Here are Landon's journal entries for the past year ... being on the blog, they are in reverse chronological order, so if you want to read them as they happened, start at the bottom and read up ...
1225 Christmas! We continued the regular Christmas tradition of going to Grandma's house on Christmas Eve to open present from them and cousins. But it was a little strange.. we didn't do the nativity! We watched the slideshow for a recap over the year. Then we went home and Callahan, Keaton, and I stayed downstairs and watched a few funny videos and movies. All the boys of course woke up early to get a sneak peek at the presents, our commotion woke Mom and Dad. We opened our presents and went over to Maga's. It was a pretty great Christmas!
1211 On Wednesday for mutual it was DDD. Duty to God, doughnuts, and dodgeball! Dodgeball was a lot of fun, all the Blackham's were on a team, Dad, Callahan, Keaton, and I. And it was just unfair for the other team, Dad and I were the strength, Callahan and Keaton were the precision. They would hit half-court shots and revive our entire team. Our team won all five games!
1204 Saturday night was our ward Christmas party. It was pretty fun, especially for the little kids because they were always chasing me trying to hurt me.Then I left to go to my friend Sam's house to watch Insidious! It was a pretty freaky movie, but I love to get scared! And one of the best parts of watching a scary movie with friends is scary your friends during the movie.
1203 Friday was the Herriman and Copper Hills basketball game. And I stayed for all the games again this time. Sophomore won, most of my friends on the team did pretty good. J.V. lost by ten. The vasity game was pretty awesome. In the fourth we were down by one, then we have a 7-0 run of points to take the lead and keep it!
Reffing. Well, it is Jr. Jazz time again, and that means I get to ref the games with all the little kids. No so much of little kids though, I'm reffing sixth graders this year. At first I was a little nervous, but I got over that quick. Third year reffing I'm pretty much use to it, and I find it funny to get the coaches to scream at me! Most of the games were blowouts and when the game's a blowout the other team gets upset which makes it a tougher game to ref.
1120 Three of my friends and I were going to a stake dance on Saturday night. When everyone was finally ready Sam's mom gave us a ready over to the church it was at. As soon as we got there all three of the girls were told that their skirts were too short to get in.Then there was this whole judgement thing going on while I was laughing in the back.. Then we just decided to leave and go back to the house and watch a movie, before we went home we went to Smith's and got some Oreo's, Swedish Fish, chips and other snacks. We watched Toy Story 3. I'm glad that we got kicked out because I think it was a lot funner at Sam's house then if we had gone to the dance.
1113 The past week has been pretty fun, we got the new game "Modern Warfare 3," got a new ping pong table (specifically for Mom's birthday) and going out to Red Robin for Mom's birthday! I, like many other people was very excited to get the new Modern Warfare game, it's an awesome game. And with the new ping pong table I've gotten a lot better at it, now my goal is just to be able to beat Mom and Dad who are really good, and if I can beat them then I'd might have a chance at beating Grandpa Westra!
1106 On Friday I had no school so I went to open gym at Herriman around noon. I went with Patrick and I saw a few of my other friends there as well. The coaches split us up into different teams, some of us were skins and shirts. I was shirts most of the time. Towards the end, Patrick and I finally got on a team and we were with other really good kids and our team never lost!
1030 Herriman had our first playoff game on Saturday up in Logan. We took a fairly long bus ride there, but when you're among your fellow Mustangs it's a very enjoyable time! The whole way there we all would just sing songs. At the game we had received quite the spanking.. Logan is the top team in the state. The ending score was a painful 56-22.
1027 I have to write this stupid entry just because I came at Keaton with a toy car, and he is such a baby, he cried and I got in trouble.. I went to the Herriman vs. Springville game, this game determined which team would play Logan in the playoffs. We won 44-22, now we get to play Logan.
1024 My mom made a lot of cinnamon rolls, and she gave some away to neighbors.. that made me very upset. She told me that I can't get upset until I've eaten all the other cinnamon rolls. I had failed.
1016 This weekend all the boys, besides Cooper, went camping at Little Sahara, also known as the sand dunes! It was pretty fun, I'm glad that Jake at least with me, the rest of the other boys were the small deacons. At the dunes we always play capture the flag when it gets dark, always the funnest part of going to the dunes. Jake and I when the captains for the opposite teams because we were the only two priests there. And my team won three out of four times! We just really wished that we had glow sticks for the flags and that the moon wasn't full. With the moon full, it lit up the place as bright as day, capture the flag is much more fun when it's really, really dark. Also while we were there, Callahan, Keaton, Jake and I played a lot of "shotgun" it's just a game that you play with a hackie sack.
1010 My weekend was pretty good, went to the football game on Friday with Patrick. We were playing Murray (not very good), so I was really hoping to win! And we did, we dominated them! 49-0, but we scored 49 points in the first quarter.. so yeah, there was no scoring in the second half, whatsoever. But it was pretty nice to have gone to a football game where we didn't lose! And it was a bit chilly, so there wasn't a lot of people there and I bought myself a Herriman hoodie!
1004 Umm.. don't really know what to talk about.. School's good. Mom made me go to parent-teacher conferences because I had an F in world civ. But, since we went, we got the grade all fixed, so I once again have good grades! Yay!
0924 Last night was our homecoming game at Herriman. I went a few hours early to a tailgate party. I was pretty excited, it was my first Herriman football game. Although the game end in a very, very disappointing one-point loss, it had to of been the funnest football game that I've ever been to, so I really want to go more now! Just being with all my friends, it was awesome we had a huge group! And our chants at the game were pretty awesome, my throat just hurts a little bit today!
0918 I have to write this stupid entry just because I shot Keaton, and his is such a baby, he cried and I got in trouble.. And dad just threatens me like always if I don't do it exactly when she tells me to do it. Mom "forbids" me to touch another Nerf gun for today. Ha. We got another Aerobie Superdisc yesterday. Congrats Mom, here's your entry!
Now I really don't know what to talk about.. Uhh.. Dad got a MacBook Air. It's super tiny! I wasn't too surprised that he got one, I even expected that it took him this long to finally get one. Haha and Mom was surprised and not too happy when she found it.. I like brownies.
0913 I have to write this stupid entry just because I tickled Keaton, and he is such a baby, he cried and I got in trouble.. Some ducks have been staying around in the canal by our neighborhood. Unlike a lot of ducks, when these ducks see you they come towards you, and not fly away. So, one day, Colton, Dad, and I took some bread and went to feed the "duckies" Later, Mom and Callahan came, and I went home to get more bread and Keaton and Cooper came also. It was a lot of fun.
0911 On my birthday, it was my first day at Herriman high school! I was so excited to go there! It is an awesome school, and a big school too! I enjoyed my classes there, in all my classes I have a friend, I know a lot more people there. It has been pretty fun, and it's just the beginning! But I'm bummed that I wasn't able to go to the Herriman vs. Copper Hills game.. I totally wanted to go and see my school beat the snot out of Copper Hills and rub it in my friends' faces!
0904 Cooper's baptism was yesterday, and before his, we went to our cousin Taylee's baptism in the morning. Cooper wasn't really excited, for either of the baptisms.. After Taylee's we all went to their house after and had some really good food! Then when we got home, Dad made all the boys do a lot of cleaning.. More than we've ever done on a Saturday! The house just has to look all nice and perfect when we have company over.. At Cooper's baptism, all the brother's were involved in some way. Colton did a little poem, Keaton did "I Am A Child Of God" with these little bells, and Callahan and I did a talk.
0828 I went to my school orientation the other day, haha it wasn't the funnest thing in the world. I first didn't know who was my mentor teacher so I just went with my friend with another teacher. I didn't expect to see much people I knew, but I actually knew a lot of people! A lot of them were old friends from elementary school. I remember at the end of sixth grade, one of my friends said "But hey, most of us will be seeing each other again in high school!" and she was right. At orientation it was nice, the classes were barely five minutes long! But that's not how it's going to be tomorrow..
0820 A while ago, Colton and his two friends, Bryce and Reagan, were playing around at home, so I decided to give them some real fun. So I bought two Nerf Dart Tag sets that my mom had been holding on to. We went down stairs, into the hallway, and started a "Nerf War!" In the past, we would do Nerf Wars all the time, but we had lost many darts that we couldn't do them anymore. But with my purchase of these Nerf sets, we started playing again! And it had started a craze with Callahan and I for bigger and more powerful Nerf guns! Him and I bothered Mom enough to take us to Walmart so that we could get other Nerf guns. He bought the "Quick 16" a pump-action rifle meant for rapid fire. I bought the "Speedload 6" a pistol with fast reloading, and I also bought the "Swarmfire," the "Big Bubba" of our Nerf collection. Big Bubba is a 20 round rifle that is automatic. Everyone loves Big Bubba, especially me!
0814 On Saturday I got back from the venture camp. The only way I would relate it to camping though would be the tents. We had electricity, indoor pluming, service on our cell phones, and we were in a back yard! We went to the leader's, wife's, grandma's house in Barely, Idaho. The house was next to Snake River, it was a very calm river, and at night, we would catch crawdads! And during the day we would boat and be on the wave runners all day! I would have to say that driving the wave runners was the best! I got going 59 miles per hour! Now I really want some wave runners!
0808 Today I went to Fun N Motion with my family and friends, Kayla, Kody, and Eli. It was a lot of fun, we played around in the laser maze a lot. And did a lot of laser tag.
0807 Mom wanted to make gingersnaps for today's "Sunday treat" but Callahan and I bugged her enough so that she'd make her delicious homemade oreos. They are so yummy!
0802 For a little bit I've been playing around with our slingshot. I would shoot these little, tiny, metal balls. At first I would shoot at a cardboard box, I got bored of the quickly, then decided to actually test my accuracy with it. I shot at an apple from a shot distance, later I cut up the apple to see how much pellets were inside of it. I moved on to full cans of Diet Coke (shaken, of course). Callahan, Travis, and I shot at them about ten feet away. I went first, we had seven shots each. I missed until my final shot, I hit the can and it shot out Diet Coke like a geyser!
0731 I got back from youth conference on Saturday. We went to Pineview Reservoir. We did a lot of boating, lot of paracord, and lots of food. It's was pretty fun.
0724 We went to Kearn's a few days ago. We were all really bored and decided that we should go. I didn't really want to go, but Mom was sick of me sitting on my butt all day, everyday, so, she made me go. But, I'm glad that I went. I saw two of my friends there, which made it a little bit funner for me. I would have to say that my favorite part of being at Kearn's was probably jumping off the diving boards and platforms.
0717 A few days ago I was really bored then just got the idea to bring up and play the old Nintendo 64. I hooked it up to the big TV upstairs and Callahan, Jacob, and I played Mario Kart first, then James Bond and a bunch of other games.
0710 Today we went to Grandma's house for "Cookies and Cousins," at first I really didn't want to go at all, but it turned out to be a pretty fun time! Kicking butt at ping pong, crazy jump roping, Cosmic Catch, and the loads of sweets made it pretty fun! When I was there I also got to meet Uncle Chris' fiance's kids also.
0704 I went to Kayla's house and I met most of her family. They are some pretty funny people! Her grandpa was crazy, funny! He would keep bothering Paige and she got really pissed. Jimmy and I couldn't stop laughing about that. Later, Kayla and her cousins got in a fight, she brought out the water balloons and chaos broke out. Jimmy got wet, so he took a whole pitcher of water and splashed it on Kayla. She was soaked, so her decided to hug everyone. It was a fun night.
0703 It was really hot on Saturday, so I decided to fill up water balloons! Later, Keaton, Bailey, Jacob, and Callahan joined me. We first just shot the balloons with slingshots at buckets in the back yard. But as time grew on, it became a war! One of us, would have ten water balloons and hide behind the buckets. The others would be on the other side of the backyard and have as much water balloons as they want. The game only ended when the "loner" had no more balloons, if he got shot, or if the opposing force was eliminated. Only Bailey was shot by Keaton when she was the loner. It was pretty fun!
0702 Yesterday was an alright day. Still grounded, but Mom made some lasagna and I got to see Kayla for a bit. Kayla, Callahan, and I all played Mario Cart! It was pretty dang fun, but it wasn't really fun for Kayla.. But before that we were just throwing around the frisbee until we got so hot, that we decided to go inside.
0701 We went to Maga's house and we got to see Uncle Kolby, Aunt Jamie, and cousins Maddie and Mia. They live in Washington, so we don't get to see them much. It was a lot of fun seeing them! Adrian, Callahan, and I played Mario Cart on the Wii, and I won! I got first place every time, except when we played on Rainbow Road.. the worst course ever! And the best thing about last night was with the whole family together, we didn't have to take a family picture! YES!
0630 Yesterday, during scouts, we played ultimate frisbee, then went to the church, had malts, and played basketball there. I didn't have any malt, I played basketball the whole time. That is, until I rolled my ankle. After that I couldn't play anymore. I don't think it's broken, and I really hope I didn't break it. It's probably just a sprain, that I have to shake off.
0629 A while ago, our old peach tree died. I was actually kind of excited, because that meant we got to chop it down! I decided to do the job, and do it "old-school" with a saw and an ax only. It took quite a while, but I got the job done with one last hard push on the tree and down it came! After the tree was down, it was time for the not so part .. chopping up the tree and disposing of it.. That took forever to do! And there's still little twigs from the tree everywhere in the backyard!
0628 My mom signed me up for driver's ed during the summer at West Jordan. I didn't not like the class at all! You just sit in the classroom for three hours and do book work the whole time. We took the state test in class so that we could get our permit, and I passed the first time! And I finally got my permit. But still haven't done much driving, and I do not care to do so.. But I've got all my hours done, one range done (two left). And still have to do all road drives (three), and all newspaper reviews (three).
Topics: Driver's Ed, Chopping down the Tree, Baby Birds, Pinewood Derby, Neighborhood Carnival
0627 A while ago my iPhone broke and I have been using Textfree on the computer. I finally got sick of it and decided to buy my own iPod Touch. (Because my dad said I should.) So I had to get all the stuff back on there again, which was a pain.. But now I've got a new iPod Touch and plenty of games to play!
0626 On Saturday, I went carp fishing with the Gorringe's again. This time we actually found some carp, and plenty of them! All the Gorringe boys got hits on the fish .. I didn't! I guess I'm only good at archery when it comes to targets that are above water. We went for quite a while, the back of my neck got pretty toasted. And there were some pretty funny moments that I won't forget.
0619 On Saturday, all the scouts and I got back from our scout camp to Bear Lake. It was a pretty fun camp over all, but didn't beat last year's camp! At Bear Lake our main thing to do was bike around the lake, 50 miles, for our cycling merit badge. The ride was really long! I was so tired after I got done! And it turns out that spending four hours out on a bike and in the sun gets you a pretty good tan on your arms, haha! Dad also brought up the paracord for the scouts .. and they went crazy for it! Each scout probably made at least five, some even more! Haha, it was a good camp!
0612 All the scouts and I did another 25 mile bike ride on Saturday. So now we have 25 mile rides done, some 10 and 15's too .. and last, the big "five-o." I'm really excited to do it though, and hoping that I could do it! On this 25 mile ride I cut off around 15 minutes from the last ride, so I'm feeling pretty good. And what I'm really hoping for is that I could finish the 50 miles under three hours, because if I could finish 25 miles under an hour and a half, it should be possible to get done with the 50 in under three hours. Hopefully I'll do some training before then.
0605 The family just got back from Bear Lake, Dad wanted to check it out to see what the scouts will see when we'll be camping there. We're going to ride around the entire lake. We've been doing some practice rides for a few weeks, are last one was a 25 mile ride and we plan on doing another one before the big "five-o". So I thought the 25 still was pretty easy, so I think I could do fifty .. until I saw the lake... first thing I said was, "that is not only 50 miles!" then Dad drove around the lake and he said it was fifty miles on the dot.. it has me scared!
This is just another journal entry because Mom said I'd have to write another one since she let me stay later at Kayla's party. There was a lot of food! And a lot of older people that I didn't know there. I didn't each much food, I ate before I went, I tried eating a cookie but it was too big and I couldn't even finish it! Later, when it got dark, we made a fire and people threw in all their work from the school year. It was a BIG fire and there was a lot of smoke. After the "burning of homework" we watched a movie called "She's The Man" .. I didn't really like it.
0529 I've been trying to talk Mom and Dad into getting me a new phone. So, with me being serious about this phone, I decided to make this whole "Phone Proposal" thing. I thought I did a really good job on it and thought I was going to get the phone. But alas, Dad said "no," funny thing is though, Mom had already bought the phone before she could talk with him about it with him later. She even thought she was going to say "yes!" So, with that proposal rejected, I edited it, and email it to them. I thought this one would work for sure, but Dad has to be a stick in the mud again and reject it just because I thumped on Callahan. We already have the phone, and I paid for it, I think I should get it already..
0423 For some time, we've talked about me moving into Colton's room. I really wanted my own room, so we talked about it some more. So, over spring break we were going to move around rooms. I would move into Colton's room, Colton would move into Keaton's room (where he was sleeping already), and Keaton would move into my room with Callahan. Now I have my own room, finally! It is a very Utah Utes-y room. It's awesome and I love it!
0404 For general conference my family went over to Maga's house. I couldn't really watch it in peace or even hear it because of all the screaming little cousins. So I just went into the guest room closed it listened to it on my iPod (by radio) laying down on the bed. After that we had a root beer tasting test, it was a lot of fun.
0327 I have seen my friends playing this game called Words with Friends. So I got curious and downloaded it, started playing with some friends. I then discovered why it was loved .. by some people. Not me, I suck! Everyone wins me, I'm just no good at those kind of games! But I still play it so I could improve, practice makes perfect!
0313 MaSha makes these peanut butter bars, they are soooooo great! Yum yum yummy! She doesn't like to make them because they're pretty bad for you. And she finds them quite tempting. I had a few then I had to leave for school. I come home to find three pieces left, and she looked at me with a sad face. "You said you'd eat them all.." is what she said.
0220 (Sunday) Yesterday wasn't as busy as usual, because I didn't have to do reffing (thank goodness). The day was pretty boring until I had the dance. This dance was at our stake center, and this dance was the best dance I've been to by far. Ericha also came so that she could meet Kayla, Li Li, and Kody. She thought that Li Li and Kody were so much fun. So yeah, the dance was pretty great!
0219 (Saturday) Yesterday, during 7th period, in Miss Sprazvoff's class we had gotten done with everything way early. Then someone started singing "We Are The Champions" then Miss Sprazvoff pulled up YouTube so we could really sing it with the music. It was super funny and we sang so loud! One of the girls in our class actually started recording everyone singing and dancing. Today we had Pow-Wow. It was so boring. As usual. I was supposed to do Indian Lore, but they said they weren't able to do it anymore. So they just let us go into another class, I went into the cycling meritbadge with Li Li. The class was super short, we just learned a little about the safety of long rides, and that was it.
Jerry Sloan left the Jazz. He coached the Jazz for 23 years, longer than I've been alive. The assistant coach also left with Sloan. Now Tyrone Corbin is the new coach of the Jazz.
0212 (Saturday) Saturday was a busy day for me, I had Pow-Wow in the morning until like 12-ish. All I can say about Pow-Wow, very, very boring. Then as soon as I got home I had to start getting ready for reffing. And reffing was very interesting, because I was reffing 6th graders, even more interesting.. Reffing Callahan and his team! And as soon as I got home from reffing I got ready to go to a stake dance, I got dressed super duper fast and was on my way. The dance was awesome!
0209 (Wednesday) Today I went in the church to play basketball, I went in a slipped because my shoes were wet.
0130 (Sunday) On Friday we went to the Jazz vs. Timberwolves game. We had got our tickets from Maga for Christmas and it was finally time! Clay took us early so we can get autographs, and we did! I got three signatures on my Jazz hat, Ronnie Price, Gordan Hayward, and Raja Bell! The game was really fun, and I'm glad that we won!
0123 (Sunday) For churchball we had to play in a different building, and it had carpet! After we played a little bit I couldn't tell the difference from hard floor and carpet floor. Callahan and I went early and saw some of the other games. When it was our turn we had a full team, the other team didn't even show up! So we just ended up shooting around for a while, which was still fun. But I'm hoping for a real game next time, so Kody and I can kick butt!
0116 (Sunday) I’ve done a lot this week. Like: I had my presentation for geography with Matt Damon. The presentation went really well, everyone thought it was pretty funny. Friday I went to the gym to play basketball, and then went to go see Tron with my girlfriend.
0109 (Sunday) On Saturday we had our first churchball game. I was really excited, but our team was supposed to be teachers....we only had three, the rest short deacons. The three teachers were Kody, Matt, and I. I've never really been the "star player" before, and neither has Kody, so it was an exciting game for us two. But still we ended up losing by six points. It was just one of their guys that was sooo tall, he would get the rebound and just put it back up. And we couldn't do anything about it, without fouling him. But I ended up with a good 14 points, so yeah.
105 (Wednesday) For scouts we did "3D" and that means Duty to God, doughnuts, and DODGEBALL! So we first had to do Duty to God stuff, after we eat doughnuts, then....DODGEBALL! Dodgeball has to be my favorite thing about scouts ever. It's soo much freaking fun.
0104 (Tuesday) Today I was up to my neck in homework. Most of it which was needed to be done in class. So I needed to take it home and get it all done. I needed to do story strings for my language arts class, and lots of 'em. I had to finish my bridge for tech class, and worked on that most of the day. And I really needed to study for my Africa test, which I haven't study for at all.
0103 (Monday) The first day back at school was great. It's been a while since I saw all my friends, and it was good to see them. I think it's a lot funner to go to school then sit all day at home.
0102 (Sunday) Our church meetings changed to 1 o'clock. Everyone seems to complain about it being that late, I don't see the big deal. I'm usually otay with all the times, exempt the early morning time, do not like that one at all.
0101 On New Years Day a tradition we do is going over to Maga's house. We just play around and eat a bit of food. We were there a lot of the day, when we all wanted to go home MaSha just decided that she wanted to get her hair done! We were there an extra 40 minutes because of her. I just laid down next to the fireplace and texted friends until we had to go.
What Landon does for Mom: He gets himself up and ready in the morning. He's so handy to have around to help tend his brothers. He's mom's go-to guy for all things electronic. He keeps himself looking clean and sharp. He's a GOOD kid. What Mom does for Landon: Keeps him in food and clean clothes. Drives him places he needs to go (school, work, even took him to the SJ gym, which took an hour). Buys him things for no reason (clothes, compression underwear, socks, slinky, treats). Helps with homework.
