March was a great month for cousins, and Luke and Ruby were in heaven with all of the extra family in town. First up was Tad (and Hannah) who decided that Utah would be a great place to spend their Spring Break from Oklahoma University. Lucky us, for the first time in a very long time, we were able to celebrate Tad's birthday with him in person and the kids took full advantage of having him here. We had Sunday dinner at our house and the kids, big and small, jumped on the trampoline, played games, and basically just had a great time together. Tad brought his girlfriend Hannah and for most of us it was the first time meeting her - it didn't take long for all of us to understand all of the good things we have heard about her. They had a lot of plans for the short amount of time they were in Utah and we were glad that some of those plans included time with us.
Almost birthday twins!
Gavin...the man of mystery.
In addition to Tad being here, Craig, Roman and Sadie came to spend their Spring Break in Utah - these trips to Utah for school vacations definitely needs to become a tradition. Tad and Craig overlapped by a few days and more cousins just added to the party.
Just a couple of country cousins.
The cutest little puppy sitters
The boys had so much fun cheering Gavin at the Pinewood Derby,
His first place car was awesome!
Pulling these kids apart each night was quite the struggle,
I love that they are so quick to pick up their relationships.
On Friday afternoon, we decided to let Luke and Ruby play hooky from school and we headed to Thanksgiving Point for a day long adventure with Roman and Sadie. We started out at the Butterfly Biosphere which is the newest museum. It was awesome!!! I hadn't been that excited to take the kids because I wasn't quire sure what to expect. But the minute we walked in, we were transported to a magical rainforest full of amazing butterflies and plants and all of us were completely in awe. And completely hot...it was so hot that we immediately shed our jackets and long sleeves so that we could be comfortable in the butterfly's environment. The kids had so much fun working to identify multiple species of butterflies. I was lucky enough to make friends with one sweet butterfly, Sully, who landed on my leg and hung out with us for most of our stay.
We left the butterflies and spent another hour or so exploring the rest of the museum. We met a fantastic Docent who was so kind and taught us all sorts of fascinating facts about spiders and insects.
After the butterflies we made a quick stop for lunch...
After lunch we ran through the rain to the dinosaur museum where Luke and Ruby were excited to show off their favorite exhibits to their cousins. There were plenty of photo ops in between all of the chances to learn. There was so much to see and by the time we left, I think all of the kids had decided they wanted to be paleontologists when they grow up.
Every time we go to the museum the kids beg to dig in the sand and I almost always tell them no and try to hurry them out past the exhibit. On this Friday we had plenty of time so I surprised all of us by telling them to take off their shoes and get digging. They spent so much time working to uncover a giant "fossil" and wanted to make sure the museum staff saw their hard work. Honestly, I hate for them to get so sandy, but seeing their joy and the fun they had made all of the dirt worth it.
It rained most of the day which kinda put a damper on our plans to go to the farm and ride the ponies. I did my best to talk the kids out of it but they all said they weren't cold and begged to go...so we went. It was cold and wet and muddy, just like I expected, but also, super fun. We were about the only people there so the kids got extra long pony rides and the chance to pet the baby sheep and goats. Looks like we know were to go on the next rainy afternoon.
Each kid was able to pick pick out and ride their favorite horse.
In true Broadbent style, we decided that we needed at least one more day to party with cousins so on Saturday afternoon, we all met up in Payson at the bowling alley. It was boys against the girls but I'm not really sure who ended up winning. I know, usually I would know the score to any game, any time, but honestly I got too distracted watching everyone have fun together.
Unfortunately, we took the girl cousins picture before Ada got there.
These boys were the best little bowlers,
Just missing a few of the boy cousins.
He had to do it left handed, but Grandpa still bowled.
The bowling was great, but the kids really loved the laser tag.
We ended the night with pizza, video games...
And more puppies.
Craig and the kids flew out of Provo airport, so of course we had to meet them for one last group hug before letting them go back to Arizona. These kids have so much fun together. Luke and Ruby are trying to plan a trip to Arizona and I think Ruby has already packed her bag. We definitely need to make sure they get a chance to be together again soon!
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