A cool day at the beach

Saturday, November 29th

The clever and crazy castle-building crew! 

It was a cool day for swimming but did that stop the crazy Bradshaw children?  No way!  At first they were just going to "jump over a few waves."  They weren't going to get all wet!  Well, that lasted about 30 seconds before Braden was ripping off his shirt, Kate was drenched down to her undershirt, and Ben was covered from head to toe in salt and sand.

This picture tells a story without any words.  .  . just look at those smiles! 

Ben refers to the beach as his "sandbox." 

Yes, only a two-year-old can claim ownership of an entire strip of beach and label it as his own personal sand-toy!

Mom, Braden, Kate, and Ben had a fun and relaxing afternoon at Mission Beach before we drove back to Utah all night long!

The Tide Pools

While other sorry souls were standing in line for the best deals on Black Friday, we had a busy day of San Diego fun!  The tide pools were a beautiful and fun way to explore the ocean the day after Thanksgiving.

David took some amazing pictures that afternoon. The kids (including cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents) all had fun crawling on the rocks, jumping across pockets of water, peering into the pools to discover sticky sea anemones and scuttling crabs, and watching the amazing creatures that survive in the salty rocks of Pt. Loma.

This is David's favorite picture from the tide pools.

Nice shot David!

Braden, bravely poking his finger into the center of a sea anemone.  Watch out Braden!  They'll suck you in!

Josh, Paul, and Braden got themselves "stranded" on a rock with waves coming in all around them.  Luckily Uncle Tom came to the rescue!

Ahoy Cap'n Tom & 'Mate Julie!  What see you? 

Wait a minute, you're still on land.  You're terrible pirates!

Here's most of our tide pool exploring group!  There's the back row with Tom, Scott, Grandma, Julie, John, and Dagmara.  Then the front row with Paul, Braden, Josh, Matthew, Megan, Piper, and Katie. 

(Ben's down below throwing rocks on the sea anemones and getting us in trouble with the park rangers!)

Turkey Day Tales

Thanksgiving 2008

San Diego

Here's David along with a few of his siblings.

L-R Scott, David & Ben, Julie, Tom, and John

Turkey Day morning started with a steady rainfall, quite unusual for sunny San Diego!  Julie and I had a nice long run through the river-deep streets of Ocean Beach, along Sunset Cliffs and then back home where we returned looking like a pair of very wet, drowned rats.  After a shower, we were ready to help with the feast preparations!

We had the usual Thanksgiving Feast compliments of Mom & Dad Bradshaw!  It was delicious, and the skies even cleared enough that we were able to eat outside.  San Diego weather is nice, even on a rainy day!  We had a fun game after dinner, then it was time for pie!  Katie loves pumpkin pie so she was happy when the call for dessert came.  Her cousin Josh was right there with her!

Ben decided pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were easier to eat than pie.  Yummy!  

Coming up next. . . .some pics of our fun stay in San Diego from the days when we weren't stuffing ourselves with turkey and all the trimmings!