The Bradshaw Beat

Summer Stuff

2009-08-10T15:10:00.004-06:00

So I'm a little behind in the blogging world! Let me explain what has happened during the last few months. No. . . there is too much. . . . let me sum up.

May:

School ends with its usual craziness of festivals and Field Day events, Katie turns 10 (someone stop her!)

Katie trying to keep Ben cheerful as Field Day got long, hot, and tiring for all!

Braden's Greek Festival - they had to race in their TOGAS! (Braden and this girl tied I think 5 times in a row before Braden finally squeaked ahead of her for the Gold Medal!)

Kate's 10th Birthday Party was an AMAZING RACE! It was fun, exhausting, and crazy!

June:

Ben turns 3! Braden turns 8 and gets baptized, Grandma & Grandpa Bradshaw come visit along with lots of cousins and uncles, fun in the not-so-warm sun, enjoying lots of parks and waiting for summer to heat up.

Ben's 3rd Birthday - with a MONSTER TRUCK cake of course!

Braden's 8th birthday party was a FETCH CHALLENGE party! Here's a picture of Braden getting stuffed to the max with balloons!

Braden's Baptism was a big day! All the family came to support him, we had a fun picnic at the park afterwards, and then we finished the day with a hot dog roast up the canyon with Grandma & Grandpa Bradshaw and our Bradshaw cousins and Uncles and Aunts!

Braden & Grandpa Bradshaw cruising at Liberty Land!

July:

Fun in the "now it's too hot sun" - fourth of July festivities, Dad goes to India, visiting with the coolest Aunt Erika, and watching mom's tummy get HUGE!

Happy 4th of July Ben & Uncle Matt! We went up the canyon for our 4th of July breakfast - it was beautiful and a nice, cool day!

David and his new employees in India.

Katie enjoying the new slide at the grand-opening of Aunt Becca's pool!

The cast of the Lefty-Loosey Dinner Theatre produced and directed by the coolest Aunt Erika!

Braden & Alyssa were pigs, Katie was the wife, Nate the imp, Uncle Matt was the dad, and Aunt Erika was the son. What a hilarious production and a delicious dinner by the Lefty Loosey Dinner Theatre!

August:

Fun at Aunt Becca's new pool, watching the calendar tick down to the first day of school (not already!), a quick gamble of a trip to Yellowstone hoping baby doesn't come, and now WAITING for baby to come!

Yes, it was crazy but we had a WONDERFUL WEEKEND! We saw geysers, bison-traffic-jams, Old Faithful, beautiful waterfalls, and we even made it home without having to be life-flighted to Montana to find a hospital. Now of course, we WANT this baby to come and she won't but at least we got one last quick trip together exploring Yellowstone.

We followed "Uncle Tom's Trail" down 350+ stairs for this amazing view of the Lower Falls at Yellowstone. Ben made it about 1/3 of the way back up the stairs before his dad had to lug him the rest of the way!

Braden's pointing to the geyser exploding behind him, I'm not sure what Ben's pointing at!

Uncle Tom - your trail is nothing but a big, huge set of metal stairs! What goes down, must eventually come up!

Traffic Jams in Yellowstone. I believe the posted speed limit sign says: "1 Buffalo per Mile." We got stopped in at least 5 "Buffalo-Created traffic jams" Saturday afternoon! The first one was cool (this pic is from the first one. He doesn't seem too concerned about the large truck on his bumper, does he!) The second one was still picture-worthy and entertaining. An hour later when we hadn't completed 10 miles, the "Bison Traff Jams" were getting a little old! Move already you slow creatures! It was 4:00 pm and we hadn't even had lunch yet! :) The kids said it was all mom's fault. The first day as we wound our way into Yellowstone I made the mistake of saying: "I hope we see some bison while we're here!" OOPS!

Happy Birthday Dad! & Mother's Day Too!

2009-06-04T17:40:00.003-06:00

David's Birthday on Cinco de Mayo always means some Mexican food - and a pinata of course! The kids were all happy to "help" Dad blow out his candles.

She's ready to swing! That poor pinata doesn't stand a chance against that crazy girl!

Happy Mother's Day 2009. The kids posed for this pic with their dad by our beautiful pink tree. We sent this picture to David's mom as a Mother's/Grandmother's Day surprise.

Moab Spring Break Trip

2009-06-04T17:22:00.003-06:00

At the end of our wintry Spring Break week we went to Moab for a quick visit. We hiked quite a bit, and then spent one afternoon on 4-wheelers. We had a fun visit! The kids loved the 4-wheerling, and they always love hiking through Arches and climbing that fun red sandstone. Ben thought he was just as big as his brother and sister and kept his mom in a panic that he would race off a cliff the whole time! Braden hiked all the way to the top of one of the Windows Arches and also scared his mom a bit! Fun trip!

Spring Break Snowstorm!

2009-06-04T13:39:00.003-06:00

What a crazy Spring Break we had this year! April 16th we woke up to find over a foot of snow piled up in our yard! The kids had fun playing in our spring Winter Wonderland and by the next day, it was gone!

More Easter Fun

2009-06-04T13:22:00.003-06:00

All dressed up and ready for church on Easter Sunday. Aren't they cute kids!?

Easter morning we had cinnamon bunnies for breakfast! The kids got to look for their baskets and some eggs while the bunnies baked. You can see from this picture what Ben thought about his bunny-breakfast!

Kate and Braden were happy to dig in to their cinnamon-bunnies!

Ben found something outside on a sprinkler head!

Kate in her Easter dress & coat hunting for eggs!

Braden the egg-finding-expert reaching for one in the tree. He was the speediest hunter this year!

Easter 2009

2009-06-04T13:10:00.006-06:00

April 12th

Easter morning Kate, Braden, and Ben were eager to go find their Easter baskets. Braden found his first (under the tv) - Ben found his next (inside the high chair) - and Kate needed a little help before she finally located hers behind the toilet in the bathroom. That was a tricky spot!

April 2009

2009-06-04T11:20:00.003-06:00

Coloring Easter Eggs - April 11, 2009

Ben had so much fun coloring (& cracking) Easter eggs this year. Mom had boiled all the eggs and set them in a bowl on the counter until it was time to start coloring them. She was downstairs vacuuming when suddenly she heard Katie screaming "NO Ben!!!" Ben had found a big bowl of eggs on the counter and started cracking them one by one. He had cracked 12 of our 15 eggs by the time we found him busy at his task. Don't worry Katie, we boiled a few more and then we let Ben color all the cracked ones - he didn't care!

Easter Egg Hunt - BRRR!

Here are the kids at a cold, drizzly Easter egg hunt on April 11th. We usually go to the American Fork City Easter Egg Hunt at Rotary Park. This year they had some "budget cuts" so the treats were a little scarce, the wind was cold, the rain was wet, and the hunting was tricky! Ben actually came away with the biggest load in his basket. (He was in the "under 3" category which meant he had a huge advantage over those babies!) Braden & Kate were in the same age group this year and there were tons of kids scurrying for that pile of treats!

April Fool's Day Kate!

This year at school April Fool's Day was also "Crazy Hair Day." Kate went for green craziness in her hair. Mom had fun making lunches for Kate & Braden for April Fool's Day. Mom got some snack-sized bags of chips, cookies, even a candy bar. Then she carefully opened the sacks, emptied them of their "delicious, not nutritious" contents, filled them with grapes, carrot sticks, and other "healthy" items and then taped the sacks back together. Poor Braden - he was sooo excited when he saw that Twix bar in his lunch - only to discover baby carrots instead of chocolate! Ha Ha! Mom likes to do April Fool's tricks too!

Our Amazing Vacation!

2009-03-12T18:50:00.001-06:00

So after years of dreaming, browsing through "vacation deal" websites, reading through my "vacations to go" weekly email blasts longingly, and surfing through every cruise booking site periodically, we finally got to go on my dream vacation! Last week we went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean. It was our first cruise, hopefully not our last! Now, I have been looking forward to this little adventure for 14 years now so I had some seriously high expectations and amazingly enough, it was better than I had thought it would be! We left the kids with Grandma & Grandpa Shawcroft for the whole week. They were awesome to take on our kiddos for so long! It was harder than I thought on Braden and on me when we said our goodbyes - but the kids had a blast at Grandma's and we had a blast as well! Here's a re-cap of our fun week!

Saturday, February 28th

Bon Voyage! Here's a picture from the International Pier in Ft. Lauderdale where ours was not the only enormous cruising sky-scraper to hit the water that day!

Monday, March 2nd

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Our first island adventure was in Jamaica on Monday. We stepped off the boat and there was our Jamaican friend looking for some tip money with his "Jamaica background" and his Rasta Tam hat!

Our adventure in Jamaica was a fun one. We rode up into the mountains and the jungles of Jamaica - way up above Montego Bay where we did some kayaking and then had some DELICIOUS virgin pina coladas and got an authentic tour of a banana plantation. Jamaica wasn't my favorite place. In fact, it was quite humbling and I felt downright uncomfortable at times. We drove through the city and up into the mountains where we passed little tiny villages, small shacks without roofs, burned-out houses with families living in them, women sitting in dirty yards washing laundry in buckets, schools where children sat outside in a circle around a teacher without books, desks, chairs, or even a roof. It was during that bumpy ride up into the jungle that I decided when Lehi had his vision on the Tree of Life and he saw a "great and spacious building" - it must have been a cruise ship. As we drove up into the mountains, through poor and desperate-looking neighborhoods, we could see, towering behind us as we drove, the immense cruise-ship at the port. We were the ultimate symbols of luxury and extravagance, walking off our ship with more food than we could even dream of eating, and entering this sad island nation where poverty, drugs, and hunger were overhelmingly apparent even in the "tourist areas." I have decided Jamaica is a beautiful island, and yet it is sad and dirty and overall, a humbling place to visit. For instance, our river tour guide works only when a cruise ship is in port. He has no other means of employment. During the busy season he usually works once or twice a week. During the off-season, he has no work. As I watched these women washing clothes by hand in buckets, I felt guilty for complaining that my dishwasher was leaving "scum" on my dishes! What an ungrateful fool I am sometimes!

Okay, all that aside, we had a fun adventure that day. Here are a few pictures from the kayaking. The river was mostly slow with a few little rapids to keep us awake, beautiful flowering trees towered overhead, and bananas and bamboo grew thick along the banks of the river.

Can you see the bananas hanging in this tree?

We passed a spot where bamboo rafts are used to carry the tourists down the river. The Jamaican raft-drivers float the tourists downstream, then then have the difficult task of pulling their bamboo rafts back up against the current. It looked like hard work! They have long bamboo poles they use to help push their rafts up in the deeper parts of the river. In the shallow areas, they attach themselves with a long rope to their rafts and then they literally drag the rafts behind them as they walk up the river. I was glad that we were providing our own "engine" with our kayaks and especially glad that our river guide would be able to pile all the kayaks in a truck and drive them back to the starting point!

David and our "river pilot guide" at the end of the kayaking. No problem is what we heard the Jamaican people say all day! Our guide informed us that because Jamaica has so many problems, everyone has to say "no problem" just to survive. :)

After the kayaking ended we boarded this ultra-modern vehicle for our tour through the banana plantation.

We learned all kind of interesting things about bananas! Our fun guide even sang us the "banana song" and we all learned just what "6-hand, 7-hand, 8-hand bunch" means in the song. He was a great guide! He showed us how the banana stalk is full of fibers which are used to make nylons and fishing line, etc. It was an interesting tour!

David is "sneezing" the sample of stringy fiber from the center stalk of the banana plant.

Before we got back onboard the Ruby Princess after our day in Jamaica, we had to snap this picture of David to show how HUGE this boat really is! There were 18 decks on this boat - and that's not counting the ones we couldn't get to! It's like a floating city sky-scraper!

Sunset in Jamaica. Just after we got back to our cabin we noticed this gorgeous sunset slipping by outside our window. It's beautiful even from inside our little cabin!

Tuesday, March 3rd

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was probably my favorite stop on our cruise. It was beautiful! The seas were a little choppy as we approached the islands so instead of porting at Georgetown, the ship circled to the south side of the island and into "Spot's Bay." We were a little nervous about getting to our snorkel/sting ray adventure that we had already booked because of our distance from Georgetown so we were in the first tender to leave the ship that morning. We arrived on the beach before the photographers had even gathered to begin taking the obligatory "souvenir shot" and then we grabbed a taxi and went straight to the headquarters of "Captain Bryan's Adventures." We actually made it in plenty of time for David to grab a croissant at the English Bakery across the street where we discovered how dismal the American dollar compares to Cayman currency. :) After a little wait, our snorkeling excursion was ready to go!

As we rode on a beautiful catamaran across the clear blue waters and out to the famous Sting Ray Sandbar, our "captain" told us it was 7 years good luck to kiss a stingray. Bring on the good luck! David's ready for his back not to hurt at all! :)

Now it's my turn for 7 years of good luck!

The sting rays were so amazing! There's a sand bar just behind a reef where for generations, fishermen would clean their daily catch of fish before heading into the island. Sting rays began gathering on this shallow sand bar to enjoy the free meals the fishermen provided every day. Soon a few brave fishermen discovered that the sting rays had become gentle and docile. Now, it's the biggest tourist attraction on the island! At first it's a little nerve-wracking to jump into the water spotted everywhere with the dark shadows of sting rays floating around. The first time they brush right across your chest, legs, or back, looking for food or just to say hello, it's a little scary! But soon we discovered how much fun they are to play with! We snorkeled through the shallow water, watching them float all around us. We got to hold them, pet them, and of course, kiss them! They are soft and a little squishy to hold - it's so cool! When they are hungry they dart around through the water, watching for handouts and concentrating on eating. But when they get full, our guide was explaining to us as he "snuggled" with a large female sting ray, they like to hang out and they're content to be held, petted, and handled. The guides who come out every day have gotten to know some of the sting rays so well they name them and look for their favorites when they come. This was an AMAZING moment I'll never forget!

Back massage anyone? Our boat captain offered me a back rub compliments of a friendly female sting ray. How could I refuse? It felt so good!

We learned that the females get the largest and usually turn lighter as they age. The males are smaller, darker colored, and usually not quite as friendly.

After our sting ray adventure, our catamaran sailed just a little further out to the reef that forms a barrier to the island. The water was pretty choppy and the current kept pulling us back to the boat so we had a hard time actually getting out to the reef but we did see a few fish!

We stopped at one more reef before we headed back. This reef was a little closer to shore and the water was much calmer. We loved this stop! We saw lots of beautiful fish swimming around the corals and this time the current pulled us away from the boat which resulted in a bit of swimming to get back to the boat. We took lots of pictures with our little under-water camera but I don't have those pictures developed yet so I'll have to post some of those when I see if any of them turned out!

Wednesday, March 4

Cozumel, Mexico

What an adventure we had in Mexico! We were in the first group off the ship when it finally docked at Puerta Maya in Cozumel. We were supposed to be taking the 8 am ferry over to Playa del Carmen but they didn't let us off the boat until 8:10 and then we found that we needed to get several miles down the beach front to the International Pier to find the ferry. That was just the start of a hectic but fun day!

Here we are at Puerta Maya. We already knew we'd missed the first ferry and we knew we had an hour before the next ferry. We didn't know yet, how far away we were from the ferry pier! It was such a beautiful, warm, sunny morning, we decided to save some money and walk to the ferry pier. That was a great idea until we realized how far away it was and how badly we needed to catch the 9 am ferry. We ended up running most of the way and then we missed that 9 am ferry by about 60 seconds! That really set us behind for the rest of the day!

We got on the ferry in Cozumel and suddenly discovered David was going to be in big trouble. The ferry was small and enclosed, stuffed with row after row of seats, crammed with people, and it started rocking and rolling on the waves as soon as it left the pier. Poor David, that was probably the longest 30 minute boat ride of his life! He was turning green and he was so miserable. I felt so bad! We finally made it to Playa del Carmen but since we had missed the first 2 ferries from Cozumel, our "chauffeur" who was scheduled to pick us up and take us to our Hidden Worlds jungle adventure, was long gone! We had to make our way ourselves! A taxi ride would have been $40 so we decided to be adventurous and squished ourselves onto a "colectivo" - a mini van which was basically a bus. For only $2/each we found ourselves dropped off on the side of the road just outside the entrance to "Hidden Worlds." Finally, we had made it to our destination for the day!

Hidden Worlds was a fun adventure! We got set-up with wet suits and then boarded our "limo" - a very old, hardly recognizable truck base with a "cage" on the back to hold the people. We bounced our way back into the jungle where they dropped us off at the "Jungle Center." We had a short hike through the jungle and by some Yucatan Monkeys before we found the entrance to the "sky cycle."

Yucatan Spider Monkey

David set up the camera on a tree stump so we could get a picture of the two of us along the trail to the sky cycle. Nice remote shot Dave!

The sky cycle was a pretty clever invention! They designed a "bicycle" that attaches to a zip line. You pedal the bike to move along the cable. Sometimes there's a little bit of a climb, mostly it was pretty flat, and sometimes you had to use your feet on the pedals as the "breaks" when we went downhill. What a fun way to explore the jungle near the cenotes! At first we were way up high, right along the tree line, then we went down into the trees and down even more into the cave where we started exploring the cenotes.

Here I am in the trees on my "sky cycle!"

We entered a cavern where we got off our bikes and donned our snorkel gear. We followed our guide into the water of the cenote. This was a cool adventure! It was very dark. Stalactites and Stalagmites stuck up and hung into the water all around us. At some points we ducked through small little spaces with cave walls all around us and black, darkness so thick we couldn't see a thing. Then the cave would open up into a big cavern with sunlight peeking through and the green leaves of the trees showing through the cracks. We had fun floating around in this "hidden world" and our guide was quite entertaining as he explained in broken english about the stalactites and how he got fired for taking tourists too far off the beaten path. We were using our underwater camera to take pictures during this part and we're hoping some of them turn out because this place was incredible! It was like we had left planet earth and entered a new world where mysterious, dark caverns filled with water were connected to each other by dark, deep tunnels.

After the cenote snorkeling, we got back on our sky cycles and biked through a few more caverns before we climbed back out into the jungle again.

When we got back from the cycling adventure we suddenly looked at our watches and realized it was 3:00 pm. We were still a bouncy 25 minute "limo" ride away from the entrance of the park, then a 40 minute colectivo ride, a 30 minute ferry ride, and another 3 mile run back to the ship where we were supposed to be by 5:30 pm. We had to hustle! We had Hidden Worlds call us a taxi which was waiting for us at the entrance of the park in 3 minutes. We told the driver we needed to hurry and hurry he did! What took us 40 minutes in the colectivo took our taxi driver about 25 minutes. He was flying down the road and only paused long enough to pass the cop with the radar gun pointed straight at him before he sped right up again! He pulled up to the street where we could catch the ferry at 3:55 pm and we dashed down the road to buy our tickets for the 4:00 ferry only to discover that Rachel was totally incorrect in thinking there was a 4:00 ferry! The next ferry wasn't scheduled to leave until 5:00 pm which meant we were in some serious trouble! The 5 pm ferry would mean we would be at the International Pier in Cozumel about 5:30 which would put us still a taxi drive away from our boat which meant we were going to be VERY late! We were standing there in dismay, wondering what we could do, when Rachel noticed a ferry being loaded right then with passengers all wearing a "Princess cruise line" sticker. She recognized a few other people we had met from the boat and realized they were the ones who had scheduled a tour through the cruise line and they were being taken on their own ferry back to Cozumel. We approached the man with the tickets for this ferry and explained that we were passengers on the same ship and trying to go to the same place and would he please let us pay for a ticket to get on the same ferry as the rest of the people? He firmly said "no" and explained how these people had scheduled through the ship and there was no way we were going to be allowed to join the ferry without being part of the tour, etc. etc. Our last hopes dashed, we stood there dejectedly, watching the wise ones who had paid all that extra money for their tour through the cruise line but were now being transported directly back to the boat. After standing there for at least 15 minutes looking like the pathetic, lost, desperate tourists that we were, one of the employees of the ferry waved us over to him. He quickly said that if we would purchase tickets for the 5:00 ferry, he would trade those tickets for tickets for the ferry being loaded right then. With humongous cries of relief David sprinted over to the ticket booth to buy some tickets. We tried to give him a tip we were so grateful but he wouldn't even accept it! (First and only time during the trip someone refused a tip!) He was an employee of the same ferry company that runs the regular ferry so he just took our regular ferry tickets, handed us two of the pink tickets the cruise passengers were using to get onboard that ferry, and hushed us on our way. What a lucky break! We were so grateful to be on a ferry and headed back to the ship that David didn't even care that he was heading back onboard the "puke boat" as he called it. This ferry was a little different and had a large section up top that wasn't enclosed. David sat right on the edge and didn't have nearly as miserable a time as he had during the first ferry ride. And, because this ferry was privately chartered just for the cruise passengers, it took us straight back to our ship! Hurray! The ferry landed at the pier right next to the ship at 5:20 pm. We hadn't done any souvenir shopping yet and wanted to get a few things so we did a 10-minute marathon souvenir stop. With $3 t-shirts, Mexican vanilla, $.50 bracelets, and bottles of hot sauce, we had something for everyone in the family and were back on the ship by 5:30 pm! What a busy, crazy, exhausting, stressful, but fun day we had in Mexico! We were disappointed that we didn't have time to see the ruins at Tulum plus there are so many other things we would love to do there that we have decided some day we'll go back and spend a week at least on the Yucatan Peninsula!

Thursday, March 5

Fun Day on the Ship

After our busy day in Mexico, and with David still reeling with motion sickness from the ferry ride, we were grateful that Thursday was a quiet day on board the ship. David took medicine and slept in a little, Rachel hit the gym, then David surprised Rachel by signing us up for a ballroom dance competition that night. We had way too much wonderful food, we saw an amazing show called "Broadway Ballroom" in the Princess Theatre, then we went to Club Fusion for the dance competition. We did a little bit of triple swing and found ourselves the winners of a bottle of champagne. (Here's a photo of us all sweaty from our dance!)The other couples in the competition looked at us like we were absolutely insane when we promptly handed our bottle of champagne over to the members of the band. One of the men looked at me and asked, "What, are you pregnant?" I said "Well, actually, I am, but we don't drink alcohol anyway!" Let me tell you, handing that bottle of alcohol over to the band was the best thing we did! They became our biggest fans and best friends the rest of the cruise. They asked for our song requests, announced that we had come in when we walked into whatever room that happened to be playing, and were just overwhelmingly grateful for their free bottle of bubbly! :)

After the ballroom competition ended and our favorite band quit playing our requests for the night, we wandered out to the Piazza just in time to witness the insanity of the "Champagne Waterfall." Over 600 crytal goblets were constructed into a pyramid. After all the streamers had been thrown and the crowd was foaming at the mouth for their free bubbly, they started pouring bottle after bottle of champagne into the top glass. As more champagne was added, it started spilling over into the next layer of glasses and cascading down the sides of the "waterfall." A band was playing, people were dancing, free champagne was circling the room, and everyone was in a party mood! This was midnight and we weren't nearly as excited about the free alcohol as the other thousands of people were, so we left the insanity and the future hang-overs behind us and went to bed!

The "champagne waterfall" was quite pretty - but it seemed pretty over-the-top even for the amazing, ornate, extravagant Princess ship we were on! Wow what a strange, ostentatious world a cruise ship is!

Friday, March 6

Eleuthura Island, the Bahamas

"aka the Princess Cays"

Stay tuned for photos from our fun, sunny day in the Bahamas. We left our nice camera behind and took the little disposable cameras which we haven't developed yet. The Princess private beach and snorkeling area on this Bahaman island is beautiful. We found a great spot to snorkel and saw more beautiful fish than we had yet during the trip! All was great until we got out of the water and Rachel noticed some red spots on David's leg. We looked and saw they were also on his arms, neck, back, etc. He went to the ship medic on the island and was told he had run into jellyfish "larvae" - apparently they are like baby jellyfish and they "sting" in a smaller, less painful way. David must have swum right through a patch while we were snorkeling. You never know what'll happen in the ocean! Anyway, those red spots are still there almost a week later but they haven't bothered him too much so hopefully they'll fade soon.

Saturday, March 7th

Ft. Lauderdale and the Everglades

First thing Saturday morning we had to leave our gigantic paradise on the sea! After welcoming us so warmly one week ago, the crew sure seemed anxious to get rid of us that morning! ;) We were given a time and a meeting place for our disembarkation. Our meeting time was the last at 9:20 am so we had several hours to get breakfast and grab a few last pictures of the beautiful boat without too many people on it!

David saying goodbye from the Sports Deck.

The Princess Theatre where we saw comedians, magicians, acrobats, dancers, singers! All the performers were amazing!

We had some fun dancing in the Wheelhouse!

Relaxing on the Promenade Deck before we leave! This deck was so cool at night! It was the closest outside deck to the water. Walking out at night with the water rushing by right under you was exhilarating!

Gator Huntin' in the Everglades

After they finally kicked us off the Ruby Princess, we shuttled to the airport and picked up a rental car. After finding a disgusting but cheap little motel room for the night, we drove out to the Everglades for a little 'gator hunting adventure.

We rode on an airboat around the Everglades for about an hour, watching for alligators and feeling grateful that we weren't stuck somewhere in that unfriendly environment! The water has piranha-like fish, the beautiful flowers all over have black widow or brown recluse spiders hiding inside them, and there are alligators hanging out everywhere, so still and camouflaged you don't see them until you're right next to them! Again, we used our disposable camera for the pictures from the boat so we still need to see if we caught any pictures of alligators.

After the air boat ride we watched an alligator "wrestling" show where a man who must be completely insane walked barefoot into an enclosure full of alligators and stuck his hands in their open mouths, stuck his chin in their mouth, straddled them, flipped them, and did all sorts of crazy tricks which must up his health insurance premiums daily. :) It was a fun way to spend the afternoon although by this point in the trip, all David and I wanted to do was go home and see our kids!!!!!

I definitely don't need the sign that says "don't feed the alligators" - I'm not crazy enough to get that close!

The End

Sunday, March 8th

We had an insanely early morning, we had to get up at 1:00 am mountain time to get our car rental back and get to the airport for our EARLY flight home. First we went to Memphis Tennessee where we took our Delta flight, operated by Skywest, operated by Northwest, operated by Mesaba Airlines which amazingly enough did eventually get us home. Tom picked us up from the airport and we were so happy to see our wonderful kids again! Ben hugged me for about half an hour and wouldn't let me out of his sight the rest of the afternoon. We sure missed them and are grateful to Grandma & Grandpa Shawcroft for taking care of them for over a week. The next morning we woke up to a few inches of snow and a cold day to remind us that spring hasn't quite arrived in Utah yet, despite our tan faces! We had a wonderful, fun, enjoyable "dream" vacation. We're ready and excited for this next baby to come join our little family this summer!

Rub-a-dub-dub, all my kids are in the tub!

2009-02-02T16:44:00.033-07:00

Here's the typical response to the call for a bath for Ben. "Yeah! I go take bath now, with toys!" Here's the typical response when I call for Braden to take a bath. "Ughhhhhhhhhh, I don't want to!"

Why is it that a 2-year-old can play for hours in the tub, surrounded by bubbles and cars, or even just an old broken cup, and it's still entertaining! But then my 7-year-old acts like I've asked him to do an incredibly difficult chore along the lines of toilet scrubbing and laundry folding, when I just want him to wash off the gunk of the day! I think Braden would have been happy in the middle ages when bath time was an annual or semi-annual adventure!

Maybe I can keep Ben enjoying the baths and bubbles a little while longer! Sorry Braden, you still have to take a bath - like it or not!

So, in the process of my bathroom redecorating project (thanks Erika!) I have been collecting pics of my kids in the bathtub through the years. Here are a few of my favorites. . .

Katie - just a tiny little thing in our "sink tub" in Colorado.

Katie (2) and baby Braden (1 1/2 mths old) playing in our big tub in Cedar Hills

I love this one! Chunky-monkey Braden abt. 6 mths old!

The lipstick culprit trying to wash off evidence of her crime. One day while we were still living in San Diego Kate found mom's lipstick. It was everywhere! She thought she was so beautiful, until she realized she was in trouble!

And there's Ben loving the bathtub as usual! We took this one just last week!

Katie's January Dancing

2009-02-02T16:31:00.009-07:00

Right after Christmas craziness came to an end, we had dance recital craziness begin! Kate's little dance studio had 2 days of performances with 2 performances each day. Yes, 4 performances, it was a bit much but I think she had a good time. Her good friend and neighbor is in her class so they had plenty of giggling, visiting, and hanging out time during dress rehearsals and all those performances. Here are a few pics of beautiful Kate!

Katie and her wonderful friend Emma!

The "Seekchasers" all dressed up and ready to dance!

Merry Christmas!

2009-01-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

Katie (9), Braden (7), and Ben (2) the Sunday before Christmas

December 21, 2008

"Don't Look Mom - I Know I'm in Trouble!"

2009-01-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

This picture says so many things without needing too much description from me. It says:

Never, ever, ever, leave a 2-year-old unattended!
Showers are overrated because by the time you finish your shower and then clean up the mess the 2-year-old created while you were in the shower, you'll need another one!
Don't buy Oreos when a 2-year-old lives in the house.
Don't leave Oreos on a shelf evenly remotely within reach of the most ambitious and dextrous 2-year-old!
When you see your 2-year-old cowering in the fetal position on the floor, assume the worst!
Oreos make great finger-paints!
Oreos mixed with water are a substitute for cement in a pinch.
2-year-olds know their parents love to see their cute handprints - well, unless it's a handprint make of cookie slime.
Oreo slime can be created within moments.
Oreos don't just get soft and mushy in milk!
At least Ben didn't eat the whole package. . .I think?!
OREOS ARE FUN!

The evidence: December 14, 2008

Please note: two well-defined and distinct handprints on the floor that match the suspect's hand-size perfectly!

The cookie-slime criminal cowering in fear of his punishment!

AF City Christmas Party Fun!

2009-01-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Braden with his cotton candy at the party.

This year AF City hosted an incredible Christmas party! It was their first time attempting such an event and we're hoping they'll repeat it every year now. The kids had so much fun - it was a Christmas carnival combined with dinner and topped off with a visit from Santa, lots of toys and treats! It was incredibly crowded and difficult to find a seat at first but the games, prizes, and fun more than made up for the tight quarters. First we had dinner and Christmas performers, then they opened up the carnival room where the kids had popcorn, cotton candy, fish pond, "pin the nose on Rudolph," several other games, plus cookie decorating. It was a kid's party-dream come true! The funniest part of the evening was when the cotton candy machine sent up little fluffs of candy to the ceiling, setting off the smoke detectors, and then the whole fire department came to join the party too!

Katie helping Ben win a prize at the cake walk.

Ben was nervous when Santa walked in the room, he hid his face in mom's shoulder as Santa jingled his way by us and up to the front of the room, and there was NO WAY he was sitting on that scary man's lap! The closest we could get him was in David's arms, half-on Santa's lap. Santa took it all in stride and asked Ben what he wanted for Christmas. Ben, with his head still hidden in Dad's shoulder, turned his face slightly toward Santa and said "A big truck!" A few weeks later, we discovered that Ben's shy request for Santa had been heard when he found a big yellow dump truck under the tree!

Mom: Here comes Santa Ben! Let's go say hi to him!

Ben: Santa scary - I wan' go home now!

Katie and Braden are "Santa lap veterans." They had no problem visiting the big man's knee, asking for a gift, and collecting their candy cane!

I blinked and it was gone. . . .December 2008

2009-01-05T13:42:00.001-07:00

Somehow December flew right by and I haven't posted a single thing! So, here it is, January 5th. The kids are back in school again, Ben is watching Elmo hunt for the letter "N" - and I have a moment to breathe again! So, we'll start at the beginning and work back towards the big day.

The beginning of Christmas is traditionally the tree-trimming party! The holidays can't begin until we've "decked the halls." Here are a few pics of our tree-trimming/hall-decking festivities from the first of December.

A cool day at the beach

2008-12-04T21:38:00.004-07:00

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

2008-12-04T20:31:00.005-07:00

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

2008-12-04T15:00:00.001-07:00

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!

Ahoy Mateys! It's Halloween

2008-11-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Bradshaw Pirate Crew is ready to set sail on Halloween for Pirate Plundering and Candy Treasure Hunting! Cap'n Long Locks was our fearless leader. The pirate crew included: Kate the Great Mate, Braden the Brave Basher, and Beetle Ben. 1st mate was Terrible Tommy. (see below)

We had no idea how many wanna-be pirates would come crawling out of the ship's slime when we hoisted the skull and bones flag over our ship on Halloween night! First Grandpa & Grandma Shawcroft showed up with 8 teenagers all in pirate duds, then Tom's harem showed up and immediately joined the pirate ranks, plus a few more family members and a cute fairy niece - we ended up with a full crew of 24 hanging onto anything they could grab to be part of the pillaging and plundering adventure!

Our fearless mascot, Pirate Pete, led the way on the bow of the ship. A tattered and torn skull & crossbones flag hung off the back, an eerie skeleton lantern lit the way, the sounds of "Pirates of the Caribbean" announced our presence, and a huge treasure chest full of spiders, skeletons, and pirate gold coins sat on deck. Jack Sparrow never had it so good! We even had fireworks exploding from the ship because we couldn't seem to find any cannonballs!

As we drove around the neighborhood, the younger pirate mates would run up to doors in their never-ending quest for candy. The teenagers and Uncle Tom kept the music, fireworks, and pirate-strutting going. Meanwhile, any neighbor children brave enough to withstand the one-eyed glare of Pirate Pete would come up to Grandma Shawcroft for a treat from the treasure chest.

It was a fun night for young and old! You're never too old to be a pirate, right mates?

ARGHHHHH! 'Til next year, when the Bradshaw Pirate Crew comes together again!

First Mate, Terrible Tommy (ha ha Tom!)

Blimey - that's one scary-looking bunch of Pirates!

Cap'n Long Locks and the ever-fearsome pirate, Beetle Ben!

Stunning Soccer Season Synopsis

2008-10-16T22:54:00.000-06:00

It's official, the Fall Soccer season is now over! No more running to 2 games at the same time at 2 very different locations, or forgetting Kate's soccer practice because of Braden's game, or vice-versa. Kate and Braden had fun the last couple of months on their soccer teams. It was quite an eye-opening experience this year because our children are getting older. Apparently, the kids generally know now which direction to kick the ball, they all know now not to sit down in the middle of the field during the middle of the game, and our greatest shock - they actually keep score now! Things are getting more intense and shin guards, cleats, and soccer socks are now a necessity!

Here are a few fun pictures from their games:

Check out that kick Braden!

(Nice picture-snapping Dad!)

We call her Kate the Great Sprinter!

She could outrun anyone on her team!

Bike or Bust!

2008-10-01T23:18:00.003-06:00

Rachel's first bike race

September 27, 2008

Rachel finally bought a nice road bike! In order to "break it in" we went up to Heber this last weekend for the Heber Valley Century ride. (No, I didn't make it the full 100 miles!) It was an amazingly beautiful weekend full of fall colors and sunshine. Part of the route included the Olympic Biathlon venue at Soldier Hollow. We got to hop off our bikes and use the rifles at the range to fire at some targets. (My aim isn't so good, it's no surprise that David was the one in the FBI with a gun, not me!) Rachel enjoyed the ride, the scenery, and poor David followed patiently in the "support vehicle" with 3 grumpy children in it!

DON'T wake me up when September ends. . .

2008-10-01T22:59:00.003-06:00

September 21, 2008

Alpine Loop

What an amazingly beautiful world we live in! Last weekend while David was out of town for work, we headed up the canyon to see if Fall had arrived in the mountains yet. We found beautiful colored leaves, a bright blue sky, and most importantly, plenty of rocks for Ben to throw! We drove almost to the top of the Alpine Loop and then twisted our way back down the canyon until we found a nice spot by the river where Ben could drop rocks in the water to his hearts content. (And two hours later, he was still throwing rocks!) Here are a few pictures from our afternoon in the heart of the Wasatch.

3 Little Monkeys Sleeping in the Bed!

2008-09-12T20:41:00.004-06:00

Last night Kate saw a moth fluttering around upstairs so she ran screaming down the stairs to sleep with "Braden the Brave." Little Ben came downstairs with me to say goodnight to brother and sister and was quite upset when I hauled him back upstairs and wouldn't let him stay with "my Katie." A few minutes later I was cleaning the kitchen and realized Ben wasn't in the room. I checked upstairs thinking he would have gone to find Daddy. No Ben was there! I went downstairs and there, right in the middle of his two soundly sleeping siblings, was Ben, wide awake! As soon as I walked in he said "No Mommy, I sleep with brother, I sleep with sister." He was so determined not to be left out of the sleepover what could I do but leave him right there!

The next morning, Katie and Braden woke to find a squirmy little "bed bug" in the middle of the bed with them. They were surprised to find him there but all 3 of them slept all night long! Who needs a 3 bedroom house and 3 different beds! Not us, apparently! :)

The Bradshaw Beat - First Edition!

2008-09-11T22:58:00.015-06:00

Welcome to the first edition of the Bradshaw Beat, instant access to the life and times of our little family! Here are our top headlines for the day:

Bradshaw Blogging has Begun!

You'd think that being married to the "cybersultan" as I am would have meant that we would have been "blogging" years ago! Better late than never! We'll see how long I can keep this up! Now, first things first, it's time for some introductions!

Katherine the Great

Her dad calls her "Kate-Kate" and little brother Braden loves to tease big sister "Kathy" - to mom, she's beautiful, kind, amazing, loving Katie. Katie is 9 years old and quite possibly has the largest and sweetest heart in the world! She walks around all day with a halo floating over her head! (Well, except for when mom asks her to practice the piano. That's when the halo disappears and horns appear!) Katie loves art, drawing, painting, crafting, gluing, taping, etc. etc. (I know, it didn't come from her mom's genes that's for sure!) Katie's sweet personality runs to help anyone who's hurt or sad, especially if it's her little brothers. Katie is a big 4th grader this year and has started learning Latin! She also enjoys playing Soccer and is an amazing and FAST forward for her team, go Cougars! Katie gathers friends around with her sweet smile and seems to always have someone calling to play. We love Katie so much and we can't believe how quickly and beautifully she is growing up!

Braden the Brave

When spiders and bees send big sister Katie screaming in circles, Braden the Brave calmly walks over and squishes whatever bug has sent Katie into a panic. He's not afraid of the dark, he laughs in the face of the trickiest math problems, he'll double-dare any friend and live to tell about it! However, if the power goes out, Braden the Brave becomes Braden the Bored! One hour of power failure is enough to send him into a total panic! Braden is 7 years old (even as I type it I can't believe he could be that old already!) Braden is an energetic and determined 2nd grader who can read like the wind, fly through his math problems with the greatest of ease, but don't ask him to write legibly, it's like cryptonite! Braden is an orange belt in Karate and only occasionally has to be told not to practice on his sister and brother. :) He is an avid video game player, Star Wars jedi-in-training, lego construction specialist, and can be found flying up and down the soccer field every Wednesday night (well, for two more weeks.) We love you Braden the Brave!

King Benjamin

When Ben came along 2 years ago, he wrapped his little hands around everyone in our family and claimed his rightful place as ruler of the Bradshaw family! To his adoring sister, he can do no wrong. His adoring brother has had enough lego ships and guns broken apart to know that Ben can indeed to a lot of wrong if he gets his hands in the wrong places! Ben is a "terrific two" with a few "terrible" moments thrown in just so we don't forget that he is allowed a few tauntrums at this stage in life. Ben loves his brother and sister and will follow them anywhere! Well, he'll follow them anywhere except near the garbage truck or the lawnmower. Each Thursday when Ben sees the garbage cans lined up by the side of the road he hovers in the doorway and refuses to go outside. He's always listening for the screeching, thumping, banging, horribly terrifying noises of the garbage truck. But no matter what day it is, Ben wakes up with a smile on his face and an empty tummy! We love you Ben!