HARRY POTTER!

This last weekend was a sad end to a wonderful tradition of Harry Potter films coming out.  I have been so excited to see the last Harry Potter and yet so sad knowing that it was the end of some of my favorite movies.

My Dad had the great idea to dress up for the movie showing.  He was in charge of the whole sha-bang!  He made sure that there were no doubles!  We each had to go as our own character.  Dad went as Professor Snape, Melina went as Bellatrix, Megan went as Hermione, Mark was Goyle, and I was Ginny.  My Mom was going to come as Luna Lovegood (which would have been incredible) except for she was not feeling well so Megan's friend Haley went instead.

We ended up going to the 10:30 showing Friday night so we were definitely the only people dressed up but it was still a lot of fun.  I bet my Dad an ice cream cone that he would have people asking him to take pictures with him and you can bet he was the life of the party.  People were just loving him and it was a hoot to watch.  One lady even screamed when she saw him from the corner of her eye.  It was great!  Loved the movie - love my family.  It was a great memory.

I can't seem to get any of the other pictures uploaded - but they were pretty great!  I guess you will just have to imagine! :)

Clegg Family Reunion

Last week we had my family's reunion.  I guess it was a little bit of a flop in that it added up just being my parents and us but we still had a TON of fun.  We went up on the fourth of July to Island Park and had a blast.  We stayed at my Uncle Wayne and Aunt Lucy's cabin and had so much fun just relaxing and basically doing nothing.

My Dad and Mark set up a sheet and projector for some snazzy movie watching and we did a whole lot of that.  We caught up on a lot of movies and played a lot of games.  We taught my Mom and Dad how to play one of our favorite games - Ticket to Ride and just relaxed.

One afternoon Mark and I borrowed my uncles I think it is called a can-am or something (I am sure I will be made fun of for that one) and it was a lot of fun.  I think Mark and my Dad were definite fans.  But we went around the park and Mark and I went and checked out Johnny Sack's cabin.

Not a whole lot else to say other than I LOVE MY PARENTS - I LOVE MY HUBBY - and I loved the time that we were able to spend with each other.  WOOT WOOT FOR FAMILY! :)

Four Months!

So I realized that I forgot to blog about our third month anniversary.  But that is probably only exciting to us anyway - BUT believe it or not - we have now been married over FOUR MONTHS!  It is crazy.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  To celebrate we had a bowl of ice cream and blew out a candle.  Nothing too exciting but I am very happy that we are so happy.  I am so incredibly lucky to have Mark apart of my life every day and can't wait for all of the fun adventures we still have ahead of us.

Really gross picture but this is us...

Fun with the Girls!

I am so behind in posting things - I will try and catch up. A couple of weekends ago Teresa and the girls were able to come spend the night with us at our house and we had so much fun!  Before we have company over I am always so nervous about what we are going to do with the kids (we don't really have any 'kid friendly' toys except for books) but for some reason it always works out! :)

This is Miriam's "pretty face" - ADORABLE

Ester and Miriam were putting on quite a show...

We had lots of fun just chatting, having a little dance party, coloring and playing the wii.  These may be the most adorable little girls and we were so happy to spend some time with them - and of course Teresa!  We were also able to go down with Teresa to visit Mark's parents and we were able to play with more of the nieces and nephew and go and see Cars 2.  The movie was adorable (we LOVE Pixar movies) and we had fun just hanging out.  We ended the weekend up in Georgetown for a missionary farewell of a couple that Mark grew up with there.  It was a great weekend and I am continuously grateful to have family so close right now and the time that we are able to spend with them.

Ray LaMontagne Concert

This last weekend we went down to Salt Lake to go to the Ray LaMontage concert and it was AWESOME!  Mark had found out that he was coming to Salt Lake and we knew we HAD to go.  He is our favorite artist to listen to - and in fact, he was probably the biggest building block to us starting things off together because he isn't that well known and so when we both liked him it started things going :) 

Anyway, so we decided to go down for the concert.  We went down and stayed with my parents in Draper on Friday and we had a lot of fun (as we always do).  Friday night we had a Father's Day dinner with my parents, us, and Megan (Melina had to work).  It was nice just to spend some time together as a family. 

Saturday morning we woke up early and my mom and I canned some strawberry jam and syrup.  I am so grateful to have a mom that can teach me how to do these fun new things and I hope are all things we can someday pass on to our little kiddos.  But we had a lot of fun and we go done what we wanted to - so it was a SUCCESS!

Mark and I did some shopping in the afternoon and used some of our Target gift cards from our wedding (since we don't have a Target close we have to save up for these times).  We got a new couch cover and some pillows and a pretty snazzy blender which we are pretty excited about. 

Then we headed up to Salt Lake for our concert.  It was at the Salt Lake Library Amphitheater. 

We definitely stayed entertained the WHOLE time.  The music was AWESOME!  He was one of those people that actually even sounds better live compared to a CD.  It was pretty incredible.  Plus the people watching was pretty entertaining - I could have sneaked a picture of everyone and it would have been pretty funny, but I just snook one of our favorites.  Check out those flared tie-dye pants! 

But as I said, Ray was great!  He played 19 SONGS and we loved every single one of them.  He is a talented man.  It was a great weekend!

Sweet Little Amelia

This last weekend we went on yet another excursion - this time up to Boise.  We drove up late Friday night with Mark's parents after we got off of work and stayed till Sunday night.  Saturday I spent the day with all the girls that were up there - Jayme (Mark's sister-in-law), Kay (Jayme's mom) and Darlene (my WONDERFUL mother-in-law).  We woke up early and went to a bunch of garage sales.  I had never been before and it was quite an experience.  It is so crazy how some people's junk is another's treasure.  It was just fun to look around and see some cool things people had. 

Then we spent the rest of the day shopping and running errands.  It was a pretty chill weekend but it was fun to spend some time with Keith and Jayma and their family since we had never been up to visit them yet. 

But the MAIN reason we went was to go to the blessing of Keith and Jayme's adorable new little girl Amelia.  She is so sweet and just adorable.  The blessing went perfectly and it was a great day. 

Here is the whole crew

Keith and Jayme and their beautiful family of girls!

First Annual Berning Family Vacation!

This year for our first family vacation we went to ARIZONA!  It was such a fun trip and we definitely did not want to come back!  We took SO many pictures (we were proud of ourselves) but most of them would probably only be fun for us, but I will still put lots up - point being - WE HAD A BLAST!

We left Garden City after work on Tuesday night and drove down to Draper and stayed with my parents at their house.  We then woke up early the next morning and started our trek down to the AZ.  We thought that since we were going to Arizona that our problem would be getting too hot - we had loaded up with sunscreen and the like and instead we ran into this -

We stopped at an overlook to take a peak at what was coming up...

And this is what we saw laying ahead of us...



And here is was...Lola (our WONDERFULLY AWESOME car) stated it was a crisp 32 degrees!

We pulled into Phoenix around 8:00 PM.  We basically just crashed once we got into the hotel.  I don't know why sitting in a car is so exhausting, but for some reason - IT IS!  But we woke up early the next morning and hiked up Camelback Mountain.  We didn't make it the whole way but we hurried back so we could shower and pack up and then head off to the Phoenix Zoo.  Apparently it is one of the top five zoo's in the nation for kids and it REALLY was fun!  We didn't really take any pictures of us at the zoo, but we took lots of the animals.  I love that Mark likes to read all of the information with me and so neither of us has to wait for the other, we both like knowing all the details about everything. 

ANYWAY, but it was so much fun.  We couldn't decide which animal was cutest.  But these baby ducks might have just won the award.  But we basically decided that any "baby" animal is ADORABLE!



Then we hurried over that afternoon to go over to the Mesa Arizona Temple.  I LOVED IT!  They didn't have anyone helping with sealings so we actually ended up doing sealings instead of a session.  It was the first time Mark and I have been able to do them together and it was great.  We were the only couple so they kept us busy but I loved it.  Afterwards they let us go up the celestial room and that was WONDERFUL! 

There was NO ONE around to take our picture - so this was our best attempt

After the temple we changed in the visitor's center back into our regular clothes, stopped and ate at IN- N-OUT and then drove back into Phoenix to go to an Arizona Diamondback's game.  I had never been to an actual "professional" baseball game.  But I LOVED IT!  I spent the majority of my time figuring out how to keep record of what happened in each play in my little free booklet and it was fun. 

Them setting up the field for the game

After the game we then drove two hours up to Flagstaff (luckily the game finished fast) and we stayed there for the night.  We then woke up early and drove up to the Grand Canyon.  Mark had never been there before and I hadn't been to the South Rim before - and it was ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!  It was in the 60's both days we were there and it was PERFECT!  We took so many pictures of tons of different views but I will only put a couple on here - I PROMISE!

The first day we went and walked around the visitor's center a little bit and then did the Bright Angel Trail.  There is definitely no easy trail down the Grand Canyon and this one proved the same.  We only went down a mile and a half but it was pretty steep.  And I am so incredibly grateful for a husband that is so understanding and sympathetic to my horrible fear of heights.  He let me hold his hand and squeeze it the whole time we were there - even while hiking.  His only comment was "Okay, so we may have to switch hands..."  Haha, he was so great though.  I love that boy. 

This little nook is where we stopped to eat lunch - FAR away from the cliff

The view from our turn-around point

  

We spent the day looking at the beautiful canyon and then looking at the village.  There were honestly times when we would be sitting on the shuttle and couldn't understand a single conversation around us because there were so many foreigners.  We felt like we were at the Tower of Babel - it was pretty funny. 

The next day we went and took the shuttle around the park and looked at lots of other stops in the canyon.  It was beautiful - we couldn't get enough of it.  We then went on a hike around dinner time.  This one was less than a mile but VERY STEEP.  It was a little frightening but gorgeous. 

The steep switchback trail down

The sun going down...

Looking at the trail on our way up...

We had a WONDERFUL vacation!  Arizona was a lot of fun and we would go back in a heartbeat.  So grateful that I have such an amazing husband where we truly love to just spend time with one another.  I can't wait for our next vacation - SOUTH CAROLINA 2012!