MrAndrewBradley

It was a fun weekend of family time in Sacramento and Roseville . First my family ( brother's family - aka parent's of my nephew, our parents and our grandma) met at my parent’s house for a beautiful dinner in their backyard under the pergola. Then on Saturday I met everyone in Old Sacramento , where I was a “home town tourist” and we climbed aboard the Sacramento Southern Railroad for a ride down the Sacramento River , with views of the State Capitol , Tower Bridge , the river, the Delta King , Miller Park and of course, I-5 . As a parent on the train told their child, we were riding on “ Thomas the Tank Engine’s ” cousin, I might say it is more distant than that, but it seemed to work for almost every kid, including my nephew, Luke, who loves the Thomas DVDs and playing with his Thomas’ train set. After a ride down the river and some time walking around Old Sacramento we all headed to my house in Roseville for lunch and to hang out before starting the family progressive ...

Well not everyone could make it to Mountain View to see my nephew, so family and family friends were invited to come see him today. Over 50 people came to see the newest Bradley and enjoy some great food. If you scroll down you can also see the newest " Stair Pictures ," although not annual, whenever we get the group together we try to take the picture, it's evolved a little since the day we moved into this house, adding girlfriends that have become wives and now Luke!

Thanksgiving was another amazing chance to see my family and of course spend more time with the newest Bradley ... Luke , my 2 month old nephew. It was also nice for friends and other relatives to come up to the Bradley Lodge for a few days to see our new cabin, located in Big Tree's Village near Big Trees State Park and Bear Valley Mountain Resort . We walked among the largest trees on Earth (by volume, California's Coastal Redwoods are the tallest), took lots of pictures and looked up at some branches and limbs that were larger than many trees. All of this and Luke slept through the whole thing, I guess we'll have to go back when he is a little bit older. Between hours of board games, wine tasting, movies, bumper pool, puzzles and of course eating , it was a busy, yet relaxing time at the Bradley Lodge with the Bradley family and friends. additional photos available on LifeSnacks

Last week was a week to remember our veterans , visit with family, celebrate birthday's and of course, mountain bike and look for jobs. I started out the week by meeting my aunt from Texas and grandma at the Waterloo near Stockton for dinner, then updated my resume and requested a few more references from previous co-workers and managers, which was cool (always good to see how great other people say I am). On Wednesday I went with my new mountain biking group on a 17.5 mile ride that included about 7,000 feet of vertical climbing at Salmon Falls (near El Dorado Hills/Folsom Lake), which was grueling, but amazing at the same time. I followed that ride with a much easier ride with a friend and took Thursday to relax and clean my house. Friday I was back on the bike at Lake Natomas and then had my parent's and dad's brother over to see my house and we enjoyed my birthday dinner at Tres Agaves . On Saturday I headed down to my brother 's house for my nephew's birth...

I have publically launched my new blog! Now you can come here for the latest updates and fun information about me and my friends and family. The first news ... I got a promotion, I am now an Account Executive at Perry Communications Group in Sacramento. The second news, well that's in the post below ... my nephew, Luke, for additional pictures please go to my brother's blog, LifeSnacks .

Although there was a serious lack of snow at the Bradley Lodge this year ( last year we got five feet while we were there ), we had power and found plenty of ways to have a great time. On Friday evening we all enjoyed pizza (cooked in the oven, not on the BBQ for the first time in a few years since we actually had power ). On Saturday my grandma taught us how to make noodles for for chicken noodle soup and then went sledding with the kids. Our chicken noodle soup dinner was spectacular and fed all 16 of us with plenty of leftovers. It also helped as " carb-load " for skiing at Bear Valley on Sunday. Despite Bear Valley having only a few feet of snow we were able to challenge ourselves on a few runs and teach my four year-old nephew how to ski. He did great for his second time on skis and hopefully we will get him out there a few more times next year to refine his skills. We finished our time at the lodge by eating ... Blake and Kara made Carne Asada then Monday Luke a...

My first niece, my parent's first granddaughter, my grandma's first great-granddaughter, my brother/sister-in-law's first daughter and my nephew's first sister will be born sometime in April 2012. We found out the gender officially last night and celebrated at the Bradley Lodge today. Leave comments for name suggestions ... other kids are Luke and Levi.

In a day and age when only 20% of couples make it past their 35th anniversary (not sure how accurate that is, but I'm going to go with it), my parents have been married for 38 years today! They were married on this date in 1971, since then they have been through a lot (see last year's post ) of good times and I'm sure many bad times, but they are still together and are amazing parents to my brother and me and great grandparents to my nephew, Luke. There is not much to say, other than thank you for everything mom and dad. Thank you for staying together and thank you for being so supportive. Thank you for helping with my new house , thank you for raising me the way you did. Thank you.

The newest Bradley (my second nephew) arrived right on time (today was the official due date) at 1:47 pm (PST). He weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20.25 inches long. Luke will be meeting his new little brother soon, the hope is that some cake and balloons make the process of accepting the fact that he is no longer an only child a little easier. Additional pictures (and/or a name) to come soon. UPDATE: John Doe Bradley is now Levi Matthew Bradley.

So on TV people are always saying how bad it is to have company at your house, but I think it is kind of fun to have friends and family over. We hosted 13 for a Mexican Fiesta "Bradley Style" on Sunday. Although my parents were not able to go to Mexicali during Easter because of safety concerns we had some of the people who have been going for years over for dinner just to spend time with everyone and catch up on stories, while looking at pictures from the past and listening to the infamous "Good Morning Song." They were also presented with a Jackalope , I really don't understand it, but it will go good in one of the two semi-trailers that houses the Mexicali kitchen or the "Man Cave"/Internet Cafe. (We also discussed taking a trip across the border sometime in May) On Tuesday, Luke and Natalie came to visit while Dave was traveling in Klagenfurt , Austria for work, so of course we had to have our neighbors over for some Papa Murphy's pizza a...

I was never one to babysit neighbors' children, not because I did not want to or turned people down, but because I was already among the youngest on the block, so the opportunity never presented itself. Last night I had the opportunity to hang out with my nephew and for the first time it was without his grandma, grandpa or parents in attendance.  It was only for a few hours, but we had a great time.  We went on a walk around the neighborhood , he especially enjoyed walking through the water in the gutters from a neighbor washing his car and picking up a stick and hitting piles of yard waste.  After our walk we played with his trains, cars and a new set of foam blocks that his grandparents got for him at Costco (well in all honesty, I built large towers of blocks and he crashed anything and everything into them). After a dinner of Mickey Mouse themed mac & cheese , chicken and applesauce he decided it was time to watch most of A Bugs Life and about 10 minutes of Ju...

It's been a busy week, but it was packed with lots of fun and of course family.  The family (minus me) started off together on the eve of Christmas Eve at my grandma's house for some home made noodles (they're amazing, I had some of the leftovers), then we all met at Bayside to experience one of their 15 Christmas Eve candlelight services .  Not only was the lighting and music (led by Lincoln Brewster ) spectacular as always, but the message and stories shared were uplifting and truly explained the "reason for the season" in a way that perhaps only Ray Johnston can do. We then headed to Fort Bradley (aka my house) for some Crab Cioppino , our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and then drove to Camp Bradley (aka my parents house) for dessert and Catch Phrase . Christmas Day was spent at my parents house, where my two nephews got lots of great gifts, including Luke and Levi's favorites, a snow train and remote control boat.  After a prime rib dinner (another ...

After mentioning the Sacramento Zoo's Twitter account in a blog post about two weeks ago I decided that it had been a really long time since I had last visited the zoo and with my nephews in town it was a perfect opportunity for me to get reacquainted. Saturday morning we loaded up the mini-van and my sister-in-law, mom, my two nephews (Luke and Levi) and I headed off to William Land Park and Sacramento's zoo .  We walked past Fairytale Town and in the front gate to find flamingo's, the reptile house, birds from around the world, an awesome new giraffe exhibit , a tiger mom and her cub , zebras and so much more.  Luke's favorite part? The train that he got to ride around in and thanks to my Foursquare check-in he got to go on his first carousel ride , he chose to sit on " Nemo ." He had so much fun that he even played with his new toy (a truck that carried an elephant and tiger) the entire ride home and once he got back.  Another cool thing, you can now u...

It was the fourth Christmas I celebrated at the Bradley Lodge and with the addition of a niece, maybe the best. We spent a full week in the snow including two field trips to go snowshoeing at Big Trees State Park and skiing at Bear Valley . Luke did amazing and we took Luke and Levi out the next day on the streets around the Bradley Lodge. At the Bradley Lodge we went sledding, built snowmen and snow forts, took a few walks, opened Christmas gifts, drank wine and hot chocolate ( Bailys added for adults), opened Christmas gifts and ate lots of delicious food including cioppino and prime rib . The trip was so much fun that I had to go to Costco to restock on food and wine.

Luke wanted to see his pictures on Facebook today while we were hanging out. He also took some time to explore the kitchen.

The Prime Rib dinner was great! Also before I forget, the deck and roof did get repaired a day or two after we came up to clear the fallen tree , everything looks great and we are very happy with the work the contractor did. On our final full day as a family we made sure to use our time wisely. We started the morning off with a fabulous French Toast breakfast (complete with mimosas ), then headed to a nearby snow park , where Luke got to sled (for real) for the first time, he loved it and even took the time to build a snow man with his dad and "pop" (aka grandpa). After sledding we went to Stevenot for some wine tasting in Murphys and headed back to Arnold where we ate at one of my childhood favorites ... Giant Burger (think mountain version of In-N-Out ). While my brother took his wife out to a nice dinner in Arnold, the rest of the family got to spend time with Luke and we watched the season finale of Survivor (Natalie won, but Russell did get fan favorite) and a...

Well as many throughout Roseville (and especially my roommates) know, I have not been at Fort Bradley much over the past few weeks. About two weeks ago my brother called my mom and me saying he needed some help as they were moving out of their Mountain View house and into their Redwood City house. My mom and I helped paint over beautiful wall colors with a very ugly white in every room of the house and shampooed the carpets over the next two days. That Friday we headed back from Redwood City, picked my Dad up in Livermore , traded cars in Sacramento , went back to Lodi and headed to the Bradley Lodge for the weekend. We stopped at the world famous Murphys Hotel ( Mark Twain did a lot of work there) for my Dad's birthday and then enjoyed a great weekend at the Lodge . I was then in Roseville for a few hours before heading back to Redwood City to help unpack, organize, shop and build (O, how I loathe IKEA ) furniture. While shopping with everyone, including Luke, I realized ...

Although on a calendar it was only a few days at the Lodge (Friday through Sunday afternoon), it seemed like so much longer and that is a good thing. On Friday everyone arrived, my family, Luke , his aunt , two grandma's and great grandma, all of the cousins and Cortney. We ate some pizza and had fun playing games around the table before calling it a night. Saturday many of us went to Bear Valley for some skiing and snowboarding, while others hung out at the Bradley Lodge, relaxing, taking hikes around the neighborhood and playing with Luke. Saturday night we sat down to a lovely taco soup dinner, although " spud and tater " were in our thoughts as their mom flew to UCSF . We finished the night with some Scene It trivia and Imagine If . Sunday we ate (surprise, we are really good at that when at the Lodge, it's kind of like cruising without the chance of sea-sickness), cleaned and all had safe drives to our homes throughout Northern California.

After checking out Roseville's Downtown Tuesday Nights I was off to Napa on Thursday to meet with a photographer to take pictures of the last room on our list, the Chairman's Suite. It's the largest suite at The Meritage Resort and Spa with a kitchen, dining room, family room, bedroom (with four-post bed) and 1.5 baths, not to mention a huge balcony with views of hillside vineyards. Beyond the photography I enjoyed a spectacular dinner at Siena , highlighted by an Italian Fisherman's Stew, met with a reporter to give her a tour of the property and had a few meetings. On Friday, after driving from Napa to Sacramento in pre-Memorial Day Weekend traffic, I headed to the Bradley Lodge . Our goal was to get rid of all the pine needles and tree limbs that we have accumulated over the last year or two. After two nights of fires (you can only burn between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. on specific " Burn Days ") and four full trailer loads (10+ cubic yards) to the dump our...

It's birthday week for the Bradley's. Natalie and Luke had their birthday's earlier this week and my dad's birthday is tomorrow. This weekend we celebrated and had a party for Luke.  He, his friends and family members from across the Western United States ( California , Washington and Arizona ) all headed to Safari Run in San Mateo for an afternoon of fun in their play structure and an amazing cake. We then headed to BJ's for an after party, pizza and a Pizooki .