Welcome Noah

 Today I started babysitting a little baby named Noah.  Our family fell in love with him on the very first day.  He is so little and sweet and so cuddly.  He smiles all the time and is a very good baby.  Katie looooooooves him!  She was so excited to hold him and wanted to help me with everything.  She loved feeding him his bottle and wanted to change his diaper all by herself.  She is convinced that she knows how because she changes her babies bum all the time.  I'm glad that she will have this chance to take care of and love a real baby because she won't be having any younger siblings.  It will be fun to have him in our home!

Jadon is 15!

 Jadon turned 15 one week ago.  I didn't post anything about him on the very day of his birthday because he was in Atlanta, Georgia.  About a month ago, my brother, Paul, told me that he had some extra tickets to a Braves game that was on July 18th.  Paul was going to be in Atlanta for work so he said Jadon could stay with him.  I was so excited because Jadon has always talked about going to a major league baseball game.  I talked to a friend of ours who works for Delta and arranged to get two buddy passes.  I decided I wanted Jaxon to go with him.  I REALLY wanted to go too but knew that Jaxon might not get a chance like this again.  On the Monday before his birthday, at dinner, we told him that he was going to a Braves game for his birthday and he was leaving that night.  He was pretty surprised at first and got more and more excited as he was packing to leave. 

 Since they had buddy passes, they had to fly standby.  They were scheduled to go on the flight that left at 12:50 am.  We left for the airport just before 10:00 p.m.  When we got to the airport Jadon and Jaxon were excited and acting really silly.  When we were checking in, they were weighing themselves on the scale that you weigh your luggage on.  The Delta employee was pretty annoyed with him.  They didn't care.  So, after we were all checked in, we sat and waited.  We kept watching the screen that said what # of standby passengers they were.  As it got closer to the time to board, Jadon was getting a little nervous about making it on the flight.  Finally, we looked up at the screen and their names were moved from the standby list to the passengers to board list.  They both got very excited and Jaxon screamed.  It was like Christmas morning.  So I sent them on a plane, by themselves, and went home.

 I sent my camera with Jadon so he could take pictures and tell me all about his trip.  This was taken from the window of their hotel.  They spent a lot of time in the hotel while Paul was at work.  They went swimming and even took their baseball mits in the water to play catch. They walked to Arby's for lunch one day and watched a lot of TV.

 It was finally Thursday, the day of the game.  When they got there it was pouring and there was a rain delay that lasted over an hour.  They were texting me and telling me this.  I was getting worried that they wouldn't be able to have a game and the trip would be a waste.  I was glad to finally hear that they removed the tarp from the field and the game was going to start.

 Jadon would text me throughout the game letting me know what was happening.

 It turned out to be a very exciting game.  It was tied for several innings and then the Braves were down 3-1.  One of the braves players hit a two run homerun to tie the game again.  This all happened in the 10th inning.  They actually went into an 11th inning but ended up losing.  Jadon said it was a very exciting game and loved it.  During the game, my friend that got the buddy passes for them, let me know that the flight they were scheduled to come home on, the next morning, was suddenly overbooked and the chances of them coming home weren't very good.  So while Jadon was having a blast at the game, I was at home worried about how I was going to get them home.  They called me after the game was over, which was after midnight eastern time, and they were all way pumped up and very excited.  I let them know that they were probably going to be in Atlanta longer than they thought.  Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night because I was worried about them coming home.  They were suppose to be on an 8:30 am flight.  They went to the airport but didn't get on that flight, or the next one.  The flight attendants told them there wasn't much chance they would make it on any flights the rest of the day.  So Paul took them to the hotel and he went to work.  My friend didn't think there was much of a chance that they would get on any flights on Friday either and their best bet was going to be Saturday morning.  I just wanted my boys to come home!

Since they knew they weren't coming home, and Paul had finished all his work, they went to a place in GA called stone mountain and went on a sky hike.  This was their 3rd attempt to go to this place and they finally made it in.  Jadon and Jaxon both said it was a lot of fun.  Paul and I decided that they should go to the airport after that and at least try and get on the last flight of the night at 9:40.  It didn't look very good and we decided that if they didn't make that flight, they would bag trying it on Friday and wait until Saturday morning.  It was 7:40 at home and I hadn't heard anything from them.  I assumed they didn't make it on the flight.  At 7:45 (5 minutes after the flight was suppose to leave) I texted Paul for an update.  He said the people were still boarding and they were still waiting.  I had no hope of them getting on that flight.  About 5 minutes later, Jadon called to tell me that they made it and were the last 3 people on the plane.  I didn't believe him!  While I was talking to him, our Delta friend called and told me they made it on the plane.  I still couldn't believe it!  I was so relieved and happy that my boys were coming home!  I found out the next day that two people gave up their seats for my boys.  All those prayers must have worked.  When Jadon and Jaxon got home, I asked them if all the boredom in the hotel and all the waiting at the airport was worth it.  They said for sure!  I asked Jadon if he would fly standby again and he said yes.  I'm so glad that they had this oppurtunity.  Jadon deserved to have such a good birthday.  He's such a great kid and I am so thankful to have him.  He continually tries to do what's right and is such a huge support to me.  He has had such a great summer.  He went to Lake Powell, EFY, Georgia and he is now on Pioneer Trek.  I really miss seeing him every day and not being able to communicate with him.  I hope that he and I always have the close relationship that we do now.  He is one of my best friends and I love him so much!  Happy Birthday Jadon.

Making memories

 Last weekend we made a lot of memories as a family.  We started out on Friday by going to Payson Lakes.  Some friends from our ward were getting together to go camping.  When we got there, a storm came in so we couldn't go out on the lake.  We just hung out and ate dinner.  After dinner, we all went on a short hike to the waterfall in the above picture. (Kierra is not in the picture because she stayed home to go to her friend's birthday party) We hung out around the fire with a few of our friends before going to bed.  In the morning, after breakfast, we all went down to the lake and had a great time playing for a few hours.  Another storm came in just as we were packing up our stuff to leave.  Darrell and Sharalee invited us to their cabin for the day so we left from Payson Lakes and headed to midway.  On our way out, we decided that we would take the big garbage from breakfast and dump it on the way.  Well, Dale put it on the tongue of the trailer to take it to the garbage but forgot it was there.

 We hadn't gone very far down the canyon when Dale looked in the rearview mirror and saw the broken garbage bag flying in the wind.  We didn't know what to do.  We didn't have any garbage bags to clean it up with.  We knew we couldn't leave it there.  Our kids were frustrated that we wanted to go back and clean it up because they were anxious to get to Sharalee's cabin.  We ended up going back to our campground and asking some people for some garbage bags.  When we went to clean it up, we got to use our emergency cones to let the traffic know to go around us.  Jadon was so excited because he didn't think we would ever use them.  We had all the kids help clean up the huge mess.  I hope they never forget that experience.

 While we were driving to the cabin, it was pouring most of the way.  Luckily, it stopped right before we got there and the kids were able to take rides on the four wheelers right away.  Soon after we got there, Dale drove down to pick Kierra up from her party.  While he was there, Jadon and I set up the trailer because the kids were begging to sleep there with their cousins.  We had a great night going on 4 wheeler rides, having dinner and playing games.  David and Susan were here from California so the only people missing were Crystal and Kris (she just had surgery and was recovering at home).

 The next day we had a yummy breakfast and then spent a few more hours playing.  Katie and Macey had a great time together playing in the playhouse.

 All the kids loved to go on 4 wheeler rides.  They would wait on the deck for the 4 wheelers to come back and all get so excited when it was their turn to ride.  Jadon loved driving them and didn't ever get sick of taking kids on rides.

 The girls had a great time together.  It is so much fun to watch them get along so well together.

 Several of the people had a fun time trying on Grandma's wig.  Katie loved posing for me.

Here is a great picture of all the Byers cousins, except Crystal.  We had such a great time together and made a lot of wonderful memories!

Oil burn

 Two weeks ago I was browning some pork and I burned my arm pretty good with the oil.  I was trying to put the meat into the hot oil and it all stuck together and slammed down into the oil and so the oil splashed up onto my arm.  I immediately put my arm under cold water.  As long as it was under water, it didn't hurt.  Within minutes of taking my arm out of the water, it hurt.  I had to keep doing the water thing for about 3 hours.  The 1st two pictures were taken the day after it happened.  The blister got bigger the next day but for some reason, I didn't get a picture of it.  It was so much fun to freak people out by showing them the blister.  It was filled with fluid and was wiggly like a waterbed.  Everyone said it looked like something different.  I think it looks like a big leaf with a cocoon on it. 

 Two days after I burned it, the blister popped.  Jaxon and I were messing around and he barely scraped my arm and it popped.  The fluid went all over him, the counter and the floor.  We talked to a doctor who told us that once it pops, we had to get all the burned skin off of it so that it wouldn't get infected.  So that's what Dale is doing in this picture.  He cut off all the skin.  It was pretty tender so I kept it wrapped up with neosporin on it.  Once again, no picture.

 This is how it looked two days after the blister popped after Dale was able to get ALL the burned skin off.

This is how it looks today, two weeks after it happened.  I'm glad it's finally almost better!

A little mud never hurt anyone!

Jadon and I waiting for the race to start

Kyson was in the "little mudder" race
which started after ours.

 Yesterday Jadon, Kyson and I got to run in a mud race with some of our friends.  It was such a blast!  It was held at a motorcross track so there were small hills we had to run up and down and then complete lots of different obstacles in an  obstacle coarse.  It was a 5k so we had to go around the coarse 3 times to complete it.

Amy, Kara, Me and Carolynn just before the race.

We're off!  Not much mud yet.

 When I found out that there was going to be monkey bars in the race, I tried to go across some at my friends house a week before the race.  I only made it across a few bars.  I was so disappointed because I thought I was stronger than that.  So, I made a goal for myself to get across the monkey bars during the race.  I did it!!! I was so excited when I got across.  The 2nd time around, my hands were so tired and I dropped into the mud in the middle.  I didn't care, I conquered my goal!

 This is me crossing this rope climbing thing.  It's actually higher off the ground than it looks.  We had to climb up a wall of tires to get on the ropes, then cross the ropes.  It was awesome!

 This was one of my favorite parts.  We started out walking through this little mud stream but eventually crawled/swam through it because that was more fun!

            We had to get a running start to get up the muddy hills or we would slide back down.  Sometimes we had to try several times before we made it up.

 We all stayed together throughout the run and crossed the finish line together.

 The 2nd time around was really fun because we knew the coarse and got muddier.  We got in lots of mud fights and had a great time laughing and getting dirty together!

 Jadon and I after the race

 Jadon went around with Kyson for his race but I was getting cleaned up so I didn't get to go and take pictures.  Kyson said it was super fun!  This is Jadon and Kyson getting cleaned up in the muddy swimming pool.

They also had some super powerful hoses to clean off with but they were also super cold.  It was so funny to watch him and Jadon get washed off.  I definately want to go back next year and do this again.  This time I want to take my whole family!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July this year!  At the last minute, I decided that I wanted to go to the traditional Brighton parade.  We joined Lisa's family and Sandy's family.  The kids had a great time, like always, catching the candy.  After the parade, we spent a few hours visiting at the cabin.  It was so nice to be in the cool mountains with my family.  Later in the afternoon, we went to Lisa's house to go on the super duper slip-n-slide.  The kids had a blast!  I took a lot of fun pictures with Lisa's camera but I haven't been able to get them on my computer yet so I couldn't post them.  By the time we were all done with the slip-n-slide and dinner, we were too tired to go see any fireworks so we just went home.  We did get to see some fireworks on the way home.  We had a great day.  It was so much fun to spend the day together to celebrate the 4th of July!

Jadon at EFY

Jadon and Andrew waiting in line to check in

Yesterday Jadon got home from his week at EFY.  He went with his friend, Andrew to Utah State.  Dale and I took him up there on Monday morning.  It always brings back so many great memories when I go to Logan.  It was hard for me to leave him there.  I went to EFY when I was his age and LOVED it!  I wanted to be a kid again and stay there with him and have all the fun that I knew he was going to have.

I was so happy that he would text me every night and tell me some of the things that he did that day.  It's hard to write a post about something that I didn't get to particpate in.  He said he made a lot of new friends and his favorite thing about EFY were the dances.  We made him pay half of the money that it cost to go there.  He worked hard being an umpire for baseball games to get the money.  He told me it was worth it so that made me happy.  I'm glad that he could have such a wonderful  oppurtunity!


Jadon with his group (they call it a company) at EFY