Big June!

June has been a very big month for our family. We have had lots of exciting things going on, here they are in order. May 30th Cindy got married in the Twin Falls Temple and we went up to Idaho for that. Because of Cindy and James wonderful planning we ended up staying the whole week so we could do the wedding on the 30th and then the Rupert reception on the 6th of June. This gave us a great opportunity to spend some time with both our families in the Rupert/Burley area. Thanks to Janice for watching our kids while we went to the wedding and Gooding reception (we also snuck in a movie while we didn't have kids)! While were were there Tracy and her Mom got pedicures we went fishing with Ivan and Julie and hung out with Burke and Janette and their family almost every day. The kids really play great together. The funnest part for me (Casey) was when we went boating with Ivan. Burke and his family came too, it was fun to ride on the tube with the kids. I had to ride with Cooper first because he was the only one brave enough to go, but once Kolby and Shelby saw that he lived and actually liked it they tried it and had a blast. I was proud of Kolby, by the end he and Wyatt rode together without an adult.

After spending the first half of the week with Tracy's family we headed to the Bradshaw's to get ready for the honeymooners to get home. Cindy and James got back from Hawaii on Saturday just in time for a family BBQ. It was supposed to be at Layne and Barbara's but because it rained non stop that day we had to move it into my parents garage. The reception also got moved from Layne and Barbara's to the church! It all turned out really nice and it was great to see all the family!

The day we left Rupert just happened to be Cooper and Casey's birthday. We celebrated a little in Rupert, but after church and lunch headed for home to have our family party. Tracy had made Cooper's cake the week before and froze it so all she had to do was decorate it (I shouldn't say "all she had to do", she really goes all out for the kid's cakes and this was no exception). Luckily my cake was real simple, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting so that didn't take too long.

The biggest thing that has happened this month though is we welcomed a new member of our family into the world. Chase Garner Bradshaw was born on June 24th at 11:27 a.m. He was 7 lbs, 5 oz and 19 inches long. Tracy got her wish in that she didn't make it to her inducement date! We are grateful to the Garrett's for being willing to come over at 4:45 in the morning to be with our sleeping kids and also to Janice for rushing down that morning and staying with our kids for the next couple days, but mostly we are thankful for Chase! He is such a cute little guy and we are so glad he is a member of our family!

Camping (finally!)

After a couple of weeks of wanting to go camping, but couldn't, in May we finally made it out! Earlier this spring we sold our old camp trailer and bought another one that we can load our 4-wheelers into. We were very excited to try it out.







We went up Dimondfork canyon east of Spanish fork the same weekend as Father's and Son's. We decided that this may be the last camping trip Tracy can do until after she had the baby so we turned it into Family and Son's! It was lots of fun, but as usual our 1st trip out with a different trailer always proves to be a little adventurous working out the bugs. We got there and unloaded everything and made dinner, everything was going great, we started a fire, rode the 4-wheelers a little ate and went to bed. That's when the fun started! It turned out that the battery on the trailer was bad and wouldn't hold a charge so the water pump, fridge or the furnace wouldn't work. We thought that's OK, this trailer has a generator built in it so we thought we would just fire it up, well, think again! The generator wouldn't work either. It was cold so we were not too worried about our food in the fridge, and we had plenty of blankets to keep warm with. The next morning we hooked up the jumper cables to the battery and got the fridge and heater working, but we then found out we didn't load enough water. Luckily we had a 5 gallon cooler full so we had plenty to drink!

We rode 4-wheelers for most of the day and saw some very pretty places. We also saw a moose, lots of dear, and some bear and elk tracks. Because of the issues with the trailer we were glad we were just gone one day, but now we have it all fixed up with a new battery, and a repaired generator so we are anxious to get camping again!