MrAndrewBradley

Today was my cousin Kara's wedding shower at my parent's house. My mom, Elise and Kirsten did a great job getting everything ready and looking pretty for the 25 or so guests, while the guys went to Brew it Up! A few pictures are below.

Below is the recap video for Bayside's Thrive 2008 . 2300+ people, representing 230+ churches, 30+ states, 6 countries and 1 God.

The final day of Thrive lived up to all expectations, with The Shore band leading worship before Brennan Manning spoke. Then I went to a break out session on the 15 million and growing orphan and vulnerable children in the world, focusing on the AIDS crisis and a new program working to raise money to help kids get the medications they need to live with AIDS called HOPE WALKS . The evening session was also fantastic with Lincoln Brewster leading the crowd in worship and Francis Chan speaking, one of my favorite speakers while at Cal Poly's Campus Crusade for Christ who has a church in Semi Valley . Just as a side note, Franklin Graham from Samaritan's Purse will be speaking at Thrive 2009 .

Day 2 of Bayside's Thrive included more great speakers, including Miles McPherson from the Rock Church in San Diego, a pre-show by Dave The Horn Guy (who I grew up with) and amazing worship led my Israel Houghton and New Breed . I also went to break out sessions that discussed the crisis of the American church (mainly how it's not growing as fast as population growth and reasons why) and how to partner up with the American Red Cross .

The first night of Thrive 2008 was amazing. Over 2,300 people joined together at Bayside to worship and hear Sherwood Carthen (lead pastor of Bayside of South Sacramento/BOSS and to the Sacramento Kings ). Below are a few general pictures from the night and of the Bayside campus decorated in a jungle theme for the event. More pictures are available on the Bayside Photo Web site .

As California continues to figure out how to overcome its $20 billion budget shortfall (although it seems to depend on the day exactly how much we are in debt), many rallies are being held at the Capitol protesting budget cuts. One of them was about closing 48 state parks for a total savings of yes, less than $13.5 million a year. Below are some pictures of the rally organized by " Save our State Parks ." I thought this was one of the most creative rallies at the Capitol, most enjoy having lots of loud people yelling (in fact there was another rally the same day that had that), but this one marched from historic Sutter's Fort (a park on the closure list ) to the Capitol with people riding in covered wagons and marching in period costumes to the West Steps of the Capitol. It was really something to see.

As Needles, CA thinks about becoming Needles, NV , my parents enlisted my help and the help of some friends to continue raking pine needles and clearing dead branches from around the Bradley Lodge . In 4 days of working we have now filled our trailer 9 times and I think we have 2 or 3 more loads left for this year.

So, I can't really think of anything better to talk about today, then to make sure everyone is paying attention to the links at the right side of the screen. Here is a quick look at just a few of them .... LifeSnacks - my brothers blog, that used to be all about his life, then he and his wife, now it's all about the baby, pictures are posted weekly (if not more often), we are now in week 27 (that's just over 6 months). Carbon Offset Joke - once again from the creator of LifeSnacks, my brother decided to capitalize on global warming and thinking green with joke/product, I have actually seen the prototype, it's pretty cool. Cal Poly's Campus Crusade for Christ and Veritas Forum - Cal Poly has one of the best college Christian ministries I know of with Campus Crusade. It is great to know that it continues follow its mission statement of bringing the Gospel to every student at Cal Poly. The Veritas Forum at Cal Poly seeks to explore the radical and ancient possibi...

No, it's not New York's Central Park , it will be on one of the newest Royal Caribbean cruise ships, setting sail in late 2009 from Florida . Although my next cruise will be on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas , the rest of the family and I will be looking forward to visiting the " Central Park " of the high seas on a future cruise. Here is what Royal Caribbean has the say about the new ship and an informational video for those of you that prefer not to read. "ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL INTRODUCES PROJECT GENESIS - Welcome to Royal Caribbean International's Project Genesis Media Center. This site contains information that will be updated regularly as the story of Project Genesis unfolds. Project Genesis is a quantum leap in architecture and design and will deliver an unparalleled and unexpected vacation experience. When she launches in late 2009, Project Genesis will be the largest and most revolutionary cruise ship in the world. An architectur...

As some of you have noticed, I just added FeedJIT , so now I can track where everyone is located that reads the blog . To my shock, it's not just me reading the blog, which is fantastic, today there were views from Northern and Southern California , as well as Washington , Florida , Ohio and Virginia . So to all of you … thank you for looking and please keep coming back, I can't wait for my 1,00th page view. In other news yesterday was my mom's birthday, so “happy day late birthday post” to you. Today we celebrated, I took her and my dad to Outback Steakhouse , where we enjoyed drinks, steak, coconut shrimp and my favorite, Alaskan King Crab Legs. Now we continue to celebrate by watching American Idol and The Biggest Loser . Finally it's your last chance to register for Thrive 2008 ( video ), it promises to be an amazing conference with nationally recognized speakers and recording artists , including my very own worship leader, Lincoln Brewster , and one of my fa...

It started with a good-bye to Orlando on Monday, then Wednesday it was a going away party for Cherri, who decided to leave Schubert Flint Public Affairs and move to Vision Service Plan (VSP), one of the top places to work in the nation. Although everyone that knows Cherri is happy for her, it was sad to see her go. Thursday was the American Idol shocker , I won't even go there, other than to say, many other people should have gone home first. Then Saturday and Sunday it was good-bye pine-needles, as we stated to clear the 100 feet of defensible space around the Bradley Lodge .

Well we all had a great time in Orlando ... we had 3 groups of 3 people from 4 cities and 2 states represented, it was good just to see everyone, but we added trips to Disney's Animal Kingdom and Epcot , as well as Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure , just to make sure we enjoyed every moment. Below are a few new pictures that best highlight the good times we all had.

It has been a busy last few days. Friday we went to Epcot where we went Soarin through California, saw Nemo and listened to Crush , imagined with the help of Figment and finally I tested the latest cars on Test Track . It was a great day and although we couldn't see everything we did pretty well, even managed to travel the world by walking through the World Showcase . Epcot Pictures ... Saturday it was off to see the how movies are made, with the help of some rides and special effects. We started off the day at Islands of Adventure , riding Hulk , Spiderman and of course Dueling Dragons . Next we walked through City Walk and entered Universal Studios . With no crowds we were able to easily ride Revenge of the Mummy and shoot the aliens during Men in Black , we helped capture Jaws and saw Shrek 4-D after being blown away during " Twister ." Universal Pictures ... We stopped by Downtown Disney on our final full day of vacation. We did some shopping and then it sta...

It was our first day of experiencing the "Disney Magic" while visiting Disney's Animal Kingdom . We saw the animals of Africa on the Kilimanjaro Safari , "climbed" Everest on Expedition Everest and watched the magic during the Festival of the Lion King , Finding Nemo - The Musical and Mickey's Jamin' Jungle Parade . To complete our animal themed day we ate under the jungle canopy at the Rainforest Cafe . Friday it's off to visit the countries of the world at Epcot .