St. George

Our Utah trip was busy. After the weddings, we headed down to St. George (a first for Brycen and Mommy) for a night.

Since we left at 6am, I carried Brycen straight from bed to his carseat.

One of my most brilliant ideas recently was to bring this along:

A perfect bowl and bib (and entertainment) to bring Brycen's breakfast cereal along. He did amazingly well feeding himself while riding in a moving car.

We stopped at Cove Fort along the way for a tour and lunch which was fun and perfect because Brycen (and Mommy) immediately fell asleep for the remaining 2+ hours of the 5 hour drive once we got back in the car.

While in St. George, we visited some church historical sites.

The tabernacle.

And St. George Temple.

Nathan didn't accompany us on the trip, however, his Mom did and she proved to be the perfect replacement. Brycen called her by her name, "Danna", and requested that she was the one that chased him, held his hands while he jumped, and buckled him into his car seat.

With 106 degree temperature, swimming definitely was on the agenda. Brycen LOVES his floaties and was very eager to show the uncles how he can "swim" by himself.

We went to see "The Little Mermaid" Musical that night and even though Brycen only made it 3/4s the way through (after waking up at 6am), he loved seeing the boat and dancing/singing fish characters. It was really, well-done and very fun to watch.

The next morning, we headed back to SLC and Brycen once again did amazing on the 5 hour car ride. With help from the uncles and a car seat he adored (was borrowed from a neighbor but might become our next carseat purchase), the ride proved to be no problem at all.

Weddings

After a short week of being home from Berlin, Brycen and I left Daddy at home and headed to Utah (again) for a few weddings. Popular weekend. I saw a news headline in the airport that (for Twilight readers out there) it was the same weekend as "Edward and Bella's wedding"--Aug.13.

As with most weddings, it means lots of family. Brycen hopped right in to the family idea and even after re-meeting Grandpa and Grandma Greats for the first time in months, Brycen went from lap to lap, table to table, and hand to hand (surprised Mommy how comfortable he was, he walked right up to cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, sat on their laps, gave them hugs, and grabbed their hands as he walked/ran beside them).

At the dinner the night before the wedding, Brycen insisted that Great Grandpa Baldwin feed him his fruit cup. Aunt Katie also decided that she wants the "kid's plate" at her wedding dinner. Brycen enjoyed french fries and chicken nuggets while the rest of us had vegetables.

And played with Grandpa on the golf course after.

Aunt Katie enjoying the gorgeous view and weather.

At the temple the next day.

Brycen enjoyed time with Aunt Katie while Mommy had the opportunity to attend the sealing.

One of his favorite friends of the entire trip.

Maybe it's the hair but Brycen became very attached to Mommy's cousin, Nathan, and followed him around everywhere. Brycen has become very good with learning people's names...except for Nathan's. He referred to him as "that one".

The happy couple.

It was my first sealing I attended at the SLC temple since my own, definitely a neat experience.

At the wedding reception that night. Brycen LOVED the dancing.

Nathan was awesome and made Brycen's night by taking him along everywhere, which allowed Mom to sit, eat, and catch up with cousins- basically, be convinced that she wants to move to Alaska with Trevor and Kelsey after Bryce graduates.

Wedding reception number 2. Walker side. Brycen immediately recognized Grandpa Walker and ran into his arms when we walked in.

Enjoying the treats with Grandpa. Shortly after, Brycen insisted on dancing with Grandpa and if it wasn't for a family member talking to Mommy, she would've gotten a picture.

After seeing the happy couple off to the car, Brycen jumped in and helped a young man clean up the mess.

With 80+ more pictures from the Utah trip, I've decided to break the post up. Stay tuned for lots.

Last Weekend in Berlin...

Sadly, was a wet one....

Brycen and I discovered this fun area in the middle of the Mall in Central Berlin to escape the hotel room, one rainy afternoon.

He enjoyed throwing in some "pennies" (not sure what they are called over there) Mommy had in her purse.

Once Daddy joined us on Friday, Mommy had so many things she wanted to do before leaving that we had no choice but to adventure out into the rain.

One of the stops included Potsdam, a city not far from Berlin. It had a huge, beautiful park (that after 4 hours of walking, we still only saw a fraction of....wet, soggy, several blistered feet kind of put a damper on) that included several palaces and a church from the mid-1800s for German Royalty.

Found a familiar sight on our exploring...

Beautiful church.

Sansssouci Palace.

A fun windmill right behind the palace.

He got pretty good at sleeping on the go. Either that or found the rain extremely relaxing.

And Mommy's favorite palace of the weekend...

Isn't it gorgeous?

Right on the water too. If only it was sunny...it's amazing how dreary rain can make everything appear.

Our little photographer.

Eating on the go as well. I had packed two plain pieces of bread for Brycen since he had still not gotten into the sandwich-liking stage. But he is very, very much into "doing everything Daddy is doing" stage and mimicked Daddy's eating-a-sandwich idea even though his bread was plain.

Shortly later, he wanted to try Mommy's peanut butter sandwich (after becoming a huge apple with peanut butter fan on this trip) and now eats sandwiches...finally! I love it.

Another (delicious) stop included: visiting a Berlin Chocolate-making company. German chocolate is amazing and we brought back a bite for all interested.

And also: A prison used during the Berlin Wall period in East Berlin by the government's secret service to arrest and torture political people that opposed the government (it's existence wasn't brought to light until after the wall came down and to this day, no one has been held accountable for the things that went on there. The inmates never received any compensation for what they endured nor the time stolen away from their lives/families).

You can only see the prison with a tour guide and Brycen was by far the youngest member of the group. People gave us all sorts of looks for bringing a toddler to such a place...and he endured the hour and a half tour perfectly. He either sat, stood, or was held in complete silence (and whispered occasionally when he had a remark). Almost like he was asleep but not...amazed everyone (including us).

Heading back to the train after the tour was over.

And within minutes...

Did what Mommy thought he would do during the tour.

We also learned rather suddenly that it was the weekend of the Berlin Marathon as well and for it, they closed down the biggest street in Berlin--the one we happen to live a block away from.

Not just a running marathon but a rollerblading one as well.

As a result, all public transit that we depended on to take us anywhere to and from our hotel, was put out-of-commission and the added amount of walking time caused us to barely miss eating at our favorite booth one last time. Remember the one right outside our hotel? With the kindest man we ever met? We had eaten there the night before and had delicious, delicious bratwursts on a bakery roll that we really wanted to have one last time.

Instead we settled for this across from the hotel...

It was good...just not a bratwurst on a roll good...

Preparing for our upcoming journey across the seas...

Was very excited to get on the airplane (like always). Had his passport and boarding card in hand.

Farewell to Berlin Airport.

Our layover in Amsterdam. They have these (free) little shopping cart-type things that everyone uses within the terminal that I wanted to try out. Just FYI-Amsterdam is by far, the most confusing airport I have ever been to. To get between sections of the terminals, you have to go through security...again.

Our Delta flight to the States went smoothly. We watched lots of movies, had a yummy meal, and Brycen took a great nap. It was the landing in Detroit for our second layover that we ran into some issues. They not only somehow managed to lose our favorite traveling stroller (not sure how, we checked it at the gate.....it was only $4, but we LOVED it), then our flight to Indiana was delayed an hour because they were waiting on the airplane to be cleaned (Love Southwest, they can have the plane deplaned, cleaned, and boarded in 20 minutes because...everyone pitches in to help do whatever is needed to be done. The flight attendants, pilots, and gate workers are the cleaning crew....) So we waited 2.5 hours total for a 30 minute flight and then waited another 45 minutes while in Indiana for our luggage to arrive (never takes Southwest longer than 15)....not a huge deal but we were running on almost 24 hours of no sleep.

So not a Delta fan...but the trip was, overall, a great experience. We won't necessarily miss this part:

After that crazy laundry day ($$ and took forever), I washed clothes by hand nightly.

The towel heater located in the bathroom definitely came in handy.

But we will miss our bug-free, balcony setting.

And if we ever do live in a big city, I'll need to get myself one of these...