Monday, August 10, 2009

Summer Stuff

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!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Happy Birthday Dad! & Mother's Day Too!


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







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!




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

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

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

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!