NINE

Nine years ago today I made the best decision of my life....and married this guy who was tall with curly hair, glasses and had a red back pack.

In nine we year we have:
traveled many miles
moved many times
made many friends
gained and lost many pounds
earned many degrees
ate lots of yummy food
had many laughs
bought many good toys (aka electronics)
visited many states, beaches, historical sites
enjoyed many seasons
learned many hard lessons
cried over many sorrows
worked many jobs
and
made many wonderful memories

Here is to MANY more unbelievable years of marriage!
I love you babe!

Western Mass or Bust, A Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

We took our second annual Fall trip to the Berkshires to spend time with Gloria and her family. Gloria's parents were gracious enough to invite us back again after a fun time last year; we just couldn't resist getting out of the city for the weekend.
We traveled down beautiful Route 2 where the leaves are just starting to change, for a 3 hour journey to North Adams, MA where we met Stef and Gloria at the Mass MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art). Lucky for us it was Bank of America FREE Museum day!!! This may be one of the ONLY times I have been happy that I am banking with Bank of America.
Berkeley was a trooper during the drive up and was very excited to go to the museum. He thought he was going to the Museum of Science to see dinosaurs the whole time and lucky when we arrived at the MoCA he was just happy to be able to run around, so he forgot all about the dinosaurs.

The MoCA did not disappoint. It is such a large space that they can have really cool displays like the one we called "Cryptonite." Doesn't it remind you of Super Man?

We saw lots of cool art and even Berkeley liked these bright ones. He thought they were snakes and dinosaurs (I guess he did see those dinos after all). He also liked pointing out the shapes and colors he saw. Art is fun for ALL ages!

Saturday night Gloria and her mom made delicious lasagnas, meat, veggie and Gorgonzola (it was lasagna heaven!) Michele even surprised Christian with a homemade carrot cake for his birthday; the cake was out of this world amazing!

Sunday was Christian's 33rd Birthday! He spent a good chunk of the day in the beauty parlor playing fruit ninja with Stef.

Berke wanted in on some of the IPAD action no doubt! He loves his Auntie G and Aunt Stefy! He also fell in love with Gloria's dad, Bruce. The only way we could get him to eat any meals was to bribe him that if he ate his food he could play with Bruce after. Luckily Bruce was a good sport about the whole thing.

Later we went out to brunch at Brewhaha with the whole gang.

We headed back to Bruce and Michele's and played some of the left over Olympic Games from Stef and Gloria's wedding weekend. We had a blast laughing at all the silly things we were doing. Many of the games came from the show "A Minute to Win it."

This game we had to stick our nose in Vaseline and then pick up cotton balls with our nose, run across the room and drop the cotton ball in a bowel without using our hands. It was too funny!

Berke was happy to find this cool Hoola Hoop. He also found 2 barbies and a swimming pool that used to be Gloria's nieces; he loved playing with them so Michele let him take them home. He played with them the entire ride home and calls them "the girls." He even woke up the next morning asking to play with the girls. When I asked what their names were he said, "Alice." I thought that was pretty funny since we don't know ANYBODY named Alice. This kid is always cracking me up.

We twisted and shook our booties to get all of the ping pong balls out of the kleenex box.

We had such a wonderful time. We had originally planned to attend the Garlic Festival, but it rained all weekend and we decided not to go. It was still a lot of fun as you can see. It is always great to get out of the busy bustle of the city and just slow down a bit. I never realize how fast paced things are in the city until I leave for a moment.
We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends with great family!
Thanks for memorable weekend!

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband!

A Utah Man Am I

Wishing the Utes a good game today!

Oh Fall

Everyone knows that if you want to be somewhere in the Fall, it is New England. It is simply the most beautiful time of the year in this neck of the woods. Today felt nothing like a fall day however; it was humid and sticky, but that didn't stop us from the Fall tradition of Apple Picking.

We traveled to Harvard, MA (about 50 minutes away, straight up route 2) with our friends Nikki, RyRy and baby Eloise to a less commercial orchard; Phil's Orchard. It is a cute family run orchard and they have the best cider in the state, so they claim....and I TOTALLY agree. They had a wonderful variety of apples and plenty of them, not to mention it was not crowded in the slightest.
Because they were so small they only sold apples and cider, so we had to travel another 2 miles to another Orchard that sold Apple Cider donuts. Simply put, I live for the Fall so I can eat candy corn and apple cider donuts, so delicious!

Berkeley was excited all week to go apple picking. He looked for the "baby apples" and took 5-6 bites, then grabbed another. He had a lot of apples (lot of apple=not such a great find in the diaper), and loved running around the orchard.

We got a lot of apples, okay not this many, but 1/2 bushel. I made apple strudel today and I got two whole strudels out of 2 apples; I have about 100 apples left. I have a LOT of baking to do!

This tractor was the ultimate Berkeley find during our visit to the orchard. He really wanted to get inside but settled for his picture next to the wheel instead.

I love living in a place where there are so many things to do in all the seasons. Apple picking is such a great fall tradition, and I have finally found an orchard I would love to go to every year.

Videos of the Kid for the Grandparents

I know the grandparents enjoy seeing videos of Berkeley. He is getting cuter by the day and learning so much. I hope those of you who care to watch enjoy.

Run To the Rock 10K

Last Saturday some of our women's running group from church ran the Plymouth, MA Run to the Rock 10k. As you can imagine it was a 6.2 mile run that ended at Plymouth Rock. We made awesome t-shirts to wear on race day. Sadly my pictures don't include Erica, but she ran the race with Emily, Courtney and I as well.

Emily won the prize for overall fastest girl in the 10K (she is SUPER DUPER fast!) Courtney and I had the simple goal of finishing under 65 minutes. I really wanted to finish under 60 minutes but wasn't sure if I could do it. I have been running pretty consistent 10:30-11 minute miles; I am no fast runner but I have endurance. I have been working on increasing my speed this summer, am I am happy to report that it appears my training has been helping as I ran the race in 59:17 which is under a 10 minute mile. Go me! Courtney also met her goal or running under 65 minutes and Eric ran somewhere in the 54 minute mile range, so we all did well.

Here are Courtney and I with our medals!

I just love races, and I feel like the 10k is such a perfect distance!
The Hartford Half Marathon is my next race in October.

Wedding Bliss

This weekend we ventured to Northampton, MA for our dear friends Gloria and Stef's wedding. I met Gloria just over 3 years ago while working at Ethos and we quickly became friends. Shortly after, she met Stef and I have enjoyed watching their relationship grow and develop. We absolutely love being around Gloria and Stef, we feel like they are part of our family, and we're so happy we got to be a part of their special day.
They had a 2 day wedding extravaganza; it started with an Olympic Games on Saturday (they met at an Olympic Opening Ceremonies Party). It was held at a beautiful park and many of Stef and G's friends and family participated.

There were many games such as: eating a saltine cracker and trying to whistle, seeing how many cheese balls people could fit in their mouths, a water balloon toss, drinking out of a baby bottle, carrying a ping pong ball on a spoon, and flapping your arms like a funky chicken for a full minute to see who get the most flaps. There was a hearty BBQ with lots of yummy food!

If I learned one thing about Berke this weekend it is that he does better in small groups; he really gets a bit overwhelmed in big crowds. He had a hard time at the games for awhile until he found the bucket full of water with sponges and bowels. That kept him busy for a good 45 minutes; he was soaking wet, but hey it kept him happy!

Sunday was the wedding ceremony which was so beautiful. Both G and Stef looked so elegant and the ceremony was personal, beautiful and funny. It was so perfect.

We had fun getting all dolled up; don't you think we have a pretty posh looking family?

The lovely brides did a quick costume change in these lovely cocktail dresses; they looked so beautiful! Here are the newly weds with all our Ethos friends, what amazing people; I am so lucky to have so many wonderful friendships develop out of that job.

Dinner was amazing and we danced and danced all night long. Berke had one slow dance with mom and then wanted to stay in his high chair all night.

The big crowd was too much for him so he VERY happily playing with his toys, watched everyone dance and enjoyed when people came over to visit with him. Every time Christian or I would check on him and ask if he wanted to get out, he would say, "No, No, leave leave! Go dance Mommy." I will admit that it made the night very manageable. Christian and I busted up the dance floor and acted like we were young again, it was SO much fun.

But once this started happening, we decided the kid had been a good sport and we probably needed to get him home. As always, everyone loved Berke; he just makes people smile no matter where he goes. He did enjoy dancing, just in his high chair. People came up to him all night to visit with him which he was very happy about.

Congrats to Stef and Gloria; we couldn't be more happy for the two of you!
Best wishes and lots of love!