Lovers Getaway

Last weekend Ken and I skipped out of town. We went up to the Grand Targhee Resort. Every summer Edward Jones has their Summer Regional Meeting. You think they could come up with a more unique name, huh? This year it was up at Targhee. It's like being in a different world there. I chalk this up to the fact that all the employees are really granola. I love granola. The snack and the people. Also, you are miles away from civilization. 16 miles actually. You take a turn and up you go leaving Broulims, gas stations, pay phones, law enforcement, everything... behind you. It's liberating. The air is cleaner. It even felt like my skin was more cleansed. Dare I say, it was surreal.
Ken, the poor bugger, had meetings from the time we got there (noon Friday) to noon on Saturday. Some of the meetings were not actual meetings. I mean for an hour we all sat in this big room and everyone introduced themselves and their wives. C'mon that's not a meeting. Immediately following that ice-breaker the spouses all got together for about an hour and half. There were about 30 maybe 35 women and 3 men. Those were the spouses. We all talked about our favorite things. We had to bring it to give to someone. My latest craze is Victoria Secret Very Sexy Bronzer. It's incredible. Smooths your complexion, adds a summer glow, instant tan. Never (I repeat) NEVER wipes off. It's awesome. I almost didn't want to give it away. But rules are rules.

After that I was lil' miss free bird. I toured the facilities. Hot tubs, spa, heated pool, nature observatory, game rooms, HBO, chair lift, bike rentals, horseback riding, anything you could think of- this place had. It was awesome... and it was totally all paid for. I had a blast. Friday I spent unwinding. Something about breathing in all the mountain air soothes the soul, babe.

Saturday I tried to get Ken to commit to doing the chairlift to the top of the mountain with me- he was too scared so when he was in his last meeting I did it all by myself. What a sight. I spent a good hour up there hiking around. After his meeting I talked him into it and showed him some pictures and he decided he'd do it. They poor boy was petrified. He kept telling em he was scared of heights while we were walking over to the lift. He is white-knuckle-pee-his-pants scared of heights. He didn't pee but he wouldn't even move his head. We had to put the kiddie bar down and everything. It was all worth it from the top. Not only were the Tetons spectacular but there were literally thousands of lady bugs up there! Bizarre! We thought about renting bikes and riding down. That's a lot of work. We thought about ATVs. Those would be fun- but they were a lot of money. We thought about hiking. Back to the lot of work scenario. So we rode down. I'm seriously thinking they should install those on every mountain. Then, the people who love to hike can hike their hearts out and the people who hate hiking but love the view can still enjoy all this country has to offer. Who's with me?

Can't you tell that Ken is just loving the ride? He looks so happy. He was too scared to look at the camera.

Georgey Porgey

My dad is George William Bradley. As serious as people think he is, he's a nut. He is the perfect match for my mom and an excellent father. Dad loves to work. He has the pleasure of working at home but don't think that means he doesn't take it very seriously. My dad wakes up around 5 and reads his scriptures for an hour than showers and dresses in a full suit and goes down to the basement to work. He rises from the depths at 12:15 and has a bowl of soup until 1:00. He normally listens to talk radio. If I go up to have lunch with him Rush Limbaugh or Mike Meadved is on full blast! We don't really talk during those lunches we just listen to 1020AM.

My padre has the greenest and plushest lawn on his block. Probably in all of Rexburg. Possibly is all of Southeast Idaho. When they moved to Idaho his lot was just dirt. He seeded it all himself and has a special fertilizing process that makes it feel like you are walking on mattresses outside. Seriously, gorgeous grass. He's really proud of it and he loves it when I say something about how nice his grass is. He also installed a flag pole when he moved in. He always wanted one. He has a spotlight on it at night and flies it half mast when someone dies or anything. It's a big deal. And really easy to tell people how to spot your house. Not every house has a 60 foot flag pole in the front yard.

Dad loves having girls. You'd think he'd want a son but he does so well with us. When we were little he'd let us fix his hair and put it in little pony tails and brush it different ways. He'll sit around and talk with us for hours. He loves to laugh. When dad laughs at a joke he'll normally repeat the punchline as he is laughing. It makes as all laugh harder.

Dad has always been a good example and a strict parent. There was the normal we could always ask dad if we wanted a for sure yes. I think all dads are that way. But every Friday he takes my mom out on a date. Always has. Every Sunday he goes to all his meetings. Every Saturday we had Family Movie Night. (Not a rule... but a good habit/tradition). Every Monday we had Family Home Evening. A favorite FHE was the Miss Modesty Pageant. My dad was the judge. We had to put on all our clothes, one outfit at a time, and he would judge it's modesty by how much it covered, how far the sleeves came down, the cut, the tightness, and where it fell on your legs. If it was more than 2 inches above the center of our knees we had to pass it down to the next sister. What a night.

My dad is me hero. He'd do anything for me. He'd bail me out of any mess. And he'd never want a thank you.

Love you, dad.

Fan Your Peacock Feathers

No Bradley gathering is complete without a photo shoot. It's an addiction and it took up one full Sunday afternoon. Andi is quite the whiz with PhotoShop... you'll see at the end.

Victoria Part II and Tee-Tan-Eeek

Friday mom treated us to lunch at the Olive Garden. It was a girls only lunch. Krissy and Josslynn came from Arco. How can you pass up unlimited soup, salad, and bread sticks. I ate mostly bread sticks. That Zuppa Toscana was perfect. We decided to spend the afternoon at the museum. You see when the movie Titanic came out Victoria worked at the movie theater and got one free movie every week. And every week for ten weeks she watched Titanic. She got the movie poster to hang in her bedroom. She had Titanic apparel to wear. And in my high school french class we learned Titanic in Francois is pronounced Tee-tan-eek! So me and Jules like to call it that. We spent the entire afternoon at the Titanic Exhibit. Go. Everyone needs to go. It was so interesting.


They had a ton of artifacts from the ship. One were these dishes that were still in the box and the box had disintegrated and left the plates all lined up vertically in the sand. They also had these perfume vials that had been preserved all this time and the case had sniff holes in it and you could still smell this perfume! From 1912! It smelled very soapy. They had different exhibits of the rooms. Did you know a first class ticket on the Titanic would have cost $79,000 today?! Can you imagine? My 3 favorite parts of the museum are: 1st when you are walking up the museum stairs to the next level of exhibits they have it staged as the grand staircase on the Titanic. I kept peeking over my shoulder to see if Jack was waiting for me. : ) When you enter the exhibit they give you a boarding pass. It’s a replica of what was given on the Titanic. It was a real passengers name and gives their history, who they were traveling with, how old they are, etc. So you feel really connected with everything on display. I was Henriette Yrois, a Parisian model who was traveling with her married lover who was commissioned by White Star Line to film the maiden voyage. I was a mistress! Oh the thrill. This all tied in at the end when they had all the passengers separated by class and you looked "yourself" up to see if you lived or died on the ship. I died. All my sisters people died. It was sad. A little over 700 people were saved. Over 1,500 died. Then one of the coolest parts was this huge iceberg! They have an actual iceberg on display. It’s no life-size but it’s big. And cold! They have it set up to be 32 degrees. You can touch it to get a feel for how cold the water was. The water was 28 degrees. The caption said most passengers died from the cold and not drowning. Something I didn’t get was in the gift shop there was a T-shirt that had a picture of the Titanic on it and there was a Pig riding the boat. A pig. As in, oink oink. I didn’t get it. Sat-ee-day they came and picked me up and we went to the mall. I never really thought we shopped that much. But, we do. I got a grey skirt at Old Navy for $4.97! Steal of a deal. SO much so, that my mumsy paid for it. Julie and Chris made homemade pizzas. These weren’t your basic pepperoni, extra cheese pizzas. We had a veggie- piled at least 3 inches high with vegetables. We had a meat-lovers… same story. And then a Mediterranean that had no sauce and was topped with garlic, spinach, roasted red peppers, and Feta cheese. Yums. And a BBQ chicken pizza. All of which had whole-wheat crust. Very good. Very good. We were all there except Krissy- even spouses. We played In A Pickle. If you haven’t played- call me and set up a time it’s a riot.

Victoria Part I

Taking Thursday, Friday, and Monday off work is the way to go. I felt like I had taken 6 months off. Truly terrific. The events started on Thursday. I went up to Rexburg at about 10:30 and her majesty wasn’t even awake yet. Jet lag? I don’t know. A 2 hour time difference never really gets to me. Mom was the perfect host offering hot chocolate with cool whip, cinnamon rolls, and fruit cocktail. (I’m a sucker for fruit cocktail.) I had… all of the above. When Victoria woke up she gave me a really long hug and grabbed my head, shook it, and asked how my tumor was doing. "He’s fine." We lounged around and watched some TV. Vicky loves What Not To Wear on TLC. Something we have in common. She also taught us this great dance called the "Cupid Shuffle." It's a mix of the electric slide and Cotton-Eye Joe. We did it about 6 times in a row. We had planned to go horseback riding that day but… first Krissy said she wasn’t coming because she didn’t have a sitter for the kiddos. Then we figured we could just bring the boys. Then, the guy wasn’t sure he wanted to go without Dad. Then he was okay with it. Then Krissy said she was too busy and couldn’t come. Then Julie’s husband came down with vomitoids and she didn’t want to leave him all by himself. So, we rescheduled for the next day. And we got rained out Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Boo-hiss you rain. All was not lost. In stead of horseback riding we went to Ross. Me, Vickers, and Mumsy. We were pulling all kinds of fun things off the rack. I like shopping with mom because her motto is "It can’t hurt to try it on." That statement offers all kinds of liberation. I was trying on dresses I never would otherwise. And really never should have….I’ve got tree trunk for legs. Tree! Trunks! And Christmas hams for arms. Christmas! Hams! Vicky scored with the cutest t-shirt. It was a silhouette of Barbie (you know- pony tail, cute chin, glam eye lashes) and it said Vote for Barbie. "Barbie" was in that cute Barbie cursive. The back said, "A Leader For Us All" and had a bunch of stars. It was darling. And wouldn’t you know it there was only one. (That pic is not of Vickers. But I can't believe I found the shirt online! Of course it's in Britain and costs 25 pounds. Vicks got it for $3.99) I tell you what Victoria looks smoldering in anything she puts on. She has an incredible figure. And it is a FIGURE! None of this stick stuff. She’s got curves that’ll take you to another world. Holy Cow. Gorgeous.

T-Dawg

Victoria (T-Dawg) is coming tomorrow! Hip! Hip! Hooray! She'll be staying for a full week. I took Thursday through next Monday off work so I'll be able to parrrr-tay! We've (the Bradley girls) come up with some ideas of things we want to do with her which include: horseback riding, facials at Paul Mitchells, Farmers Market, Titanic exhibit at the museum, and photo shoot. Who has any other ideas? Vicky has been thoroughly citified and has made it clear she does not want to go to Bear World, Yellowstone, or Mesa Falls. So.... I'm open for suggestions.