Berning Family Reunion

This last week we had the Berning Family Reunion!

The reunion was up in Bear Lake and it was the perfect setting.  I feel like I could dedicate an entire post just about my feelings on the location of the reunion.  This was the first time Mark and I have been back to Garden City since we moved from there three years ago.  We were both so excited to go back and all we could talk about in the days leading up to it were the different things we wanted to see and do.  

Mark could only get two days off from his rotation so we left Wednesday evening after he got off of work.  We finally made it into Garden City at 12:30 AM and pulled into the house that we would be staying in for the reunion.  

Thursday morning we were up and moving!  We began our day by heading up to North Beach.  It was a blast!  We had a great little spot and it was so nice to just let Jacob play in the water!  He loves the water and the shallowness of Bear Lake is the perfect place to just let him play.  It was a perfect day at the beach!

That afternoon our little family headed over to the KOA to visit and see all of the changes they have made in the last three years.  It was great to be able to see my Uncle Dan and Aunt Debbie and my cousin Curtis and his family.  So much has changed on the campground since our "glory days" there.  But everything looks so nice and we are so happy for them.  They let us take a golf cart to drive around and look at the campground and so many memories just flooded back to Mark and I.  We kept talking about all of the different things we've been through and had that campground as the backdrop to it all.  As cheesy as it sounds, that campground is where we met, it's where we fell in love, and it's even where we lived for the first month of our marriage - so it really saw us through the entire beginning of our life together.  And it was so weird to then being sitting there three years later with our two-year-old son with a baby girl on the way.

Life is a beautiful thing.  

Thursday night we has a family history presentation from Grandpa and Grandma Berning and learned more about those that came before us.  Us adults later stayed up and played Pit and enjoyed our time together.  

Friday morning we headed to the city park for games.  We had a three-legged race, frisbee tic-tac-toe, and an oreo game.  It was yet another perfect morning.  

I think Grandpa's look of pure joy on his face steals the picture!  Love it!

Jessica designed some amazing t-shirts for the reunion and we had to take some family pictures to commemorate the event!

The whole crew!

All of the grandkiddos.

Friday afternoon we crashed and watched The Lego Movie and then all of the grandkids made frames to put our family reunion picture in.  They all turned out so cute!

The girls holding their frames.

Friday night Mark and I were the hosts to "The Not-So Newlywed Game."  It was hilarious to hear the different responses to some of the questions.  We love the love in this family!  Us adults finished the night chatting and playing Hand and Foot.  

Saturday morning we hurried and packed up.  Keith and Jayme and their family, Teresa and her family and our little family all headed back over to the park to play for a little bit.  We then took a little walk down the boardwalk and Amelia took Jacob's hand and they walked all the way down and back holding hands.  It was just about the cutest thing.  It was adorable hearing them "talk" to one another and point out different things.  Jacob loves his cousins!

We then all went over to Cafe Sabor for some lunch and then we began our trek back to Denver.  It was such a quick trip but we loved every second of it.  We wished we could have spent more time to visit our friends and other family but we just didn't have enough time.  We loved being able to go back to such a special place though and spend some special time with the Berning family!  We can't wait for the next one!