Before Kids

I wasn't a blogger before Jake and I had kids and I have been feeling the need to reminisce lately. When Hannah was born we had been married for four and a half years. We took quite a few trips and had a lot of fun traveling here and there during those pre baby years. Sometimes it seemed that we had a different trip planned every other month. Looking back I am SO glad that we did that because sometimes now I feel very confined within the walls of my home, and the occasional trips to Sam's Club, Target, and the park just don't always cut it. We still go places with the kids, and do lots of fun things, but the types of activities and frequency of trips has certainly changed. So if you'd like, take a walk with me down memory lane, before the babes were born. When we were free as birds to go wherever the wind was blowing us.

May 2002
Playing pool at a bar in downtown Boise on my 21st birthday. We weren't even married yet.

The first New Year's that Jake and I celebrated together. We were in Arizona visiting with his family and Grandparents.

Another New year's in Arizona. We went to a block party in Scottsdale with a bunch of bands. We went with Jake's sister Tania and her husband Nick, and his brother Dustin and his girlfriend (now his wife) Karen.

I know we look young here but don't worry, we were old enough to be enjoying those cold beverages.

Kayaking in Cozumel on our honeymoon.
 

My cousin Timmy came to visit Jake and I when we lived in Idaho and we went skiing at Bogus Basin.

Camping at Bass Lake

Before kids, our dog Abbey used to come with us when we did something fun. Going camping, or to the beach, or the park. Now, poor girl stays home more often than not, and we bring the kids since we can't leave them home alone in the kennel.

Water skiing and wakeboarding at the lake

Club hopping in Hollywood for Kelly's birthday in a limo. (Can't remember the last time I did that...oh wait, yea... it was probably that time)

Just boarding a 3 day Catalina-Ensenada cruise.

Skiing at Mammoth with friends Val & Eric.

One of the many lunches we sat and leisurely enjoyed (BK)

No shoes. No shirt. No problems. We took the ferry out of Long Beach to Catalina and spent the day having some fun.

New Orleans 2004. We went on a cruise with our friends Amy & Shane. It left out of New Orleans. None of us had ever been there so we flew in the weekend before the cruise and spent some time touring around the city. We didn't get all those beads how you might be thinking we did. :) But we did have ourselves a real good time down in New Orleans. And I met Garth Brooks on the cruise. He was traveling with his sister and I asked him if he was Garth Brooks and he was! We chatted with him a couple different occasions.

No shoes. No shirt. No problems, again. In Jamaica. Also no baby fat. Huh, imagine that.

Paradise Island. It's an island off the coast of Cozumel where they film the Corona commercials. How's that for an advertisement?

On our way to enjoy a lobster dinner on the formal night of the cruise.

Random cruise picture. Back in the days when I had time to wear false eyelashes.

Skiing at Big Bear

We flew to Iowa to help Jake's family clean out his grandparents farm house when they moved to Boise. The first picture is the corn fields on the farm. Second picture is the view of the back of the house (if you click on the pic and look closely you can see me behind the screen door). The third picture is the famous Surf Ballroom, the last place that Buddy Holly, Richie Valenz, and The Big Bopper played. Their plane crashed after they left this show just miles from The Prestons farm. Jake's Grandpa helped remove pieces of rubble from the crash site.

March '06 we did the Catalina-Ensanada cruise with our friends Tawny & Joe. I was about 6 weeks pregnant with Hannah.

Standing above the blowhole in Ensanada.

April '06 we made it up to Mammoth again to do some skiing before I was too pregnant to do it anymore. This was BB (before blogging), and I wasn't as good about taking pictures yet so I had to include a few to show who all went.

May '06 in New York for my birthday. We were on a ferry boat, arriving on Staten Island to take a tour of the Statue of Liberty. I was 3 months pregnant, and gagged at every single smell in New York city. I loved it, but must go back another time, not pregnant. One of my favorite things we did that trip was see Chicago on broadway in the third row.

We've gone on a lot of great trips, and we've had tons of fun. We are still having fun, it's just a different kind of fun. What I miss most of all nowadays is date night. Before we had kids, we didn't even call it date night because there was not one night specifically for dates. We did it all the time. We went out on a weeknight. We'd go out on a Friday night, and again on a Saturday night. When we lived in Boise we probably ate out 4 nights a week because I had not yet mastered the art of cooking. ha ha ha. We enjoyed doing it, but we had no idea what a luxury we would later think that was.

Nowadays our date nights look more like this:

This was our dinner a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night. It was a warm night, so we ordered pizza and salad from BJ's to be delivered and we ate outside by candlelight with a fire in the chiminea. We always make it a good time. And we both realize that right now in the grand scheme of things, this part of our lives is just a tiny blip. It won't last forever. One day we'll be begging our kids to come home for dinner and eat with us. :)

Claire Got Pierced Today

This morning I took the girls and went down to Dos Lagos. On a whim I decided to try and get Claire's ears pierced. I went once before and the certified piercer girl was not there, so I tried again, and got lucky. She was there, and she was really good and really fast. It was over before I even had time to sweat. She cried for a good two minutes, then had a bottle and came home and got some tylenol. She's a trooper. Don't they look cute?

5 Months Old Already

Somehow Claire is 5 months old already. I don't know how it has happened so fast. She is changing right before my eyes. I fall more in love with her every month. She seems to be hitting a lot of milestones all of a sudden, and I swear she is bigger in the morning than she was when I put her to bed the night before. We've had a rough week or two with her lately, and are thinking that maybe she is starting to get her bottom two teeth. She's been much fussier than her normal self, and she can not chew on her teething rings enough. Hannah had her first bottom two teeth by 6 months, so if that is the case with Claire, I sure hope they pop through soon!

Here are a few pictures of our cutie pa-tutie Claire, and some of the new things she is doing.

Reaching and grabbing for her toys.


Loves hanging out with her sister and watching her every move. (This is a picture of Hannah and Claire going through their Easter baskets that the bunny left at my Mom & Dad's house. That bunny sure spoiled them. wink, wink.)


She has mastered rolling from her back onto her tummy, and is enjoying tummy time more and more. Her new thing is that she rolls on her tummy in her crib at night and then cries because she can't get back over. Although today she did that during her morning nap, and cried for a minute, then fell asleep and stayed on her tummy for almost two hours.

Grabbing at her toes all the time. We recently had to bring out the tray that goes to this swing because she is really leaning forward and becoming more mobile in it now.

This month she started baby foods and has been enjoying many new things. I think her favorite so far has been applesauce. I remember Hannah being much more expressive when tasting baby foods for the first time. Claire just seems to momentarily pause at the new flavor, and then power through her meal. So far she has had applesauce, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, and green beans. She's also eating in the high chair now instead of the bumbo seat. Such a big girl all of a sudden.

She enjoys standing up in her exersaucer in the backyard so she can watch Hannah and Abbey. She's starting to really spin around in that thing and take notice of all the toys on it.

I love this picture of her grabbing her toes after her bath.

A Beautiful Weekend & A Day at The Beach

What a warm and wonderful weekend we had. The beginning of last week we ran our heater a couple of times, and this weekend we ran the air conditioner. It was in the 90's all weekend and beautiful. Yesterday we knew it would be warm here, and nice at the beach so we spent the day in Laguna. It was so much fun. It's been way too long since I set my eyes on the pacific ocean. What is it about that much water that is just so relaxing? We lucked out because it was a gorgeous day.

I have to admit, any time we do a day trip like this I have to wonder if all the work and preparation required is going to be worth it. This time it was. Look how much stuff it takes to go to the beach for just a few hours with two little ones.

Two little beach babes

The good old double jogger also works well as a luggage cart.

Our Camp

Claire's first time putting her feet in the sand.

This was Hannah's 6th or 7th time at the beach so she was telling Claire what to do.

Hmmmm, should we go in?

First time Claire's toes went into the ocean. The water was quite chilly.

Hannah had so much fun. We told her earlier in the week that we might go to the beach on Sunday and all she talked about all week was when are we going to the beach.

Claire was so good considering that we think she is teething. She was mostly all smiles.

Tried to take a cute picture of Hannah next to her name, and this is what I got.

Let's go Daddy!

Clairey Berry and her handsome Daddy.

This picture makes me smile.

After a while on the beach we de-sanded and cleaned ourselves up and went to have lunch and visit with our friends Pete and Helen. We didn't know it until we got there that my cousins Chad and Don, and Don's fiance Kaylen, and my Aunt Glenda and Uncle Dave came for lunch too. What a nice suprise. This is Chad with Claire.

The view that Pete and Helen have from their house is absolutely breathtaking. I could sit in front of their windows and out on the balcony forever.

Here's some of the gang right before we ate lunch. Helen made delicous steak and bell pepper sandwhiches and a special macaroni n cheese lunch for Hannah! I didn't take many pictures at their house because we were too busy visiting. Thank you again for having us Pete and Helen! We all had so much fun.