I love being a Bradley

Well, by marriage I am a Bradley. But I like to pretend like I always have been one. I spent this last weekend in St. George with Mark's extended family for a girls weekend. It is the highlight of my year. This was the 4th year I've been, and I look forward to it all year long. So much laughing, crafting, cooking, eating, shopping, and not a lot of sleep.

I remember the first time Mark took me to a Bradley party. It was 1992, and it was a joint Grandma and Grandpa birthday party. There were 14 Bradley children, and there are 86 Bradley grandchildren. So much fun. I grew up in a family where my dad had 10 siblings, and I have scores of cousins, too. I remember Mark's aunts and uncles each asking me that night if I was overwhelmed by all the people at the party. It just seemed normal and what a family party should be to me. I knew that night I wanted to belong to this family. And, lucky for me, the next weekend Mark proposed.

Anyway, back to the party. I flew to Las Vegas where Mark's aunt picks me up from the airport each year. We then drive the 2 hours to St. George, survey to food stores at the house, and then make a menu and shopping list and head to the grocery store. By the time we get home and put food away, the Salt Lake peeps start trickling in.

Friday morning started with a trip to the St. George temple, cinnamon bun aebelskivers for breakfast, a trip to Tai Pan, and then we got crafty. I'm talking really crafty. Like 52-yards of felt in 26 colors kind of crafty. The original plan was for each person to make a banner that said "Happy Birthday." What we ended up with was each person having a banner for every single month of the year--and every possible celebration. It was a lot of felt. We all worked assembly-line style, and as the new ideas for additional banners crept up, we just added that to the assembly line as well. The first day, I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities, so I laid low and knitted while the craft explosion began. I made dinner and dessert and breakfast for the next morning while everyone cut and glued miles of felt. 936 square feet of felt. It was insane, and I wasn't ready for it.

Saturday morning I went for a run before everyone was awake, and when I returned, everyone had woken up and was sitting around the table cutting and glueing again. I decided this time that I could use a Happy Birthday banner around our house, so I joined in the fun. I'm not sure what was wrong with me craft-wise Friday, but I got into it Saturday and cut and glued until everyone ran out of ideas. Then, of course, we needed a break after spending 24 straight hours working on the project, so we headed out for a shopping adventure.

Saturday night we had dinner, mint brownies, and then played 3 Favorites. Every person brings 3 of their favorite $5 thing, and then you put your name in a bowl 3 times. The bowl goes around, and each person tell about their favorite thing, and then draws out 3 names who win the 3 things. I left with some bath gels, colorful Sharpie markers and nail polish, and an enormous Symphony chocolate bar I devoured immediately.

We also played Hit or Miss, a really fun game that had us all laughing so hard that we were crying. Really, just try to list as many state capitals east of the Mississippi River as you can in 30 seconds and see what everyone comes up with.

One thing about this party is that nobody wants to miss anything. So we all go everywhere together, and nobody is allowed to go to sleep until everyone goes to sleep, and we don't want anybody to talk about anything, because of this great fear of missing something interesting or funny. So I went to bed late every night. Very, very late. Especially Saturday night. Two of Mark's cousins and I thought it would be awesome to watch our phones and computer clocks go from 1:59 to 1:00 when DST ended. So we stayed up, and I told them (and sang to them) about some very excellent Christmas CDs they were missing out on.

I flew back home Sunday night, and had the bumpiest flight of my life. My plane stopped in San Jose, and the trip there was insanely turbulent. So turbulent people were screaming and barfing, and the pilot made the flight attendants stay in their seats as well. The flight from San Jose home was dreamy, and it was good to be back home again.

Until next year.

Double Chocolate Cookies

This is probably my favorite cookie. I love how chewy it is. As an added bonus, they are particularly pretty cookies, and great for giving away to impress people.

This is Martha Stewart's recipe. But she made one big mistake--these cookies taste MUCH better if you add chopped semi-sweet chunks (or just use chips if you're lazy as I am) instead of the milk chocolate chunks the recipe calls for. I still use the milk chocolate to melt with the butter, but I definitely prefer the cookies with semisweet chunks.

• 
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 pound good-quality milk chocolate, 4 ounces coarsely chopped and 4 ounces cut into 1/4-inch chunks
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Melt 4 ounces coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.
2. Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks.
3. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 minutes (cookies should be soft). Let cool on parchment on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Fancy dancer

I just found this video on our Mac. Apparently, Zack gets down when I'm not around.

Pool party

Perhaps it is the cold, rainy weather that arrived this week that has given me this sudden urge to go through or summer vacation photos finally. Or maybe it is the fact that for the first half of this week 6 out of 7 kids and I were puking our guts out and I finally had some downtime when the puking stopped and we all were just laying around like slugs for a couple of days. Whatever, today you get more vacation photos.

I love Jean. She is my "other mother" and my mom's best friend. I spent many days and nights at her house in my late teenage years. Also, I spent many days on the ski slopes with her. She is fun and amazing and hilarious. Also very generous. She has a great pool in her backyard, and whenever we are in town, she lets us have it all to ourselves. My kids call her "Grandma Jean."

So these are a few pictures from our days swimming at Jean's.

Noah tried out surfing on his uncle.
Elsie with Grandma and Grandpa.
Savanna loved jumping in by herself and swimming to the side.
Noah is the master of cannonballs.
Lots of cousins means lots of fun.
Baby Ben is the cutest.
Aubrey helped Savanna get better at swimming.
Annie is a fish.
Zack hung by the edge in the shallow end.

Jacob is the life of a pool party.
Watch out for Joel.
Noah is just awesome.
Joel.
Jacob.
Abram.

Thank you, Jean for letting us take over your pool and your house.

Temple Square

More Utah pics. These are from the day we went to Temple Square. We started with lunch at the Lion House Pantry. It was delicious, but the part I loved the most was when Noah told me, "Mom, I don't see what the big deal about these rolls is. They taste just like yours." Shameless little flatterer, that boy.

Then we toured the Beehive House, and moved on over to take the usual pics on the temple stairs. We loved the new exhibit at the south visitors center where you can see inside of the model of the temple.

This adventure is always one on the top of the kids's list when we visit SLC.

A trip to Park City

I am still going through Utah pictures from 2 months ago. I zapped some down to web-size, and now I can post some.

I love Park City, but I hadn't been there in many years. A little tidbit: My first date with Mark was to go see the band America in concert (you know, "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name...."). Also, Mark and I spent our honeymoon in Park City. And there's always the happy memory of the morning after our wedding when we got broadsided in the Albertson's parking lot by a lady who had been smoking pot. Wrecked our car the day after our wedding. Mark has a sweet scar on his ear to remember it. Good times.

Anyway, on this trip to Park City, all cars remained intact. First we had a delicious lunch atBaja Cantina with cousins, and then we all rode the Alpine Slide. Mark and some of the older kids tried the Alpine Coaster as well, but the rest of us stuck with the slide. It was a blast. Really expensive, but really fun.

Zack and me

Cousins played in the rocks while they waited for their turns on the slide.
Nancy went with Truman. He was terrified at first until my mom explained to him that the sled had a brake on it and he wasn't going to be free-falling down the mountain.

I love this picture of Savanna.
Noah was very fast.

Elsie took my Mom down the slide. She was one happy girl.
More rocks.
Abram and Elsie.

We told the kids next time we go they can either choose Lagoon OR a day pass at the slide. We'll see what they pick. It really was a fun adventure with cousins and Grandma.

Say Yes To The Dress

Due to some windy and dark conditions in the mornings here, I have been running on the treadmill in the basement for the past 2 weeks. Something is just so dreary about going out in the dark of the morning, but when it is also windy, I just can't make myself do it.

I am completely exercise attention deficit disorder, though, and I cannot run on a treadmill without something to waste my brain on to make me forget what I am doing and to make me not think about how much I am sweating. I am a stinky sweater; let's just leave it at that.

Anyway, we really don't watch much TV around here. But when we do watch, it is always something on DVR. But I have seen every episode of Mythbusters, and although I crush on Les Stroud of Survivorman, I just can't get into that show while running. What Not To Wear has been in re-runs forever, and I needed something new to capture my attention. Then I saw it on the TV menu--Say Yes To The Dress.

Recently, I had heard someone talking about this show, but I had never seen it. It sounded great, so I told my magic DVR machine to record some episodes. After one episode, I was hooked. Luckily, as I have never seen it, there are plenty of "new" episodes for me. At first, I didn't know what it was about the show that captivated me so.

After the first 2 episodes though, I figured out why I am so enchanted by this show. Bridal gown shopping is something I never did. It never crossed my mind. What these girls are doing is insane--spending more on a dress that I spent on an entire wedding. I think it would have been fun to go around trying on dresses to find "the one." But that wasn't my story. Here's my story.

My cousin got married the year before I did. She bought a new dress for the outrageous (at least it seemed so at the time) price of $450. Big sleeves, lots of beading, and a long-ish train. I don't remember being in love with her dress, but at that point, every dress--church dress and prom dress--I had ever had was homemade by my excellent seamstress mother, and I was completely blown away that they had spent that much money on a dress. My aunt told me that if I wanted to borrow it when I got married, I was welcome to it. At that time, I had not met Mark and did not have plans to get married any time soon.

Well, about 2 weeks later, the new year at BYU started, and I met Mark that first week of school. I had no interest in dating him, because I thought for sure I was taller than he. But he sure was fun to hang out with, and really super funny in a super nerdy way that I completely fell in love with. Around Thanksgiving time, I figured out he was actually 1/4" taller than I, and we started dating, and by the end of the next summer, we got married.

I never even went dress shopping to see if there was a dress I liked. My cousin's dress was my size, she spent a lot of money on it, it had some killer sleeves, and it was free. It never even entered my mind to go see if I liked something better.

Perhaps it is just 18 years of fashion progression, but looking at the dress now, I sure wish I would have maybe looked around a little.

It got me thinking, though, that there really wasn't much I was too specific about insiting on for my wedding. The things I do remember caring about are:

1) No fake flowers on my headpiece. My dad bent a coathanger, and my mom and Grandma Henrichsen made my headpiece for about $3, and then we paid $20 for a florist to put real roses on it.

2) I did not want plastic columns between the layers of my cake, and I did not want bright frosting on the cake. I was so happy with the way the cake turned out looking like a lace cloth was laid across each layer. It really was so pretty.

3) I wanted to know what was in the presents while we were at the reception. Don't you always wonder what is in those fancy boxes when you go to a wedding? So my 2 grandmothers were the gift unwrappers. They unwrapped and displayed the gifts, and would sneak over and give us updates about anything cool they unwrapped. They told me that back in their day, people did that all the time. I don't know if that is true, or if they were just trying to make me feel better for being so curious.

4) No video cameras. This was in the early days of video cameras, when they were the size of a briefcase. But my family had one, and I hated it. I told my dad over and over all summer I did not want any video of the day. Pictures, yes, video, no. I think the only video my dad took was of me doing my hair that morning and saying, "TURN THAT THING OFF!"

Which reminds me, I also did not know that people had their hair done for their wedding day. I just got up in the morning and worked the same hot-roller magic that I did every day. Make-up? I never really touched the stuff until I was 32, and it didn't cross my mind to wear some on my wedding day. I didn't even own any.