brady reunion

Get comfy people. This post could be a bit long due to the amount of pictures. Here's the lowdown on our recent Brady family reunion at Heber Valley Camp. Oh yeah, a few notes to begin: My parents were not able to attend the reunion since my Dad had been in the hospital for the past week. We missed them VERY MUCH! And MANY THANKS to Micheal for helping transport our family to and from the reunion. We also missed Kathleen and Kara, who are off doing humanitarian work in Peru for 10 days. With all that noted, here we go: We spent a couple hours on Challenge Course 2. Here's Kitt, Micheal, Michelle & Chris working together on the land ski challenge.
Here's John, GayLynn, Andy, Brady & Mike also on the land skis:

It is family tradition to take a cousin picture. Cousins are lined up in order of height. I'm pretty darn sure we all took this picture from the wrong angle, but here's how the height line worked out: Chris, Mike, Mark, Josh, Randy, Robert, Brady, Andy, Kitt, Nicola, Randi, Michelle, Lisa, Spencer, Klaire, Katey, Alisa, Jared with Matthew, Ryan, Colten, Kaymi, Jacob, Stephen, Trevor, and GayLynn holding Alexa and Matthew S. I hope I didn't leave anyone out!

While the bigger people were at the challenge course, Karen tended the littler people at the camp and helped them make stick horses and cowboy gear. Here's those cute cow-kids: Matthew, Colten, Kaymi, Trevor, Stephen, and Jacob.

I just love this picture of Colten and Jacob enjoying watermelon together.

Here's our pie eating contest. No hands allowed. Karen makes the yummiest chocolate pie, too bad we were trying to gulp it down instead of enjoying it!

Yours truly putting face into pie.

Jacob going after it.

Ryan showing off his pie face with Mike (the winner) in the background.

A fun part of the challenge course is climbing this pole...

walking across the beam...

and enjoying the zipline down! This is Jared.

Here's Ryan, but the pictures are in the wrong order. The zipline...

the beam...

the pole.

We also got a chance to enjoy a little boating on the lake. There are two kinds of canoes and peddle boats available for cruising around. This is the "R" boat -- Ryan and Robert.

I think Matthew was enjoying the cool breeze and letting Mom & Dad have a workout on the peddle boat.

Jacob -- not quite sure about the look on his face, but he enjoyed being on the lake too.

There is a huge sandbox on the lake shore filled with buckets, bowls, and shovels. The little kids had a hard time deciding which was more fun -- the boats or the sandbox???

We all had a fun time together and hopefully made some memories. Thanks Karen, for putting it all together this year!

jacob's bike story continued

We found this spiffy red Schwinn bike at Target a couple weeks ago. It's a 20" bike, so it's a little on the big side for Jacob, but he's doing just great. He loves riding it and so far there's been no repair work involved -- love that! Happy biking!

van accident

I figure its about time I wrote this down. We were involved in a rear-end collision on the freeway a couple weeks ago. Our van is a total loss. It was a pretty scary experience for all of us. We were coming home at about 10:30 p.m. and we came to a place where road construction was just beginning to get set-up and the lanes were being narrowed. Everyone was putting on the brakes. We were in one of the right hand lanes and the guy behind us didn't hit his brakes and rammed into the rear of our van. Somehow we were pushed far enough that we ended up on the left hand side of the freeway about 1/4 mile or so from the initial impact. The rear window was broken out and there was nothing left of the rear of our van. There was nothing left to protect Ryan and Jacob in the back seat. We called 911 and they said they would dispatch help right away. Ten minutes later we called 911 again because no one had come. We were put on hold and then finally got connected to a dispatcher and had to wait another 20 minutes before emergency vehicles arrived. Most of that time was spent praying and trying very hard not to panic or go into shock. We were so afraid that we were going to get hit again by the traffic cruising by at 70 mph. Miraculously, none of us were seriously injured. I had whiplash and somehow got a cut on the back of my head that required stitches -- well, actually 4 staples -- at the ER. Mark had huge bruises on his arms and a bit of whiplash and the boys haven't complained of anything except a small bruise or scratch here and there. We are all doing fine now. I know that even though it was an awful experience, we were being watched over and protected by God. A higher power got us into a "safe" place and kept us safe while we waited for help. I am so grateful for God's blessings. I'm also grateful for good friends who came to our rescue at 11:30 p.m. to drive us home. I also don't think it was just coincidence that when I woke up the next day and pulled a t-shirt from the drawer the one on top was my angel babies shirt.

The aftermath: The insurance has been a huge hassle and we are still waiting for the claim to be settled. Many thanks to G&G Vawdrey for the use of their car while we figure out what we are going to do about replacing the van. If I had a spare $60,000 sitting around I'd purchase something like a Hummer to drive us around -- bigger and heavier must mean safer right? I don't think they allow armoured tanks on the roads, darn it! Physically we are all fine. Emotionally, we are getting there. The boys don't want to ride in the back seat of the van anymore -- I don't blame them. I look at vehicles in a totally new way now -- such as, what the heck are we thinking cruising around in these tin cans believing we are safe? We could be crushed at any moment. Time heals wounds and everything will work out -- and that's a good thing.

vote for amie

This is my friend Amie Ashby. She has written and sung a song titled "When I See the Light" and entered it in the Mormon Times summer music contest. She's a very talented gal and needs your vote to get her into the semi-finals in August. Please vote for her by going to http://www.mormontimes.com/ . Once there you click on the summer showcase icon to go to the showcase main page. Then click on the word "showcase" on the right side of the screen and you'll see her picture. Click on her picture to hear her song, create an account (its free), and vote. You can vote once every day.

4th of july 5k

We tackled the 5k today. Jared & Ryan were on their own while Mark loaded Jacob into the jogging stroller and I took Matthew in the regular stroller. Ryan has been extremely excited about this event for the past month. He took off at breakneck speed and finished 4th in his age division! He conquered it in 25 minutes -- 8 minutes better than last year! Way to go! He was disappointed that he finished in 4th place, one place below being a prize winner (he was after the prizes of course!) Since we started at the back of the pack, we think that if we would have had chip timers or started him at the front he probably would have moved up in the rankings. He seems to have a talent for this sort of thing -- how do we help him develop it? His energy is amazing. Jared improved this year by not having to walk any of the course and shaved about 5 minutes or so off his time. Mark & I and the strollers made it fine but we didn't break any records doing it -- pushing a stroller definitely gives you a double workout! Jacob ran the 1/4 mile race and improved this year by actually getting started at the right time (last year he missed the start signal and got a very late start) and coming into the finish in the middle of the pack. He likes the prizes at the end of the kids races -- free Wendy's Frosty coupon, toothbrush, tatoos, crayons, popsicle and a finisher ribbon. Wahoo -- a successful 4th of July 5k!

story of the birthday bike

As you just saw in the previous post, Jacob got a new bike for his birthday -- which was very cool and which he enjoyed for all of about 10minutes before it started quickly causing us grief. The main culprit was the chain -- it kept falling off. Ryan got the chain back on once and then after a short spin around the block it was off again. Ryan fixed it again and it again fell off. Another spin, another chain fall-off. Ryan and Jacob decided it was time to get serious about a repair. Deciding that the chain guard was in the way of them getting to the chain adequately, they proceeded to rip the chain guard off in pieces. Easy enough to do when it's made of
plastic. When I came out to the garage and saw the bike in pieces, I freaked out and chewed out the kids. Bad mother moment. At that particular moment I was in a hurry to get the kids loaded into the van to go out to G&G's, so we just stuffed the bike and its pieces in the garage and left. A day and a half later Dad got out the tools and proceeded to fix the bike. It seemed that the bike was just put together rather sloppily, so a few tightenings here and there with the chain & wheel seemed to do the trick. Jacob was about to pull out for another spin when we noticed the handlebars being wiggly. Another few turns of the screwdriver took care of that. Well, all went well for the next week. Today turned ugly however, when the chain fell off again and the repair process went awry. Time to chew out the evil empire and ask for a refund despite the fact the bike was now battered, bruised, and only slightly used. Unbelieveably they gave us absolutely no grief and refunded our money. Hallelujah! Take the money and run, I say. We're again in the market for a bike -- a good one this time. Wish us luck.

jacob's birthday

Last week we celebrated Jacob's birthday. We decided it was time to have a birthday party, so Jacob invited some friends over and we started off with pepperoni pizza. Of course everyone brought presents and Jacob loved getting new stuff!

Here's the crazy bunch of boys: Colman, Jacob, Lincoln, Brayden and Stanton.

Next, we headed outside to use the slip n' slide. It was hot outside and the cold spray of the slide felt great! That's Ryan on the blue lane.

Here's Jacob coming down the blue lane with the blue blowup sled. Jared is ready to slide on the orange.

We also had a baseball pinata that was chock full of candy. The kids had fun beating on it blindfolded for awhile and then I finally ripped it apart and let the boys gather candy to their hearts delight. When everything was gathered up, they spent the next 15 minutes trading and making deals with each other to get their favorites. This was pretty funny to watch! We ended the party with one of Jacob's favorites -- brownies!

We gave Jacob a new bike for his birthday. It is a little bigger than his old bike and has a hand brake. He's been having fun riding around the neighborhood this week and getting used to his news wheels.

t-ball

Jacob played t-ball this spring and had a great time. His team was the Cubs and he had several buddies on the team with him to make it extra fun. This is a picture of him doing his "running-into-home-dance". It involves waving his hands up and down and running on tip-toe at a slow pace toward homebase. Pretty funny actually -- too bad I didn't capture it in video mode.Here he is at bat. Most of the time he hit the ball while his coach was pitching. Occasionally he had to use the T.

There goes a hit! Run boy, run...

He had a great time. He's planning on playing again next year.