The Highlights of 2010

     This year is almost over and its time to recap our highlights in a letter for all to read.  I think I can do this in just one word....KIDS!  You can say that word in what ever context you wish (because we have).  Whether it sounds happy, angry, funny, shocked (good or bad), frustrated, proud, etc., and that pretty much sums up our whole entire year!

      Kolby is turning 8 in Jan. I can't believe he is almost old enough to carry his very own gun. I'm such a proud mom.  When he was younger he always asked for his own "real" gun and every time he did so we told him, "not until your accountable for yourself at age 8. " It seemed so far away and yet here we are.  Don't worry it's only a BBgun, but still watch all pet owners nearby.  Sorry neighbors, its open season in our back yard.  All I can say is the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Kolby is so fun and has quite the sense of humor.  He was throwing something around one night while I was cutting hair and knocked a pot of dried flowers off of a shelf.  It hadn't been that long ago that Cooper had did the same thing and got in big trouble because the flower pot broke.  This time however, luckily for Kolby the pot didn't break so he thought it would be ok. With huge sigh of relief he picked it up and put it back. Casey told him that Mom was going to be mad because he had broken all the peddles off the dried roses, and Kolby said, "its ok Dad, its winter time now, roses don't have peddles".  He then started sweeping up all the other stuff and said, "when I make a mess, I clean it up!"  Kolby is starting basketball in January and can't wait to get out on the court and show everybody his new moves.

     Shelby is five and full of it!  She is in a ballet/tap dance class and knows how to shake it!  I don't know where she gets all her pizazz, but she's definitely got moves!  She loves Taylor Swift, singing (making up her own songs), dancing, friends, changing her clothes, and kindergarten.  She loves babies and is a little mom to all around.  She is a fabulous big sister to Chase and is always tring to take on the mom position with him.  This summer we were all going on a bike ride and her training wheels were not working so I asked Casey to fix them before we left.  The kids were getting restless so Casey said to go on ahead and he and Shelby would catch up.  Casey fixed the training wheels by taking them off and sure enough here came Shelby riding down the middle of the road without a care in the world and going faster than I would have liked.  It is funny, she was always so hesitant riding her bike with the training wheels on.  She is our little dare devil.  Shelby is always happy, full of life and a joy to have around. 
    

Next is Super Cooper, he is three and you always know when he's around because he is never quiet.  He has a little bit of middle child syndrome because he thinks he has to scream to be heard.  He always says "Hey, hey you guys, I'm talking!"  He loves to throw anything and jump off of everything.  He loves to be outside and run, play with friends, build with Lego's, going to joy school, and the building workshops at Lows.  He is a very determined boy and likes to do everything by himself.  When you try to help him with something he says "No, I said I have to do it!"  His favorite thing to do by himself is to tie his shoes, which he doesn't really know how to do, but he does it anyway so there is a huge bundle of knots.  My favorite time with Cooper is just when its me and him, and he holds my hand, he is my little buddy.  I love it when completly out of the blue says "I love you", or "I like you". One of Casey and my favorite things to do with Cooper is sing him his special song at bedtime.  Mine is a made up tune about "Cooperophagus, is my dinosaur.  He's rough and he's tough, and really really nice, ect."  He listens closely to all the lyrics.  Casey's song is "Good night sweet heart", but he always changes sweetheart to whatever superhero or animal that is appropriate for the night.  Casey always knows when he has picked the right thing because Cooper always nods his head yes when it is the right thing.  We love our Cooper, he keeps things lively in our house.
 

 Last our little Roonie.  Why do we call him that you ask?  Well when Chase was just little he would curl up in a U shape.  We would laugh and say he looks like a piece of macaroni.  It shortened and it stuck and now he is Chase-a-roonie, roons, ect.  He loves balls and his favorite game is fetch.  The other kids love paying chase with Chase.  He loves to be outside and throws a big fit when the other kids get to go out and he doesn't, he will bring you his shoes and stand by he door.  We have to keep all of our doors chained because he has figured out how to open them which causes a problem because his second favorite thing is to play in the toilet!  When someone forgets to close the bathroom door, we have a family phrase of "bathroom alert!!"  Everyone is supposed to run to 'the bathroom, get Chase out and close and lock the door.  We have it down pretty good, but he has been able to play in the toilet a time or two.  He and Cooper just got tubes in their ears and their adenoids removed.  Chase was not too excited about this but he will be once he finished healing.  When Chase goes down for a nap and before bedtime I hum him a lullaby, he is so adorable when he hums with you or when he is really tired he will go get a blankie, find me and with blankie by his head start humming the song.  Chase is such an addition to our home he is so sweet and very ticklish and we love hearing his little laugh.

     Casey is up to no good!  He came home from work a few weeks ago and told me he was getting a bonus from work and he wanted to use it to buy a new TV.  He thought he could slip one past me, but I can always tell when he isn't telling me the whole truth.  I asked him if Rick, his boss, was giving him the bonus, and he kind of dodged the question, telling me more about the TV he wanted.  Come to find out their was no Real bonus just a nice wife who thought if he would go to all the time thinking up all this mumbo jumbo then he could by his own Christmas present.  Just to make this clear  he was always meaning "he says" that the "bonus" came from his own pay check for a job well done that month.  He won't have anything to open on Christmas because he couldn't wait.  He is still buying and selling homes in Indianapolis, and drilling oil wells in Kentucky, but the reverse mortgages here in Utah are our bread and butter.

     Me, I don't do much other than laundry, cleaning, homework, cooking, and hair once a week.  I like exercising and would like to get more sleep.  My favorite things we did this year was go to Hawaii.  It was nice to get away from the everyday grind of things, and to remember that my husband is still my boy friend and we still have fun being together with just the two of us.  I love my family, and I look forward to the future and enjoy the present.  Life is good!!

     Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hawaii

In August we had the opportunity to go to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary and we had the most amazing time!!!  The weather was great and the island of Oahu was beautiful though I did picture it a tad bit different then it was.  We forgot our camera so we had to take all the pictures on Casey's phone, but it still took us two months to get around to uploading them to our computer so we can post this blog!! The first day we grabbed a bite of breakfast at Dukes a restaurant right on the beach (coconut syrup, Yummy), got all of our souvenirs bought, drove around the island, went to a Macedonian farm, checked into our condo in Turtle bay area, bought some groceries (yikes, it was expensive) and chilled on the beach @ Turtle bay.  We hiked a little ways on the beach so there wasn't so many people where we layed out.  It was hard work reading a book, taking a nap, and playing in the water in the middle of the day.  We even got a free show that 1st day on the beach.  How you might ask, well Fabio (is the name we choose for our new friend) came walking by me, in a hammock style thong speedo, chanting and dancing something to his 2 little furry stuffed animals.  Casey was in the water while the "episode" took place and its taking all I've got to keep from busting up laughing and thinking where is Casey when i need him.  My friend "Fabio" even did some bum slapping. I'm telling ya watch out Vegas Fabio is on his way.  Cas came back over to me just laughing, apparently he didn't miss the show he just didn't want to interrupt.  Day 2:  We got up and fixed us some breakfast at the condo then went to the Dole plantation (were I learned how to properly select and cut a pineapple), we had lunch there which was yummy pineapple ice cream. Then we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Tracy trying some fresh pineapple at the Dole plantation.

Riding the train at the Dole plantation looking at the acres and acres of pineapple!

Casey just had to get a picture of his favorite tropical plant!!

Here we are at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  This was a fun place and we learned a lot of interesting things.  Note for next time though, do not get a tour guide and do not pay for the luau, it was not worth the money!  They are good at upselling on the phone and I had no idea what I was suppose to be getting.  Oh well, we still had a blast and even more fun when we went back the next day to do some of the things we didn't have time to do with our guided tour group.

I volunteered Casey to go up and help out for the Tongan show.  He got to play the drums and yell and scream into the microphone, everyone after the show kept calling Casey "Utah", which was what the Tongan guy kept calling him.  Because we were cheap we did not buy the pictures from the center, we just took a picture of them!

This was at the big show at the end of the night.  Very fun, especially the fire dancers at the end.

We hiked Diamond Head.  We only had one hour until it closed so we had to book it, but we had time for a few pics along the way.  This was an old machine gun station used during WWII.

A look down at the Diamond Head lighthouse.

Looking down on Honolulu and Waikiki beach.

Turtle.

This was our 2nd day at Poly we learned how to play the ukulele, weave leaves into fishes and headbands, and I learned how to do the Hula!

Golfing on the beach!

They wouldn't let me wear my sandals on the coarse so I had to wear these beauties w/ no socks.  I had a few blisters when i was done.  Which took a while b/c I swung that dang club about 15 times each time I went to hit before I actually made contact with the ball.

All along the North Shore there are tons for fresh shrimp shacks.  After a little trial and error we found the best one of all.  They serve the best shrimp and oh it was good out of this piece of crap van/bus and they let you sign your name on it.  We also liked North shore for food and we found a salon that had a lady that gave one heck of a massage!

Sunset on the beach

One of our favorite places was Pearl Harbor.  This was an interesting and solemn place.  Going to see the USS Arizona memorial was something to remember.  Over 900 brave sailors are entombed in this sunken ship.

You can see the black oil still spilling out the the fuel tanks.

We each had to take our turn shooting the bad guys.

Another  fun thing we did, but not really worth the money was a submarine ride.  That's me going down into the sub.  We saw some cool fish and some turtles and some old ship and airplane wreckage all at about 100 feet below sea level, but really going snorkeling you can see most all that stuff anyway.

I think our favorite part was when we hiked to Manoa Falls.  This was the most beautiful hike we had ever been on, this little jungle was exactly what I pictured Hawaii like.  The falls itself wasn't that spectacular, but getting there and back was!  Right when we got there it started down pouring!  We took shelter under a tree and when we both realized we were already soaked we decided to just hike in the rain. 

We had to try to climb a tree and swing on some vines while we were in the jungle.

We also really loved swimming/ walking/ boogie boarding, from a beach out to this little island called Goat Island.  It was like it was our own secluded island b/c their really wasn't any one on it until we went to leave.  We walked around the whole thing, found some cool shells and stuff.  We also loved snorkeling.  Especially once we bought our own snorkel stuff.  One day we went to snorkel at Hanauma Bay (which was crazy with people) their was a line of people to get in and a lady that worked their was walking by telling us that there was sighting of a shark but he wasn't a threat yadda yadda and I asked her so you don't think I'll be bothered even though I have this big cut on my foot?  You could have heard a pin drop, everyone around me was staring at me and waiting for the poor workers answer.  I quickly said I was kidding and don't be alarmed (though I was secretly hoping I would clear the water when I got in). We also really liked the North shore for snorkeling and food. 

We were all set to go to the temple while we were there but it was closed for renovations so we just took some pictures.  We even made a special trip to a clothing store for Cas b/c he "forgot" his church cloths.

The last day we wanted to make sure we weren't going to get stuck in traffic when we should be at the airport.  So we decided to just chill on Wikiki beach.  We had to check out of our condo earlier so we didn't have towls or anything with us so Cas pulled a Michael Weston (Burn Notice) move and said, "If you act like you belong as a member of this hotel no one will question".  He became a member and snagged us some towls and we even dipped in their pool to rinse off before we had to leave for the airport.

Going to Hawaii was easily the funnest vacation Casey and I have ever been on.  We had a blast going and doing things by ourselves.  We were excited to see the kids though when we got home and are very grateful to Joy, Steve, Lisa, Cindy, Mom and Denny, and Janette and family for helping out with them while we were gone, especially Joy and Lisa.  We would go again in a heartbeat if we could afford it and if all these wonderful people would babysit again, but since both of those aren't possible, we'll just have to wait.



Beach Bums!

July 26th through August 1st we had the first of hopefully many Bradshaw family reunions with Casey's parents and siblings with their families.  Everyone was able to make it except Richard and Caitlin who are away in Nevada doing an internship.  I was preparing some treats for the car and while we were there, one of which was puppy chow and Cooper came into the kitchen and said, "mom, are you making poop."  The reunion was sooo fun!  We went to the Oregon coast, which was absolutely beautiful.  It was not like the other beaches I have been to in California and Florida, it is cold for starters and it is nothing but big beautiful trees that end right where the coast begins.  We left Casey's parents house Monday late morning and made it to Pendleton that day where the kids got to spend their first night ever in a hotel.  They loved playing in the pool and jumping on the bed (something only allowed in a hotel, not at home).  The next day we drove the rest of the way with some sight seeing stops along the way.  We stop at Bonneville dam where the kids loved seeing a fish latter and a 10 foot sturgeon.  It was also really cool to see the locks and how they move the big ships from the lower level to up above the dam.  Next we stopped at a water fall called Multnomah Falls.  Their were 2 levels, the higher spot their was a little bridge that went all the way across. We hiked up to the upper part which was really awesome. All in all the kids did really well spending all that time in the car. Being in close quarters that long you get to here a lot of comments from the kids that are funny here is a few...Cooper: Are we in Oregon yet?(We heard this one a few times!);  What  are we doing here? (Every time we stopped or started back up in the car); I want to go to the ocean!
Shelby: A girls got to do what a girls got to do!; I enjoy being a girl!  Kolby:  Once we saw the ocean he said, "Is that part of the deep end of the ocean over by that cliff?"
James and Cindy arraigned  for us all to stay a house in Nehalem Oregon.  Which was fun all being in the same place for the kids and adults.  Once the kids were asleep we adults played games into the night. One of the nights we thought all the kids were asleep so we cracked open the games and was just getting started when Shelby came out and saw us all sitting around the table and said, "Why are you guys eating without us... Don't you know we are STARVING?!"  We said," Shelby we aren't eating we are playing a game game, go to bed."  She went back to her room and later came out and said," what game are you playing?"  We did alot of sight seeing which was fun but I think the kids would have enjoyed just playing on the beach more than they got too.  Even though it was cold, the kids had the most fun there, here are some pictures showing how much fun we had!

We stopped at Bonneville Dam just east of Portland.  It was pretty cool to see such a big dam on the mighty Columbia river!

Next we stopped at the beautiful Multnomah Falls!

The spot we went to on the beach was about a quarter mile hike from the road down to the coast. The trail meandered though all these huge trees.

That clearing is the ocean!

The beautiful Oregon coast

One of the locals

 Chase and his buddy, grandpa.

Kolby and Cooper on the beach-Yea!! We learned after our 1st excursion to the beach no matter how cold less is more because they are going to get wet anyway and sand sticks to wet clothing.  We unintentionally brought back a lot of sand in the car as a souvenir.(FYI The only souvenir that was free) 

Mom helping Cooper build a sand castle

Shelby gathering sea shells. Her favorite thing to do. Grandpa even found a bracelet that he gave her that MUST have came from a pirates ship. 

Grandma and Grandpa and all the grand kids

Chase finally found a place he could crawl and not get sand EVERYWHERE!

The next day we went to Tillamook and went to the big cheese plant.  We got to sample lots of yummy cheeses and have some really good ice cream. Which believe it or not that was lunch, it truly was a vacation.  While the beach was the kids favorite thing, this was second.

We got to see some neat lighthouses.  The one above was west of Tillamook and some people had shot holes in the glass and the light so we could not go up in the top.  The lighthouse below was north-west of Astoria and we missed being able to go inside by about 5 minutes! Apparently some people have to go home to their families. Casey was bummed. Thats ok though because kids under 7 couldn't go in anyway

On the way back from Astoria we went to Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark stayed for the winter before returning back east. It was interesting to see and learn about their expedition. We were in time for the closing ceremonies with the flag and Kolby and Shelby got to help!  Kolby thought that the old time guns were so cool and how they used everything on the bodies of  the animals that they killed for clothes and shoes and many other things. 

We got to try out body surfing, which was fun and cold!

One way they found to warm up after being in the water. 

The last day we spent playing at the beach we even had a hot dog roast.  Cindy & James had a bunch of mini watermelons that we were having with our lunch that our kids were helping them carry quite a ways for a little kid.  Well, apparently Shelby dropped hers causing it to crack a little.  She caught up to Aunt Cindy saying that Cooper dropped it.  Cindy said,"Thats ok."  After a few more yards Shelby confesses, "Ah, Aunt Cindy I actually dropped it."  Cindy said,"Oh, thats ok, why did you tell me Cooper did it?"  Shelby answers, "Ahhh, I don't know".  Cindy says, "Did you think I would be mad? Next time just tell the truth."  You got to wonder how much stuff is blamed on Cooper.

Chases favorite thing to do to get attention in the car was to gag himself which is not a great thing especially when he has been eating food all day.  We found a few things that kept him occupied as you can see.

The kids did really well in the car, we just had to keep them full of snacks and new movies!  Thank goodness for the DVD player!

On the way back we didn't stop, we went from the coast to Rupert without stopping for much, just alot of potty breaks, park breaks, gas and food breaks. We made it in about 13 hours and the kids were real troupers. In fact, I think they did better on the all in one day drive then breaking it up on way there.

The very next weekend after getting home from Oregon we went to Starvation reservoir with some of our friends.  We had fun boating and playing on a beach again.  I got to try wake boarding and was able to get up but that's just about it.  Its not at all like slaloming but still fun I can't wait to try it again.  The kids had a blast on the tube.  But I think even over all that fun stuff the highlights of boating was the huge wave that decide to enter or boat with the help of our driver, drenching us all.  Then having boat problems and having to flag down another boat to tow us all the way back to camp.  Once their we found we were out of gas. We all had a good laugh.  Thank goodness for that fisherman and his wife, it would have been a long paddle back to camp.

Casey showing off his archery skills

Shelly relaxing by the fire

Kolby fishing again!  He caught one first thing but it was a little small so Casey told him to throw it back.  We thought that having him catch one within the first 2 minutes he would catch a lot more-didn't happen.  He and his friend Spencer did catch a lot of crayfish at night though.  They were too creepy looking to get a picture.

Barbies have to bath too!

Kolby had a hard time putting the pole down to for meals too.

Chase in his birthday suit!

The past few weeks at the different beaches have been very fun for our whole family, and we are not done yet.  Casey and I are going to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary next week.  Once we are back from that trip, we will be done being beach bums for a while.

Chase is walking everywhere now.  He loves walking up to your legs and grabing ahold.  He wants up then down but still wants you to hold him.  He is hilarious.  His favorite pass time is any bathroom where he puts his hands in the toilet water and splashs.  He dosen't get to do that often enough so he settles with the bath tub in our bathroom he turns on the water there and splashs.  He keeps a close eye on the gate that we put on top of the stairs so he doesen't fall down.  We have been working with him on going down the right way for a 1 yr. old.  When ever a kid goes up or down without putting the gate back turbo crawling speed kicks in and he is right there teetering on the top step shacking his head no.  He is to big for his little britchs.  One more lovely thing he does now is when we are outside he wants down so I applige then he goes straight for the road.  Some would think that the curb would deture him instead its his challange the one step he can make it down before I get to him.