Sweet Play Time

This summer has been awesome and will continue to be awesome for two more weeks! Since Berkeley got back from Greece, he has not been working and has been going back to school. That's one great thing about the military. The education benefits make it possible for Berkeley to go to school full time not have to work. During the summer, he has only taken two classes, so the kids and I have been in Heaven having him around most of the time. He took his final on Friday, so now he doesn't even have school for the next weeks. It is amazing to wake up and say, "What fun things should we do today?!" I know the glory of this little phase is going to end fast when the next semester gets here, but I am going to soak it up while I can. Berkeley and I always say that life would be near perfect if no one ever had to work and could just spend time together as families.
As for me, I had my 28th birthday and it was awesome! I went on a mommy/son date with Asa in the morning. I took him mini-golfing for the first time. He pretty much bagged the club and did a lot of throwing/kicking/placing the golf ball into the hole. When he wasn't making holes in 100, he was doing a lot of climbing around/on/over the course decor. It was great. After that, my mom came over and babysat our kids while Berk and I spent 3 glorious hours playing like kids at Cherry Hill. We must have gone down the water slides 50 times. We cruised on tubes on the lazy river and played in the pool. It was super relaxing and so much fun. In other news, I have been training for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. It's in three weeks and I'm super excited about it. It's funny to think that just a year ago I totally loathed running, especially distance running, and now I am out running no less that 4 miles and on Saturday I ran 9 miles. I am running 4 days a week and I just love it. I love tuning out everything except for the awesome music I have compiled on my playlist. I will be training up to 11 miles, so hopefully the extra two miles of the half marathon won't do me in! Pictures to come.
The kids are awesome and so much fun. Asa is now 3.5 years old and he is highly imaginative. He has moved out of the dinosaur obsession and is now all about superheroes. It is always sad to see the end of a phase. The dinosaur phase was a HUGE part of our lives for so long, so now it is sad for me to see his "dino bucket" go untouched most of the time. He is growing up so fast. He loves helping me in the garden and is always asking to go "check on the veggies". He is best friends with his cousin, Summer, who is also 3. They play so hard all day. He is very loving and always gives hugs and snuggles and kisses. He is a cautious little guy and is hyper careful. He doesn't much like swimming or being in the bike trailer or doing anything that's fast or can cause injury. That pretty much rules out a lot of little boy activities! Berkeley and I are hoping he will outgrow some of his fears and be willing to enjoy many more activities. Hazel, on the other hand, throws all caution to the wind and is completely fearless! She LOVES water and anything fast and anything potentially dangerous. I honestly pat myself on the back every night for keeping Hazel alive for another day! She is beginning to say quite a few words and signs some as well. She loves to spin in circles, dance and stomp her feet. She is always dirty and usually gets two baths a day unless I keep her inside! She likes watching Signing Time and Baby Einstein shows. She loves to eat and will try (and like) most everything we give to her. She still only has 4 teeth (at 15 months old!) and is slowly getting a 5th. She has 1 tooth on top, three on bottom and one more is coming in on top. She makes this hilarious "cheese face" where she gives a silly huge smile and breathes loudly through her nose. We love our two little ones.
I will sum up this post (and the summer so far) with some pictures taken the last couple months.