This past weekend we made the trip to Utah to celebrate Calvin's first birthday party with family and friends. It was such a fun occasion where we were able to catch up with people and felt the love from how many people supported our little man for his big day!
When we arrived home on Thursday night Mom & Dad had a home cooked dinner waiting for us - that just might be my favorite part of visiting Utah!
Friday morning we connected with one of our Hawaii friends who now lives in Utah. She takes fabulous pictures and did a cake-smash photo shoot for Calvin's one year pictures. Thanks, Tausha, for letting Vinnie smash a cake in your kitchen!
We spent the rest of Friday running errands and preparing for the big party on Saturday. Friday evening we went out to dinner with Mom & Dad, and Jana & boys at Wendy Sukiyaki. It was tasty and fun to eat in the tea room, despite the difficulties getting in and out of that table built into the ground... That's one reason our family would struggle mightily in Japan! But it definitely made for a good laugh.
Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to the Historic Gardyner Village in West Jordan to meet Dan & Krystal for family pictures. Krystal knew of an awesome little photo studio there and it did not disappoint! Here are a few of the favorites from the shoot:
Love this one of the Reynolds clan!!
This one was my favorite of the three of us. I like the woodsy background.
Shouldn't this be on the cover of a magazine! These two are just the cutest, and they obviously love each other already!
Big brown eyes!
My favorite picture of little man. He is getting big so fast - make it stop!
We walked around and soaked in all the fall beauty that Utah has to offer after the photo shoot. It was absolutely picturesque.
As you can surmise by the last photo, Vinnie was pretty sleepy by the end of our time there. Mike took him home for a nap and I ventured out with Mom, Dad & Carter to go see Collin's football game! Collin was starting QB and did AWESOME. He is one athletic little dude, it was fun to see the Terrace Titans score the win in double overtime!
This one is the best action shot of Collin sacking the QB from the opposing team. Good job bud!
Carter and Quincy playing around during the game
The whole Collin fan club!
Grant and Marie had to attend a wedding during the party but they were nice enough to let us use their home to host Cal's party! This was particularly useful since they have two TVs and we wanted to have the Alabama football game on one and the BYU playing on the other. It was a lot of fun to eat, play games, and watch our teams!
All the boy cousins - Isaac, Quincy, Carter, Calvin & Collin
Aunt Krystal made this darling BYU cake for Calvin! It was seriously one of the cutest cakes ever. It was a shame he smashed it - BUT he and Saffron really enjoyed smashing and the older cousins LOVED the cake so it did not go to waste!
Family picture before the cake smash!
Proof that he loves frosting just as much as his daddy does!
Cousin Saffron joined in to help/practice for her big day which is also coming up right around the corner!
And the cousins most definitely did not let one bite of that cake go to waste! The benefit of having lots of little boy cousins.
Jana got this awesome cake for Calvin! Which really saved the day because I had intended to make peach pies and that totally fell through - so everyone really enjoyed having some cake!
This was taken after our drive back home on Sunday and Calvin got his bath. Margie made this darling hooded towel for Calvin with his name embroidered on it and he really loves it!
It was such a fun trip and we are enjoying a huge box of produce that my parents sent home with us - Utah peaches, corn on the cob, and squash. Fall, football, family, and friends - a pretty good weekend if you ask me!
