Awesome book

So I just have to put in a plug for a great book I just read. It is called,"The Incredible Gifts of Women - 12 Gifts That Will Change Your Life Now" by Barbara Barrington Jones.

She addresses the many thoughts that women have about being overwhelmed, exhausted, unhappy, depressed, hard on ourselves, and many other things. I came away from reading it determined to be a better wife and mother. It was awesome to read about other people's lives and how they have overcome challenges and trials. I am determined to not let Satan have a handle on me and tear me down like he is trying so hard to do right now. His emphasis is on the family - especially on the woman in the family. We can do this if we unite together.

Funny

Yesterday I was up in Salt Lake watching Tanner mow the lawn at one of our duplexes. This particular duplex is on a major intersection. I was standing next to Bradley when a guy comes running down the sidewalk with very short shorts on and no shirt. Bradley quickly pipes up, "He naked" as he is pointing to this guy. He says it about 3 times, I couldn't do anything but laugh. This guy practically looked naked to me also with such short shorts :).

A couple of weeks ago we were all downstairs watching the BYU football game. Byron had pulled out the sunflower seeds and each kid was eating them. Johnathan would grab one seed, take forever to shell it, eat it, then come and get another one. This particular time, he had been trying to shell the seed for about 2 minutes, when he all of a sudden says, "Aaaaaahhhhhh, there is no seed!" He was quite disappointed after so much work. Tanner quickly says, "You must have gotten the seedless kind."

These kids are constantly making me laugh.

Fishing - second and third time around

So Byron had to try out fishing again with the family after his first fishing trip was such a great success. The first time he took Camille & Johnathan at 5:30 a.m. up to Silver Lake in American Fork Canyon on a Saturday morning. They had a great time. I am so glad that Camille loves taking her camera wherever she goes to catch these awesome memories. They were the first ones to the lake and enjoyed quite a bit of time all to themselves.

They caught one fish while there. There were a group of Boy Scouts next to them that caught 4 fish and gave them to Byron before they left. Lucky Byron got to bring home 5 - as soon as he got home, he took the bucket full of fish and dumped them out on the grass in the backyard. The kids were very intrigued with fish flapping around. Soon they quit moving and Byron went ahead and gutted them. There was no way I was going to watch - Camille & Johnathan joined me in the house while the rest were loving every moment of it.
Johnathan

Byron with his catch!

Camille & Johnathan

Parker & Bradley watching the fish.

The following Monday, we went as a family for FHE up Tibblefork Reservoir. We arrived around 5 p.m. and enjoyed about 2 hours of fishing. There were so many fish jumping out of the water all around us -- I couldn't believe the show we got from them. The kids loved taking turns. We had bought a smaller fishing pole and Tanner bought one, so with 3 poles it was a lot more enjoyable. The canyons were starting to change colors and were just beautiful that time of day. Camille & I enjoyed taking pictures of the surroundings.

Tanner ended up catching a fish that was pretty small. We ended up throwing it back in so we didn't have to deal with taking it with us.

Cute Parker

Byron

Tanner with his fish he caught.

Bradley & I

Poor Bradley got too close to the shore and fell face first into the rocks. He wasn't very happy about having dirt all over himself. I just couldn't resist this picture moment.

Camille & Bradley fishing together

Johnathan

Parker & Carter

Here is Johnathan sitting so patiently. The surroundings were gorgeous!

Tanner & Camille spending time together.
Byron & I

Bradley & Camille
Just before the sun went down the water looked gorgeous with all of the shadows.

We had such a great time. We are so blessed to have such beautiful surroundings and places so close where we can go together.

Uncle Adam and BYU football game

We haven't seen Adam since we went up to Rexburg in February. He found a ride with two girls who were coming down for the BYU football game. I am so glad he came - it was great to see him even if it wasn't for long enough. He came Friday night and spent the night with Dallin & Allyson. Then they brought him to our house Saturday afternoon right before we had to leave for the game.

Luckily we got 4 tickets this year so Adam came with Byron, Tanner & I. The level of excitement for the first home game was very high. It was fun attending the pre-game show and getting some free things including a piece of pizza.
Before we went up to our seats, we went to a lower area to look at the field. We were so close and could see Max Hall (#15) out practicing with the team. Tanner and Byron were especially excited to see him.
Tanner - my big BYU fan! Tanner is fun to go to games with because he is so into them. He has such an amazing understanding of football also. He definitely puts me to shame when it comes to knowing what is going on. He also isn't asking for food the whole time like most of my children are when they attend a game.

Max Hall (#15)

Byron, Tanner & I before the game started.

Lavell Edwards was at the game - I was able to zoom in with my camera and get a pretty shot.

It was fun to have Jeff get season tickets right behind us this year. He brought Alyssa with him. She was so cute enjoying every aspect of the game.

Adam & I


The game was a complete disaster. Not a great first home game. BYU broke the 18 home game winning streak. The ending score was 28-54 (Florida State). There is nothing like the cool atmosphere that comes with attending games at Lavell Edward's Stadium, though. Being around so many die hard BYU fans is amazing!

Sunday morning we had fun spending time with Adam before he left to go back to BYU-Idaho. Bradley is so funny - he gets so nervous around new people at first. For some reason he was nervous to get near his Uncle Adam for the 30 minutes or so on Saturday when he came. Then on Sunday after he woke up it took him about 30 more minutes to get himself used to him again. He kept on telling Adam, "You freak me out." I got such a good laugh at this. He finally couldn't keep his uncle out of his sight and was practically following him into the bathroom.

Here are some fun pictures taken before we left.

Camille, Carter, Parker, Adam, Bradley, Tanner & Johnathan

Utah State Fair

Every year we go to the Utah State Fair as a family - usually on family night when kids 12 and under are free and adults get in for the price of a child. The only bad thing about this is we had a 13 year old now. Oh well - not as cheap as it used to be for us, but definitely worth the trip.

The skies were looking pretty scary as we were heading up to Salt Lake. Sure enough as we entered the area, it started to rain. Luckily we had umbrellas and most of what we like to see at the fair is indoors.

(Camille has her own camera that she willingly takes pictures with, so most of these are from her camera - She is really good and takes pictures of things that I wouldn't have thought to take one of. The top picture of the rain she took - isn't it a cool picture.) Carter & Parker

Johnathan in front of a cool ram - he was fascinated with the horns.

Bradley checking out the pig.

ParkerParker, Tanner & Carter

Parker by a pumpkin that was massive!

Camille, Parker and Carter checking out the bees.

The kids love looking at the cool butter sculptures every year - they never cease to amaze us - Carter & Parker loved it!

Johnathan

Parker looking at this huge turkey - it is almost as tall as him:).

Carter being cute as ever.

My beautiful Camille!

Here is a cool picture that Camille took.

Camille & Bradley
We went to a really cool alligator show. We waited for about 1 hour for it to begin. We wanted to make sure we got covered seating since it was still raining pretty hard. The show was definitely worth the wait. It was hilarious and very entertaining. Bradley even enjoyed watching. After the show we were able to get a picture with a baby alligator.
Tanner, Camille & Johnathan waiting in line to get the picture.
An awesome picture taken by one of the workers at the show - I thought it turned out great. Tanner, Camille, Bradley, Johnathan, Carter & Parker
Here are the kids petting the alligator after the picture. They were very brave and loved the cool feel of the scales on the alligator.

We had a great night. I actually loved the fact that it rained because there were a lot less people than normal and so it wasn't as crowded. I think this was one of my favorite times going in a few years.

Lagoon

Nu Skin is such an awesome company to work for. The past 4 or so years, they have had their Summer Company Party at Lagoon. My children look forward to this day with such excitement. We went on September 11th. Melissa met us there and we enjoyed a fun filled evening. Camille, Tanner, Johnathan & Melissa practically went on the bigger rides the whole time while Byron, Bradley, Carter, Parker & I went on the rides that they could go on. Every once in a while we were lucky to run into the older kids with Melissa.

The very first ride we went on was the Rock-O-Plane. I think we were the first ones to go on this ride - Parker & I went first - After going around one time I started feeling pretty sick. I think Parker wanted to have the seat go upside down, but there was no way I was going to have it. Because we were the only person on the ride, I think the person running it gave us an extra long ride. I felt pretty sick for the next 30 minutes - luckily it left, though. Byron went with Carter right after we got off. He was very daring - he went in circles both ways and after going around 4 times asked the person to stop. He was the smart one :). Carter loved every bit of it.
Here Byron is on the Rock-O-Plane with Carter.

After our first ride, we headed to the bathrooms. While there we ran into Melissa and the older children. Camille & Tanner wanted to ride "Centennial Screamer." Every time we have been to Lagoon lately, this ride has been closed. This was their first chance to ride it. I don't think at first they knew what to expect, but loved it.

Here are Parker & Carter patiently waiting since they weren't tall enough to ride.

We next headed to the "Musik Express." I absolutely love this ride. Byron & Melissa can't go on rides that go in circles, so I went with all of the children except for Bradley. I am glad the older kids were with us as Byron was taking pictures, because these are the only pics I have of them.

Byron riding with Parker & Carter on the "Sky Ride." I waited with Bradley at the one end while they went back and forth to see all of Lagoon.

Bradley enjoying the deer while we are waiting for Byron and the boys to get back.

Cute Bradley!

Bradley & I

Parker, Byron & Carter on the way back.

Byron, Bradley & I on the train. I don't think Carter & Parker were very excited about riding this ride - they wanted to go on something more exciting:).

Parker on the airplane.

This was Bradley's second time riding "Puff." He was totally fine the first time, but was having such a hard time convincing himself about going on it again. He looked scared to death - I don't know what to do with this kid:). He won't ride any of the kids rides without Byron or I. He is content just watching in the stroller. Parker & Carter enjoying the ride.

The only ride that Bradley would ride without Byron or I were these cars. He hopped right inside without any reservations and loved the whole ride. I was so nervous that halfway through he would try to get out. Carter was a great big brother to ride with him.

Parker Parker

Bradley

Being 7 and not being able to ride most rides that even 5 year olds can ride really stinks! They are 41 1/2" (Parker) or 41 3/4" (Carter), so we were hoping that the workers would be lenient and let them ride what might be their first real roller coaster, "The Bat." They had to be 42" to ride this ride, so before going to Lagoon I went to about 5 different stores looking for shoes with a high sole. I came away with nothing - mostly because I couldn't see myself paying $25+ for shoes. We were just hoping and praying they would still have a good experience anyways.

As we headed towards "The Bat," I was pretty nervous - as we measured them they were just a tad small. Luckily the worker just let us get on without making them get measured. They were so excited and absolutely loved the ride. The second time they went on it, however, the worker did measure them and wasn't going to let them ride. Luckily he was nice and did.

Melissa with Carter & Parker their second time riding "The Bat."

Melissa got pretty wet riding a previous ride with the older kids. Here she is in line with Carter getting ready to get on the ride.

Here is Parker before his ride.

I love this picture - Byron riding with Carter & Parker on the swings. I'm sure they thought they had the "Coolest Dad" to ride this with them. I love how close Byron's feet come to hitting the ground.

Parker on the carousel.
Parker on the rooster.
Bradley would only sit on this ride with Byron right next to him - even then he wasn't sure at all.
Byron had to keep convincing he would be alright.

We had such a great time. It was so nice to have Melissa keeping the older kids happy with every roller coaster they wanted to ride. I think all of the kids had fun. We were there from 5-11 p.m. and we were able to ride every ride as many times as we wanted. Thanks Melissa for coming with us and probably getting talked into riding more than you wanted :).