First Rotation

Today was Mark's first day of his first rotation.  I can't believe we are beginning this stage of his education.  It has been a long time coming that it doesn't seem real that we are in it now.  

It was an eventful/scary first day.  His first rotation is at a clinic that serves predominately low-income, Spanish-speaking families.  He was supposed to be there all day but late this morning someone came and told him that he needed to leave immediately because there was a bomb scare.  They had found a "package" on the side of the building with wires and the whole works.  Scary.  

So they closed down the clinic for the rest of the day and Mark was able to come home early.  A little bit more excitement than he had planned for his first day.  Let's hope that's as exciting as it ever gets.  

All of that aside, I am just so very proud of this man of mine.  He has worked incredibly hard the last three years.  He not only got through his classes but did amazing in all of them.  I love how he strives to do his best in all that he does.  I am excited to watch him as he gets to experience the various rotation experiences.  I love you hun.  

Family Vacation 2015

As per tradition - we did our annual drawing after our trip was over to find out where next year's trip will be.  We LOVE this.  Then we can plan and get excited for the whole next year!!!  Here was how the drawing went this year...

Jacob - North Dakota

Mom - Nebraska

Dad - Texas

And the final drawing went to...

NORTH DAKOTA!

Peace Garden State here we come - and there will be four of us!!! 

WOOT WOOT! 

Natural Bridges

This morning we had our last "activity" on our Utah trip.  We drove over to Natural Bridges National Monument.  There are three bridges and one group of ruins.  You take a nine-mile loop to see them all at overlooks or you can hike down to each one individually.  We were all feeling pretty tired today, plus it was cold and rainy so we just stopped at the overlooks.  But the boys did go down and hike the last bridge.  

Sipapu Bridge

Horsecollar Ruin

Kachina Bridge

Owachomo Bridge

The boys standing at the bottom of Owachomo Bridge.

This has been such a GREAT trip to Utah.  Everything we did was new and exciting and we got to experience it together.  I seriously can't tell you how much I love these family trips every year.  We can't wait to find out what our destination is next year!

Bluff Historic Site

Our final stop today was to the Bluff Historic Site.  This is, I believe, the newest historical Church site and was just dedicated last October.  I would one hundred percent recommend it to anyone.  It was definitely a highlight for me.  

As I said in an earlier post, Mark and I have been amazed at this trip with our surroundings and the harshness of the landscape.  Our appreciation and awe for our pioneer heritage just grows and grows.  We were able to see a short film at the Visitor's Center detailing the trek that the pioneers took to settle the land in southeastern Utah.  It was nothing short of miraculous.  All I kept thinking was that these people were just hardy.  There faith is so inspiring to me.  

The grounds are amazing.  They have a cabin for each family that made the trek through the "hole in the rock" and settled in Bluff.  Each cabin has information on that family and many personal family heirlooms.  It is amazing and the feeling of community must have been so strong.  

The boys in the Relief Society house.

The inside of one of the cabins dedicated to each of the families.

A view of the circle of cabins around the outside of the fort.

Cuteness.

Four Corners

Our next stop today was to Four Corners Monument.  This was something Mark suggested we go and see and even though it was out of the way it was fun to go to once.  We stopped and had lunch there on the grounds and then, of course, took our pictures in FOUR places at once!
WOOT WOOT!

Hovenweep

Today we started our day at Hovenweep National Monument.  It is right on the border of Utah and Colorado.  Here there are several Pueblo dwellings around the edge of a small canyon and along it's sides.  You are able to walk around and see the various buildings.  It is pretty amazing.  

It was given the name of "Hovenweep" back in the 1870s when a photographer came out to take pictures of the sites and gave it the name, which is a Ute/Piute words that means deserted valley.  And that is definitely a very good description of it.  Throughout this trip, including our drive over to Hovenweep, Mark and I kept commenting on how hard it would be to settle this land.  It just looks so rough - beautiful but rough.  It just makes what this people did in Hovenweep all the more impressive.  

Dinosaur Museum

Our final destination today was to Blanding.  We drove in and decided we had time to go and see the Dinosaur Museum.  We had the whole museum to ourselves!  Jacob was loving looking at the dinosaurs and walking around.  He was constantly saying "WOW."  Love it.

We even got him a little triceratops as a souvenir for our trip.  He keeps giving it kisses on the nose.  Adorable.  

 

Monticello Temple

After we ate our lunch we left Moab and began our trek further south.  We always try and stop on our vacations and see the temple.  Seeing as our trip this year was to Utah we knew we had many to choose from.  We stopped in Monticello and saw the temple that is there.  Neither Mark or I have ever been to this part of Utah and so it's been fun exploring it fresh together.  

The Monticello Temple is hands-down the smallest temple I have ever seen.  We couldn't believe it.  When we pulled up there was only one car in the parking lot!  Fun fact - the Monticello Temple was the first of the redesigned "mini temples" as I like to call them.  It was only nine months from it's announcement to it's dedication.  That is CRAZY!

It is a beautiful temple and we were glad we could walk around it together as a family and think about our eternal family and the Spirit that is at every temple.  

P.S.  Let's go back in time a year to this picture - what happened to my baby boy?!!!  It is crazy what a year does!

Landscape Arch

Our next hike we headed to the "Devil's Garden" to hike Landscape Arch.  This arch is amazing!  It is longer then the length of a football field.  CRAZY!  What may have been even crazier was the wind though!  It was absolutely ridiculous but definitely made it very apparent how these arches happen over time.  We had a blast and it was the perfect ending to our time at Arches.  

The Windows

Our first hike today was to The Windows.  It was perfect conditions and we lucked out with not too many people around either.  At "The Windows" there is also another arch called, Turret Arch.  It was awesome and it was fun because you could get right in there.  

REALLY hard to see but that is Mark and Jacob at the bottom of the arch. 

 Then there are, of course, the Windows.  The North Window you can climb right into which is exciting.  Mark and I both just kept thinking it looked like a mask.  Nature is amazing!

There I am on the left.

Mark and Jacob on the backside of the Windows.

Swimming

After Jacob took his nap he and Mark went swimming at the pool at our hotel.  I immediately regretted that I didn't pack my swimsuit.  Boo.  Oh well - I just sat and took about a million pictures of Mark and Jacob.  It was Jacob's first time in an actual swimming pool and it was so much fun to watch.  He has always been a fan of bath time and I don't think the pool disappointed.  He was splashing and "swimming" (more like gliding as Mark pulled him across the water and tried to show him how to kick) and it was adorable.  

Prepare yourself for cuteness...

I love my two boys.  

Delicate Arch

We spent our first day of our 2014 Berning Family Vacation in the Beehive State at Arches National Park.  It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  It is amazing how you can kind of feel like you are in this barren wasteland and then all of a sudden you are surrounded by these enormous red rocks.  It really is beautiful country and we are loving our time here.

We woke up early this morning, quickly ate some breakfast and headed on up!  It is always a little tricky planning our family vacations when I am pregnant - since me and pregnant me do not always get along so well.  But at least this time I'm not eight months pregnant so that definitely helps!  But we definitely wanted to plan a lot but with the knowledge that we might have to be a little flexible.

When we were trying to decide what hikes we wanted to do in Arches I was a little worried.  My body hasn't really gone through any physical activity in the last five months and so I just didn't know how tired I would get and I didn't want to push myself too hard and then be miserable the entire trip.  We found lots of short hikes and we were okay with them but about two weeks ago we decided that we would regret it if we didn't do the hike to Delicate Arch.  I had read TONS of reviews and so many of them seemed to contradict one another.  Some would say it was a great hike - even for kids and others would say it was strenuous and easy to lose your footing.

But we knew we just had to do it!  So we decided that "slow and steady" was our motto on this hike and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  Mark carried Jacob in the backpack and we just made our way up.  The hike up was beautiful and actually felt really nice with a nearly constant cool breeze.

Some Ute rock art at the beginning of the trail.

For some reason in my head I imaged that we would turn this corner and there would be a plateau of sorts with Delicate Arch just right there.  NOT THE CASE!  You walk along this outcropping of rock and then it's just there!  But not on a plateau.  I don't even know how to describe it but it wasn't what I expected.  I immediately froze and was seriously freaking out.

And the gentle breeze that felt awesome on the hike up had turned crazy.  Seriously.  Jacob's hat came flying off and people were scrambling to grab it for us and all I could think about was my little family falling to their death.  Dramatic, I know, but I was just panicking.  Mark was really excited and before I even knew what was happening he was crawling over this ledge (with Jacob still in his backpack) which looked liked it led to certain death.  Mark kept trying to assure me that it wasn't that bad and there was plenty of room but I just couldn't handle it.  

I honestly thought that I was getting better with handling my fear of heights but adding Jacob to the experience brought on a whole new degree of fear.  I told Mark I just couldn't do it and told him I needed him to leave Jacob with me.  The wind was blowing constantly so hard and I was just sure that Mark would lose his footing.  

Finally Mark assured me that he would be fine and he was going up for a closer look.  I pretty much just clung to Jacob next to a rock and tried not to watch Mark as he was walking around.  The arch itself is beautiful and it is, of course, always fun to see something that is so iconic in Utah.

We were so glad that we did it though and it surprisingly wasn't as hard on my body as I was thinking.  Once we hiked down we decided to go up the road to one of the Delicate Arch Lookouts.  We were so happy that we did the hike (even if I did freak out a little bit) because you really can't see much from the lookout.  

Afterwards we started making our drive back.  We stopped at Panorama Point and then at the Visitor's Center.  There are [many] times when Jacob just makes the trip so fun.  He LOVED the Visitors Center.  He had to touch and feel everything in the children's exhibit that they had and just kept saying "wow" and "ooh" and "ahh."  It was adorable.  

We can't wait for day two of Arches tomorrow!

Visiting Grandpa and Grandma Berning

This last weekend we were able to go and visit Grandpa and Grandma Berning in North Ogden.  We had a great time just relaxing and hanging out.  It was also lots of fun to spend some time with Uncle Brian and Uncle Grant and Aunt Kristen and their family.  Unfortunately, we only snagged a picture as we were leaving but it was a great weekend spent with family. 

We love you all! 

Celebrating Megan

While we were in Draper, Megan celebrated her 22nd birthday!  It has been a LONG time since I've been around for one of my family member's birthdays so that was fun.  Megan decided to go to an Indian Restaurant and then we headed over to Melina's apartment for some birthday cupcakes.  

We love you Megan and hope you had a great birthday and have a stellar year!

Also, Melina bought a circus tent for Jacob to play in at her apartment.  He was pretty much in heaven and stayed in it the entire time!  We may have to invest in one :)