Kids...

I really have no idea how to write what I want to say.  I have a lot of emotions right now.  Anger, sadness, pride (I'm proud of Kyler), frustration.  I really don't want to forget this and I am not the best at writing in my journal so, I'll do my best...

Today I was talking to my sister, Kaycee and I overheard Kyler talking to Wes and I hear the words, "they beat me up".  Those are 4 of the worst words a mother could hear! I see Wes run out the door, closely followed by Kyler.  I say to Kaycee - I gotta go, bye! I hang up the phone and run out the door trying to catch up with Wes and Kyler and see what is going on!  Delaney and three of her friends were left there wondering what in the world just happened! I catch up a bit and ask Kyler what is going on.  Apparently a couple of teenagers threw him down on the ground and started kicking him.

Now, I am not one of those parents that thinks that their kid can do no wrong but I wasn't about to let something like this happen to my kid!  So, off we trek through the village looking for a couple of punk teens. (did I mention I have no shoes on?)  When we got to the park I saw a couple kids I knew so I asked if they saw what happened.  Kyler has been known to exaggerate once in a while (not sure where he gets that trait) and I wanted to be sure before I started tearing into these boys that I got the real story.

I was told that these two boys were picking on one of Kyler's friends.  Kyler stepped up to them and told them to leave him alone and so they knocked him down and kicked him.  I am not okay with big kids picking on smaller kids.  And Kyler is the same size as Delaney.  He is small, but really strong.  If it were only one boy Kyler surely could have held his own.  I think it might have intimidated him that there were two.  Kyler is one of the kindest kids you will ever meet.  He has a huge heart and would do anything for anyone.

They didn't do a lot of damage.  Mostly pride, but it did hurt him.  He was crying and if you know Kyler, you know he doesn't cry for little things.  He is very tough.  Anyway, lucky for us our village is small enough that everyone knows everyone.  We were told who one of the boys were and exactly where he lives.  We talked to him and his mother and the kid apologized.  The other kid, I know his mother and will have a nice talk with her tomorrow.

I am so happy that he didn't get hurt badly and I am so proud of him to stick up for his friend.  The park was full of kids and everyone else just watched while Kyler stood up for him and then got kicked for it.  That takes a lot of courage.

I hope that we can all have friends like Kyler.  I hope we can all BE friends like Kyler.

Just Dance!

**For some reason I never posted this, so I am now.  I don't have a video of Fressia and I, it is lost somewhere in our pictures on the computer and I am too lazy to look for them.  I can't remember the date, but I know it was a year or two ago.


We got the awesome game Just Dance 2 for the Wii from my mom for Christmas. At first I thought it was going to be kind of lame - I had never seen it before. Well, I was totally wrong! I love the game! I love how spazzy people look trying to do it!

Here is a video of Delaney -

Here is Kyler -

And because he is so darn cute, another one of Kyler -



Now, when Fressia was here we thought we would try it out and have some fun. Of course we couldn't let the kids play - that is just how I am! So, they watched and Rylan had the camera. I am only showing one video (I hope you don't mind, Fressia) I thuoght it was too funny not to share. We had a lot of fun! (at least I hope Fressia did, because I sure did!)

Rylan got a little bored waiting for us and decided to leave a message on my camera -



We are dorks, but we are having fun!

Extreme sports show and Rugby

We were able to get tickets to an Extreme Sports Show.  It was a lot of fun!  The kids had the perfect view!  Wes, Rylan and I didn't but we could still see well enough.  Kyler and Delaney were so close to the action!  Totally great weekend activity!

BMX

 Motorcycles.  They were so high it was incredible!

 After the show.  The cars in the background have just recently been smashed by a monster truck! Which, by the way, was driven by "The Stig"

Kyler loves sports.  He loves anything that has to do with being outside and running around.  They have lots of sports clubs here and he just seems to be a natural and loves all of them!  He has been in a football (soccer) tournament, Netball tournament and now Rugby.  It was flag rugby so we had no broken bones or bloody faces, thank goodness!  Kyler did awesome and got 4 tries. (he scored 4 times) It's funny how people here say their sports are like American sports.  They really aren't.  Netball is "just like basketball"  No, it's not.  Nothing like basketball actually, other than the hoop.  There isn't even a backboard.  Rugby is "just like American football".  Nope.  Try again.  Not even close.
Anyway, off subject again...

Kyler did great and loves learning all these new sports!

* So, I forgot to add a bit to this rugby story and I don't want to forget it.  Kyler had his uniform on with no undershirt.  Usually that wouldn't be a big deal, but there were more kids than jerseys so he had to share his.  He was totally embarrassed and didn't want to sit there with no shirt for part of the game.  I had on a white t-shirt, a light jacket and a warmer jacket. So, being the totally awesome mom that I am I gave him my warmer jacket to wear.  He still looked really uncomfortable so I decided I could take off my white shirt and let him use it.  Only problem was, there was nowhere to change!  No problem! I zipped up my light jacket and worked some magic!  As far as I know, nobody really knew what I was doing, and if they did they can just chalk it up to us being "crazy Americans!"  Kyler was a bit embarrassed at first, but then he realized I can take my shirt off without anyone seeing and was ok with it.  Telling the story to Rylan I said - you are lucky, your mom is a tricky stripper!  He didn't think that was funny and asked me to never say that again! :)

Bank Holiday Monday

I have no idea what the Holiday celebrates but the entire country had Monday of last week off.  Everyone just called it "Bank holiday Monday"  I'm not complaining, other than everyone in the country BUT Wes had the day off.  He wasn't able to be with us because he had to be in London for work.  It happened to be one of the two days of our summer.  I've been told that summer here only lasts a week, if we are lucky.  This year - three days.  Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Now it is winter again.  Anyway, I'm getting a bit off subject.  Our ward decided for the holiday to have a nice little picnic.  There is a place called Westwood that is just a huge chunk of land where animals and people roam.  There are always people walking around there - rain or shine.  Luckily that day it was definitely shining!  We hung out with friends, ate lunch and played an exciting game of Rounders.  I've been told Rounders is like american baseball.  It isn't.  Other than it has bases and people not much else is the same.  They use itty bitty bats.  Not like children's bats, I'm talking really little baby bats.  They have an extra base also.  It was fun.  I still don't understand fully how to play but it was fun anyway!  We brought our "American bats" and everyone loved it!  Oh, did I mention no mitts?  Yeah, its a soft-ish ball but still, I like my mitt.

Anyway, I gave Delaney the camera and asked her to take pictures because the boys and I wanted to play Rounders and she didn't.

Needless to say, the pictures aren't really that great. :)

 A fun rope swing we found in the trees!

 Delaney's piano teacher is multi-talented.  She used to be a gymnast.  Delaney has wanted to be able to do a cartwheel for a long time and I can't seem to teach her.  She is a bit of a spaz.  Anyway, I think she's got it down now!

Bike ride

Last Sunday the weather was pretty nice so we decided to go for a little family bike ride.  We usually only go about 3 miles but the weather was perfect so we decided to do some exploring and ended up going about 10-15 miles.  It was beautiful!

I get to run this path every day too.

Me & Stanley ready to roll!

 Look how pretty!  I just love the shadows, that might be because we don't see them very often because the sun is always hiding behind clouds - but whatever.

 Riding through the neighboring village.

Stanley chilled and enjoying the ride!

 What a stud.

I love this picture. 

We stopped to check out the cute little lambs!

He was SO soft!

I just love him!

In the middle of nowhere there was a bench.  So, we stopped and relaxed a bit.

We saw a bunch of chickens wandering the street.

 Stinkin' Rylan won't look at the camera for a picture.

Flat Stanley

I got the chance to show Flat Stanley around!  It was so much fun for me! Wes thought I looked like a mental patient carrying a paper doll around everywhere, but I had fun!  My niece, Jayci, sent him to me.  I was so excited to get him in the mail!

 Delaney got to take him to school with her.

She and her friends looked up Utah on a map.  They had a lot of fun with Stanley!

 She is like her dad, if the sun is shining, don't plan on getting a picture with her face/eyes. :)

 Stanley enjoying PE class.

After school we decided to show Stanley the phone booth.

I love these things!

Stanley went on a bike ride with us.

 He even helped me make 200 cinnamon rolls for a church activity!