Mom and Dad's Break 2017

We escaped, don't tell the children!

As soon as we got to the hotel the swim suits went on and we
explored the beach at the hotel. The water was pretty cold. 

Every morning we sat out on our lanai and watched the sun rise. Every day it
was different and every day it was beautiful. 

We drove our car to the end of the road...it ended at the beach, sounds about right.

We tried our hands at selfies on this trip, we are not quite the
selfie generation so this was a challenge for us. 

We visited the lighthouse and took a tour. It was so interesting and we
learned a ton. 

Inside the light house

Getting ready to hike Wiamea canyon. 

We had so much fun with this group of hikers, we were "that" group.
You know the ones that annoy you but that you wish you were secretly
part of because they are having so much fun. 

Contrary to popular belief Christian was not trying to fall
down the mountain during this hike. 

We made it to the waterfall! 

Look another waterfall. 

After every hike one must enjoy a nice big cup of
shaved ice surrounding ice cream. 

At Wes and Krisien's wedding. It was beautiful.  

We just sat around and read alot. In fact, I made it through 5 books. 

Enjoying our virgin pina colada served in a pineapple

Ready to board the boat to cruise back up the river. 

What can I say, I have a weakness for flower pictures. 

Christian trying to prove how big the tree actually is. 

Tis the Season

The holiday season is in full swing in the Bradley house and we are keeping both our UPS driver and Target cashier very busy! The kids also seem to have extra things going on at school adding to the already crazy month. Here are a few things that we have managed to get in during the first two weeks of the month:

Decorating

The kids were super excited to get the Christmas decorations up this  year. Abby seems to really enjoy them and I have to play clean up a couple time a day to put back together the Fisher Price Nativity and put a few decorations back on the tree. It is fun though and the kids had a great time doing all the decorating. 

Christkindlmart

Laine was asked to participate in this festival this year. It is a German Festival and we had fun walking around and seeing all the fun crafts and booths, hearing the accordion music, and sampling some of the treats.  The boys had fun finding answers to the scavenger hunt and we had a great night learning about another culture. 

It was really cold that day so we all bundled up. 

Laine as a snow angel

Eve with Krampus

Bradley family party

Christian's extended family gets together every year to celebrate Christmas together. This year we celebrated at the Classic Fun Center. We spent the morning with our family enjoying good food, good company and some roller skating. 

Matt and Christian helping each other skate. 

Cousin time!

Zoo Lights!

We love attending Zoo Lights each year. It was another very cold evening but having learned our lesson from a couple days earlier we bundled up even more. The zoo was just about empty and we had a fun time walking around and seeing the light displays and even getting to sere a few of the animals. 

The line for Santa was non-existent so we jumped in.
Matt was pretty happy about that. 

The light tunnel. I think my kids could spend
the entire time we are at the zoo on this bit. 

Ward Christmas Party

I tried having Abby sit with Santa when we went to the zoo and she freaked out. I was surprised because Santa is one of the words that she knows and she is quick to point him out on TV, in books, or in pictures. We tried again and the picture above was the result. She was traumatized and clung to me for about 15 mins after, she did however like the stick candy he gave her. 

Regular tasks

Okay I just included this picture because I thought it was cute.

Hope your holiday is fabulous! 

Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialize

Our family loves Halloween, costumes are picked out months in advance (Matt has planned his next two years worth of costumes) and Christian has even started planning some new yard decorations for next year. We love the fall weather and the traditions that come with the holiday..both old and new. 

This year we started our Halloween kick off with a new tradition- Boo Lights! 

We have gone to Zoo Lights at Christmas time for several years now so this was a fun change to do something to celebrate Halloween with our family and several thousand of our closest friends. We even lucked out and had a very pleasant night weather wise.

One of our favorite traditions is the Bradley Family Scary food party. It is fun to get together in costumes and enjoy Blood Soup, Witches Fingers, and several other spooky food.

The next week we went to the Bellamy Family Scary food party. This time we dined on monster loaf and mummy dogs. 

The best activity of the month (at least in the kids' opinion) is our neighborhood Trunk or Treat. This year they added a chili cook off to the party! The kids loved going to all the cars, some of them even got visited three times! 

We added a pumpkin patch into the traditions this year. The kids had fun catapulting apples and picking out the best pumpkins they could find.

On Halloween I we went to two Halloween Parades, I was just grateful they were at two different times!  James was a sneaky ninja and sneaked right past me. 

We saved our pumpkin carving for Halloween afternoon, not sure we are going to do that again it was a crazy. 

Then it was off for a fun night of Trick or Treating! 

So that was our Halloween, oh and if you are in need of any chocolate please let us know, we have an abundance. 

Eve is 12

Our sweet and caring Eve has now turned 12! I can't believe it. She is such a sweet and caring young woman who looks out for others and is so loving. Abby and Matt adore her and she makes up games to play with them. She is a fabulous artist and enjoys learning new crafts, this year she has picked up knitting and has knit us several dish cloths and is not working on an afghan. She also still has a crazy love for washi tape and has decorated her room to demonstrate her love. 

Eve decided to have a board game birthday party this year and since the best board games only allow for 4 people we had a pretty small party. They had fun though with pizza, pudding cups, marshmallows, cucumbers, and cupcakes...all Eve's favorites. 

The girls had a fun night, lots of giggling and lots of fun. It was a fun night. 

Eve decided to skip the cake this year and chose instead a homemade French Silk pie. We were still able to get 12 candles on there so that was fine with us! 

On our recent trip to St. George, Eve started learning how to play the ukulele, she loved it so much she asked for one for her birthday. It is fun to hear the strumming come from her room as she learns more. She is just a talented girl. 

We love you Evie! Thanks for being such a wonderful girl.