Days of '47 Float Preview Party

While we were visiting family in Draper we decided we would head to the Days of '47 Float Preview Party.  Let me tell you, I LOVE parades - the atmosphere and all - but this was awesome.  I was so impressed by all of the details and ideas and the countless hours and hours of work that must have gone into making these.  I was totally blown away. 

Almost every time we would pass a float I would think to myself, "yep, that's my favorite" and then another one would surprise me and I would love that one.  Seriously, so impressed.

I just loved the idea of this one - missionaries on Mars!  "This is the NEXT Place!"  So creative. 

This was my Mom's favorite, the details were AMAZING!

And this was Mark's favorite - was so much fun!  Had pigs flying an airplane, a full barn, sugar beets - all of the good stuff!

We had a blast.  

Sprinklers

Since we were up in Rexburg, we decided that after the reunion we would head back down to Utah to spend some more time with my family.  It was so much fun to spend more time with them.  As always, we spent a lot of time just visiting and enjoying our time together.

One day though everyone was gone working and my Mom needed to go to a funeral, so we decided we would play in the sprinklers a little bit.  Plus, it felt (as my Mother would say), "like the surface of the Sun!"  Now, I have been meaning to have Jacob play in the sprinklers for awhile now, but always forgot when we were visiting family (no yard at home = no sprinklers).  I thought Jacob would love it, especially after going to the splash park just the week before.

Getting things all set up.  Oh, and don't worry, Jacob's just eating grass.  That's just how we roll.  Do you remember that scene in Elf when Buddy is at the doctor's office and there is a bunch of cotton balls and he starts eating them.  And then his Dad tells him to stop so then he does it somewhat sneakily.  This is EXACTLY the way Jacob eats grass.

We had an unexpected rocky start...

I look at this picture and it just makes me smile and shake my head.  Does that make me a bad mom?  I don't know, I actually think it's rather amusing.  ANYWAY, this was unexpected.  I turned on the sprinkler and Jacob was not happy.  So we ended up taking off the sprinkler head and just playing with the hose.  I promise, he ended up liking it quite a bit.  But this picture was just too perfect not to add :)

Then the happiness began...

Still a little unsure...

Oh yea...he likes it!

We love our little water man!

Berning Family Reunion

Oh my goodness - I am so behind on my blogging for this month.  Bear with me while I do some catching up :)

Two weeks ago we decided to make the journey back out to Idaho.  Mark's family decided to have a reunion in Rexburg together and we are grateful that we could come out.  We kind of debated about whether or not to go out again since it felt like we had just got back, but ultimately, we are definitely glad that we did.  It was so much fun to spend time with his family.  Almost all of Mark's siblings were able to come up at one time or another and we had a blast.

I loved being able to watch all of the cousins interact.  We are definitely heavy on the girls side compared to the boys but it was so much fun to watch the youngest three kiddos be all boys.  Definitely a first in the Berning family.  Nate is a year older than Jacob and then Emmett is eight months younger.  I can't wait for these boys to get older and interact even more.  So much fun!

The days were spent playing board games, doing crafts, playing outside, playing kickball, water balloon fights, playing the wii on the giant screen, nighttime movies, reverse charades, and, of course, lots of visiting.

The girls all doing their pom-poms.

The finished product.

Oh my goodness - Jacob is SO big!  And Miriam just looks adorable :)

Nate and Jacob

Playing the wii

It is serious stuff...

We also went to the carousel and splash park in Rexburg one afternoon.  It was so much fun!

So I had to add this one because Miriam just looks WAY too cute - she is ready!

Just relaxing on the grass, eating some cheerios :)

After playing in the water some of the older kids and Mark and Keith went and played frisbee.

One day of the reunion was also Grandma Berning's birthday!  What luck!  It was fun to all be together to celebrate this wonderful lady.  We all went in together to get her this beautiful picture.  I hope she felt special and had a good day. 

Missing some of the of the older kiddos who were still sleeping but these grand kids love their Grandma!

 It was a wonderful week and we are glad that we were able to go.  Yea for family!

Denver Botanic Gardens

Today we attempted to brave the heat and go down to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  We went last fall and enjoyed walking around so it was fun to go back.  We only walked around for about an hour and a half - the heat was killing us - but it was beautiful and fun to see some of the things that were different this time around. 

This year the gardens are embracing all things Colorado with more natural plants and with sculptures made by Colorado artists.  It was fun to compare things to last year when it was all from China. 

We had a great morning enjoying some of the beautiful things of Colorado.

Megan, I will have you know that I took a moment to try and "see" what the artist was trying to portray in these sculptures.  I must admit - I didn't get much.  But I tried!  They are definitely funky and neat to look at - creative points for them :)

 

Happy Birthday America!

We had a wonderfully low-key Fourth of July.  We spent the morning relaxing in our pjs and made some star sugar cookies.  They were quite yummy.  We played games and just enjoyed the day inside our nice air-conditioned apartment.

For dinner we grilled some hamburgers and talked about different fourths of July we have had together the last four years.  It is crazy AND amazing how much our lives change.  It was fun to think of last year when Jacob was a little 9-day old little guy and all that has happened in between.  We then decided we just had to re-create this little family picture that we took last year on our balcony with our self-timer and did it again this year, again with the self-timer.  

2012

2013

After dinner the Zurchers came over and we just talked and hung out.  It was a great evening.

We are so grateful to be able to live and raise our family in such a wonderful, beautiful country.  We are so grateful for all those who came before us and continue today to protect and defend our freedoms.  We love you all. 

Dinosaur Ridge

Yesterday morning we went to Dinosaur Ridge.  It was so much fun!  I could definitely see us going back again sometime. 

We parked at the visitor's center and then decided we would walk their self-guided tour along the ridge.  It was awesome.  There are all sorts of signs all along the trail explaining what you are looking at and it was really interesting.  

We also learned some pretty awesome background on dinosaurs in Colorado that we never knew before.  In 1877, they discovered three new dinosaurs in this area.  They were the Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, and the Allosaurus.  And in 1937 they were building a new road and pretty much stumbled upon all these dinosaur tracks.  It's pretty incredible if you ask me. 

The trail ended up being about 3 miles round-trip but luckily we went in the morning before it was too hot and it was loads of fun. 

Our first stop explained about the Western Interior Seaway.  It's essentially just a slope covered in gray shale called the Benton Formation.  Colorado used to be completely covered in this seaway and mud and other materials settled to the bottom which is where they are now.

We always think of Megan whenever we see anything involving crocodiles/alligators.  She is terrified of them.  We love you, Megan!  Our next stop was Crocodile Creek.  It's a 50-yard tidal channel that cut down into the beach.  You can see ripple marks from the water and burrows made by clams.  AND you can even see claw marks made by crocodiles as they swam in the shallow water.

Our next stop was the dinosaur tracks.  This was really cool!  This was what was unearthed when the were building the new road.  There are three different kinds of dinosaur tracks and one crocodile track found on this site.  Pretty awesome. 

This was just along the side of the road but it's a footprint of an Allosaurus.  Crazy!

The last stop was their dinosaur bone quarry.  This is where the world's first Stegosaurus was found.  We actually knew this one!  Pretty neat!

SO MUCH FUN!

WE ARE LOVING SUMMER! 

Gems and Minerals

So I feel a sense of urgency this summer about some things...mostly spending time together.  Which, then I have to remind myself, is silly because this is probably the last time until...RETIREMENT...that we will be able to spend a whole summer together as a family without any obligations or anything.  I guess I just want to make sure it is memorable - that we make the most of it.

However, we don't have a lot of money rolling around here.  Like pretty much none.  So...we have to make our own fun.  Which I actually don't think we have much of a problem doing.  But I did find all of these "free days" that they do here in the Denver area for different places.  Seriously...where has this been the last two years?!  I am so excited!

Anyway, so now we have an entire summer packed with all sorts of fun things we can do - or not do - it's great!

Today, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science was having a free day.  We had been here once before when Daniel and Teresa and their family came to visit and we loved it - so we were excited to go back.  Of course, it was pretty packed but we still had a fun time walking around the different exhibits this morning.  Plus, now that we know about the "free days" we don't feel like we have to spend a lot of time there to make it worth it - we can just see what we want and then check out the rest another time.  WIN-WIN!

We checked out the wildlife exhibits but we definitely spent the bulk of our time looking around the gems and minerals exhibit.  They recreated a mine shaft that takes you down into a recreated Mexican silver mine where they have white gypsum crystals and stalactites.  We thought it was pretty cool. 

Then they have this huge wall of rhodochrosite which is Colorado's State Mineral.  It's really pretty.  the largest rhodochrosite was found in Alma, Colroado and is called "The Alma King."  It's huge.  

"The Alma King"

The one kind of a bummer was that they had no traveling exhibit there today.  I guess they don't have any coming until October - but there is still PLENTY to see and keep us busy.

On the top floor of the museum you get this SPECTACULAR view of the city park and then downtown Denver.  Combined with my two favorite boys - this a pretty great picture :)