The night before the BIG surgery....

 

We had lots of people call and ask us if they could stop by and see Brayd and

since July 1st (the day of surgery) was Trav's Birthday,we decided to have a combo party.

 

 

 

Randy L, Chaw and her family and Brad!
We had lots of people drive up from Santaquin!

 Brayd and his friends Ethan and Taggert

Brad's family!
 They are always so good to us and support us in EVERYTHING!

The Barker's!

 And of course the LaForett's...
don't know what we would do with out the "Gurney Clan"

A BIG thanks to all of these great men!

Hanging out watching a movie

Brayd saying bye to Tyler,
she went and spent the night at the Laforett's
then Em will bring her up to the Hospital when Brayd is out of Surgery!
They are doing their Mr. Bean face

Brayd and Grandpa Gurney doing their "Mr Bean Face"

Before the dreaded Hair cut :(

We were trying to have a little fun... since we had to cut it.
He was not excited about it and it broke my heart having to to it.

Not so bad...with a hat on!

He wanted me to lay by him until he went to sleep
(which he never did so I stayed there until about 2:30 AM)
I am thankful for this boy of mine! He is one great kid and I am one Lucky mom!

 

Thanks to everyone that took the time to come see us!

We love you all....

I tried to get pictures of everyone that came, but I missed some of you... sorry!



Branson, MO 2013 Part 1

SLC Airport getting ready for our Trip to BRANSON!!!!!!
you can't tell by the look on Brayd's face but we really were EXCITED!!
It is a blessing we could even go. We only found out 3 days before that they were going to let Brayd go :)
Notice Tyler wriggling her tooth... it feel out why we were in Branson, but we didn't get a picture :(
6/14/13@ too early in the morning for Brayd to be happy!

Tyler and Brylie in the St Paul MN Airport.
We had a 2+ hour lay over,
it was a very nice airport to have a long  lay over at.
6/14/13

And we are here...well, almost
Kansas City, MO
now all we have to do is load up and Drive 3.5 hours to Branson.

We had to make a potty stop on our way to Branson and we just so happened to stop at this cute little cheese place.
they had every kind of cheese you could dream up!
6/14/13
we also stopped here on our way home so we could all get some more of their yummy cheese!
6/20/13

Tyler trying the chocolate cheese...she is not a fan!
But it was fun to watch her reaction!
6/14/13

This is where we stayed while in Branson... The Brick Hotel
it was a cute little family ran hotel (there are lots of those here)
It was pretty nice after they got the A/C in our room fixed!
6/14/13-6/20/13

This was on of the kids favorite thing we did in Branson...
Ride  the Ducks!
yep and we still get to listen to them "Quack"
6/15/13

Very first performance in Branson. They did a great job!
6/15/13 @ the Haygood Show,
which BTW was AWESOME!
 

All the Clogger's with the Haygoods
6/15/13

Silver Dollar City BABY!
This was one of the prettiest, cleanest most fun theme park I have been to in a while.
The kids loved it and so did the adults!
6/16/13
Happy Father's Day Trav!

Their favorite ride... Powder Keg!
this sucker went FAST!

This was another hit with the kids (and Adults)
It is called the Tracks and they have 5 tracks to race Go Karts on, some were 5 stories high!
We got to spend most of the day there...then they performed at the Dutton's show.
Then they had track 4 open for us until Midnight! Well.... more like 11:45 :)
Trav and the kids LOVED this. They are fearless and crazy drivers!
6/17/13

More Go Kart riding...track 3.
It started to rain, but the kids didn't mind, they just kept on driving.
6/17/13.

After they were all wet from the rain, they decided to have a big water fight in the bumper boats!
they were SOAKED and loved every min of it!
6/17/13

OH YES WE DID.... TWICE!
 We found a FUDD'S!!!!!
We are BIG fans of Fudd's and now that they don't have one in Utah, we have to take advantage when we can.
Thank goodness this was a good one (we went to on in Vegas that wasn't) Wait, I would  even say a DELICIOUS one!
So of course we had to go 2 days in a row... once for lunch on 6/18/13 and then again on 6/19/13!
It was heaven!

White Water!
Once again this was the cleanest prettiest water park I have ever been to!
It makes 7 peaks look like the ghetto!
It was a fun day to get burnt... and we did! (even Brayd)
6/19/13
Sorry, I tried to turn the picture the right way, but it a no go!

The kids soaking up the sun @ Water Water!
After, we all had pizza at Pizza world, but sadly no pictures :(
6/19/13

Branson, Mo 2013 part 2

Trav and I at the Dixie Stampede
They made you turn your phones and camera off, so this is the only picture we have,
but it was fun and the food was good (you had to eat it all with your hands, the kids thought that was fun!)
6/18/13

Branson Bella Boat Show
6/20/13 last day in Branson

Brayd and Seirra trying on Captain hats

Getting ready to get on the Bella

This is our van group
They were so much fun!

Had to make a quick little stop in Arkansas :)
One of Tyler's goals is to go to all 50 states
and since we were so close, we had to go.
6/19/13

This is how we traveled...6 15 passenger vans and 2 cargo vans!
we were headed back to Kansas City
6/20/13



All the girls piled up in one of the Cargo vans after a performance at the Dutton's
 ( I was a mom helper that night and we ended up with no pictures....SAD!)
Not recommend, but they loved it and it was less then 1 mile away!
6/17/13

The Kansas City Temple....BEAUTIFUL!

Trav and Grandpa Gurney
Trav got to baptize him for the dead.
6/20/13

My cute little Family at the Kansas City Temple
6/20/13

The boys on the plane ready to go home!
6/21/13

Can you tell it is 4 in the stinking morning?
 

Waiting in the KC Airport to fly home...Man, it was early!
6/21/13 @ a little before 4 AM!

This is where we had to go straight from the airport :(
This is also the day we got the news about Brayd's BIG surgery we needs to have.
Not going to lie it kinda was a not so fun way to end a wonderful trip!
We had the best time in Branson and it was so good to get away and just enjoy our cute little family and great friends!
6/21/13

Here is my poor Little Man, after being up since 3:30 AM, flying home from MO,getting not so good news
 and then having to get his pre-op work done...NOT BUENO!
He made it out of the parking lot and about 2 miles up the canyon before he crashed!
6/21/13 @ about 4 PM

Brayden Update:

While in Branson we got a call from a different Dr. then the ones we had seen before and they wanted to know if Brayd could come in asap. I told them we were on vacation and wouldn't be home till Friday (today). They asked us to come in as soon as we got off the plane...hmm, okay. These kind of phone calls tend to make me nervous. But as soon as the plane landed off we went to the U of U neuro Center. We met with the Dr. who explained that Brayden really needed to get that tumor out of there before it started growing in his brain (it is kinda close) and that the way they were hoping to get it out just wasn't going to work. Because it is so deep in his eye socket they are going to have to get it from the back of the eye socket instead of going in through the front or side. In order to do that they are going to have to do a pretty major surgery. They will cut open his skull and go in from behind, they said this takes aprox 6 hours and that he will be listed in critical condition when he gets out of surgery and will spend 24-48 hours in the ICU and then another 24-48 hour in a regular room after that. This is a very risky surgery with lots of things that can be "compromised". He is pretty nervous, but he was a champ with all of his yucky pre-op crap he had to do today. We have 9 days of summer fun left to be had, so that is what we are going to concentrate on for now. Let the fun begin!

We are home from Branson!

Wow, what an amazing week! We came home from Branson, MO today after spending a week there with Tyler's clogging group. It truly was one of the best vacations we have been on. In spite of have 88 people there; trying to keep everyone happy it was so much fun! We had 14 people in our 15 passenger van with us and they were all so much fun and easy to get along with. Everyday Tara had us going from morning till night with fun and very entertaining things to do. I will try to get pictures posted soon, however tomorrow we get to move again so we won't have internet for a few days.

Bloody nose :(

Tonight Brayden got a freak bloody nose (he NEVER gets bloody noses. EVER!) and after everything he went through today at his appointment, all the messing and pressing with his eye, you can only guess the amount of panic it caused! They told us on Friday that it (the tumor) could be blood vessels and nerves which "could" rupture, So you can see why the MAJOR panic attack!(more so for him then us...poor boy! Nothing to ruin a nice happy trying to just be a normal family after a kinda crappy day like a big fat reminder of just how serious this stupid tumor really is and just how freaked out my poor baby boy is. (you can all argue the baby part later) But for tonight I just feel helpless… — feeling horrible.

A Brayd update!

New Update! We went today and they did some more test, and  an eye ultra sound which was pretty cool (not as shocking this time, since we knew what it was going to look like) they had to numb Brayd's eyes again, he is NOT a fan of that, but what do you do? No new news today, it is still there and big and making me/us crazy.BOO! We go back on Monday to get a "game plan", or at least we hope that is what is going to happen. Thanks again for all the love and support!

The dreaded phone call...

June 3rd

Well SHOOT... we didn't even make it until noon :( Primary Children's called and we are heading back up on Wed. Keep the prayers coming. We appreciate all of the prayers and fasting we have had so far! Love you all!! I will try to be good about updates as we get them.