So we plan on going to Kennewick and Boise for Christmas, so there should be another blog post in the near future, but until then I thought I'd show some pictures of what we did this week. We had a crazy storm these last few days. It rained something like 4 inches in 48 hours so below is a picture showing just how much rain we've had. There have been floods, mudslides, downed trees and just plain craziness.
Okay, so we had plans this weekend to hang out with some friends before we took off for Christmas vacation, but Dillon came down with a nasty cough! We decided not to take the risk of passing his germs to other people, so we hung out as a family. I always love downtown Seattle at night, so we loaded up the kids and drove through downtown. We've lived here 3 years and never have seen the troll under the Aurora Bridge, so we made a quick little detour. Dillon loved it! Kenzie, was scared and cried the whole time and Anderson...well...he didn't really do anything. At this time Dillon was coughing terribly and we thought we might have to go home, but Natalie found someone's purse that was left behind. We grabbed it to find the owner and luckily inside was a bag of cough drops! I hope the people don't mind!
Next we headed over to the U-District/Ravenna neighborhoods to a little loop called Snowflake Loop. The pictures didn't turn out too well, but you can kind of see what was going on. The kids really enjoyed it.
Next we headed back to Kent to the downtown plaza and carousel. We had gone to the carousel earlier in the day and since the kids had so much fun (and it only cost $1 per kid), we headed back to see it at night. This time all the lights were lit up in the plaza. By this time it was dang cold, so we didn't spend much time there.
Oh, and I forgot to mention. Coming back from Seattle we stopped in Burien and went to a hamburger place called B-Town Burgers. It was excellent and within our budget!
We received an email deal from Great Wolf Lodge so we decided to take the hour trip to Grand Mound, WA and stay at Great Wolf Lodge for a night. It was awesome! We went with our friends the Browns. We only stayed for one night, but we definitely got our moneys worth. Jaron Brown and I have wonderful wives that allowed us to go do "guy" things, which basically included going down the "scary" slides. To be honest, there was only one slide that one could put in the scary category. It was called the Howlin' Tornado. You'd sit in a tube that held up to four people and then go down a pitch black tube. All of a sudden you'd go down a 3-story drop into a half/full pipe thing. It was great, but the 5-story climb to get to it over and over was somewhat tolling on the knees. I was sure impressed with Dillon. He's only 6, but he went on every water slide, except the Tornado. The kids also enjoyed story time in the lobby. We did have somewhat of a scary moment in our hotel room of all places. Jaron was reenacting a humorous kicking motion that Kenzie had done and while doing it he failed to notice Kenzie running to him from behind. He wacked her with the heal of his foot right on her nose. We thought for sure something was broken, but she ended up being okay. Other than that, this was an amazing trip. Hopefully we can make this an annual trip!
We didn't take many pictures, and the ones we took didn't turn out too well, so here are the best ones we have!
Yesterday we celebrated Dillon and Kenzie's birthdays. We ended up renting out the clubhouse at our complex which turned out really well. Initially we were planning on having about 25 kids and about the same amount of adults, but only half showed up. That happened to be the perfect amount. Activities included pin the tail on the donkey, a pinata, opening presents and some good ol' cake and ice cream. The kids just loved running around and playing in the gym so we didn't need to do too much.
Name: Anderson "Andy" Gordon Bradshaw Date: August 6, 2010 Time: 1:30 PM ish Weight: 9 lbs 3 oz Height: 20.5 inches
The story: Natalie was a week past her due date and getting very anxious to have this baby. Her next appointment wasn't scheduled until the 6th, but could just not wait anymore so she called the doctor's office and got in on the 4th. At that appointment the doctor gave here the okay to be induced, but she needed to contact the hospital to see if they had a bed available. She was informed to call them Thursday (the 5th) starting at 6 AM. Well 6 AM arrived and they told her to call back at 9 AM. At 9 AM they told her to call back at 1 PM. At 1 PM they told her to call back at 5 PM and at 5 PM she was informed to call back tomorrow. Apparently everyone in the Seattle area decided to have their baby at the same time as there were no beds available! We were pretty disappointed that we were not able to have our baby on Thursday.
Well Friday morning arrived and I was awaken by Natalie informing me that she was in labor and we needed to go the hospital ASAP. I complied, but a little slower than she wanted. We got to the hospital at 6 AM and went to triage. In triage she was in a lot of pain and having contractions roughly every 3 minutes, but she was only dilated to a 3. They made her walk around for about in hour in terrible pain and then they finally admitted us to delivery.
We were lucky and were admitted to room # 2307, which the nurses refer to as "the suite" as it was larger and a little bit nicer than the other rooms. It was also a corner room with a great view of the valley. Anyways, around 8:30 she received her epidural and then the waiting game started. Her doctor, Keri Brown, came by around 10:00 and she was dilated to a 5 at that time. Her doctor then returned exactly at noon and broke Natalie's water to get things going. 1:00 rolled around and it was time to start pushing and by 1:30 little (maybe not so little) Anderson was born. The actual pushing part of labor was more difficult than Kenzie, but she was induced, and much much easier than Dillon. Natalie did a great job and didn't swear at me the entire time!
Anderson and mommy were just fine. Nothing out of the ordinary and he had great color. He was very mellow too. In fact he cried much more when they took his foot prints than he did when they gave him shots. However, he was not a fan at all of his first bath!
We were very luck to have Natalie's mom staying with us, so we didn't have to worry about the kids at all. Around 4:00 Grandma Gordon brought Dillon and Kenzie to the hospital to meet their brother for the first time. They loved him and were very soft and gentle.
The next morning we were surprised when Grandma and Grandpa Bradshaw and Heidi showed up. Apparently they drove up that night, stayed in a hotel and surprised us in the morning. Heidi had to work later that day, so they were only able to stay until 11:30 or so.
I should say that this whole time we had not chosen a name for Anderson. We started with a few names we liked and by Friday afternoon we had narrowed it down to Elijah, Jamison or Anderson. In the end, and in the nick of time, we chose Anderson. Why, we really don't know, but we liked it.
A little before 3:00 PM on Saturday (the 7th) we were discharged from the hospital. It is now about 6:00 PM as I write this and things are going well. We are excited to have this cute little baby in our life and look forward to the adventures he will bring us!
So on Thursday we were waiting around to hear from the hospital if we could go in and get Natalie induced. The call never came and it was a warmer day (mid 70's) so I created a home-made slip n' slide for the kiddos...and apparently all the kids in the neighborhood. I had some left over visqueen from a crawlspace job that had just been sitting in storage, so I cut it just the right size and hooked up a hose. It was a big hit! We probably had at least 15 kids on it. Here are some pics:
This summer grandma and grandpa Gordon came to visit us from Texas. The main reason was to see our new baby; however, grandpa was not too lucky. Anderson ended up being 8 days late and grandpa had to leave prior to his birth. Grandma stayed behind until August 11th and was able to help us out a ton! Here are some pics of their trip while here:
Grandma took the kids to the complex pool on one of the warmer days while here.
We went and grabbed some gluten-free pizza from Garlic Jim's and headed to Gene Couillon park in Renton. Unfortunately it was so packed and we later found out that pets were not allowed so we only stayed for a little while.
Well this summer has been rather uneventful so far. This is due to two main reasons; one, Natalie is pregnant and ready to pop any day and two, business is good meaning I'm super busy. We have managed a few little fun things though.
Here are some pictures of the family at the water park in downtown Kent.
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We finally bought the kids bikes. It's sad that Dillon is almost 6 and has never ridden a bike. Oh well, we had some extra money so we got the kids brand new bikes. It was an extremely frustrating process trying to get Dillon's training wheels on, but after hours I finally found a way to get them to work. Here are some pics of day 1 of bike riding.
And finally, I convinced Dillon that he needed a Mohawk. It acutally turned out pretty good and he seems to really enjoy it. He was the topic of much conversation at church today! We'll see how long it lasts.
I'm a few weeks late on this, but better late than never. This year the 4th of July fell on a Sunday, so we celebrated it on Saturday and on Sunday. On Saturday, like last year, we went out to the Wagner's relatives house out in Enumclaw. The difference this year...well...was 40 degrees. Last year it was hot and sunny so we were able to play in the water, but this year it was cold and somewhat miserable. For the most part it was not very entertaining, but we had a good firework show. The kids especially enjoyed the sparklers this year.
On Sunday, we woke up went to church and then headed south to Tenino, WA where Natalie's uncle Ron lives. It's only about an hour drive from here, so it wasn't bad at all. Natalie uncles, aunts, cousins and even grandma from Spokane had come over a few days prior and had been camping at his house, so we were able to meet up with all of them. The firework show there was not as entertaining, but all in all we had a good time. The highlight was riding in Uncle Ron's army truck that he had recently purchased. He took us for a ride, including Dillon and Kenzie, through town. We must have looked like refuges all crammed in the back of an army truck driving around.
Overall it was a good 4th of July, other than it being so cold. Hopefully next year Mother Nature is more kind to us!
This last weekend we had a Bradshaw family reunion at Lake Wallowa State Park in Joseph, OR. Here are some pictures and videos of our trip.
Here Dillon is posing at the north end of the lake. Our "cabin" was at the south end.
Kenzie posing :-)
Kenzie on the paddle boats. We rented them for $15 for 1 hour. Natalie, Kenzie and I went on one boat. Dillon, Uncle Kyle and Grandma went on another. Tyler and Eliza chose a two-person kayak as did Jake and Heidi. Grandpa decided he didn't want to risk falling into the freezing water, so he stayed ashore.
Natalie 8 months pregnant on a paddle boat. Needless to say, she did not paddle much :-)
Dillon playing some miniature golf. He really enjoyed it and almost had a hole-in-one on a hole.
This video is of Natalie, Kenzie and I on the paddle boats.
Dillon, Kenzie and me on the bumper boats.
Dillon got to drive his own bumper boat. Surprisingly he did an awesome job and had a fun time!.
While at the state park we were sitting around playing some disc golf. We had taken a quick break at a picnic table, when all of a sudden two deer came right up to us. They were so close that I was able to feed one of them by hand. He really enjoyed dill pickle flavored sunflower seeds. It was rather awkward having deer so close to you.
Here's the "cabin" we stayed at. We stayed on the top floor and slept 12 people comfortably. I'm hesitant to call it a cabin as it was nicer than any house we have lived in. Downstairs was an ice cream store and a souvenir shop. The entire complex was for sale for $850,000, so I spent most the time wondering if I could afford to buy it :-)
The cousins sitting on a big random chair.
A nesting bald eagle we found. There was actually two bald eagles in the nest and apparently baby eagles as well.
Dillon and Kenzie feeding the fish at the pond. For $0.25 you could get a handful of fish food to share with the trout.
Some of the Bradshaw clan looking pretty.
Dillon, Grandma and Kyle on the paddle boat.
The family on the bumper boats.
Dillon (age 5 5/6)
The kids offered up some money and paid to have grandma and grandpa take a trip on the tram to the top of the mountain ($24 each). A few minutes into 15-minute tram ride it broke and they were stuck on it for 45 minutes. Grandma was not too excited after that. Oh well, it made for some good pictures. The Bradshaws
Dad (29), Mom (28), Dillon (5), Kenzie (3) and Baby-to-be-named (-.2)
