Our August

Here is a glimpse of our August, one second at a time.....

My wings

I fly, even when I'm not wearing my wings. 

Family lap swimming

We are becoming a family of swimmers. Since Ava, and now Tyler have started swimming 3 days a week, I usually manage to get in a lap swim workout once a week. If I have to be at the pool anyway, there's really no reason not to. Skyline is such a beautiful pool, and it's one of only 2 public pools in Mesa with year around adult lap swim. It was a little tough during these past couple months to find room in the pool though. There is open swim for the public in the evenings during the summer, so lap swim is cut down to only 3 lanes. There are almost always more people than there are lanes available, and no one really wants to swim in a lane with more than 2 people. I don't really even like sharing with one person! Public swim is over, and they're back to having the whole lap pool available. Dave has even started swimming! He has signed up for the Mesa Sprint Triathlon that I did last October, so he has been practicing his swimming--even watching videos on You Tube to learn the proper way to swim. We both swam today while the kids practiced, and it was fun! He's now calling me a mermaid though, since I swam twice the yardage he did in the same amount of time. To me, swimming is as about natural and comfortable as walking. Once a swimmer, always a swimmer. I really love that I've been able to get back in the pool, and am beyond happy that it has become a family affair. I'm so proud of all three of these beautiful people for diving into this swimming thing with full force! Let's keep it up! 

Randomness with Ava

Nothing much to see here--just the cutest 7 year old I know!

Tyler is making dinner!

Don't you just love Montessori schools? Their whole philosophy has to do with learning through hands on activities, and when you get to be Tyler's age, that means helping with dinner. He finally got some homework this year, and it is to make dinner one night a week. We're supposed to give him a budget and then he picks the meal, helps with the shopping, writing down the cost of all of the ingredients (and figuring how much he came in under his budget), prepare the meal, and serve it. He then has to write about his experience.

Since our week nights are so busy, we figured that Sunday nights would be his dinner night. Tonight was the first opportunity for him to prepare dinner. I helped him find an easy "one-pot" penne pasta meal that I thought would be a good first recipe for him to try. I had most of the ingredients on hand, so didn't really need him to go to the store with me.

Here are some pictures from his first cooking experience....

He was worried that chopping onions would make his eyes water, so he grabbed his goggles out of his swim bag. They must have worked because there were no tears! Good idea, Tyler! I might have to remember that next time I'm chopping onions.

You know Ava couldn't miss out on the opportunity to wear goggles too!

Silly kids!

This meal was pretty easy. I'll have to remember it for those busy week nights when we need a quick meal. This homework assignment could be a useful one for us if it'll help us find good meals for those nights we don't have much time (which is most of them during the week).

Fresh spinach, roasted red peppers, penne pasta, monterey jack cheese, parmesan, and sausage--easy! Other than the pasta sticking to the bottom of the pot a little bit too much (Dave did some serious scrubbing to get it off), it turned out great. I think it was a good first cooking experience for Tyler, and I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with through the year. Hopefully we can keep this assignment going for awhile, even when he's not required to do it for school. He'll be learning some helpful life skills.

The verdict? Very delicious! Good job, Tyler! Thanks for making dinner for all of us.

Bring on the miles!

Dave teases me that he wishes he would have wrote it down every time I said "I'll never run....fill in the blank." When I first started running, I guess I used to say things like "I'll just do 5ks," but 5ks turned into 10ks, and obstacle course races, and sprint triathlons. I do sort of remember saying "I'll never do a half marathon." Well, the time has come for me to change that. I signed up for my first half marathon! I have officially started training for the Gilbert half marathon on November 19. I ran the 10k of that race last year, and it was a really fun one. My favorite part was that it finished along a parade route! I texted my friends Kayleen and Robyn about it to see if either of them wanted to fly out and run it with me, and to my surprise, Kayleen was! She said the timing was perfect because she had just been thinking of finding a race to train for. Her husband's fall golf trip had just been cancelled, so it was good timing for both of them to plan another trip. They're flying out here for a long weekend with their baby, Stella, and will be able to stay at my parents condo since they won't be here yet. Not only will she be able to run with me, but she and Andrew will also be able to go to the Adele concert while they're here! The Monday after the race is the rescheduled Adele concert, and I had 2 extra tickets that I still needed to sell. We won't be sitting together, but they'll be able to experience the wonder of an Adele concert together! It's going to be an awesome weekend--well, minus the fact that we'll be running 13 miles that Saturday. I'm looking forward to having a goal with my running, and anxious to see how it goes. I haven't been running much lately since it's so darn hot, so it's been a little tough to get back into it. I'll need to do increasingly long runs on the weekends, but for today, I just started with 5 miles. I'll have to add a mile to that every week for the next several weeks. Since the longest I've ever ran in one stretch was 8.5 miles, it'll be tough, but I know I can do it!

But I'm writing this down for all to see---I will NEVER run a marathon. Ever.

KTR-Kids That Rip

We went to a fun gym in Chandler today. It's called KTR: Kids That Rip. It was a really cool place, but I would never go on a Saturday afternoon again. It as a mad house! There was so much to do--trampolines, rings, a really bouncy floor, walls to climb, slacklines, parkour obstacles, and more. I didn't get very good pictures (was worrying more abut videos for my one-second video), but have a few to give you an idea of what it was like. I think my favorite part was the bouncy floor. I could have played on that the whole time. I especially liked doing handstands on there. I could hold them for about 3 times as long as normal. The kids had fun on the trampolines, and a did a good job on the rings. I'd like to go back some time, just not on a weekend afternoon.

There were a lot of "ninja warrior" type obstacles. It makes you realize how hard that stuff really is!

The trampoline area was really cool. There were about 8 different ones, plus a long, bouncy runway with a trampoline at the end, where you jump into a pit with a giant airbag below.

There was also a skate park inside, where you could skateboard or ride bikes over ramps and jumps. Both kids brought their scooters, and Ava also brought her skateboard. They definitely couldn't keep up with all the boys in there (yes, Ava was the only girl in that area), but they had fun riding around.

Ava still needs a little practice on her skateboard, so she rode her scooter most of the time.

It seemed like many of the kids that were there spend quite a bit of time at that place. You can buy monthly memberships, which is probably what many of them do. It would be a fun place to have a birthday party some day. Plenty of active fun for the whole family! Here is my one second video of our time at KTR. 

Girls night out

I had such a great Friday! I had been asked by one of my trapeze friends to participate in a clinical trial for a new face mask that would be available soon through dermatologist and plastic surgeons offices. She works for the company, and vouched for the quality of the products. Just for taking part in their trial, we would get $500 worth of skin care products. I had the appointment to do that at 2 pm yesterday, and had also made plans for a girls night out with Heather, Becky, and Kelly. Turns out the movie we were planning to see was at the theater at Scottsdale Fashion Square, and the appointment for the skin care thing was up there as well. It was going to be a great way to end the week!

The skin mask thing was cool. They had us wash our face, and then take "before" pictures with their professional photographer. After that, we put on the mask and let it sit for about 5 minutes before washing it off. They took "after" pictures of us, and that was it! A few instructions on how to use the $500 worth of super awesome products (from SkinBetter) and I was out of there.

We were meeting for a 5:30 movie, and Kelly was the only one who was going to be able to get there early enough to get in on happy hour with me. I stopped at the MAC store at the mall for some make-up, and then I met Kelly at Culinary Dropout for happy hour drinks and appetizers. Heather and Becky were finally able to join us and then we headed back over to the mall for our movie.

The theater in Scottsdale Fashion Square is by far the nicest I've ever been in. It had a bar, fancy food, gelato, and reserved, reclining seats. It was amazing! Now this is the way to enjoy a movie! We grabbed a glass of wine from the bar, just because we could, and headed in to find our seats for Bad Moms.

We grabbed a quick, but horrible picture of the 4 of us with our wine before the movie started.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at a movie. We were all rolling with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. We were definitely those annoying people in the theater who laughed the entire time. We weren't the only ones laughing though, it was an extremely funny movie. We are already planning a "Bad Moms" party for when the movie comes out on DVD. After the movie, we sat outside on the little outdoor patio that was part of the movie theater and had another glass of wine while we laughed at how funny the movie was. 

After that, we walked around a store in the mall that had funny gifts, shirts, socks and other fun stuff. We had such a great time! Heather and I stuck around for a bite to eat and dessert after the other girls had to hit the road. We had so much fun together, and it was a fantastic Friday all around. 

First days of classes at MCC

The first few days of any new semester are exciting, but the fall semester is especially fun. After a long, quiet summer without any students around, it's always good to have them back. This year, the new freshman seem more interested in getting involved than probably any other group I've seen in recent years. I hope we can catch them early and get them into clubs and doing other cool stuff on campus. We always organize a Welcome Booth for the first 2 days of class, and then on the 3rd day, we hosted free snow cones at the Village (which is another part of our campus, away from the main area, but where several classes are held). It was a fun first week! Here's to a great semester at MCC Red Mountain! Things are getting better, and I'm excited to see some good changes on campus. 

Sk8r girl

We have a Skater Girl in the family. Ava got her first skateboard, a super cool longboard that she bought with her own money. She's been asking to get a skateboard ever since we were at Robyn's house and she and Bailey were playing with her dad's boards. 

The first couple times she rode it, she was just figuring out how to get her balance, but then her dad looked up a You Tube video to help her learn how to ride it properly, and she took off!

Here's a little video of her skating on the basketball court. She's doing really well so far! Good job, Ava! You never stop amazing us in all the new things you try. 

Pesky critters!

I had to work this morning, as it's the first Saturday of the fall semester. I had to lead a session of New Student Orientation, my last one of the week. When Jessicah (my student worker) and I were walking back up towards our building, I noticed one of the little ground squirrels chewing on the paper of one of our posters! We had noticed at some point over the summer that the bottom corner of some of the posters had been torn off, and it was odd because it always seemed to be where the "I heart Red" logo was on each poster. Had someone purposely been tearing off the logo? 

Ashley suggested it might be one of the critters, and we finally caught the guilty party red handed! This little guy was tearing off paper, and then running over to his hole before going back for more. I guess we'll need to tape up a little higher on the bottom so the can't get to the paper as easily. There are so many cool desert critters living on our campus, but this is the first time I've ever seen any of the messing with our signs! 

Lost tooth and skinned nose

Miss Ava has lost another tooth, a total of 5 so far! You may also be wondering what happened to the top of her nose? She was at Grandma Claire's last night and she did a nose dive into the carpet. She had her forehead on the leg rest of a reclining chair when her brother put the leg rest down. She smashed her face right into the carpet! She cried pretty hard about it, but we kind of laughed it off. I felt a little bad in the morning when I realized that she actually got some rug burn on the top of her nose! 

Adele concert--almost

Remember back in December when I was so excited that we got tickets to the Adele concert? I even had a countdown on my phone so I knew exactly how many days left until we'd be watching the amazing Adele in concert again. After seeing her in 2011, I knew that it would be a great show, and I couldn't wait to see her again. 

The day had finally arrived--August 17, and it was all I could think about at work all day. I left early to stop at TJ Maxx for a new outfit, got all dressed and ready to go. I was just waiting for a text from Samantha letting me know that she was on her way to meet me at the light rail, and I'd head out the door. I clicked over to Facebook after printing off a copy of our ticket information, and the first thing I saw was this video of Adele. I knew right away, before even clicking Play, that we weren't going to a concert tonight. 

I called Samantha before I even finished watching the video. She said she was just about to call me to tell me she was leaving, and I told her the bad news. I couldn't believe it! I had heard she had put on an amazing show in Phoenix the night before, which was pretty remarkable considering she was battling a cold. As disappointed as I am, I would much rather see her when she's at 100% than if she is not well. I'm sure it would still have been a great show, but maybe just not quite as good as it could be. It's pretty cool of her to make this video--no make up, nearly in tears--and posted for all to see how truly sick and sad she was about having to cancel her show. 

Well, all dressed up and nowhere to go. Dave and I dropped the kids off at the pool for practice, and ran over to local sports bar to have a quick drink while they swam. It certainly wasn't the fun night I had hoped for, but I'll just have to start a new countdown. Adele rescheduled her show for November 21, and I'll be more excited than ever to see her perform. Let the countdown begin....again. 

Olympic fever

We had a great time watching the summer Olympics this year--especially the swimming. We've been cheering for Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps, and all of Team USA Swimming through all of their races. It is so exciting to see such amazing talent representing the sport of swimming right now, and it's even more special since we have a personal connection to Katie. She did some remarkable things in the 2016 Olympics, and we're all really excited to see what more she'll do for the sport of swimming. She obliterated her own world records, beat her closest competition by over 11 seconds, and even won the 200 free, which is a short race for a long distance swimmer. That one was exciting because she wasn't guaranteed to win it, like she was with her other races. It was pretty cool watching Phelps come back again this year too, to win his 23rd gold medal--and gold in everything he swam this year except for that one silver (which was remarkable in itself because of the 3 way tie for silver). It's great that the summer Olympics fell right around the time that Tyler was starting swim team because it showed him some talented athletes that he could look up to. 

With Olympic fever in the air, the kids had the idea to make their own medals. Tyler had some clay, an the formed the medals, even imprinting the Olympic rings and the design on the Rio medals. 

They didn't all harden up the way they wanted them to, but they did manage to paint the bronze medal and put on the ribbon. Set your goals now kids, that could be you up on the podium in 2024 or 2028!

Bradley Boys turn 6

The Bradley boys are six years old! They started Kindergarten a few weeks ago, and now they're six. It's always crazy to me to think of how big these boys are, especially after being born at only about 3 pounds each. I try to take pictures for Becky every time I go to of their parties, and I know she is always grateful because she's too busy hosting the party to worry about pictures. 

It didn't take my kids long to find the pool. I think they had a quick bite to eat and then headed out there. 

 Becky always has a fun theme planned for the parties, and this year it was Star Wars.

After water balloons, swimming, and cake and ice cream, the kids got to hit the Darth Vader piñata. It took quite a few whack by all of the kids there before it finally smashed open.

They finally called in the muscle after all the little kids had their turns. Dave was holding the other end of the rope though, and he was making it pretty tough for Tyler to make contact. 

I had to take this picture because it may be one of the last ones where Tyler is shorter than Becky. It won't be long before he's looking down to her!

Happy birthday, Colton and Dylan!

The Bradley house is quite the zoo, with 3 dogs (yes, only 3, she once had 7), a cat, 2 horses (boarded somewhere else), and the latest addition--chickens! They only have 2 right now, but plan to get more. They have a really nice little chicken coop on the side of their house, and the white one has started to lay eggs! Becky said it's the easiest pet she's ever had, and the white one is actually really friendly. I guess he goes in their house, sits on your head or shoulders, and chases away the dogs.