Busy busy week

It has been quite the exciting and emotional week for us here in the Butler world.  It started with the stirring news last weekend that the backpacking trip we have been planning since January to the Havasupai Indian reservation was canceled.  4 months of planning, shopping, and getting excited all lost in a single moment!  Why was the trip canceled, do you ask?  Because the Indian Village that runs the area is afraid of catching the swine flu. Yup, that's right.  The swine flu ruined our plans!  So we've been re-organizing and planning and are now going to be spending a few days in Arches National Park.  We are excited and neither of us have been to arches, so it'll still be a fun trip, it's just not the trip we were originally planning.  We are also excited to meet up with Bryce and Hidie later next week to do some camping and hiking in the Escalante area.  I'm sure we'll have a full detail post of our trip in about  a week.

Also this last week, Carynn's family reached a milestone in their lives.  Carynn's youngest brother Riley went into the MTC on Wednesday to prepare to serve in the California Los Angeles mission and to learn the Spanish Language! We are so proud of him and

 know these next 24 months will go by faster than we think.  It was a

 very hard and emotional day for all of us, even for Scott who had to spend an entire afternoon in Happy Valley!  But we had a good time and we know Riley, I mean Elder Groves, will be a great missionary!

To cap off our hectic week, Scott participated in the Graduation Commencement Ceremonies at the University of Utah!  He received his diploma back in January but Carynn encouraged him to walk with his class at commencement anyway. It was fun and memorable, especially as Scott walked to the front of the room to receive his certificate and be recognized, we all heard his name announced as "Scott Warner Butler Mann."  He put the Mann part on last minute just for fun!  We all got a good laugh. The University Commencement was Carynn's favorite part because the guest speaker was the renowned author and historian David Mchollough.  He is best known for his biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams and his most recent book 1776.  He gave a wonderful speech that was very inspiring!  Well, for me anyway.  

To celebrate Scott's graduation we had a big family picnic at Liberty Park on Friday night.  It was fun to get all the siblings and nieces and nephews together and even have Katie and Tyler up form Las Vegas!  We are blessed to have such supportive families and friends. 

For a graduation gift Carynn, her parents, and Scott's mom gave Scott and DSLR camera that he hasn't been able to let go of since he got it!  These pictures are just a few he's experimented with.  As he learns how to use the camera I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more pictures, especially from our upcoming camping adventure!