Happy 24th of July!

I hope everyone had a great 24th of July. We sure did! I made a little scrapbook (above) if you'd like to check it out. I've included some of my favorite pictures below . . .

Our first event was the Bountiful parade on July 23rd. Since we live only a few blocks away, I decided to ride my bike over. Benj was already on Main Street because he had his class at the extention campus right where the parade was. You can't see from the picture, but we're in front of the family shaved ice shack! I've had so much sugar the past few days I could throw up!
This pic is my nephew Cameron (on right) and his cousin Joseph (he goes by Jo Jo). These guys were loving the candy and each caught a stuffed animal and frisbee. Score!
After the parade Benj and I decided to go to Bountiful Park. He suggested I give him a "pump" on my bike back to his car. Ha ha, I quickly learned that this is not as easy as it used to be seeing I haven't given anyone a pump since I was 10. We switched and Benj, being the strong, muscley man that he it, acted like it was nothing. I guess I just have weak legs!

TIGER PAW STORY

Benj's other true love (besides me of course) is a tiger paw every 24th of July. For those of you who have not been introduced to this delectible treat, it is a scone rolled in cinnamon sugar and then glazed with honey butter. THE best thing ever. Well, after the parade, the family goes over to Bountiful Park and buys one. You have to have tickets to buy them (dumb, I know). We got there right around 8:00ish and found the ticket booth. The lady said that the food is almost gone and that the people standing in line for food probably wouldn't get any because it was running out. Bummer. So we don't buy any tickets and go find the family. The kids are riding rides and my MIL Marcy is watching them. We tell her about the food and she is upset too. I look over at the line and it seems like they have plenty of tiger paws left. Marcy has 3 tickets to spare and Benj goes over and stands in line. While he's there, a guy tells him and others in line that they will be running out fast and they won't get any. Once again, a disappointed Benj finds the group and gives our nephew Cameron his 3 tickets to use for games instead. The line disappears and I see that they are still selling scones, so I walk over and ask if we can still buy them. The girl says YES so I run over and tell Benj. Benj pleads with Cameron to give him the 3 tickets back, but Cameron wants to try to fish pond. Benj could have forced him to give him the tickets, but being the nice uncle he is, he let Cameron have his prize. Boo. Strike 2 for the tiger paw. We go over to Neilsen's Frozen Custard and share a caramel brownie concrete to ease our pain. Good, but not the same. It's tradition! Benj vows to get one tomorrow.

The next day is the official 24th of July. Benj, unfortunately has to work until 5:00. The fair is open til 7:00 so we figure we have enough time to run to the park and get Benj his tiger paw. He gets home at 5:30, changes, and we head over there. I go to the place where they were selling tickets and they're closed. What the . . . it's only 6:04. I find a man that works there and he says, "Oh, we stopped selling tickets at 6:00." Are you freaking kidding me? AND, we wouldn't have gotten one anyway because they were already cleaning up! You're open for another HOUR, come on! Benj is genuinely pissed and we leave 5 mins after we get there.

I tell him we should go down to Liberty Park because they had booths there full of food earlier for the parade. We decide to go and try our luck. Benj doesn't have much hope left. We have to park "10 miles away" according to Benj because of the fireworks being there, but we make it over. We search the booths and see no trace of "tiger paws". However, we find a Navajo taco booth and they sell just the fry bread. We buy one for twice as much as the ones Bountiful Park was selling, and the nice native americans had cinnamon sugar and honey butter to put on it. So, Benj officially got his unofficial tiger paw. When I asked him if he was satisfied after he ate it, he said, "yes". That's all I could ever ask for.

Moral of the story: Buy tickets when in doubt, don't give extra tickets to kids, don't listen to strangers, and don't trust Bountiful Park hours.

Anyway, back to the main event . . .

Colton with his umbrella at the parade in Salt Lake.

The three boys watching the police and their motorcylces. Jo Jo (in the tie-dye) got clipped by one because they came so close to us!
Colton on the shoulders of his other cousin Jacob. So cute!
Colton sharing his shaved ice with his two grandmas. They sure love this boy!
Cameron and Jo Jo playing in the water fountains at Liberty Park.
Grandma Bradshaw and Colton inching their way toward the fountains. They didn't get too much further than in this picture.

On the sea-saw.
Benj enjoying his unofficial tiger paw at Liberty Park.
Now we're both happy!
This picture is for my brother Sam. These guys were doing a Brazilian fighting technique called capoeira. It's a mix between martial arts and dancing. They basically rhythmic fight to music. These guys have a website: saltlakecapoeira.com if you want to check it out.

Overall we had a great 24th of July. Hope you did too!

Say What You Need to Say

The John Mayer concert was INCREDIBLE! I was blown away by this guy's talent! We met up with our good friends Annie and James, sat on a blanket, and listened to Colbie Caillet and John Mayer as the sun went down. Supposedly it was going to rain, but there wasn't a drop. Perfect weather and perfect music!
We had a hard time finding Ann because I forgot my cell phone at home with her new number in it. I ended up calling my mom to get Ann's HOME number, called her mom and got her new CELL number. Turns out I was standing like 20 feet away from them. They were expecting us in the other direction. Benj and I enjoyed a lot of songs, but some our favorites were Free Falling (cover), Waiting on the World, and Say. Ann was particularly excited to hear Gravity.
We caught up with best friend Jenelle. I hadn't seen her since January! She told us about a recent trip to Europe. I'm so jealous! She's moved down to Sandy so she's closer to me. Yay! Doesn't she have the cutest haircut! I'm so glad we got to see her!

I have included a few John Mayer songs to my blog for your listening pleasure. Hope you enjoy!

Colton Emerson

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

My nephew Colton and I had a great time playing on Saturday. Because it was so hot, I decided that playing in the water would be perfect to cool us off. I used Colton as my subject for my first photography attempt (I'm trying to get better at it)! Hope you enjoy!

Lava Hot Springs

This weekend we went on our annual Lava Hot Springs trip! We had 15 people total (most from Bountiful) and it was a blast! This is the bunch after finishing a few tube runs down the river!
We got in Friday night and set up Chris' monster tent. It can fit about 10 people. The boys (except for Benj . . . the only married one) slept outside the tent. When it got cool enough in the evening, we went to the hot springs. I could only stick my ankles in for a bit because it was superrrr warm. You could seriously cook in it! I eventually got in to my shoulders and it felt so good on my aching muscles!
The first thing we do on Saturday is go to breakfast at the Chuckwagon. Afterwards was a friendly game of volleyball. Lava has a bunch of parks and most of them were pretty crowded. Then we got our tubes and went down the river. We tried to stay in a long chain but after a couple people falling out, we decided that the smaller links were better. I gave Benj a hard time because he kept on letting go of my tube. After the river run, we went to Fat Jack's: THE place (and practically only place) to eat in town. If you've ever been to Lava, there is one main road with I think one stop sign. It's about as po-dunk as they come!
The other famous spot to hang out is the Olympic-size pool with the 3-platform diving boards. Some of us were brave and faced the top one! I'm not one for heights so I opted to watch from the bottom!
Another fun little trip for the Bradshaws!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My dad celebrates #61 this year and he's amazing! He had such a great time on the Colorado and I loved capturing the little moments during our trip. He was definately in his element and told us all kinds of stuff about the canyon (he's a pro in geology). On the way down we listened to a lot of John Williams, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zepplin, and Simon and Garfunkel. Thanks dad for making this trip so memorable. I love you and Happy Birthday!

This was a common site with dad's pants half wet. He was always in the water fishing, cooling off, or discovering something!

He caught bigger fish than this but this was the only picture I got. I woke up early (probably 5:30ish) and discovered him trying to catch some trout a few yards away from where I was sleeping. Once again, the half-wet pants! Dad, you're the best!

The Bradshaw's GRAND Adventure

We're back from the Grand Canyon and it was the trip of our lives! Benj and I got to see some of the most amazing and beautiful sites in the world! We also got to experience some of the greatest rapids! Here's a look at our GRAND adventure!

Day 1 - June 26th

There were 16 of us total: my family and my dad's 2 sisters' families. To make it easy, my family are the Crofts, the next is the Waters, and the other is the Cross family. My uncle, Jerry Cross, is a river guide, so they went up early to start setting up. The Crofts and the Waters started our journey early in the morning, and reached our destination about 2 or 3 pm. We stayed at a little place called the Marble Canyon Lodge. Everyone who works there was very friendly and by gosh it was toasty! We could walk about 5 minutes and reach the Navajo Bridge, which is amazing to walk across and see the river so far below.

Day 2 - June 27th

The first day on the river! The starting point for most rafting trips begins at a place called Lee's Ferry. Dozens of commercial and private parties leave every day. We tried to get out early because of the heat but because of a lecture by a friendly ranger (he told us about every animal in the park) and the amount of stuff we had to pack on our raft, it took us a couple hours to take off. It's funny, the first little ripple of water and we'd get all excited. We hadn't seen anything yet! It was cool to pass under the Navajo bridge and to get an idea of how deep we were in the canyon. Most places in the Grand Canyon are said to be a mile deep. It was incredible to be surrounded by huge faces of rock. It was a lot cooler in the canyon because of the shadows of the rock and being on the river. We faced a few larger rapids throughout the day (6-7 on a scale of 10) and Benj caught his first few fish. We camped at a place with some nice sand for sleeping on and slept to the sound of the chirping secadas (like crickets)and the rushing river. We slept under the stars and didn't need any blankets because it was so warm.

Day 3 - June 28th

Our first site to see today is called Vasey's Paradise (see the slideshow). It is a trio of waterfalls coming right out of the side of the canyon. We traveled down to Redwall Cavern, which is a huge cave-like place where the floor is all sand. It is said to fit 50,000 people in it. There we played a friendly game of frisbee and football and my mom caught her first little fish. We passed under a couple other bridges made for mules and other tours, and then found a spot for lunch. My aunt Laurie was the most prepared person! She had this perfect waterproof box full of sandwich fixings, cookies, chips, etc and we just set up a little table and fixed our lunch right by the water. Pop and juice were kept cold by putting them in a burlap sack and hanging it over the side of the raft in the water. Oh, and for water we drank the river water! I wasn't too sure at first but it was yummy! We decided we had enough time to go to the Little Colorado river. It is the point where the Little Colorado river meets the main Colorado. It determines if the water will be muddy or not. Our luck was with us and the water was crystal blue. It was absolutely gorgeous! We hiked up a ways and floated down the river (which was about 70 degrees) with our lifejackets wrapped around our bums to protect them from rocks. A memorable moment occurred when my mom started going down when she didn't want to and both my brothers grabbed her ankles before heading down head first! After swimming for an hour we found a camp (see top picture) and enjoyed a BBQ chicken dinner.

Day 4 - June 29th

We woke up in the early morning and were covered with sand. Our faces and hair were caked with it and it was even in our ears. I washed my hair in the river and I swear I can still feel the sand everywhere! Today was RAPID DAY! We went through 10 rapids that were all over a 6 on the scale of 10. Our favorite was Hermit Rapid, rated 9, which went through 5 perfect "rollercoaster" waves with the biggest wave at the end that left everyone soaked. Other favorites included Hance, Sockdolager, Grapevine, Granite, and Crystal Rapid (10). My least favorite was ironically named Tuna Creek Rapid (for those who know me I HATE tuna). I was sitting on the side tube with both legs in the raft and a wave toppled me forward on my brother! It gave me a darn bruise on my knee too! Another highlight was a beautiful place called Elves Chasm. It was quite a hike up, but when you reach it it's all worth it. It's a little nook with a waterfall that you can jump off of. Very refreshing! Our camp this night was Benj and my favorite because we got a little spot all to ourselves! It gets annoying trying to find a place to change other than your sleeping bag. Oh, and don't even get me started about trying to use the bathroom! Boys have it so easy!

Day 5 - June 30th

We visited a couple of my favorite spots. Deer Creek Falls was a HUGE waterfall where you can see and feel the mist pretty much from the river! Benj came the closest to getting underneath or behind it was it was so strong that nobody could make it. Havasu Creek was later in the afternoon and it was a paradise. Crystal blue water with multiple waterfalls. It is surrounded by a beautiful red wall of rock that looks polished because of the sand and water. It was probably my favorite place to swim and visit. My dad took all the pictures with his camera of us swimming so I'll get those later. We came back to our raft to find a raven and gotten into one of our snack bags and stole all of our swedish fish! We enjoyed several fun rapids and found a fun camp spot where we enjoyed spaghetti and breadsticks (I ate better on this trip than I did at home)! Andy actually saw a scorpion here but luckily I didn't see it!

Day 6 - July 1st

Lava Rapid Day! This is the king of all rapids right here. It has a wall of water 37 feet high! Our raft of 16 people could easily get flipped over in that! Luckily my uncle is an experienced driver and got us through safely. We definately got soaked and it was the highlight of the day. Lava rock is embedded all over the mountain and there is a huge lava stone called Vulcan's Anvil right in the middle of the river about a mile before the rapid. It seems to say "danger ahead". We made camp at a place called Pumpkin Springs and made sandcastles and floated the river until sundown. My dad grilled us each a 9-10 oz steak for dinner. The last night on the river!

DAY 7 - July 2nd

We savored the last few rapids and sites of the Grand Canyon before reaching our exit point called Diamond Peak. It took us a couple hours to deflate the raft and get everything loaded in our cars. It was a long bumpy ride to the nearest town, called Peach Springs. How grateful we were for running water and a toilet. Seeing ourselves in the mirror was also a shock. I didn't care . . . all I wanted was a milkshake. When I got it at our table, everyone's eyes were on my milkshake. I felt kinda bad eating it in front of them, but hey, they could have ordered their own! The biggest surprise happened after lunch when my uncle Jerry and aunt Laurie announced that our trip was FREE! They gave us this trip as a gift! We were all in shock when they told us. They are the BEST!! We parted ways soon after and the Croft clan stopped in Las Vegas to enjoy a long shower and a good night's sleep.

It was a fabulous experience and I recommend everyone go!!!