November...

We had a pretty good November... Me especially with it being my birthday month and all. For my birthday Scott and I both stayed home from work and I either laid in bed or lounged on the couch (being morning sick and all) while Scott pampered me and cooked me all my meals. In the afternoon Scott needed me to be gone out of the house so I called up Clarissa and made her take me maternity shopping. Later that night Scott had planned a surprise get together with all our friends at Wingers and then to the play Wizard of Oz! I loved it! After the play we all headed back to our apartment for presents, cake and ice cream. It was a really great birthday. Thank you Scott for throwing a great party!

Me with all my Birthday Present. The reason I am wearing the oversized pajamas is because I was given them by my good friend Jordan who things after I am 8 months pregnant I will then need a size of XXL pajamas to sleep in because my regular ones wont fit anymore. So thank you Jordan!

The following weekend we celebrated my birthday with the family. Scott's family on Saturday and with my family on Sunday where we told them the big news! To let everyone know we were expecting I had Scott give me a "birthday present" that was a baby picture frame and I'd pull it out of the bag and say "Oh cute, it's a picture frame" Then I'd turned it around and just waited holding it until everyone caught on. Everyone was very excited!

My birthday pie! I made pie because I don't love cake. I still can't believe I'm 25... It feels so old! In my mind I'm still just 23.

 Scott and I with the baby picture frame I made

The benefit of living so close to each of our families is that a lot of our holidays can be split between the two families. Scott's family has always ate Thanksgiving dinner on Friday so that on Thanksgiving day they could go skiing. Now that most of the kids are grown and married they have kept doing it on Friday because it's more convenient with having to split family time. So Thursday Scott and I headed up Driggs to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. I love being with the whole family! It's always so much fun to get together. Unfortunately we were not able to go skiing because Targhee decided not to open the hill until the day after Thanksgiving. We headed back to Idaho Falls on Friday and then celebrated Thanksgiving with Scott's family. Both dinners were very good! We are a little spoiled to get two Thanksgiving dinners every year :)

The past three months....

Pregnancy.... No exactly what I expected, but I don't think one can fully ever prepare for it. We grow up seeing women with cute little bellies all over the place thinking that one day, when we are older, we will be able to experience this fun, happy, joyful experience for our selves. Well.... I'm not saying its been ALL bad, but it's definitely different then I expected. For starters, morning sickness... One can NOT prepare for morning sickness... And its not that feeling nauseous all day is terrible... Its feeling nauseous all day, all night, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 2 months straight that really starts to make it miserable. Thankfully, you do get used to the toilet being your best friend... The first couple weeks was the hardest... But then you get used to it and it just becomes a part of your everyday life. Then you have all the other symptoms... being overly tired all the time, breaking out in zits all over your body, not feeling like eating anything, ever, having to pee every half an hour (Does it sound like I'm complaining?)

BUT, like I said earlier... It isn't ALL bad. There is nothing like seeing your baby on that Ultrasound screen for the first time with the soon to be father by your side. Words can't describe the millions of thoughts and feelings that you have. Its still surreal. You see that image, and you know that its showing you what's inside YOUR body, but you still can't believe that you have a body inside of you. And then you get to tell your family and friends. And everyone is so excited and happy for you! And they cry and smile and laugh and give you hugs. You also get your own personal insulation system. Which is coming in handy now that we are moving into the winter months. Then you still have many things to look forward to. Feeling the baby move inside of you for the first time. Letting the father to be, feel the baby move for the first time. Finding out the gender of the baby. Having an excuse to buy a whole new wardrobe. Pregnancy is pretty amazing. And yes, it is hard sometimes, and your sick of feeling sick all the time, but there is still so much to look forward to. I'm excited for the future and for the opportunity that Scott and I have to start a family together. And have I mentioned I have the most amazing husband ever? Because I do. He has been so amazing through everything, and pampers me like crazy. He has definitely picked up the slack around the house that I haven't been in the mood to do lately. He really is so good to me. Not all things in pregnancy are fun, happy and joyful, but in the end the good outweigh the bad and I'm excited to start this new adventure and chapter in our lives.

Ok, I'm now done with all the mushy, complaining stuff.... :) As you can see from the earlier picture, Baby Bergy will make its appearance on or near June, 1st 2013. I am currently 12 weeks pregnant.

13.1

Yes.... Scott and I have officially joined the 13.1 HALF MARATHON CLUB!!!!! Pretty much you can just call us super awesome runners now... Because we are. It has always been a goal of mine to run a half marathon and I'm very happy I have accomplished it. I know Scott now wants to go on to bigger better things (Like a full marathon) but my personal goal has been met and I don't really have a desire at this time in my life to go beyond the half.

How was it, you ask? Well lets just say it was harder then I expected. I have been training and the furthest I'd ran during my training was 12 miles. So I really didn't think 13 miles would be that much harder. I think the problem was it was only 3 weeks after the Red Rock Relay and the week before we hiked Table Rock... So I don't think my body had fully recovered. Also... I discovered later that I was 5 weeks pregnant at the time. So that may or may not have helped. But anyways... I think for Scott and I both, we thought the first 10 miles went pretty slick and the last 3 miles felt like an additional 10. haha My goal had been to run it under 2 hours, but I ended up running it in 2:07:38 (which isn't bad) and Scott's goal was to run it in under 2 1/2 hours and he ended up running it in 2:17:00 Which was so so awesome! I was so proud of him! He did soooooo good!

At the finish line with our medals!

Well that's the end of our bragging... We didn't really get any pictures because we were both running, but we had a good time regardless of the pain that it caused! No more big races this year, but we'll see what next summer brings!

Red Rock Relay!

So... The reason for the decision to do intense running training all summer! The Red Rock Relay! For those of you who don't know what this is (I stole the description from the website because it was better then mine)...

Teams of 12 run relay style through 187 miles of southern Utah's most stunning landscapes in a journey that starts on a Friday morning at Brian Head ski resort and ends sometime the following day at the base of Zion National Park. Teams split into two cars so one set of six runners can rest while the other set of six takes turns running their legs of the race. Teams switch off running and resting until each runner has run three times, and then they are all standing together in a exhausted daze at the finish line, gazing up at the base of an extraordinary red rock monolith. 

 Cricket was our team mascot

I feel so accomplished after running this! Scott and I both ran it and I was so proud of him. Scott isn't really a distance runner, more of a sprinter, but he trained hard through shin splints and got to a point where he could run the distances he would need to! I thought he did so so good! So there is a total of 36 legs. I ran legs 10, 22 and 34 and Scott ran the legs right before mine so that he would hand off to me. So he ran 9, 21 and 33. I ran a total of 17.8 miles and Scott ran a total of 11.5. It was so intense but was also a lot of fun. It was fun to be apart of a team and to have the support of them and also the other teams. Our team did great to! We finished the race in 29 1/2 hours! It was a lot of work with little sleep and lots of running. But like I said before, I feel very accomplished.

Scott finishing his first leg

 Me waiting to start my first leg

 Scott handing off to me

Clarissa and her boyfriend Justin were also apart of the team. Clarissa ran legs 1, 13 and 25 for a total of 10.8 miles and Justin ran lets 4, 16 and 28 for a total of 18.5 miles! I was impressed with Clarissa because she only started training for the race less then a month before she ran it! We were glad she joined though because we were a runner short and that would have meant more running for other people. Other members of the team consisted of Sharna (my old roommate) and her sister and father. And a bunch of random other people who came together by knowing someone or another on the team.

Clarissa and Justin after the race

 Justin, Clarissa, me, Scott

 So strong!

 With our medals!

 It was fun having Clarissa run with us! I'm glad she did it :)

 Next year we plan on running the Grand Teton Relay with my family! So everyone better get training!

The tunnel... And Scott running like a dork

Bragging time! About a month before we ran the race Scott was given the opportunity to hike the Grand Teton with one of his old roommates and a bunch of his friends! This was his second time climbing it and I'm very proud of him! The first time he climbed it he climbed it in one day. This time he climbed it in two and said if he ever had the choice he would chose to do it in one day. They backpacked to the lower saddle and camped in the saddle on the first day and then finished to the top on the second before climbing down. He said it was to much work to pack everything up and then have to pack it down and he would much rather just have a day pack. He was a little stiff from having to carry the pack and just had a little bit of a hard time walking the next couple days but he enjoyed going all the same. He is my mountain goat that's for sure. :) I hope that in the next few years he'll be able to take me up with him!

Mother/Daughter Outing

 Every year or so all of my mother-in-law's sisters and their daughters go on an outing together. This year we went down to southern Utah to go white water rafting on the Colorado River near Moab!

On the bus heading to the drop off location for rafting

 Red rock of southern Utah

 The whole group!

 Aunt Denise wanted a picture too!

 My mother-in-law decided it would be funny to splash Janette. So naturally, with the help of myself, she was the first one to be tossed out of the raft :)

 At one point everyone had been pushed, pulled or thrown in the water except for Grandma Bird! Well we didn't think that would fly and next went Grandma into the water! We were very gentle about it, but thought it was only fair. She did great though! This is a picture of our Guide (can't remember his name) pulling her back into the raft.

 The water was very brown and dirty. You couldn't see your hand at all after it was 6 inches under the water.  but the water was also very warm, which made me happy.

 The whole gang after rafting. Our group all wore green M&M shirts and all the other rafters loved it! Everyone called us "The Green M&M's" which was pretty fitting :)

 I can't remember her name, or where she was from, but we saved this girl after she had floated quite a ways down stream from her own raft. She was foreign and was with a group of people that had come to the United States on a three week tour. She was really cute and nice.

The next day after rafting we all went to the Olympic Park in Park City, Utah to ride the Alpine slides and to go zip lining! It was great to be able to hang out with all the cousins and Aunt's for a few days!

Restoring Love

 This wins the award of most spontaneous trip of the summer for sure. About a week before the Restoring Love convention, which was located in Houston, Texas, Scott told me he felt like he should go. I was a little busy at work and didn't know if I'd be able to get it off. So the plans were made for Scott and Janette to go to Texas and I was going to be staying in Idaho. I made them stop by my work before they left so I could say good-bye to Scott and after they left I started feeling really left out. I mean, I've never been to Texas before, and Scott was going without me. So, I called them up, told them I was going, and and hour in a half later the three of us were headed to Texas. Talk about short notice.

For those of you who don't know what Restoring Love is you can check it out here. http://www.theblaze.com/news/restoring-love/  Yes it is a Glenn Beck thing. And typically I'm not a Glenn Beck fan but Scott is and that is why we went but I was very glad I was able to go to share in the experience because it was amazing. The first night of our journey was spent in the car at a gas station. Yes... All 3 of us slept in the sedan. We made it to Dallas, Texas and stayed with an old class mate of Scott's which was so nice because it was free and he lived 5 minutes away from all of the events. The first day that we made it to for the Restoring Love event was the day of service. Thousands of people from all over the United States came and did service in the Dallas, TX area. It was pretty amazing to see. Scott, Janette and I did our day of service at the Goodwill and even got to be on the Blaze! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOvOgsivWSg The Goodwill was huge and there was so much to do.

 Lisa Paige, Scott, me and Janette at Goodwill volunteering

That night we went to a religious leadership conference called Under God Indivisible where they had pastors, bishops and priests from different religions come together and speak to us about God and Patriotism. It was so awesome to just see the different religions come together and preach the same thing to everyone. It felt so united.

Saturday was the last day of the event. We went to a Preparedness Convention where they taught us all about food storage in the morning and then to the Restoring Love event where Glenn Beck would be speaking that night. All I can say is. Wow! It was so incredible and spiritual. I was not expecting to feel the spirit there but I did. I don't always agree with Glenn's tactics, but I do think that he is doing what God wants him to. He's trying to make a difference in the world and he is in a place that he can do it. I was glad to be apart of the whole event. 

 There were all sorts of people at the event...

 Abraham Lincoln's Desk

 A blood soaked beam that was under a hospital at Gettysburg, and a tree trunk that has a canon ball that was shot into it.

 One of the original bibles printed by the government in the new America's

 Janette and I from Scott's seat

 Glen Beck

 Scott and the Liberty Bell

We headed back to Idaho Sunday morning. Stopping in a small town in Oklahoma for church. It made the whole trip. I can now say I have gone to church in a legit double wide! It was just a small branch and this was their last week before moving into their new church building. (which was also pretty small) It was just so cool to experience church like that in middle of no where Oklahoma. We drove through the night and made it back to Idaho Falls in time for me to just be a couple hours late to work Monday morning. Well at least I would have only been a couple hours late if we hadn't discovered our dog was missing from the in-laws... Long story short, Cricket was lost for about 8 hours, but she was safe and sound at the dog pound. She had a little adventure of her own. We got her back shortly after discovering her location and now she is back with us.

On the Fourth Day of July...

 On the fourth day of July it was very warm.
But we went to the parade, which is the norm.

"Now to the greenbelt!" We yelled in high tones,
To wander through vendors while eating snow cones.

After our time at the greenbelt did dwindle,
We went to the home of the Well's to mingle.

It was at this time that we would celebrate,
The birth of Janette, who could hardly wait!

Off to the greenbelt again we would go,
But this time to watch the firework show.

Our bikes we did ride to avoid all the crowd,
To be under the fireworks where it would be really loud.

We sat by Clarissa next to all the commotion,
To celebrate the birth of our wonderful great nation.

I know, I know... everyone is super jealous of my awesome poem writing skills....

The 4th of July was great through! this pretty much sums up what we did the whole day. The only difference was that I was pretty sick the whole day. And It just continued to get worse and worse as the day went on. I tried to be a good sport though and go to all the activities of the day.

Scott and I decided it would be easier to get through the crowd at the greenbelt if we rode our bikes. So we borrowed Janette's bike trailer, threw all our stuff and Cricket inside and set off! It ended up working out really well! After the fireworks we rode our bikes on the rode to our car and were home no more then 20 minutes after the fireworks had ended.

Scott and I waiting for the fireworks to start with Cricket

 Venny and Scott-er :) Newly engaged!

 Clarissa and I watching the fireworks

Manti Temple Pageant

 Back in June Scott and I headed down to Ephraim, Utah with Scott's mom, Janette, Reily and Jersey to visit Aunt Denise and Uncle Lawrence's family! While we were down there Scott and I got to go to the Manti Temple for the first time. It was amazing! That temple just has such a strong spirit in it. Plus it's a live session and I LOVE live sessions.

Scott and I in front of the Manti Temple

 Janette and kids in front of the Manti Temple

Scott had a couple cousins in the Manti Temple Pageant which may or may not have been the main reason for the trip down to central Utah. Scott had been to the Pageant before when he was pretty young and I had never been before and had heard great things about it, so why not go when you have family in it! 

 Janette-n-kids with Jared. He was a Laminite for the pageant

 Gotta love Aunts....

 Scott's mom and Jared

Scott, myself and Jared

Myself, Jacob and Scott. Jacob played the young Joseph Smith

The boys did a great job and the Pageant was great! Thanks again to the Durtschi Family for letting us come visit!