Oh what do you do in the summer time?...

I figure I can start catching up my posts again.  I have so much to write about our trip to Europe, but I want to start with a little of what we did with the kids before we left. Derek was basically gone all day every day, but when he had that rare moment come up where we got to see him we definitely took advantage of it. Some friends caught lizards and the kids loved it! We bought a container for them and put in some dirt and sticks and made it nice for them. We tried feeding them crickets, but they must have been too big, so we did mil worms instead and Kael and Eden loved watching them eat those. Derek would help the kids hold them and the kids absolutely loved holding and petting the lizards. Eden thought poking it was petting it. We let them go right before we left, and I think we will need to go find some more for the kids again.

The kids have been loving riding bikes outside. These pictures were on Derek's phone when we left and I had to keep looking at them to see how cute these kids are while we were gone. You can definitely see their personalities in the photos. Stubborn Eden and super happy Kael. :)

 The night before Derek's big test he wanted to give his brain a break and just relax. So we took the kids to the dollar theatre and saw "The Lorax" in 3D. I was surprised how well the kids held up. I thought for sure we would leave early, but they made it through the movie. It helped that the theatre was almost empty and I could walk around with Eden towards the end of the movie. There was a short kind of scary part that Kael must not have liked because after that part he didn't want to wear the glasses anymore, but didn't want to stop watching the show. It was really funny. I think we will have to do this again. Maybe for Brave, Madagascar 3, or Ice Age 4... Hmmm.

 We love City Creek and playing on the dinosaurs there. This was after Derek took Step 1. We went out to eat to celebrate and let the kids have a little fun too before we headed out for our trip. We love doing fun things and can't wait to do more this summer!

For Elara

I finished this little project last night. I love knowing that our baby is going to be a girl! Now, I can work on stuff just for her! In case you can't tell, it's a little bear hat. Well, just a hat with ears. Hopefully it fits. None of the hats I made for Eden ever really fit right. We will see in October!

Speaking of Animals

Our neighbors above us wanted to get rid of their beta fish, so we gladly accepted to inherit it. We upgraded the tank a bit and Kael and Derek came up with this! It lights up and is so awesome! The little blue guy is in the bottom right corner. Kael has been talking non-stop about his fish. His name you ask? Fishy the fish... Kael came up with it. We are still trying to teach him about naming animals and things, and he just doesn't really get it. He was so excited to help Dad put together the tank and put the rocks and plants in and go to the store with Dad to get stuff for his fish. The only problem we have had is that coming home from Petco, Kael saw

lots of other fish there. He decided that Fishy needed a friend. Well anyone who knows fish know that beta fish like to eat any other fish in a tank with them. Try explaining this to our Kael who loves everyone and everyone is his friend. He started bawling in the car in hysterics because his fishy is a nice fishy to his friends and he is NOT a stinker fish. Our explanation didn't go so well trying to say that his fish is a mean, not nice fish.... We totally bombed that one. We ended up saying something along the lines that Fishy is a nice and good fish, and tried to distract from needing another fish after the melt down... I have to admit I did laugh quite a bit after his melt down that his fish is a nice fish. "I should mention our Fishy fish already killed another fish it lived with, so in fact he is NOT a nice fish..." Ya, we won't tell Kael this little bit of info.

So without further ado, welcome Fishy Fish to the Bradley Family!

Wheeler Farm with Village Friends

We haven't been to the Wheeler Farm in a long time so when a village friend brought up going we couldn't say no. This was the same day we found our baby #3 is a girl. Notice Eden's boots. Yup. She is stubborn. We had a lot of fun playing with friends and feeding horses carrots and seeing smelly pigs. Kael and Eden love animals and it is the cutest. Funny story. When I told Kael we were going he insisted we needed to bring carrots to feed the horses. I have no idea where he came up that horses would like to eat carrots. I don't think we had fed horses anything at this point in their lives. However, he managed to slip our entire bag of carrots in the backpack without my knowing and so when we got there he insisted we feed the horses carrots and we just "happened" to have carrots with us! The kid is too smart and so funny! All the kids were able to enjoy feeding the horses because Kael was clever enough to slip in a bag of carrots. Thanks for a fun time Kael. :)