Playing Catch Up

This has been a pretty fun-filled summer! I know it's not over, but I figure if I don't start writing events down somewhere, I just might forget them. 

Berkley has grown so much since my last blog, maybe not so much physically because she is still our adorable half-pint, but is getting such a cute personality. The other day I was feeding her some Cheerios and she began to grab some out of the bowl to share with me. I eat it up; no pun intended...well sort of intended because I am typing this and not having a conversation. 

She got two little teeth around 8 months and began crawling around the same time. You'll see from one of the below pics that she goes to town on her crib as her new "teething" chew toy. She has a CRAZY fast army crawl! With her mad crawling skills, she has got the funniest sense of humor. She gets such a kick out of herself and loves a game of 'cat and mouse' around the coffee table...and anywhere else she can get you to chase her. She loves to be involved with everything we do from the dishes to yard work. As long as she feels involved she is the easiest baby evah!!

Here are some pictures of our adventures over the past few months:

 At the zoo with the Heidel Family

 Riding the train

 I don't know how this pic got in the wrong order, but it was taken at the pool with her little friend Zander

 The Heidel Fam with their new baby Jax

 My good pals Amy and Glen's little baby Zander. Berkley and Zander love to hang out together!

 Layne's sister Danni and Berkley getting ready for a swim at the Denton family reunion

 Berkly's cute little swimmers

 She laughed so hard when she learned how to splash us

 A little afraid going down the slide, but we made it!

 Another picture straggler...at the park loving the swing

 Berkley's cousin Darian with her eyes open under water....Go Dar!

Berkley's good friend Boston turning 2

 Hiking with the little squirt to Red Pine Lake. She did so well the whole way. Mom, on the otherhand, did not realize how much 20 extra pounds can be when your going up a mountain. Let's just say that hat was originally intended to keep the sun off her face, but doubled as a sweat shield.

 Lovin' some watermelon with Grandma Cheri

 Dare I say I have a prodigy...hmmmm

 That is what army crawling through grass does...too cute!

 Got mud?

 Playing with the horse trailer my mom got her. She loves to put anything in it, including food!

The sentimental marks left from gnawing on the crib. I was laughing sooo hard! Do we have a horse or a baby!?!

And the adventures continue....

Biking Video

This is a pretty cool video Layne made when he went biking with his pals, Colby and Ricky. ENJOY!!

Grinnin' girly

This is a picture I took right before lunch time. Notice her t-shirt is still white...that NEVER lasts long!



The picture below was just too cute not to post. This is a headband, with faux hair, that my mom got Berkley in case she was born bald. That never really happened, but her hair lightened up

 and now it almost looks real?! Eh, maybe not:)



Bucket List

So one of the main reasons for making the trip to Boston was to check one off my "bucket list". I feel a bit selfish that we planned a whole trip around it, but we ended up having a memorable adventure.This race has been looming over me for quite some time and it is still surreal that it's finally over. I had planned to run the Boston Marathon last year, but had the best excuse not to...her name is Berkley. The Boston Marathon might seem like just another race you pay a lot of money for, get a t-shirt, and a couple of orange wedges while running a ridiculous distance. For the most part you are correct. However, there is more to it. This race has such a history and the hype that surrounds it is infectious. A while back I decided to run a marathon. I told myself that I just want to run one in my lifetime and I'll be good. I signed up for the St. George Marathon and had a great time with the exception of being a little sore. I decided that I might be up for running another. I had heard that there was a marathon that one had to qualify for in order to run it, the Boston Marathon. I signed up for the St. George again with the new goal in mind, hoping for a miracle that I might qualify. When race day came somehow the stars aligned and I pulled it off.

At the beginning of the race, runners were corralled based on their bib number then into smaller subgroups based on qualifying time. I had never seen anything like it; runners lined up over a stretch of road more than a half mile long, packed like sardines. There were over 26,000 people and the crowd never really thinned out all that much. The crowds were incredibly supportive and runners made the streets look like a moving river of bobbing heads. There were some cute t-shirts in the crowd like "This Marathon is Wicked Fah!". Another guy ran in ONLY a loin cloth and it was funny to see the people avoid running behind him. Lets just say nobody looks good from that angle while running! Others dressed in costume. To be honest I wondered, on the scale of normal, how far off the chart are we? None the less, it was fun and I met a lot of cool semi-normal people. It wasn't my fastest race, but I had such a good time chatting with people and taking in the town that I couldn't be happier. (Ran a 3:50)

Pre-race convention

The faster part of the race that only Layne got to see.

One of my favorite people cheering me on!

It was this crowded the whole race...crazy!

The final stretch

Someone actually carried the flag the entire race

                                                    

Waiting for the race...3 long, anxious hours

Meeting new pals at the race

Ah Trip to Bahston

We just got back from the most incredible trip evah!! I have to say that I am soooo glad that Berkley is such an easy going baby. She definitely got that trait from Layne. We flew to Boston with 2 layovers there and a direct flight home, all the while Berkley handled it like a champ! We even had comments from other passengers telling us that she was the best baby they had ever flown with. So we started off on the right foot. We rented a car which was great as long as we stayed out of the city. Parking is such a joke! The city of Boston was absolutely beautiful and some of the people that live there have such a thick accent it was barely English! Too funny.There was so much to see so we just hung out in the city for part of the day and spent the rest of the time touring Massachusetts. We stayed in a cute little town called Westboro and toured around Boston suburbs to check out the houses. Funny thing, we have absolutely no desire to move to Massachusetts, but love to check out the real estate prices for homes where we travel. When we went to Scottsdale, AZ we even went so far as to go to an open house to see what it was like. Our guess was correct...too HOT! After we checked out some cribs, we decided to go to a cute little pub restaurant on the Nahant peninsula called Tides. The food was okay, but the view of the beach was awesome! Here is are a couple pics from the restaurant

                                              Kite boarding...looks fun but way too cold!!

                                                  Layne is getting good with that camera

The next day we decided to take a trip to Cape Cod and ended up in Chatham. Chatham is a cute little coastal town that had great beaches, but was essentially closed down until Memorial day. So we took Berkley to the beach for her first sand experience and this is how it went...

 The cold wind and sand in her face did not seem as bad as the long carseat ride to the beach. he he!

 The sand was stuck to her scalp too. I felt kinda bad leaving all that sand in the hotel tub when we left :(

I guess we'll have to make a trip to the beach more often!



After Cape Cod we decided to visit the creepy historical town of Salem. We visited the cemetery where the judge, that sentenced all of the "witches" to their death, was buried. Made for some great Halloween pics we can use later.

 No, that's not the unibomber walking through the cemetery it's just Layne.

So that was our trip in a nutshell. We definitely would like to go back, but when there is less of an itinerary.