Poor Bradley...

For those of you who are under the impression that soccer is not a contact sport, try playing in a 25 and older male league. Being one of the better players on the field, Brad is often targeted and comes home with bruises and scrapes, he is fairly used to being a little achy and sore on Mondays. A few weeks ago, his ribs were pretty sore after a game. He figured they were just bruised, but found out at the doctor this week that he has a hairline fracture on one of his ribs. Yes, he cracked his rib being a "grass fairy". So if any of you are still convinced that soccer is a wussy sport, I will show you Brad's x-ray or the surgery scar on my knee.

Mostly sweet, but maybe just a little creepy...

Donovan and I had one of the most random things happen to us at Walmart today. Donovan was a little grumpy, he has had some stomach problems and a yucky diaper rash, so I took him to the toy section to walk around and play before we got in the car to go home. Some guy (probably in his late 40's) walks up and starts talking to him and trying to give him high five and I thought that was it, but he just stood there and stared at Donovan and told me what a beautiful baby he was. This is how our conversation went:

Strange guy: Wow, he is a beautiful baby. You did a really good job with this one, congratulations.

Me: Thank you.

SG: I don't know where your husband is, but I wish I could tell him he did a good job too. Wow, that is so cool.

Me: I am pretty sure he knows, thank you. (I said this in a nice way, even though it may sound rude).

I think he is walking away, but he stops again.

SG: Man, it makes me wish I could have met someone (tears in his eyes, seriously) before I got too old. That is so neat. Wow, Congratulations.

Me: Thank you. (what else could I have said?)

It was really sweet and even touched my cold heart a little, but it was a teeny bit creepy just because it was so random. I actually almost teared up a little because it made me think of how sad it would be if I never had any kids. I would be missing out on so much. For those of you who never want kids, I promise, you will regret it if you don't. There is nothing like the love of a child and I am glad I was reminded of this, even if it was a little creepy.

More videos of our awesome child

He is such a little monkey. I swear we didn't teach him how to climb, he has figured it out all by himself and is using it to get into EVERYTHING!


Donovan loves to laugh at foreign languages. He was going hysterical in Yellowstone when I would say "gracias" in a silly voice, and last night he though it was hilarious when Brad was saying, "it's hot" in Portuguese.


Here is an even better video of his "dada" sign.



And last but most certainly not least, his walking. He has had much better streaks than this, I promise, he had just eaten lunch and was a little tipsy. He is getting more interested in it though so hopefully he will keep getting better until he doesn't even give a second thought to crawling. I love how he still walks with his arms in the air.

Our child is a genius

We have been working on a little bit of sign language with Donovan, not a whole lot, but he has picked up on one sign and does it all the time...can you guess what it is?


Yes, he loves his daddy. We have tried to teach him mommy, but he just does "dada" instead. He used to love me more, but I think those days have passed.

My other favorite thing is when he says "nanana" and shakes his head.


He also waves and says "buh buh", but I haven't been able to get that on video.

I know many of you probably want to know the update on the walking situation. All I can say is, he has his days. Yesterday all he wanted to do was stand up and walk. He can already stand all by himself from the ground which is really cute and he walks pretty well, when he actually wants to walk. I just can't get it on video, sorry. I am going to work on it this evening, hopefully he will cooperate.

Anyway, enough showcasing of our child's talents. He is cute and sweet (unless he is biting me) and becoming more and more fun every day!

Dave Matthews Band

For those of you who don't know, Brad is a HUGE Dave Matthews fan. When I met him I could have cared less, but I have become hooked. Tickets for their concert in Omaha went on sale in April and of course we had to buy them! Unfortunately, after I got the initial tickets, I was greedy and tried for better ones and got HORRIBLE seats. We were still excited to go, but when we got there last night we realized just how bad the seats were. They were only about 2 sections away from the worst seats in the whole place. After listening to Ingrid Mikelson, who was awesome live by the way, I am now a fan, we decided that if there were still open seats in another section after 20 minutes into Dave we would move. The place was packed!! I am pretty sure they sold out, if not, it was pretty darn close. We ended up finding a place to stand across from the front of the stage in the lower bowl. It was SO much better. Even though we had to stand it was so much fun! I have gained a new appreciation for Dave and his band, they are so good live. I have been to the boy band concerts, don't get me wrong I love my boy bands, but this was incredible. It was so awesome to watch them play and see how much fun they were having. I really liked watching Dave dance, I could tell how much he loves his music and how much fun he has playing with his band. Brad, along with most of the older people in the joint, got really excited when they played "Sledge Hammer", a Peter Gabriel song. Tim Reynold's was there and according to Brad, that is one reason they sounded so good. If you don't know who that is, He and Dave have toured together, just the two of them and are very good friends...apparently. For those of you who are curious, we did not get high off of second hand pot smoke. We smelled it a few times, but I would just put my hand over my face and inhale as little as possible. Brad isn't as paranoid as I am so he just laughed at me, knowing we weren't going to get high just by being able to smell it. Unfortunately, we didn't attempt to sneak in a camera so we only got pictures on our phones, but they didn't turn out very good. I wish we would have tried, but they were pretty thorough with their searches, they even grabbed Brad's bum, pretty firmly according to him. I wish we could have gotten some video because they sounded so good! If you couldn't tell, we had a blast! Hopefully since the place was so packed, he will decide he wants to come to Omaha again, or wherever we end up in the next few years. Thank you Scott for watching Donovan so we could go!

So many pictures, so little time...

For those of you who have ever seen my father, you know this is almost the spitting image of him! As you can see we are still having a lot of fun with the Wii...thank goodness!Our trip to Utah and Yellowstone were great! Donovan got a lot of grandparent loving and he got to be outside in the dry heat, my favorite! I will try to limit my comments, it will be a miracle if any of you can read and see all the pictures in one sitting.

He loved playing in the water at my parents house, my mom would take him out to the pool to swim.
I think he liked floating on the "raft" the most.
Once he got out of the pool though, he went straight for the dirt. He is such a boy.
Of course we had to go down to Springville to see baby Colin, Kirsta, Nate, Caleb, and Granny and Papa. We didn't get a chance to see his other cousins, they were in Logan for the weekend.
Donovan loved Colin, all he wanted to do was touch him.
I'm sure they will be great friends someday.
He also got to play in Granny's pool! He loved going down the slide and playing with the wiffle balls.
He also liked to play with the bird bath like his cousin Mason, but thankfully didn't try to take a drink, he just filled it with rocks and dirt.
I look huge in this picture because Colin was so tiny, at least that is what I am telling myself.I got a picture of Donovan kissing Colin on Tia's camera, but they have been out of town and haven't had a chance to send it to me yet, but it is so cute!I don't know if Jayla likes Donovan, but he sure loves her! He is hoping that she will officially be his step cousin sometime soon! She is such a cute little girl! And such a little smarty pants!
"On the road again."

Donovan does not love riding in the car as much as he did before he could crawl. In fact, I think he hates the car. He still gets happy when I turn around and take pictures of him, but I'm sure that won't last much longer. On our way to Yellowstone, we stopped in Logan to see Bradley, he was up there helping out a friend. We met him for lunch at one of my favorite places, Cafe Rio. It was nice for Donovan to see his daddy before he had to be away from him for so long.Donovan Byron and Jean Byron, what a pair.
Donovan loved his great grandpa Jean, they are both so good looking. He made sure Donovan remembered why he is so handsome, it's because he has such a handsome great grandfather.
For all the time we spent in the car, he stayed pretty happy most of the time. I had to sing a lot though.
Playing with Molly while we waited for our rafts!
Both of us on our first rafting trip, don't worry, it wasn't white water rafting. I wish! We went on the scenic route down Yellowstone River with all the babies and mommies.
He loved watching the water and the oars. It was fun for him to see wild life outside of the river too.
He stayed happy most of the time, but it lasted almost 2 hours so he got pretty tired. He even fell asleep for a few minutes.
This is Tinley (sorry, I'm not sure how to spell her name), she is my cousin's little girl. She was so cute, our guide let her row for a little while. The oars were a little heavy and took her off her seat a couple of times, but she had a lot of fun and made sure everyone knew what she got to do.
The other boat.
My mother, being the person she is, had to ask if she could get in the water. Our guide was pretty cool so he let her and Alexis (Tinley's mom) even joined her. They said it was refreshing, but didn't stay in for long.Donovan couldn't get enough of Gabe's chair, he thought it was pretty cool. I hope Gabe didn't get too annoyed with him.
He loved Molly's swing. They are only about 2 weeks apart, but she is about 10 lbs lighter, maybe more.
Auntie Sheila and the boy.
Again, he is such a boy. All he wanted to do when we stopped was crawl on the asphalt.Tyler, my Mom, Aunt Diana, and my Dad. Wrong sister dad...my mom and Aunt Diana look a little bit alike and both have short hair, my dad almost smacked the wrong bum one night...
Mmmm...stolen cookie... My child is such a bully. He stole his cousin Molly's cookie and sat right in front of her to eat it. I just love that hat on him! I can't remember which waterfall we were headed to...
...but here it is!
Donovan with Little Craig. My Aunt Brenda married a Craig, so her's is Big Craig. Donovan woke Little Craig up almost every morning by pushing the bar stools all over the kitchen that was located right above his room. Yes, that is my sister, she went platinum.
"I love my Grandma!"
We saw a lot of wildlife in Yellowstone, I know, that's a shocker.
This was a black bear cub, he wouldn't come out of the grass! He was the only bear we saw.
Tower Falls.
Mammoth Hot Springs



The buffalo were pretty awesome.
This is the bug that tried to hitch a ride back to the cabin in Island Park. Isn't he ugly?
"Trotty Horsey"
Yes, my dad is smiling! Brad, Dustin, Erin, Jayla, Nich, and Mac were all missing.
"I'm sick of pictures..."
My mom and her siblings.
Checking out Mesa Falls.
Mesa Falls was pretty awesome.
Donovan, ShayLea, and Tyler.
Lower Mesa Falls
We found a boat dock that wasn't busy and went swimming. The water actually wasn't too cold so my mom and I jumped in and floated around while my dad and siblings watched Donovan. He liked to dig up the rocks.
"I'll drive"
"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." It's funny, now that I am out of the house, I appreciate and love my little sister.
Old Faithful is still faithful.
Driving back home through the Grand Tetons.
Random elk on the side of the road.
We went to visit Jessica a couple of days before we went home, it was nice to see and talk to her. Every time I get to talk to her it makes me want to move back so we can be closer and hang out more! She is such an awesome friend and Donovan loves Heath! It's nice that even though we don't get a chance to talk a whole lot, we can still pick up right where we left off. I love that about our friendship, but it still stinks that it has to be that way!!!
We enjoyed our time in Utah, hopefully we will be living closer in the next year or so. I couldn't believe how humid it was when we walked out of the airport in Omaha!!! It's so yucky out here! Regardless, it is good to be home with Bradley.