Happy Thanksgiving!

We were lucky enough this year to spend 10 days in Coronado for Thanksgiving 2009. It was sooo much fun. I downloaded a ton of pictures. Instead of writing a ten page summary, I wrote under the pic's. We experienced many high's and low's on this trip. Our little Ave was an angel the first 5 days, then she turned for the worse. Welcome to the Separation/Stranger Anxiety phase. Man, this is one tough phase!!!

We ate at lot's of yummy restaurants, hung around the beach and the pool, strolled along the beach at sunset, walked all over the island, hung in the condo one entire day and enjoyed being on a true vacay and hung out with alot of our family. We spent Thanksgiving at The Del eating their yummy food. It was such a fun trip. We won't be down there until January (work), so we took a lot of pictures.

My Loves!

Happy Baby (Day 1 through 5)

We loved watching the surfers in the morning. Ave was napping on Nick.

Please note the background...the sun is still rising. Ave was a little off for a couple of days.

She also bonked her nose ALOT on EVERYTHING. Hence the bruise under her right nostril.

It was chilly in the morning, but rose to 70-80 degrees in the afternoon. Perfect!

Avery LOVED discovering the condo. We had to child proof a little while we were there.

These two were brave souls. I didn't even get in the water. Too cold! Ave lasted maybe 3 minutes, her lip started to quiver. But, she didn't complain once!

I love this picture. She was so happy & content in the sand. We love our beach baby!

Looking out Grandpa's window. She would lick the windows for hours if we let her. It was SO funny!

Such an awesome view!

Avery discovered the separation anxiety phase while we were down there. Wherever mommy went, Ave had to go. From day 5 through day 10, it was really REALLY tough!! This is God teaching me patience. My sweet baby has been replaced by a baby who cries if I do not hold her or if I walk away or if anyone but Nick or I come near her. TOUGH...TOUGH...STAGE!

Sea World! Yes, this was mostly for Nick and I. We say we will go everytime we are down there and this time we actually did! There were maybe 50 people in the park. It was awesome!

The Shamu show! LOVED every minute! Nick and I ran from the other end of the park so we would not miss this. Ave slept the whole show.

After the show we snuck back stage...ACCIDENTALLY. We watched them for nearly an hour by ourselves. Not crowds..no interuptions! The whales were coughing up fish to feed to the birds. Kinda gross, really funny! Thanks for the private show Shamu #?

Ave woke up during our private show. She was fixated. This was Nick describing Shamu to her. Such a good daddy!

Avery also had to climb on everything in the condo. This was her favorite. She looks like a little dancer to me.

Family Pic under Sea World's tree. (Sorry it's out of order.)

We strolled along the beach almost everyday. It was so beautiful!

The salt in the mist kept creating weird contrasts in my camera. This is The Del next to our condo. It is so beautiful. Especially with the Christmas lights. (Our friends Sean and Erika our leaving December 3rd for Coronado. We missed them by a hair. They will be staying here.)

**The Del also built an ice skating rink overlooking the ocean. We didn't have a chance to try it out. Next year maybe!**

Sunset!

Daddy/Daughter time. Avery is in love with him!

Avery LOVED the sand. She ate SO much of it! For 2 days she wouldn't nurse before bed. We couldn't figure it out. Then we realized, she was full of sand. (This was confirmed by her poopy sandy diapers!)

YUM!

Pool time again. My husband is a hottie!

Ave's 1st Thanksgiving. We ate dinner at The Del. It was incredible! It was buffet style, but let's just say...it was gourmet and the best I have ever tasted! Ave was pretty difficult during dinner and we ended up with more mashed potatoes on our clothing than in our belly. She wanted to eat everything Nick and I were eating. She tried almost everything but dessert. (Funny note: Nick left our garmet bag in SLC & we didn't realize it until we were on the plane. It had our nice clothing for dinner. So, we got new clothes. Thanks for your forgetfulness. You're welcome to do it again anytime! ;))

The Marine Layer hit the day after Thanksgiving. It moved in within minutes. It was eerie but also very cool to experience. This is Nick with his nephew playing wiffle ball. This was such a fun day!

The mist made our hair dripping wet.

Off to Grandpa and Grandma's.

Happy 8 Month Birthday Midge!!

This was Aver's eating Mexican Food. She loved the rice and chicken from my plate. She refused her baby food and would only eat what I was eating. She is growing up too fast!

We went to La Jolla for the Mexican cuisine. The waves were amazing due to the storm that came in. This poor seal was trying to join his buddy up on the rock. He was funny.

This is Children's Beach. It was built for children in La Jolla to play in, but the Seals overtook it. It is now their territory. Quite funny looking creatures! All the cousins on our last night. (Except Darwin. He sat with the adults.) I was at the kid table with Aver's.

This is our favorite restaurant Asti. It's in the gaslamp district in downtown San Diego. So yummy! Please try it if you're ever there!!!

Thank you honey for such a wonderful trip and spending almost every waking moment with your wifey! Love you!

Welcome to your late twenties!

Son of a! How did this happen? I am NOW in my late twenties? Hhhmmm....feels like yesterday that I just graduated high school, that I just turned twenty one, that I was in college with all of my girlfriends and comrades, that I bought my first house and my first car, that I thought twenty five was the perfect "ripe" age.....where in the heck did time go? I tease Nick all the time that he is closer to forty than I ever will be. He finally told me I am now in my late twenties and that much closer to thirty. There's no turning back. CRAP!

I had a great birthday. November is a tough month for our family, but we had a fun time anyways. I didn't want to do anything big. Now that I am a mom, spending time with the fam was ideal. Nick took me to dinner in Logan at my favorite restaurant: The Beehive Grill. It is the ONLY brewery in Logan AND it is deeeeelish! I thought it was just going to be Nick, myself, Ave and Smash. When we got there, Nick told me he had to go to the restroom. He was gone for maybe a minute and showed up with my brother Ty! It was awesome! Now if you know my brother, he does not know any one's birthday but his own. He is horrible with remembering things, so it was so fun to have him up in L Town!

Thank you Nick for making my REAL birthday fun. Thank you Smash and Ty for spending time with me. (I know I am SO much fun and all!) I LOVE my family!!!

We are NOT related!

I LOVE my sibs!

I LOVE my Little FAM!

Goofs.

Uhm Ave...you're kind of a passionate kisser! LOVE IT!

She pulls chunks of hair out ALL THE TIME!

=)

I love my husband and daughter!

Dear Nick and Avery,

I just wanted to write you and tell you how much I love you both! You two are the most important things in my life and I am truly blessed to have you both!

Nick, Thank you for sticking by me for the last few months. I know I have been an emotional basket case, but thank you thank you thank you for enduring it and helping me get through it! We may have hard times, good times, crappy times and happy times...but there is no other person in this world I would rather experience them all with. Thank you for all your wise words. I may not show that I am grateful for it all, but I really truly am. You have given me a breath of fresh air and have opened my eyes to see what life and love are all about! I love you husband.

Avery, Thank you for being your momma's best friend! We have so much fun together during the day and have even more fun when your poppa gets home. Thank you also for showing me what life is really about and what is truly important! I am so lucky to be able to spend my days with you uninterrupted. We have traveled so much together and have experienced so much in your short life! We have SO SO SO much for you to see! I love you Love Bug!

I love you Peanut and Midge!!

Love,

Bertnie/Momma

My little family is what my life is all about!!! I am truly blessed to have these two in my life. Not every day is a piece of cake or a walk in the park, but I wouldn't change it for the world. This blog is something for me to be able to go back on and read, remember, cherish and rely on. (If I were ever to forget a memory or special moment.) This is for ME! I have had some eye opening experiences in the last few months and it has made me that much for grateful for my life, my husband and my daughter. I am sorry people feel the need to bash others publicly. I have wanted to sooo badly, but with my husbands support, I have refrained. It would only make matters worse and feelings would be just as trampled on as mine have been. So please, if you do not like reading about our life...move on. Because that is what we as a family are doing...moving on without missing a step.

Halloween and THE World Series!

Aahhh...where do I start?

Our day started off at 6 AM. We all got ready and headed over to the Jet Center to fly out towards our exciting adventure. Since this was Ave's FIRST Halloween, and we were spending it in a rather unusual way, we dressed Avery in her Monkey outfit to surprise the grandparents once we got to the airport. She actually really liked being in the costume. It was warm, soft and snugly.

The plane ride was about 4 hours and 20 minutes. Avery did really really well! I was SO nervous at how she was going to do on such a long flight, but since she was able to crawl all over the plane and had 3 grandparents to play with, she did awesome!

We got to Philly around 2 PM. We headed straight to our hotel, The Ritz Carlton. We had two cars with drivers and of course I left my camera in the other car. I wish I could have taken pictures of the city. It has SO much history and is absolutely GORGEOUS! Once we checked in, Nick, my mom, Ave and I headed out for some shopping. (Dale and Sheri are recouping from a bad back and knee surgery, so they stayed at the hotel to eat.) We stopped at H&M. LOVE this store! I wasn't in a mood to shop for myself, but rather for Ave's. =)

We only had time to shop at two different H&M stores (yes, I said two), run to a deli and grab some baseball paraphernalia. We were warned to not wear our Yankee gear around the city, it is a rough city! BUT, we bought hats anyways and I plopped mine on right away. I got a few snickers and stares, but one guy actually cheered me on!

My mom flew down with us so she could babysit Aver's. (Why didn't I leave her in SLC with my mom, well....Ave is still nursing and this was a short notice trip, so I didn't have enough milk stored.) THANK YOU so much mom! I know Ave loved spending one on one time with you too!

We headed off to the game 3 hours early so we could walk around and gaze at what was around us. It was PURE mayhem! Soooo many Phillie fans. Sooooo much fun! Nick and I could not stop smiling. Poor Dale had a really hard time walking and had to stop every few steps. =( It took us a while to get to our seats, but once we did, we were not disappointed. We were 16 rows behind home plate. And once we got to our seats, the Yankees were practicing. Being the HUGE fans that we are, we went and took a bazillion pic's. (Yes, we were soooo giddy!) With our awesome tickets, we were able to sit in a private area, The Diamond Club, to eat and take shelter from the rain. The game started at about 9:10 PM. It wasn't too cold and the rain couldn't have dampened our spirits. HELLO, we were at the World Series!!!


The game was so much fun. We spotted a bunch of politicians by us: Joe Biden and some one else that I did not know. Ask Nick. We also saw ex NYC mayor Guliani. I was looking everywhere for Kate Hudson. Nada! We were about the only Yankee fans in our section. (I think there were maybe 6 of us.) We would jump up and scream every time the Yank's did good. We would get screamed at and booed, but man it was sooo fun!

The game didn't end until about 1:30 AM and we got back to our hotel after 2 AM. We were up at 5:45 to get ready to fly out. President Obama was flying in at 11 AM and all air traffic is put to a complete halt for hours. We would have been stuck there until 6 PM. (Fine by me!) Ave woke up with a fever and slept a little on the plane. She came down with a mild cold, but was such a trooper. We finally got home and settled back in Logan by 4 PM. What a LONG day!!!!!!! We were exhausted.

We had such an AMAZING time and now that the Yankee's won last night, it's a night we will NEVER forget! Congrats Yankee's on your 27th Championship. We were so lucky to be part of this monumental moment!

***Nick's mom Vickie watched our pupper's while we were gone! Gracie went into heat that Monday, so no boarder would let us board them. THANK YOU SO MUCH VICKIE!!!!

Ave being a monkey and going through Grandma Sheri's purse.

LOVE this one!

The LOVES of my life!

Exploring the plane.

Shopping on Chesnut.

The streets reminded me of NYC.

Our NY Yankee Family! (Ave is the rally monkey!)

Just arriving. SUPER DUPER excited!

Yankees at batting practice.

Nick was as giddy as a school kid!

Nick and Dale.

This was PURE MAYHEM! (HEY...we weren't the only Yankees fans!)

Do you spot Mr. Biden?

For SMASHLEY!!!! (The directv blimp. Inside Joke!)

My boyfriend pretty boy A Rod!

Having fun!

Final Score: Sweet sweet VICTORY!

Sad to leave!!

3 1/2 hours of sleep: CHECK!

Thanks Grandma T for watching Aver's!!!

Hanging out with Grandpa.

Ave's new fave: APPLES!

Playing with Grandma Sheri.

Ave was bright eyed and bushy tailed the morning after. Mom and Dad were TIRED!!!!