Leaf Peeping

This summer we met some wonderful people at the University of Utah Alumni BBQ; we quickly became friends with John and Erin and their children Lucious (Berkeley's age) and Stella (new baby girl).  We began hanging out with them and have been having a great time with their family doing various activities this summer.  Sadly Erin took a new job in Seattle and they will be moving in a couple weeks; I hate when good friends move, it is the worst!  We decided to have one last hurrah with them before they left and this weekend took a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  

We usually do our leaf peeping in Vermont, but New Hampshire did not disappoint.  The scenery was breathtaking and absolutely stunning.  

 I love this picture; Berkeley loves to do his grumpy face when he gets silly and now I know where he gets it!

 We had a lovely Sunday drive on the Kancumagus Highway and made lots of stops to see all that this beautiful drive had to offer.  The top of the mountain was completely fog and most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees, this was slightly depressing as it reminds me that winter is upon us soon.  But was we drove up and down the mountain we saw some wonderful color.

Our little crew.  We will miss these dear friends.

The Fall in New England is something that cannot be matched anywhere else in the country.

Montréal

After not going on a cruise to the Bahamas, and spending a small fortune getting Berkekey and my passports, I felt a trip out of the country was in order.  Since Montréal is a short 5 hour car trip, this seemed the most logical choice.  We had never been to Montréal but have heard only the most amazing things about it, so we planned a trip before it got too late in the pregnancy game to travel that far. 

We invited our friends Travis and Lauren to come along with us; this was an excellent choice as they proved to be ridiculous amounts of fun to be stuck in a car with for a very long time, as well as to tour a french city with.  

We didn't leave Boston until 8 p.m. on Friday night so it made for a long night of travels.  Luckily we were all able to stay awake (sans Berkeley) until we arrived in Montreal at 2:30 a.m.  (An hour I usually wake up at these days, not go to bed)

We started off the day Saturday with some delicious breakfast and then headed out on the Metro for some sight seeing.  We decided to check out the Bio dome and the Botanical Gardens.  Due to being in another country, we were forced to turn off our phones so we didn't get roaming charges; what a nice change, but also a challenge that was.  We couldn't yelp what restaurants to go to, so we guessed and it turned out pretty well.

On our way to the Bio dome we stopped to check out the Stade Olympique (Olympic Stadium).

The Bio dome did not disappoint, it was filled with lots of amazing and cute animals and plants to see. Berkeley loved the Bio dome and still talks about going back there.

Berke became particularly obsessed with the fish tanks at the Bio dome this trip; he loved the big fish in this tank.

After some lunch, we headed to the Montreal Botanical Gardens which was just amazing!  We did not have enough time there and I honestly think you could spend 2 full days seeing what they have there.  It was absolutely beautiful and would recommend anyone to go there.  

The Chinese Gardens were beautiful.

There were hundreds of sculptures of various types around the Gardens. 

(One of the few pictures we got of our good looking group)

Mother Earth happened to be my favorite, and this picture does not do her justice. This piece was absolutely breathtaking.

We were pretty beat by the end of the day; it was a warm sunny day with lots of walking and with a 4 year old, a pregnant lady and poor Travis who just had surgery on his back, we were in rough shape by the end of the day.  We had a delicious dinner, gathered up some cake for a cake party in the hotel later that night, and headed back to the hotel.  We all crashed pretty hard and woke up ready for more adventures.  

We had a lovely breakfast Sunday morning and then headed to the chocolate store.  The French know how to do food, especially chocolate, enough said.  It was not a weekend were I watched my calories, lets just put that out there, but it was well worth it.

Berke wanted 5 pictures with these chocolates in 5 different poses, this one is the least exciting, but it does display how lovely the chocolate store was.

We did partake, we did buy and we did bring home. I would go back just for their gelato!! 

Oh hey, look who we ran into, it's Bumble Bee from the Transformers!  (At least I convinced him it was)

We tried to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral but it was not running tours due to a bell concert sadly.  So we enjoyed the beauty from the outside and explored more of Old Montreal which feels oh so European.

We enjoyed looking at the architecture, doing a little shopping and watched some street performers.  We then decided to head home so we could get ready for another full week.  

After another long drive filled with beautiful fall colors, we finally arrived home at 11 p.m.  It was such an amazing and fun trip and we loved spending time with Travis and Lauren.  Berkeley had a blast and is still talking about how much he loved our vacation; I'm so happy we could fit this trip in before baby girl comes. This is a city where two days just is not even close to enough time to see or do what is there.  I guess we will just have to go back! 

FALL FUN

The weather is changing and there is nothing I can do about it.  While Fall in New England is my second favorite season, I also know that it means winter is just around the corner, which is my least favorite season.  I already miss being able to head to the beach, but we are finding plenty of other things to do to fill out time (somehow we never have a problem doing this).

Berke started a kickstart soccer program for 4-5 year olds; they do not put them on teams, but do drills and then are divided into mini teams for the day for a 4:4 soccer game.  Berke is pretty excited to play soccer but when out on the field seems more interested in people watching that watching the ball.  He does okay with the 1:1 drills, but is much slower than most of the kids.  When game time comes he is rarely found where the ball is and when the ball is close by he swings his legs around like a dancing monkey generally making no contact with the ball, unless by complete accident.  He is at least getting some exercise and says he has fun doing it; for the time being I guess that is a good thing.

You simply cannot live in New England in the Fall and no go apple picking.  Berke and I headed to Tougas Farms this year, it is a bigger orchard with lots of people, but it was close to Auntie G and Aunt Steffy's new house and since daddy was helping them move into said new house we visited the orchard.

Berke enjoyed feeding the goats grass and petting them. 

We met up with our friends Bonnie, Patrick, Owen and Evie.  We enjoyed a tractor ride to the orchards where we were pulled in a wagon. We picked a huge bag of apples together and then divided them between the two families.

We picked some fuji and honey crisp apples; they were delicious and we ate all but 7 in a weeks time.  We'll finish them up this week!  We made the Aunties an apple crisp on their move in day to fill their new home with yummy smells.  Berke and I love apples so we ate one every day, and then I made two apple strudels today.  I'm pretty sure they will all be done by the weeks end.

After a fun filled day apple picking, we headed back to visit/rough house with the Aunties.  Berke loves his Aunties so much and is exciting to come and play more at their new house; we just wish it wasn't so far away from our humble abode.

Boston, your my home

I have to pinch myself sometimes when I think about where we live.  

I never really imagined myself leaving Utah growing up, just wanted to stay close to family.  We've been in this city for 6 years now and it officially has our hearts, it has for some time now. 

 I think about how lucky Berkeley is to live in such a cool place; he'll never know anything different, but I think he is pretty lucky.  On any given day he can take a train ride to downtown Boston,  

  and hang out at Boston Common and swim at Frog Pond.

 There is always entertainment on the Common; sometimes it's a guy blowing bubbles of different size and shapes that you can chase. 

 It's nice that Berke, at 4 years old, can walk a mile without complaining; that is something I love about living in a city where people walk.  It took us time to get there, but he can do it now.  

So many things to do, see and experience.

Historic Trip

After being in Boston for six years, Christian's sister and her two oldest children decided it was high time for a visit to learn about this history of this great country.  We loved having Juliane, Laurel (B could not say her name so she became forever now known as "Carl") and John.

We took a trip to Plymouth, MA to learn about how our country was settled by the white folk.  We visited Plimouth Plantation.  Christian has been there a few times, but this was my first time going. 

Berkeley was afraid of the Wampanoag Indians at first because of their "tattoos." But by the end of the visit he was talking about the Wampanoag Indians and the Puritans like he knew what really going on.  He found them both to be nice and friendly people.

Plimouth Plantation was an amazing place and I love what they have done to recreate how things were in our country at this time period.  What was super disturbing as we toured Plymouth was to here how wrong history is taught in our schools.  That the white folks who came on the Mayflower were not searching for religious freedom at all, they had already found that in Holland, they were really just seeking opportunity to own land.  So many things that are taught that are not true; I really don't understand why?!  

We also visited the Mayflower II and saw the awful conditions that the people traveled in to get to America.  

Berke made a friend on the Mayflower, Mr. William English who is a fisherman.

We also toured the grist mill in Plymouth which was how the puritans were finally able to be more productive and advance in many ways.  We had a very interesting tour guide, so this was surprisingly the kids favorite part of the day.

This is the only shot we got of our whole group, it didn't quite turn out as we planned.

The Heaps clan went with Christian to Lexington and Concord to learn more about the Revolutionary war.  They did lots of tours and learned a lot about Mr. Revere.

We had to send the Heaps out to the city on their own the next two days due to work, but met up with them in the evenings for some fun cousin time.  Berkeley loved having his cousins around to tell him stories, play with him and to watch Phineas and Ferb with.

It was so much fun to reconnect with family that lives on the opposite side of the country.  It was a crammed household for the week, but we had a lot of fun.  We surely hope they wont wait quite so long to visit again.