When Life's Worth Living, It's Worth Recording.

Right after Braden and I got married, KSL ran an article about a man named ShayCarl who posted daily videos of his family on youtube. They make their living off of these videos. Braden started watching, and he got me hooked. It has become our routine to watch these videos together in the evening. This family goes by the name of "The Shaytards". They first created nicknames for all their kids - Sontard, Princesstard, Babytard, Rocktard, and Brotard - to protect their privacy. So, that's where the name Shaytards comes from. Although everyone knows their real names now, the nicknames have stuck around.

A few weeks ago, Shay announced in their daily vlog that they would be doing a meet and greet in Utah. Braden and I were stoked! After following this family's life for a year, they have started to feel like our family. The meet up was at Shay's Uncle's corn maze in Garland, Utah. So, Braden and I drove two hours to meet this little family. (I know, you are probably thinking we are crazy.) Once we got to the corn maze, there was already a line forming to meet the Shaytards. We ended up waiting in line a little over an hour before it was our turn! It was driving me crazy, because we could hear their voices through the corn, but we had to wait as the line slowly moved up. (We were actually grateful at how slow the line was moving though, because it meant the Shaytards were really taking time to talk to each person who came.)

This was the first good glimpse we got of them through the corn!

While waiting in line, Shay's sister Carlie's son, Cooper, was running through the corn trying to scare people with this mask. When he jumped out at Braden and I, I said, "Hi Cooper!", and he threw his hands up in the air and said, "How did you even know it was me?!" It was cute!

When it was finally our turn, everyone in the family hugged Braden and I, asked us our names, and where we were from. Go Idaho! (They are from Pocatello.) I told them that we had started watching them right after we got married, and that it almost felt like they had been a part of our whole marriage. Shay laughed and said, "Well, that's creepy." He told us a story of another couple that had been brought together by the Shaytard vlogs, and we thanked them for their example in our lives. It still amazes me how sincere they were talking to us - especially after they had already been greeting people for an hour! We talked about their little baby, Daxton, (who we unfortunatley didn't get to meet - he was inside with Grandpa). Daxton and I share a birthday, and this all happened the weekend of our birthday. So the Shaytards wished me a happy birthday, which was pretty cool! :) Brock wasn't very happy that night, but you can see him in the back of our pictures. He was scared because some of the haunted corn maze people were starting to come out, and it was getting cold. I asked Brock for a high five, and he just glared at me. Poor little guy! His Uncle took him inside the house a few minutes after these pictures were taken.

Shay's Uncle took this picture for us. 

Colette is so small! I'm 5 '4, and I felt tall next to her! 

After the Shaytards, we went over to talk to Shay's sister, Carlie. She even put us in her vlog! That was pretty cool, because we didn't even ask. I told her we do her 'Carlie walk' all the time, and she said, "Would you do that for the vlog?" Fast forward to about 3:00, and forgive my awkwardness.

After Carlie, we went to talk to Shay's mom, Laurie. This was probably my favorite part of the whole night! First off, she looked at me and said, "How do I know you? You look so familiar!" I'm pretty sure I have never met her before, but that was cool! She talked about how when Shay was younger, they got kicked out of everywhere because he was noisy and always causing trouble. She talked about how nervous she was to fly to New York for the NYC Marathon that Shay and Carlie were running (which actually happened yesterday.) She works at middle school, so we talked about kids and our jobs a little bit. It was just strange to feel like I know everything about this woman's life (because of watching it on the vlogs), and yet this was the first time we met. But in that moment, I just wanted to be her best friend! I know that sounds cheesy, but she was so so easy to talk to, and so funny. Her laugh is just infectious! We spent about 15-20 minutes with her, and we only left because there was other people waiting to talk to her. The whole night just felt totally unreal. Seeing people in person you have been watching on a screen for so long is a wierd thing. I'm grateful we went, because it really was the best birthday present I could have asked for.