Utah

So, I haven't really kept up on posting photos to the blog since we've been out of town for so long. Tomorrow we are leaving San Diego, so I figured it's about time that I at least posted the photos from before we even arrived in San Diego. Here are some from our short stay in Utah for Jennie and Dalin's wedding. It was fun to see family while we were there -- especially Mel & Christian and Alan & Jenn (Michael's siblings and their spouses who live in Utah). It was fun for me to finally meet Jenn and for all of us to get to hang out with all the siblings. Kolby especially had fun palling around with his cousin, Jaden. Too bad we didn't get to spend more time with them. Here are a few photos from Jennie's wedding luncheon on January 4th.

Michael, Kolby, Camden, Stephanie, Alan, Jenn, and Jaden at the luncheon:

Jennie and her bridesmaids:

Kyler and Isaac had lots of fun napping together

(these little cousins were born only a few days apart):

Eli had fun hiding under a table:

Camden and his new best friend, Aunt Jenn, had fun walking

in circles around the gym after he was done eating:

President Hinckley

So, we just got a call from my sister at BYU Hawaii saying that President Hinckley, the leader of our church, had just passed away. He was 97 years old and we found an article on the church website saying that he died at 7pm tonight in his downtown Salt Lake City apartment of old age with his family members with him. It was kind of shocking to hear that he died -- he has been the prophet for most of our lives that we remember and it just seems like he has been around so long that he should just keep on being around forever. We will miss him. I bet his reunion with his wife was a wonderful time for them. And now President Monson will be the new leader of the church -- I have always especially enjoyed listening to his talks.

Last Dermatology Interview

I had my last dermatology interview this week and got to see New York City for the first time – too bad I didn’t have more time to enjoy the sights. I guess I’ll have to return with the rest of my family so they can enjoy it too. I flew out early Tuesday morning on a direct flight from San Diego to JFK in New York – a very long flight, but nice not to get stuck in a layover city. I then proceeded to use the NY subway for the first time and did fine. I had to go straight from the airport to the interview dinner. The residents were really nice and the food was really good.

I stayed with a friend of a friend on the upper northwest side of Manhattan, just off of 168th and Broadway. Erin McKinley is a girl I have met on the dermatology interview trail, and she said if I ever got an interview in New York City to email so I could have a free place to stay. Well, it turns out that she was out of town this week interviewing, but she emailed some of her friends from school and found another couple, Jordan and Mary Jacobs, who volunteered to let me crash at their place. They are probably one of the nicest couples I’ve ever met and were so nice to let me stay and have a fun time while in New York – thanks you guys. They have an 8 month old, Manny, in a 1 bedroom, so it is pretty cramped, but they are on the 26th floor with a really cool view of midtown Manhattan.

My interview went well on Wednesday. I really liked the program, but it would be very difficult to live with 4 kids in New York City. The program offers subsidized housing, but even then a 2 bedroom apartment would cost about $2200/month – ouch!! (And there aren't any 3 bedrooms). But New York City is a cool place. After the interview, I walked along the south side of Central Park and over to the Rockefeller center, where I rode an elevator up 87 stories to get to the roof, where I was able to get an awesome 360 degree view of Manhattan, with the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty off to one side and Central Park on the other – way cool. When I got back to Jordan and Mary’s, they ordered some Dominican food and we had a fun night just talking and enjoying delicious food.

It has been nice to spend the rest of this week with the family here in San Diego, especially with the wonderful beautiful 50-70 degree weather. I have really enjoyed just getting up in the mornings and playing with the boys – both here at the house and around the area. Friday we walked to a park that is near the home and enjoyed the pleasant weather while the boys played in the sand and on the playground. Then we had some fun looking through some model condos there by the park – very nice. And yesterday was the 160th anniversary of the Mormon Battalion arriving in San Diego, so they had lots of fun activities for the kids down in Old Town San Diego. The boys got to make bricks, rope, biscuits on a stick that they could eat with freshly churned butter and jam, and pioneer dolls; play pioneer instruments; pan for 'gold;' and take pictures dressed at pioneers. Then we had lunch at a really yummy Mexican restaurant. Last night Matthew, Aaron, and I enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub while it was raining. We challenged each other to do different things in the cold swimming pool water (which was about 50 degrees), like sliding down the slide, or seeing who could sit waist deep in the cold water the longest – it was really fun.

It was also nice to go to church together today again as a whole family. I have been on or traveling to interviews for several of the past weekends so have not been with the family for church. We heard some really good talks on forgiveness and learned about the early life of Joseph Smith and his vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus that brought about the restoration of His gospel to the earth. Such a neat story.

This Past Week

So, we just got home from skiing in Mammoth Lakes, California over the long weekend. Michael returned to San Diego two days ago with my dad and Aaron because he had to leave for his New York City interview early yesterday morning. Mom, Matthew, the boys, and I stayed an extra day and returned last night. Mom and Matthew went skiing in the morning yesterday and mom came home and watched the boys for me so I could ski in the afternoon. There was nice new powder on the mountain and Matthew and I had a lot of fun skiing through the trees. (For anyone who likes to ski at Mammoth, we found a really fun run yesterday -- if you take lift #5 up and go off the back side of the mountain, after you get past the first part of the run that is a little steep, go through the trees over on the right side of the run and it is a very nice run, especially if there is a foot or two of powder on the ground).

Oh, and on Monday we had a lot of fun because Kolby got to go skiing for the first time. Kids under the age of 6 ski for free at Mammoth, so we took advantage of that. He was so cute in his ski clothes, helmet and goggles and all. And his little skis were so tiny. We rode up the gondola to get to the ski mountain, and that was a major highlight of the trip for him. Once we got on the hill, he had a lot of fun. My dad gave him a little ski lesson and he did well for his first time. He went up the little rope tow lift on the bunny hill a couple of times before he said he didn't want to do that anymore and we went on a chair lift up higher on the bunny hill. He saw some little jumps on the way up and said he wanted to do that. Then we went up Schoolyard lift and had a last good run down that hill. It's a good thing that my dad is such a good skier, because he was able to ski with Kolby and then kind of hold him up on the steeper part of the hill and get him to the parts that he could try skiing on his own. At the very end Kolby got tired and we took off his skis and Dad skied down to the bottom of the hill with Kolby on his shoulders -- I wish we had a video of that part. We did get some clips and photos of Kolby skiing which I will definitely post later on. That sure was a fun experience to see him ski -- Michael commented that he is looking forward to when we can ski with all of our boys.

Anyways, we left the cabin last night around 7pm and got to the house a little after 1am. We got the car unpacked and the kids in to bed, and I went to sleep around 2am. Isaac woke up to eat at 4am, and I woke up holding him on my lap on the couch at 5am and found the empty bottle sitting on the floor at my feet. Then, because Isaac has had a bit of a stuffy nose the last couple of days, he woke up at 6am and I got him to go back to sleep by giving him his pacifier. Then he woke up again at 7am, and since I could hear Camden starting to talk through the baby monitor I gave up on the idea of sleep and just got up. So I'm kind of out of it today, but that extra day of skiing was worth it all.

I wrote our weekly update on Sunday afternoon, so here it is:

Well, I am writing this on Sunday, January 20th, even though I won’t have a chance to post it until we get back to the house in San Diego and have internet access. Right now we are in Mammoth – about 6 hours north of San Diego – at my parents’ cabin. We got up here late Friday night and Michael arrived yesterday evening with my dad – Michael had an interview he was flying in from and Dad had a business meeting yesterday morning, so they came up later. It’s nice being up here. I think the thing I like the most about coming to the cabin is that there is no school or work or other errands to run, so everyone is together hanging out the whole time. There’s about 8 feet of snow on the ground outside, and some of us got a chance to go skiing yesterday. In the morning I went with Mom and Aaron while Matthew watched the boys and then Mom traded in the afternoon and Matthew joined us. I love to ski. We had a lot of fun, especially going off some jumps and doing quite a few black diamond runs. Matthew and Aaron have both passed me up – they are both faster and better skiers than I am now since I’ve been out of practice for a while (and I am more cautious than I used to be). But I think I did a pretty good job of keeping up.

Before we came up to Mammoth, we also had several other fun things happen this week. Last weekend we went to the stake conference meeting at my parents’ church. We really enjoyed the Saturday evening meeting, which focused on parenting. One of the speakers had five boys (so we felt like we could relate to lots of the experiences he shared). One idea that he shared was to not only have one night each week devoted to family time, but to have another night each week devoted to individual time with each child. We liked that idea, especially with all of our boys being so close in age. I think we are going to try doing that once we get back from vacation – one night a week one of us will take one of the boys out and let them pick a fun activity to do. That should be fun.

Since we last wrote, Michael has had several interviews. He has been to Cincinnati Ohio, Dayton Ohio, Spokane Washington, Gainesville Florida, and Rochester New York. He had good experiences at all of these interviews, and it looks like it is going to be difficult to choose how we are going to rank all the programs because there are so many good ones to choose from. And I am glad that Michael only has one interview left to fly to – he is going to New York city this week. Then the only others he has left are a transitional year interview in San Diego a few days before we leave, and one last transitional year one in La Crosse, Wisconsin that we are all planning on driving to as a family the day after we get back to Milwaukee.

On Monday Erin Devenberg, my best friend from high school, came and visited. She and her mom came and stayed for lunch, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with them. It was great to see her again, and she got to come back for another short visit on Friday morning before we left. I can’t believe it had been over four years since I had seen Erin before that – she had never even seen any of the boys before – but she moved to Redding (in northern California) several years ago and we just hadn’t been able to make it to San Diego at the same time since then. It was nice to talk and catch up on each others’ lives.

I have also had fun playing ping pong with Michael, Matthew, and Aaron several times. Mom and I had fun looking at some model homes and going on several fun shopping trips. I’m sure that there are lots of other fun things we did since we last posted, but I’m drawing a blank right now. Hope you are all doing well.

Birth Order

My old roommate from BYU, Megan, sent me this e-mail, and I thought it was pretty cute.

Maternity Clothes

1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.

Preparing for the Birth
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.

The Onesie
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes with special baby detergent, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries
1st baby: At the first sign of distress – a whimper, a frown – you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to re-start the baby swing.

Pacifier
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.

Diapering
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, Baby Zoo, Baby Movies, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaners.

Going Out
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins (a favorite)
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!


GRANDCHILDREN: God's reward for allowing your children to live.

The Last of the Photos from Our Boise Trip

I am going to get the last of the photos posted from when we were in Idaho:


Before Christmas the boys and I went to visit my friend Colette and her daughter Lila who live in Boise. Colette and I were roommates on our BYU Semester in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was really fun to get together with her and let the kids play together. They have some horses at their house and the boys loved petting them.

Kolby, Camden, and Eli:

Kolby, Lila, Eli, and Colette:

Eli petting the colt:

Camden, Colette, and Lila:

And after Christmas Dick took the boys and I to a place called Kid Planet that is kind of like a McDonald's playland with all the slides, ball pits, and tunnels to climb through but about four times larger. The boys loved it there, and Camden was even big enough to enjoy it too because the tunnels were down low enough that he could climb in by himself.

Camden in the ball pit:

Dick and Isaac:

Kolby:

Eli chillin' on the slide:

Michael and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary while we were in Boise. We got all dressed up and went out to a nice dinner at a fondue restaurant downtown called The Melting Pot. Then we went and saw National Treasure 2, which we both enjoyed.

Dalin, Jennie's fiance, teaching the boys how to do push-ups:

And a few days later Dick took all of us to the Discovery Center. It had all sorts of scientific experiments set up and everything was hands-on so the kids really enjoyed it. There was also a room set up like a grocery store with plastic food, mini shopping carts, and kid-sized check-out counters and cash registers. And there was a section set up like a veterinarian’s office with toy animals and medical supplies. The boys all enjoyed that day and it was nice that we did it on a Saturday so Michael could go along with us too.

Camden picking out some groceries:

Eli on a 'bed of nails':

Kolby helping a dog in the veterinary office:

Isn't this the cutest picture ever?

Camden loves Isaac so much! He is probably our child who has shown the most interest in his younger sibling at the earliest age. He loves to hold his bottle while we are feeding him or give him his pacifier. And he is always giving him hugs and kisses. So I shouldn't have been suprised when Camden wanted to hold him too:

Isaac:

Camden giving Isaac kisses:

Interview Season

I am writing this while on the airplane flying from Denver, Colorado to San Diego, California. I was at a dermatology residency interview today in Madison, Wisconsin. For the last several weeks I have been flying to cities all over the U.S. to interview for dermatology and transitional year residency programs. I am half way done and have my last interview February 1. Last month we were in Boise for a dermatology rotation with Dr. Randy Burr that was so much fun. We had a great time with my family and enjoyed celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with them.

The day after New Year’s I flew to Washington, D.C. for a dermatology interview with Washington Hospital. My cousin Tiffany Perry picked me up from the airport and let me stay at her place. She also took me on a car-ride tour of downtown D.C., which was really neat. We parked and walked up to the Jefferson Memorial, but it was really cold out and we went home after that. My interview was on Thursday, so I got to experience getting around on the metro and bus systems in D.C. I managed to make it to my interview location and had a nice day.

I flew back into Salt Lake late Thursday night, where my dad picked me up (thanks Dad) and dropped me off at Grandma Faun’s house, where Steph and the boys were (thanks Grandma Faun for letting us use your home). Steph and the rest of the family had driven to Utah earlier in the day for Jennie’s wedding open house the night before her wedding.

We got up early enough on Friday to get the kids all dressed and ready to go to the temple. They stayed in the waiting room with Annette, Mindy, and some other cousins, while Steph and I were able to go inside the temple for Jennie and Dalin’s wedding and sealing ceremony. The ceremony was so neat and wonderful, especially since the man who performed the sealing was an old friend from when we lived in Utah several years ago. He gave some really good advice about learning to love your spouse even more as you came to know more of their faults and shortcomings. It is still weird to think that Jennie is now married – I still think of her sometimes as barely a teenager. But we are so happy for her and Dalin.

Pictures outside after the ceremony were crazy. We had gotten new white shirts for the boys to wear in the picture, but then it was so cold out that they ended up having to wear their coats. There was a cold wind blowing, which made the dresses and hair fly all over the place and kept the babies crying – hopefully they got some ok pictures. Then we went to a church for a wedding lunch and then later to Mel and Christian’s to hang out for a little. It was so much fun to see everybody and just enjoy a good time together.

That night we had to get everything packed up to catch a plane Saturday morning for San Diego. My aunt Sue took us to the airport (thanks Sue) and taught us a nice way to get through security more quickly. We made it down to San Diego without too much trouble and rushed back to Steph’s parents’ home. Once there, we quickly changed into our Sunday clothes, just as the bishop arrived. We did Isaac’s baby blessing on Saturday in the Chidester home, since all the family was together only for the rest of that day. It was so neat to have everyone together for that event. I felt impressed to bless Isaac with continued health and growth; with the knowledge of how he ended up here on Earth and how blessed he is to be born into a home with the gospel; that he will be a calming influence for the family and his brothers; that he will serve a mission and seek to marry in the temple; and that he will stay close to the Lord through prayer and personal revelation.

We had a little bit of time afterward to exchange Christmas presents – the boys got some trains and a train set that they love from Nana and Papa, and we appreciate all the other gifts too. Then the adults were off in the cars to Newport, about 1.5 hours north, to do a sealing session in the temple there. Our boys stayed with Matthew, Aaron and some family friends who are living with Steph’s family (thanks to all of you for watching them). We got up to the temple and Grandma Faun realized that she had left the paper behind that she needed – but the temple staff were still able to help us. For some reason there was a miscommunication about us coming, so they didn’t have us on their schedule, but then a sealer/recorder happened to still be in the temple just at the right time to help us. Everything seemed to work together so that we could get those sealings done that night, and we had a wonderful time spending the night together as a family. We realized that it was the first time in about 3 years that the entire family was together.

Sunday morning I took off early for an interview on Monday in Marshfield, Wisconsin and then the one today in Madison, Wisconsin. My flight went through Denver and was supposed to land in Madison, but due to fog, our flight was diverted to Chicago O’Hare. I was pretty flustered -- especially since we have made an effort to avoid the O'Hare airport at all costs after the last time I got stuck there and missed some interviews because of their delayed and cancelled flights. I had to then wait for some time to catch a bus up to Madison, which took about 3.5 hours to get there. In Madison I picked up my rental car and then drove the 2 more hours to Marshfield. I have never driven through such dense fog before. I was glad to have the GPS that I decided to rent along with the rental car, because otherwise I probably would have gotten lost. I had been planning on getting there around 3pm, but instead arrived at 11pm. I missed the dinner that night, which I was sad about, because that is when you get to spend time with the residents and learn from them in an informal setting what the program is like, but at least I made it there for the interview on Monday. Marshfield is a pretty small city – about 22,000. I really enjoyed my interview day there. The program director there is very committed to education and teaching residents to become excellent clinicians. They have a very strong medical dermatology and dermatopathology program, with an ok surgical derm portion, though not as much surgery experience as I would ideally like. They use an electronic medical record system and each resident is loaned a digital camera, a dermatoscope (kind of like a magnifying glass with lights that help you to look more closely at the skin), and a notepad laptop. The place seems very family friendly and has a very low cost of living. I liked it there.

Once done in Marshfield, it was back to Madison last night for another dinner. The fog was still present and made for an interesting drive – at least it kept me on my toes. After checking in at the hotel I walked to the Italian restaurant and met the Madison residents. We had a pleasant evening and then an enjoyable interview day today. All of the faculty again seemed very nice. Madison is a nice city, a little smaller than Milwaukee, but cost of living is about the same as Milwaukee. This program seems to have a little more surgery opportunities, but it might be a little harder to find a house that we could afford. This is going to be a tough decision as we try to decide how to rank all the different programs. There are so many things to think about – the program itself, the city and surrounding area, cost of living, schools, weather, and so much more. I am excited to find out in March where we will be for the next 4 years. We’ll continue to keep you informed.

Mormon.org

So, last night we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner. After dinner they shared a message with us from the scriptures and gave us a challenge to share the gospel with our friends. They told us about a website, http://www.mormon.org/, that the church has created to share its basic beliefs. I have used that website in the past because it has a feature that can look up the location and give directions to any church building in the country. But I hadn't really looked at the other features of the site before. They have recently updated the website with video clips answering questions about the beliefs of church members. You can also send free cards to anyone from the site. And there is also a cool new feature that I hadn't heard about before -- anyone can go onto the site and have a live chat with a missionary to ask any questions they want. I thought that was a pretty cool idea. The missionaries challenged each of us last night to share this site with one friend by next week. So I decided to post it here, since it would probably reach more people that way. Check it out -- it's pretty cool.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We are finally in San Diego. We've been here a couple of days and had lots of fun. Besides my parents and brothers who live here in San Diego, we have also been able to visit with my sister Michelle and her husband Jake who returned to their home in Portland on Sunday, my sister Jennifer who just returned to school in Hawaii yesterday, and Grandma Faun who returned to her home in Salt Lake yesterday too. It was fun to have a little while while we were all here at the same time. Michael has been gone on interviews since early Sunday morning, and will continue to have interview trips through the end of next week, and then he will only have a couple more trips after that later on in the month.

I thought I'd take a few minutes now while the boys are down for their naps to post some photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

The whole family playing in the snow on Christmas Eve:

Isaac's first time out in the snow:

Camden loved the snow until he eventually dropped his mittens and his hands got wet and cold. But Michael and I were surprised at how long he lasted before he got cold and had to go inside:

Kolby in the snow:

Eli with a snowball:

All of us with our snowman that Kolby and Eli named 'Frosty.'

Jennie's fiancé, Dalin, and his parents came over Christmas Eve with little gifts for everyone. Dalin's father came dressed as Santa just for our boys. Afterwards the boys watched from the window as they left and Kolby asked, "Santa has a car?"

Isaac and Daddy relaxing:

Daddy reading the Christmas pop-up books to the boys on the night of

Christmas Eve -- a Chidester family tradition:

The boys with their aunts getting ready to act out the

nativity story -- a Bradshaw family tradition:

Acting out the nativity -- Michael and I played Mary and Joseph and Isaac was baby Jesus. Kolby and Eli made very cute wise men and Camden was a shepherd:

Kolby left cookies and milk and a letter for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.

It's fun that Kolby is getting to be old enough to have fun with the idea of Santa Claus:

Michael and his sisters with the boys waiting to come upstairs to

open gifts on Christmas morning:

The boys opening their gifts from Santa on Christmas morning (at the Bradshaw's house, they open gifts from Santa in the living room when they get up in the morning, and then after eating breakfast they open gifts from the family members around the Christmas tree):

Eli, Stephanie, and Michael opening gifts. (This gift was a water filter

that we asked for for our 72-hour emergency kit):

Camden opening his gift from Kolby and Eli. (This year we decided to start having the kids pick out a little gift for each other -- we hadn't really done this in the past, but now they are old enough to get the idea and it was fun for them to choose gifts for each other at the dollar store):

Kolby showing us the Boggle Jr. game he got:

The whole family in front of the Christmas tree.

(Isaac finally woke up and joined us just before we finished opening gifts):

Camden playing with one of Isaac's gifts:

Smiles from Kolby:

Mommy and Isaac:

Merry Christmas, Eli:

Photos from our Boise Trip

I haven't really posted any photos since we went to Boise on December 1st. Now that it is January and we are not in Boise any longer, I thought I'd start posting the photos from this first leg of our trip. Enjoy!

Arriving in the Boise airport:

Kolby and Eli with Grandpa Dick:

Camden and Kolby crashed after the plane ride:

Kolby and Eli making cookies with Grandma:

Eli helping to set up the Christmas tree:

Kolby helping too:

Grandma Debbie with baby Isaac:

Camden playing the piano:

Kolby just wanted us to take a picture of the shapes he made,

but he did not want to be in the picture:

Grandpa was working on a project and there were two little extra pieces of sticky black velcro that he stuck on Camden's eyebrows. Everyone got a kick out of how funny he looked:

Eli playing with puzzles:

Aunt Mindy's 16th birthday:

Kolby helping Aunt Jennie do the dishes:

The boys with Santa at a church Christmas party:

Isaac in his BYU sweatshirt:

Tummy Time:

What a Sweetheart:

A new haircut for Kolby (after a quick trim went wrong):

Hmmm . . . maybe it's time for Eli to get a haircut too:

Eli's haircut:

Isaac loves his pacifier:

Smiles:

Well, it's 1:30 in the morning, so I'll have to post some more of the photos from Boise later.