Berne Fantasy Football

The wait is over. Enjoy.

Elk Lake was AWESOME!

As part of the great Berne gathering of 2013, we spent an incredible day on a breathtakingly beautiful lake. They rented a pontoon boat (isn't pontoon a funny word?) and a bunch of paddle boards. Word of warning, the paddle boards are much easier to paddle out and across the lake. Coming back against the wind? Not so much. But here the kids are all enjoying their turn on the boat:

While dude took a little time to warm up to the whole boat idea (Nana is a great comforter/reassurer), baby G thought it was great from the start. No qualms about not having firm ground to stand on. Time to play!

 Dude preferred to be in charge, behind the wheel with Bopa. Kid loves steering wheels.

 Grandma and Grandpa even enjoyed their time on the boat! Highlight: When grandpa said to my Aunt Rosie, "take a picture of me driving this boat with Leatrice (my grandma) on my lap. Come here Leatrice. Take a seat."

On this day, cousin Aaron stepped up big time. He let J on his paddleboard, and paddled her all around the lake. Then she wanted a turn. I believe, from what I saw, he then swam behind her trying to be right there to push or steady if need be. 

 Thing is, she didn't need any help. I guess when you weigh so little, balancing isn't as much of an issue? The one who looked like he needed help was poor Aaron, who looked half-drowned by the time they were done. She was fast! And man, she loved it!

Course dude wanted a turn. With him on, I thought sitting was a better option, but we got braver and improved with time :) Helped when Bopa took him on his board. Then I could stand, even if I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Not as hard to balance as I had expected, except perhaps for turning with choppy waters or a brisk breeze. It was a blast but definitely required some arm strength when you got out in that wind!

 And Nana helped feed little Ms. Bottomless Pit/Hungry Bird on land. What a day! Couldn't have asked for better!

Loving Bend!

The kids know that if we go to Nana and Bopa's house in Bend, there's going to be some pool time! And they LOVE it!

 Daddy wasn't there and sadly Bopa had just had some dental work done that made him a little hesitant to rough house, but fortunately, Uncle Wes stepped up big time. The kiddos might have worn him out a little. But they VERY, VERY much appreciated it!

 As did I. It left me free to sit calmly and dryly sit on the edge with the more hesitant littles :)

 Baby G loved the pool as much as anyone!

 Cheese! Despite what some people have said over the years, I'm still not sure we look at all alike. But then again, my kiddos don't look like their sisters either! Hopefully they end up as good of friends as we are now!

 Dude liked to join in on the action. From the safety of the edge of the pool. But how darn cute is he in this shooting stance?

 Fortunately, Elena and her girls were able to come join in the fun. More kids for Wes to throw through the air! And a LOT more giggling!

Ok, ok, this shot isn't from the pool, but she's just SO cute! Those eyes are so dang blue!!

Team Berne time!

Nearly everybody (minus Adam and Cooper) was able to gather from far and wide (Israel, New York, North Dakota, Colorado, and Oregon) to celebrate Grandpa Berne's 90th birthday and Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary. Group shot in our new-and-improved Team Berne shirts, reminiscent of the ones we got 20+ years ago when there were quite a few less of us!

J modeling how good she looks in her new shirt.

I think we look pretty good too :) (Cousins Arielle and Alexa on the left).

Uncle Rick even got a rather shy Baby G to have some fun with him.  

M was a little less shy. But then again, they are birthday buddies.

With all his great-nieces and nephews. He's so good with the little kids! He always has loved being the "favorite uncle."

I tried the next morning to get one last cute shot of our 4 in their shirts. It almost worked. Sunburns, undies and all.

Oh Henry!

New baby cousin H the 5th is about the cutest thing with rolls and a full head of hair. Basically everybody wanted a piece. J was constantly wanting to hold him and considers herself an extra because she has "lots of experience." Course she was never content to hold him securely. She wanted to talk to him and get him to laugh so he had to be able to see her face. Not that he liked to focus on people's faces a whole lot when we first got there. Wouldn't look you in the eye that kid :)

M loved to hold him almost as much, just didn't think about it quite as frequently. But she always looked proud and happy to have him!

Dude even wanted to get his chance now and then. He just didn't stay interested for long. Basically he was in it for the photo opp. Then you'd better be nearby bc he let go as soon as he decided he was done.  

Baby G was also interested in the new baby. Aunt Lenora was never really comfortable leaving him on the ground if she was nearby. Or awake. Had to include this picture. Clearly she knew Lenora and Andrew don't like H to suck on his fingers. So she drooled all over her own arm to show H what he was missing out on and then, when nobody was looking, offered him a chance with hers.

Her favorite thing to do though was to rub his head ... while we all cautioned, "gently G, gently G." She just wanted to feel what a full head of hair feels like. Heaven knows she's never had one :)

And if we were lucky, she skipped the poking pointing out his eyes part and went straight for the hand holding. She LOVED to hold his hands! He wasn't always a fan and can move those things around quite randomly, much to her frustration, but here he almost looks like he enjoys it :)

Almost!

And one last one of Great-Grandpa Berne enjoying his newest great-grandbaby.

We miss Baby H already! He's going to be WAY too big when we see him again :( He'll be walking! Oi! G will be able to have some real fun with him then although I seriously doubt H will hang around for any of his cousins to hold him!

Ah Pinterest, how thou hast failed me.

I give up. It was so cute when somebody else's kids did it. And now dude can't stop talking about how mommy wrote on his feet. Years of lecturing on how we only write on paper down the tube. Awesome.

Does Baby G like camping?

 I think that's a yes.

Then, to avoid waking up the entire campground at 5:15, which is when that cute little punk above woke up and then woke up the rest of the family by doing things like sitting on them or patting them lovingly on the head until they opened their eyes, we took an early morning drive around the National Park. Apparently that's when all the animals are out and about, thinking they own the place! We were pretty sure we were going to have to turn around and head back the other way when we came across this traffic jam!

 And while I was distracted by the large group ahead, this guy snuck up beside us for a closer look. Kinda startling.

 And then, for the first time, we saw the wild mustangs up close!!! The girls were out of their heads excited. And I gotta admit, I'm not even a horse person, but there is not much better than seeing these beautiful, strong wild animals roaming the paved highway like they used to do back in the Wild Wild West. They were so beautiful!

 And there were some babies! None of us had ever seen a baby horse in person before! Talk about all legs!

 Older baby. Man, these animals are incredible.

 And when they run? SO awesome!

 One last baby shot. Had to include this one because I love how the Mama was trying to stare us down. As we inched along in the car, another horse and her moved to stand between us and the baby. What a good Mama!

Another successful trip to the park! Especially because Dude can't stop talking about how we all camped in a tent, although he was disappointed that we didn't find any T-Rexes on our drive! He kept insisting they would be there :)

Hiking in Teddy's Park

 Ooooh look! A trail! We're outta here!

 You guys coming too or what?

 And at the top of the first hill, whoa! what a view!

 Hold on. Short legs make a little hill seem like a mountain.

 Still waiting for Ms. Short Legs. Cheeeeese!

 Baby G would've happily walked the whole way but there was no guardrail along the sharp drop-off of an edge of Wind Canyon, so....

Finally all in one place!

And proof that I was there! But what to do? The path is blocked by a very large, muddy puddle. Somewhat related, the last time we were here this park was not nearly so green. And pretty sure that river wasn't that big either. Amazing what a crazy rainy spring can do!

Speaking of what rain can do...

Is that why we didn't see any other hikers? Turns out clay is slippery when wet. And sticky. Very, very sticky. Imagine how hard it is for very small legs to lift feet like this step after step! Dude kept saying, "whoa! This is di-rty."

 And speaking of more things the rain can do ... by the way, the kids are not behind this rock. They are inside it. Tried to get dude to go down in far enough to peek out one of the holes, but he kept saying, "Nooooo, what animal is it? What animal?" Poor little nervous guy.

 More gorgeous views! Man, this is so green it's hard to remember it's North Dakota not Oregon!

 J: "Mom, what makes the rocks red?" Me: Um ... science.

 Another hill conquered and another spectacular panaroma enjoyed!

 And another rock enjoyed. Baby G thought each and every one was so cool. Even with that, we succeeded in finishing our .3 mile hike! What's that you say? Only .3 miles? Sure didn't feel that short with so many little legs and so much steep wet clay with so few guardrails and so many buffalo chips to avoid! Good times!