Living Like the Other Half

My "Staycation" has really been awesome. I am a bit sad to see it come to an end. To end the fabulous time off work, we went out to North Hamilton, MA to watch a match of Polo.
Seriously, I thought this was only played in Europe, but they have it in MA as well. When I found out, I just had to experience a game. They only play on Sundays, so after church, we headed up for the big event.

We knew this is not an event where people go in their cut off jeans and tank tops, so we dressed up a bit to fit in with the crowd. We didn't want to stand out too badly.
I love that finally, my cute husband is home, and we all got to hang out for the day.

All the "non-sponsor" spectators drive in their cars and set up picnic in front of their vehicle. We brought "upscale" foods to eat and felt very classy. We were so glad that Gloria and Stef could join us for this grand event. Gloria is sporting her Pretty Woman shirt, so awesome!

I learned a lot about Polo today; not hard to do when you know hardly anything. There are six Chukka in a game, each chukka is 7-71/2 minutes long. At half time, the crowd is responsible for "Treading-In." The crowd goes out to the field and replaces all the divots of turf. It was pretty fun, and as you can see below, I did a really great job. Berke loved running around the HUGE field that is 300 yards by 160 yards.

The tent above is where the people "with money" sit. They sit at a table with fresh flowers and drink wine, while wearing their popped collars.
It was a really cool experience and I am glad we got to experience it. It was nice to live like the other half for an afternoon; it is nice to play pretend as an adult as well, right?

I will leave you with a cute pictures of Berkeley as always; he looks the part in his nice polo shirt, doesn't he?

Donut

Thursday was Hot Hot Hot! We got up early to take Papa to the airport and came home to eat the Dunkin Donuts he left us. Berke's first donut; he seemed to like my chocolate one better than his glazed (I knew he was a smart kid).

After playing around the house for a bit, we had a nice 2 1/2 hour nap! Then we headed to Artisani Water Park; a cute little kiddie pool in Brighton. We had fun splashing around in the water and fountains there for about an hour until some kid pooped in the pool and everyone got kicked out.

Then we hung out, went out to dinner with our friend Nicole, and got some shut eye. Man I LOVE staycations!

History Lesson

Wednesday, Berke had a little fall of his chair and broke his first pair of glasses. He got a few battle wounds as well. Luckily they replace one pair of glasses a year; we made it the first 6 months with only one broken pair, just need to make it another 6.

Papa Bill had never been on the Revolutionary Trail, so we showed him the sights and gave him a history lesson. Berke is showing how he would have cheered for the minute men at the Battle Green in Lexington, MA.

As we have driven all over the state this week, I have seen Orange Tiger Lilys everywhere. They are so pretty.

Man they recruit young these days?

Berke loves learning about the Old North Bridge and what happened there.

But he loved swimming in Walden Pond even more. I have no picture, but he had a blast. Water has been a common theme this week as it keeps the little dude happy. There is about 2 feet of beach left due to all the rain we have gotten this year, so it was quite different for all the little kids, but everyone was having a blast.

We had a great visit with Papa Bill. Berke had so much fun with his grandpa. Thanks for coming dad, we loved having you! Thanks for introducing Berke to your iphone, now he totally wants one for Christmas!

Mendon, MA

The zoo happens to be in Mendon, MA. Mendon is a town that my relatives founded. Since we were in the area, we did a little "Taft" sightings.

We found the library.

The town hall helped us find THE Taft cemetery. I think there are other cemeteries with other Taft tombstones, but this one was solely the Arther Taft Family. It had one big tomb stone and 6 small tomb stones.

We also saw some other pictures of buildings the Taft's used to own. It was pretty interesting. It does make me want to do some family history to figure more of this stuff out. Pretty cool though.

Lions, Tigers and lots of Baby Monkeys

Southwick Zoo was Tuesdays destination. It was a drive, but such a fun zoo. Berke rode his first pony; he liked it for about one time around and then it wasn't too fun anymore.

We saw lots and lots of animals, Berke's favorite animals (or the only one he knows I guess) was the monkeys. He can make a monkey sound and it is pretty adorable. We saw a baby baboon, chimpanzee and lemur; they were so stinkin' cute. We also saw a white tiger, elephants, giraffes, deer, and lots of cool animals.

The fascination was with the deer. How cool are they?

They have a petting zoo as well which Berke was so happy about. Most animals available to pet were goats and kids.

Berke is really into pushing right now. If he wants a toy, he pushes the person away to get it. If he doesn't want any kisses he pushes me away, if he doesn't want food, he pushes it away.....you get the picture. So there was this one sheep, who was kind of a bully to the goats and Berke was obsessed with it. He kept going up behind it, find its tail and push it. The lamb kept walking as Berke was pushing it and it was pretty funny.

It was all fun and games until this little kid decided he wanted to eat Berkeley's shorts. Berke thought it was pretty funny at first. He kept pushing the kid away and when he wouldn't stop the laughter soon turned to tears.

We also got to ride the train at the zoo, and Berke decided to kick his shoe off during the ride. Do any other parents have a bunch of shoes for their kid with no partner? The conductor was nice enough to stop and get it during his next ride for us, so Berke didn't have to be stuck in the stroller the whole day. Someone needs to invent some summer shoes without Velcro that will stay on.

The zoo was a blast. I highly recommend it. The highlight for Berkeley is when Papa bought him a stuffed monkey; he played with it and made monkey sounds the entire ride home. Sooo adorable.

Crane Beach

We finally made it Crane Beach in Ipswich. I have been wanting to go there for some time now. It was a beautiful beach, the sand was perfect, the view was wonderful, everything was clean and the weather could not have been more amazing.

Berkeley had no fear of the big bad ocean; we got to the beach, we sat down and he walked right to the ocean, right into the ocean and wasn't planning on stopping in the 55 degree water until my dad stopped him. At times he would be sitting in the water shivering and I would take him to our chairs to dry him off and attempt to engage him with sand toys, but he would take off to the water within minutes.

Papa Bill had fun playing in the sand with his favorite grandson. Isn't this picture adorable?

After running around on the beach for over 3 hours (nothing relaxing about chasing this little guy) he was done. He was walking on the beach and literally just fell over he was so tired.

We did however pack up and make it to the Crane Estate just up the hill from the beach.

The gates were closing, but the man was nice enough to let us go look around for a few minutes. The grounds were amazing and the views were even better. The owners had all the trees removed from the castle to the beach. Isn't that somethin'?

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Since Christian is gone this week, I decided to take my vacation from work and have a little "Staycation" with my little man. My dad decided to come out for a few days and enjoy some fun with us. We headed to the New England Aquarium the first day he was here; we saw penguins, sharks, sea hoarse, turtles, toads, seals, jelly fish and lots of cool looking fish.

Berkeley had a blast looking at all the moving creatures.

It was fun for us to get to spend Father's Day with Papa Taft; Berke just loved having him around. It was fun to see the two interact.

After the Aquarium we headed to the Christopher Columbus Park, were Berke spotted some more fountains. Once this kid spots water, there is no stopping him from playing in it. We were not prepared with swim gear, however, we stripped him down to his onsie and let him have at it. He loved every minute of it.

Fountain Fun

Saturday Berke and I met up with our pals the Gillespes downtown. We initially planned to go to Frog Pond, but when we got there it was an empty pit. So we traveled a bit and found some fun fountains in the North End. Berke LOVES water! He splashed in the water and got sprayed by the fountains for two hours. We also stopped at Haymarket and got a cantaloupe and some bananas for $1.50; cant beat that.

Norfolk, CT

On Saturday, Berke and I drove Daddy to Norfolk, CT for a new music festival. He will be staying in this cute cottage for the week.

Surrounded by this beauty

We will miss him. Who will Berke play with now? We do plan to have a little fun while he gone.
That does mean we wont get to spend Father's Day with him. We are sad about that, however, we hope he knows that we think he is the best daddy in the world.

Hope you have fun babe, don't get eaten by any bears!

Can you Believe It?

Can it be that this handsome boy is 5 years old?

We bought McDuff just 2 days after moving to Louisville. The deal I made with Christian was if he moved me across the country away from family, he had to buy me a dog. We did research on the breed and decided on a Westie due to low shedding, cutenessability, size, etc.
McDuff has brought so much joy into our lives. He is such a lazy, easy going and fun dog. He loves to go in the car, chase squirrels, EAT, go on walks, snuggle with his mommy, play fetch with his squirrel toy, visit with Bob, and wait next to Berkeley when he is eating (best vacuum money could buy).

This was the first day we got McDuff, he was 8 weeks old. He was pretty tuckered out and just fell asleep in his water bowl.

We thought he would grow into his ears, but he never did. I have never seen a Westie as big as he is or who has as big of ears, but it is easy to fall in love with those adorable things.

He has had his fair share of getting into trouble.....

but perhaps it is payback for all the torture we put him through.

We love you Mr. McDuff. Happy 5th Birthday. You are officially older than your parents in dog years.

Sometimes you feel like a NUT!

....we may feel that way a bit more than most

Take it or leave it

Just wanted to share with ya'll a few things we've been enjoying at the Gentry house:

1. Yummy Bowls

This is a super "yummy" vegetarian dish we have been enjoying at our house.
To start you layer brown rice, black beans, salsa, Cheddar cheese, diced tomato, fresh avocado slices, sour cream, back olives and cilantro. Then top with Yummy Sauce.

YUMMY SAUCE
Serves 8, 4 cups
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almonds
1/3 cup nutritional yeast (available at Whole Foods)
1/2 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans cooked
1/4 cup soy beans (cooked) (we have used silken tofu before)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cilantro

1. In blender or food processor bean almonds, beans and oil
2. Add other ingredients and puree until creamy and smooth
3. Cover and let stand in refrigerator for one hour
4. Don't cover to tight, remember the yeast

It is quite tasty and usually a lot of sauce left over to put in other recipes as well, like burritos, stuffed peppers, etc.

2. An interesting read

Christian and I have not been eating meat for the past 6 months. We recently read Eating Animals and it has reaffirmed to us why we made this decision. I used to be the type of person who knew the meat industry wasn't the best, but didn't care to learn about it because I knew I wouldn't want to eat meat if I did. Now that I am learning about factory farming and the animal slaughter houses I can say this is true. If you are interested in learning about the meat you feed to you and your family I HIGHLY suggest you read this book. We all want to make sure we are taking care of our bodies and I really feel like we should be educated about what we consume.

3. A great series

Christian and I have decided we don't want to watch TV this summer, get addicted to more stupid shows; lets face it, nothing too great is on in the summer anyhow. We will watch movies and what not however. If you are looking for something entertaining, well written, well acted and just super creative, we suggest you Netflix the series BREAKING BAD.

We just finished season 2 and we always find ourselves talking about it. Such a great serious that I highly recommend.