Denver

Well, if you're reading this it means that you were invited to be a part of this blog. I threatened months ago that I was going to make it private and today I finally followed through on that.

This past week Bennett and I went on a little getaway to Denver. It was so much fun and we loved literally every minute of it. We laughed our heads off the entire time and loved being able to spend every minute together for 5 days. Here's what we did:

Wednesday: Hit the road by 7:30 and drove for a long, long time.

 We're seriously considering settling down in Dinosaur...purely for namesake of course. 

The drive was one of the most beautiful drives I've been on in my life. Poor Bennett had to sit in a car with me for 9 hours saying, "Woah! Look at how beautiful this is!" every 5 minutes. 

We stopped for a few hours in Steamboat Springs and loved it! It reminded us exactly of Sun Valley and Ketchum Idaho- our favorite! We think Steamboat Springs may be Ketchum's big brother. 

After a stop in Steamboat Springs we headed to Boulder for the night. We loved Boulder, it was the cutest area full of some of the strangest people we've ever seen. It was great!

Thursday: We woke up, drove to Denver and began to explore the city.

That afternoon we went to the U.S. Mint, where coins are created and then put into circulation. It was so neat to see how our currency is made. What used to take two men 2 years to make, the mint in Denver can now make in only 1 hour.

We grabbed a yummy burger at the Paramount Cafe for dinner.

We spent the rest of the evening strolling around the 16th street mall.

Friday: Our 1 year anniversary!!!
It's crazy to believe that Bennett and I have been married for a year now. It has been the best year of our lives and we're so excited for the future that is ahead of us.

We had the perfect day celebrating our anniversary.

We started out by going to Hammond's Candy Factory, an old-fashioned candy factory that makes all the candy by hand, using no machinery. It was so interesting and delicious all at the same time.

We then went on a tour of the Molly Brown house and learned more about the "Unsinkable Molly Brown."

After that we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Denver Botanical Gardens. They were unbelievably beautiful. Each area of the gardens represented different areas of the world, with a huge variety of flowers and plants. We loved wandering through all of them and taking in the beauty.

That night we went to Larimer Square for dinner. It was a quaint little area. We ate at a delicious Italian restaurant where we had the best pizza we have ever had in our lives. And that is not an exaggeration.

Saturday: We went out to the Mile High Stadium to see where the Broncos play.

We then went to the Denver Art Museum. It was a very neat building, architecturally.

Some of the pieces on the "modern and contemporary" floor confused us a little.

I don't really get it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Denver City Park having our leftover pizza and playing cards.

We spent the rest of the night in LoDo and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Sunday: We went to church and then hit the road again. This time we drove through Grand Junction and Moab. It was another beautiful drive and we had a good time in the car playing 20 questions, reminiscing about our trip, and enjoying our last full day of our trip together.

It was the best trip and we are so sad it's over. We would recommend Denver to anyone- it was so great!

Life Lately

Summer has come and is cruising by us and we are loving every minute of it. It has been such a fun, exciting and relaxing summer so far. We are relishing in the beauty and freedom of no school and being able to spend every single evening doing things that we love.

Exciting updates in bullet point form:

• Bennett and I became a first time aunt and uncle! James Cleveland Bergeson was born on May 27th and I can confidently say is the cutest little guy this world has ever seen. We're obsessed with him. Mike and Andrea are the best parents and James is sure lucky to have been sent to them. 
• I have been planning and preparing like crazy for my upcoming job. I somehow, through some great connections, got my absolute dream job a couple months back. 5th grade, Jordan School District, Year-round school (D Track), and Title 1. Can life get any better? Not at all. School technically starts on July 25, but seeing as how I am on D Track, I won't start actually teaching until August 20th. I can not even wait to have my own class and I am going crazy with excitement planning everything. It's the best pay off after 4 years of school to finally get to do what I'm passionate about. 
• Bennett has been working full time and seriously has the best job. He loves the accounting firm he's working for and they are so good to him. It has been such a blessing. It's so nice to have a summer break from school, too. 
• We've been having the best summer and have been having so much fun doing things like: redecorating our apartment by making artwork and sewing bright pillows, spending practically everyday with our favorite nephew, going to the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah, going on picnics to the park and spending the entire evening laying outside playing cards, reading and laughing our guts out, playing games, eating at taco carts, playing a ton of tennis, going on bike rides and boating with Bennett's family. 

Here are a few pictures of our summer thus far: 

Our new apartment decorations 

The famous James...oh, how we love him! 

Natural History Museum 

Picnics at the park. We can't seem to get enough of the warm weather. 

 ...sometimes sleep gets the better of us

Monopoly...clearly Bennett is the business guy. He smoked me like a cheap, Cuban cigar. 

Taco Carts: cheap, delicious and slightly sketchy...just what we love. 

Bennett has loved learning how to play tennis and is getting so good! It has been fun for me to start playing again, since the last time I played this much was on the courts at Viewmont High School almost 5 years ago. 

We had a very large and disgusting explosion in our sink the other day. Lets just say the disposal worked in reverse. Luckily for me, I happened to be standing over the sink when the blessed occasion occurred. You can't see it too well, but all the gunk on the sink was also all over my entire body. Yum! 

Riding bikes

Boating with Bennett's family. 

Misfortune of the day: Bennett's wedding ring slipped right off his finger and is now a permanent resident on the floor of Pineview Reservoir. Good thing our 1 year anniversary is in 4 days. I think I know what he'll be getting...

Bennett is really the most thoughtful person I know. I was having one of those irrational emotional breakdowns the other day and Bennett came home early from work with these beautiful flowers. I sometimes don't know how I got so lucky. He is so much better than I deserve and this {almost} past year has been the happiest of both of our lives. 

We just love each other so much, it's crazy!