Four Generations

Well, my dear friend Janel has done it again. She traveled with us to Scottsbluff last weekend to take photos of Nina, me, my mom and my Grandma. It was so special to us, and to have Janel with us made it extra special. I'll post a few of our favorites below. Janel took a few posed shots, and then some candid shots of us just hanging out, listening to Grandma play the organ, and looking at scrapbooks together. Janel, we are so grateful to you! Thank you so much!!







My mom's brother was able to join us for a bit so it was great to have him there as we were looking through the scrapbooks. Everyone has their own "version" of what happened in their childhood. :)



Nina loved watching Great Grandma play the organ.



Can't ever hug her too much!



My dad's dad joined us for breakfast one morning and Janel got this shot of him with Nina in the Perkin's parking lot. So cute!

6 months

Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but time is really flying by! Our sweet girl is 6 months old already. She passed her six month check-up with flying colors. Mom and Dad got a scolding from the doctor, though. Apparently a 6 month old baby who weighs 20 pounds does not need to nurse three times during the night. Who knew? We were instructed to "Let her cry!" Yikes! We were terrified. And what happened? She cried for a whole seven minutes. That's it. Seven minutes. Then slept on through. And has slept through since. Again, who knew? You would have thought we would know these things since we have had a baby before. But no. We are really clueless.

In the meantime, Miss Thing is gobbling up solids like she's training to enter pie eating contests:



She's crawling all over the place and getting into everything:



And hanging with her peeps:



Simon is a big second grader, and loving every minute of it. Not that he would admit to liking it, mind you. He's had a great start this year. No *ahem* "issues" like last year (remember the note from the teacher: Simon needs to save his stories for recess)? Yea, none of that so far. He tries to schedule his stand-up routine for lunch, and that seems to be working out well so far.

His school did a fun run to raise money for their sports programs. Did I mention that Brian is currently Simon's team's assistant flag football coach? Holla! Simon collected pledges and made it eight times around the loop. There was a bouncy house on each side of the loop that the kids had to run through. It was super fun, but it was HOT. Hello, people! It is almost October. Enough of the 90 degree weather already! I want crunchy leaves and soup!



After the run, Simon's class hosted their first Authors' Tea. The parents came, and the kids read their first written pieces. This month, fairy tales. Simon read his story nice and loud, with emotion and inflection. It was awesome! I was so stinkin' proud of that kid!



Here, in its entirety, and the original, is Simon's story:

The Shark Clue
By Simon Bernhard

Once upon a time there was a shark named prefeser mysterio. Every time his family thought something was wrong of cores he had to solve it. Most of the time it was just a knook on the door or the door bell. He knew it all the time. But sometimes there keys where stolen. If he could not find them in the house, he would look all over the neighborhood. He took training to look for clues. And so he knows how to do it now. Ok, not everything. So where were we. Oh yah. He hunted at dusk but the only thing he hunted was water dragons. He never got one. The End.

You may want to consider that for your next book club selection! Hope all are well! :)

Our Little Eggplant

Well, my friend Janel has done it again! Remember when she made Nina this adorable newborn hat seen below:



Well, now that her newborn hat is too small and safely tucked away in Nina's box of newborn keepsakes, Janel has made her an eggplant hat. How stinkin' cute is this? Janel, thank you SO SO much! We absolutely love it! Now, if I can just convince Simon to be parmesan cheese for Halloween so we can have Eggplant Parmesan! So far, no luck. He wants to be a vampire. But how cute would Eggplant Parmesan be? Thank you, Janel!!

Casa Bonita!!

All of you Colorado natives will appreciate this one. Just for fun tonight we decided to head over to Casa Bonita for dinner. See the big pink castle in the background? That's Casa Bonita. A legendary restaurant in the Denver area serving terrible food, but amazing fun. There are cliff divers and fire jugglers, cowboy and princess shows, puppet shows, a scary cave, Chiquita the angry gorilla, a Mariachi band, Mexican dancers, an arcade, etc. Kids LOVE it! When we were kids it was a huge thrill! Simon got to bring Zach at the last minute, and they had so much fun, although they did get pretty scared in the caves.

I *think* Nina enjoyed herself as well:



But let's be honest. Casa Bonita is fun for the kids, but the adults come for one reason. Unlimited piping hot sopaipillas:



In the arcade, Simon and Zach played enough games of skeeball to win two tubs of this incredibly exciting, well, goop. They loved it and had all sorts of fun molding it into a million different things on the way home. We had fun trying to pick it out of Simon's hair later. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Labor Day Fun

We had a nice relaxing labor day weekend. It's so great when Brian has a three day weekend. Now that summer is over, he doesn't have every other Friday off anymore. Bummer! We love those Fridays off. Above is a view of Simon I see quite frequently. His backside. While he plays the Wii. When Elaine and Co were here they got Simon the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games game. It is very cool, and every stadium is decked out exactly like the Beijing stadiums. Very fun! Simon got to have his buddy Romeo over on Saturday for some Wii time and of course, to toss the football back and forth. Those two had a blast! Simon and Romeo went to school together when Simon was in Kindergarten, and it turns out that Romeo's mom is a scrapper, so hello! Instant friendship! She also is an amazing cook. I've recently ordered one dozen of her breakfast burritos and one dozen of her beef and bean burritos. Can't wait! In other news, I've rejoined Weight Watchers. Ha! Something's wrong with this picture! :)

Nina sits and watches her brother play the Wii. She is so excited to be able to sit up, and she is quite proud of herself!



On Sunday, I took the kids to the park. Nina and I go almost everyday. She loves that swing! Well, she mostly loves to chew on it, but she does enjoy swinging as well.



Simon spends most of his time at the park sending his wrestling action figures down the slide, but he'll occasionally take a break to practice jumping out of the swing.



What Brian did while we were at the park:



Now don't go throwing a pity party for Brian. Working in the yard for him is like scrapbooking for me. He loves to fiddle around in the yard. Did you not notice all the flowers around the bottom of the trees? Yes, those are his babies. :) More soon!

We've been together how long?

Got this site from my friend Janel's daughter, Lauren. So funny! Brian looks like my dad in so many of these, like his brother Jim in one of them, and like his brother John in the long-haired hippy one. Do it yourself at yearbookyourself.com.

Have fun!

Hillary!

Did you guys see Hillary's AMAZING speech last night? Brian and I sat in silence with our mouths hanging open, hanging on her every word. What an amazing woman. I can't wait to be able to teach Nina about her and everything she has done for women. Somebody posted this picture on one of my scrapbooking message boards this morning. I thought it was hilarious! How much are those two guys loving their jobs right now? Orange was definitely the right choice! :)



Brian chatted this morning with his cousin Steve Doocy of Fox News' Fox and Friends. Steve is in Denver covering the DNC for Fox. He has a hilarious book about marriage and a new one about parenting coming out soon. I enjoyed his marriage book this summer while we were visiting Iowa. Brian's parents had a copy, and it was such a fun read. He is super funny. My mom and her friends at the gym in the Villages are big fans of Steve. My mom announces every morning that Steve is Brian's cousin. She said that often turns into, "Did you hear that? Karen knows Steve Doocy!" No, no she doesn't know him! :) I'm wondering if my mom, a lifelong Democrat, secretly masquerades around as a Republican in the Villages. She wouldn't want her closeted Democratic status to ban her from the next bingo tournament or worse yet, risk eating a poisoned jello mold! Sorry, Mom, I couldn't resist. Here's a picture until we can get you a signed one:



Hope everyone is well!

The Wedding!

So I've received the photos from this summer's wedding! You may remember that Bancroft was the final destination of our summer vacation. We were headed there to attend Brian's brother John's wedding to his darling bride, Beth. We've called her Aunt Beth for years so we're extra excited now to officially have her as a new aunt to Simon and Nina. She is so sweet and so funny! She fits perfectly into the Bernhard clan! So above is whole gang. Brian's whole family except for his brother Tim's two boys (who are both away at college). Let's just say that when my family gets a family picture taken, it can be done a lot more close up! :)

The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and it was so fun to be with everyone again and catch up. Below are Brian's parents, Phil and Pat:



Below is Brian with his parents and six siblings. Back row (l to r): Brian, brother John (the oldest & the groom!), married to Beth, father of four boys; brother Jim, married to Cathy, father of 2 Wartburg students. Next row: brother Kevin, married to Dawn, father of 2 boys and 2 girls; sister Elaine, mother of Melissa and Clint, Grandmother of Avery, Godmother of Simon; sister Betsy, Godmother of Nina (and others, but Nina's her favorite); brother Tim, married to Carole, father of 2 college-age sons. Whew!



Our family picture from the wedding:



Simon and his Godmother, Aunt Elaine (and the person who tattoed him when he was just 4 months old):



And our favorite picture from the wedding!! Trying to get Grandma and Grandpa with all of the grandkids and great-grandkid. I love how Dakota is not available (2nd from left). I love how Nina feels the need to fix Grandpa's hair, and I love how Simon is relishing the state of bliss he's in when he's with his cousins in Iowa. On a side note, once we got home I found about 10 things that would have been nicer for him to wear and would have helped him look a lot less Forrest Gump-ish, but hey, hindsight, right?



That's it for now. Welcome to the madness, Aunt Beth!! You're gonna love it!

The Presidential Experience

We had a fun morning today. A traveling museum called "The Presidential Experience" is in town. They have replicas of Air Force One, the oval office and all sorts of other presidential goodies. The lighting in the makeshift museum tent was terrible so excuse the picture quality below.

We went with my younger brother, Rusty, and his BFFs and neighbors:



Nina contemplates the future of the presidency while visiting the oval office replica:



The regular pilot called in sick so Simon and I filled in and piloted Air Force One for the president:



There were tons of vendors there so we were able to get everybody all decked out for the upcoming convention and election. Go, Obama! :)



More coming soon!

Sniff, Sniff

How do I suddenly have a second grader? This is not fair! Time goes too fast! Of course Simon could not get out the door fast enough, after a few hip hop poses and an attempt at a normal pose. Have a great day, buddy!



With his BFF Zach, and Zach's sister during carpool this morning:



After Simon told her he would be gone and she would have to hang out with mom all day:

Skydiving!

We had a blast with Elaine and Co this past week. They did Waterworld, Bronco camp, lots of golfing, and skydiving. We should call it what it really is - indoor skydiving. But doesn't it sound so much more thrilling when you just say skydiving? Everyone loved it, and I think we'd all be up for doing it again. I wish I could blame my hair in the above picture on the wind tunnel, but unfortunately, this picture was taken before the dive.

Simon and his hero, Clint, getting suited up and ready to go:



Nina - Too cool for school (and skydiving):



Simon - loving every minute of it:



Clint - flying like a pro by himself almost the whole time:



Mel - Rockin' it out and keeping her straightened hair looking perfect:



Elaine - giggling the ENTIRE time:



Brian - after the instructor asked to have the air pressure turned up just slightly:



Renee - going for it and having a blast even without having taken a Xanax:



We had a great time - love you guys!