End or Beginning?

I didn't know whether to title this post "The End" or "The Beginning" because we still have quite a road ahead of us with Casey going to medical school. I guess that it is both- an end and a beginning, both exciting in their own ways. We have loved the time of life that we have been in for the last little while and are excited for everything that is to come! There sure are A LOT of changes heading our way in the next little bit!
Although Casey officially graduated in December and has been working full-time since then while we wait for med school to start, his graduation from BYU wouldn't be "officially official" until he walked in the graduation ceremony. A few weeks ago, Casey's parents came up for the big event and were here for a week. It was so great to have them here. Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Swimming in their hotel pool
Brigden in the "hot" tub that, don't worry, wasn't really that hot...

Oompa teaching him how to shoot some baskets with the new basketball hoop that they got him for his birthday
Brig is actually really good at making it in the basket...he must take after his daddy...

Sneaking a bite of strawberry pie...

Helping Grammie make YUMMY pizza...

Brig plugging his ears in the Marriott Center at Commencement...it was packed!

Elder Richard G. Scott gave a really great address...

It was quite windy that first day for pictures, but we snuck one in...luckily the next day was much nicer

I was quite worried to take Brigden, our little energy ball, to each of the ceremonies, but he did great!
It sure helped that we had a huge bag full of things to keep him occupied!

Brigden sure loves his daddy and Oompa! We love these double hugs that he has been doing lately...

Our little family...

Casey and his parents...

Cute Brigden...
He kept standing by these big bushes and posing for me to take a picture...

Best friends...
Haha, you can't see it very well in this picture, but Casey's hair has two parts in it from wearing the graduation cap :) It was funny

I am so proud of Casey and all of his accomplishments thus far. He amazes me everyday with all that he is able to fit in and for how balanced he keeps everything...I could sure learn a lot from that!
We sure do love him! Keep up the good work, Casey!

Someone had a BIRTHDAY!

It is hard to believe that this little guy:

Just turned TWO!
Where in the world does time go? With how fast time is flying, pretty soon he'll be graduating and going on a mission! But hopefully not too soon! :)

He was so excited to open his birthday packages...

We went to the Lehi Legacy Aquatics Center to celebrate with a few friends
and then we went back to our house for dinner and cake and ice cream...

We sure do love our little 2-year old!

Haha, this is his cheesy "smile" face :)

He kept blowing the candles out before we had even started singing "Happy Birthday" so we had to wait until we were done singing to light them...

Enjoying his cake

Opening a few presents...He was so meticulous about making sure that every little piece of wrapping paper came off of the present. And it was funny because he was holding the present with his feet to make sure that it didn't fall...

Here are two of his friends, Marshall and Vance. Of course, we couldn't get one of them all looking and smiling :)
What a fun day!

Brigden is at such a fun age right now, although he sure does keep me busy. He is a little livewire, and that's an understatement! He has such a fun and sweet personality and is turning into a little man instead of a little boy. He is learning to be nice and a good friend. He is talking a ton and learning new words every day. He loves music and dancing and sure knows how to groove! He loves when we sing songs to him and is starting to sing some of the words with us. His favorite songs right now are "Old MacDonald," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Five Little Ducks," and the BYU fight song- he loves doing the "rah, rah, rah...go Cougars" part with us. He says "no" and "mine" a lot, which sure do get old after a while :) He is starting to say "yes" a lot more than "no" though, and he says it in the cutest little voice. I love it when he comes up to me randomly during the day and gives me a big hug and kiss and says "hhhhiiiiiii" in the sweetest voice. It makes up for all of his craziness and tantrums :) He says "thank you" after just about anything we do for him, which is a habit I'm sure not going to complain about! Of course, there are times when I am about at the end of my patience rope with his crazy antics during the day and there are times when both of our strong-willed personalities clash, but he is such a good little boy and I am grateful for all that I am learning from being his mom. We sure do love him and are grateful for him each and every day!

A Trip to DC...

Ok, so I think that every post of mine should be titled, "Past due..." like the post a couple back because that's how most all of them are- way late!
This one is no exception...but I just had another realization that this baby boy is going to get here soon, and I wanted to at least be semi-caught up with the happenings from the last few months :)

At the end of February, Casey and I went to Washington, DC together, just the TWO of us! Needless to say, it was wonderful! Casey had an interview at George Washington Medical School in DC, and I didn't want to miss out on the fun...so we decided that I would go with him! We originally planned to be there for 4 days, but he ended up getting another interview while we were there at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, so we extended our trip a few more days. So we were there for almost a week. We had so much fun being together and seeing the sights. It was the first time that either of us had been there. Thanks to my family for taking such good care of Brig while we were gone and to Casey's parents for making the trip possible with extra plane tickets--staying that extra time when the airline was overbooked on our way home from Florida last year was worth the flight vouchers! It was super cold toward the end of our trip, but most of the days were so nice! I think that Heavenly Father made it warm so that I could see that it would be alright for us to move there if that's where Casey gets accepted, despite the distance, because we all know how much I love the cold! We stayed with some friends in both DC and Richmond and then in a hotel 3 of the nights (Priceline is the way to go for cheap rates on nice hotels! Thanks to Casey's mom for introducing us to it...) I am so bummed that I didn't get any pictures with the Petty's and their cute little girl and the Brockbanks. It was so nice of them to let us raid their houses for a few days!
So this is going to be picture overload, but there are not near as many pictures here as I took while we were there :) Enjoy!

We flew from Salt Lake to Phoenix to drop Brigden off with my family. My mom and Kamrie met us at our gate, ate lunch with us, and went with us to our gate for our connecting flight. Brigden LOVES my sisters and didn't even have any problem with us leaving him. He waved and said "bye" the whole time we were walking away. I think that I had the hardest time of us all! It was so comforting to know that he was in a good place with people who LOVE him and would take care of him. (not to mention SPOIL him to death!) You guys are AWESOME!

Brigden and Aunt Kamrie

Waiting in Baltimore for our train to DC
We made it! I don't remember the last time that I had such a relaxing plane ride, I actually was able to read a book instead of wrestling with a crazy cooped up little boy :)

Union Station

The White House
We went on a tour of the White House one of the days, which was really cool even though we didn't get to see as much as we thought we would...

We LOVED the Air and Space Museum. It was our favorite of the museums.

The Capitol Building
We also went on a tour of the Capitol Building, which was awesome! That was our other most favorite thing to see. We sat in on a session of congress when they were debating about a health care issue.

Casey and I standing over the very center of our nation's capitol...

More pictures from the tour of the Capitol building...

A bird's eye view from the top of the old DC Post Office. This was really neat to do. We would say it is a must-do while in DC

The elevator going up to the top of the Old Post Office

Washington Monument

While we were at the Washington Monument, the President was making his way back to the White House. It was really cool to see these three helicopters flying together. One landed at the White House and the other two veered off in two different directions and flew away.

The Hope Diamond on Display in the Museum of Natural History

I think that this is where I am going to end with the pictures because there are WAY too many more to choose from!

A happy reunion at the Phoenix airport! We were so excited to see our little guy again. That was a long time to be away, but oh-so-needed. It was so cute, he would not even let go of our necks for a few minutes. It's good to know that were missed although he was having the time of his life without us! Thanks again, Mom and Dad and aunties for taking such great care of him!

I will miss you, Grandma!

Going home...

Special thanks to Casey for making this trip SO much fun. I just love being with him and it was so awesome to be able to do this trip together. He was so patient with his "slower than slow" almost 7 months pregnant wife! We did so much walking and every time I would apologize for being slow, he would just smile and say how nice it was to "stroll" and not be in a hurry...I love that guy!