Kevin talk of all the fun they had on Mad Hater, she wanted to try a roller coaster too. So they took her on mickey's roller coast. She had a freaked out face during the ride but said she loved it afterwards.


Bryson like thunder coaster after the first hill drop, by the second one he was ready for it to be over, after the third drop he thought it was too long of a ride.

I would even say Alyssa loved Disneyland. When she wasn't napping, she loved looking around. Here she is on the pooh bear ride and watching each detail.

No Training Wheels

Bryson has been begging for months to have me take his training wheels off his bike. But, being pregnant and then having a baby I had no desire to teach him how to ride without training wheels. Finally I thought since I could run now, why not. Well I could have taken them off a long time ago because he did it all by himself without me helping at all.

This is a video of him with his training wheels on for the last time. If you look closely you can see how he has been practicing to ride and even start and stop without the training wheels touching.



Here is a video of Bryson riding without his training wheels for the very first time. I seriously did not have visions of me being able to video his first try, I pictured me having to hold the back of the seat while running.



Bryson was excited but was kind of like, "of course I can do it". I was ecstatic, I still can't believe I have a kid old enough to ride his bike without training wheels.