Danny + Barbara = LOVE

To end our vacation we had a beautiful wedding in Knoxville, TN on June 8th for my cousin Danny and Barbara. It was at Dara's Garden and it was an absolutely gorgeous wedding outside. Benjamin had a blast running around and stretching his legs after a seven hour drive.

Popcorn and movie after the wedding while Daddy did some more driving

Vacation 2014

The first week of this month we went on vacation with Mimi and Papa...it was a blast and Benjamin thinks that they live at the beach house. He still asks about the beach house to this day and associates it with them. We started our trip off with a little detour in Chattanooga with a visit to the Chattanooga Choo Choo and the Tennessee Aquarium

An incline of 72.7%, very steep!

Although it was cloudy, you can see 7 different states from this view: Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia

LOVES penguins!

Trying to escape the sharks!

 

 

After all of our fun in Tennessee, we made a pit stop for David so he could eat at the Varsity (someplace famous for their hotdogs!) then finished are travels to Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

 

 

Benjamin LOVED the beach house since it was so big and he could run around a lot, however he didn't love the beach itself. It was too dirty for him (guess he gets that from his mamma) and the sand was a little weird feeling. It was getting better towards the end of the trip, but hope he gets over that by the next time we go to the beach and at least there was a pool at the house.

 

Love our little family!

Playing with Mimi

 

Reading with Papa

Puzzle time

Benjamin's birthday cake Mimi had made, SO adorable

Blowing out his candle, take three!

 

 

Over all it was a fantastic trip and we are hoping that this might be a yearly thing :) 

Ready for the Pool

Last night was Benjamin's last swim class and he is ready for the pool all summer. I know they tell everyone this, but if we kept him in class for another month he would have graduated to the next level. He mastered all the skills except for separating from parents and following directions, no surprise there. We took him out because we were going to miss many classes in June and the fact that we will be in the pool all summer. We will for sure put him back in over the winter so he can keep being a little fishy and maybe one day he will be on a swim team like his mommy was in grade school.

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It's off to school for Benjamin!! We just got the acceptance letter today that Benjamin will be going to school full time five days a week. It is a little bit sad, but mostly excitement. I don't know how Benjamin is going to handle to it but over time we will love school. I have been very stressed about this over the past couple weeks and so happy that we finally found out. He will officially be starting Tuesday, June 10th!!! His teacher will reach out to me in a couple of days to introduce themselves and schedule a time for us to go in and meeting them

Fun Weekend!

This past weekend we had perfect weather so we took advantage. We found out that the market in Kirkwood was open so we went to get all of our fresh produce Saturday morning. We then did a bunch of yard work and Benjamin helped me pull weeds...he had fun now but wait until it is a chore! We then went to Grants Farm with the Herbst, first time there for the season and of course was not disappointed. Then the Carlson's did a little BBQ'n and then went to my parents for some s'mores.

Ken sharing candy with Benjamin...she loves "baby Benjamin"

Waving to mommy

First camel ride ever!

Helping daddy BBQ

Roasting marshmallow for s'mores

 

 

Then on Sunday we went to the air show and it was too crowded and the line for everything was way to long so we saw one airplane and left.



HAPPY

Last night I was playing tickle monster with Benjamin and through his giggles he said "momma, got me, momma got me, HAPPY...(pats himself on his chest)...HAPPY". It just melted my heart that he was telling me that he was happy. Love that little guy!

Kickaroos

Not anymore! We had signed Benjamin up for a Kickaroo class up at Vetta so he could get out of the house and interact with other kids. Well, he only made it through three classes. It’s not that he doesn’t want to interact with other kids; it’s that he wants nothing to do with being told what to do, shocker, right? In his defense though they do red light, green light and how is he supposed to know what to do. Anyway, the instructor noticed how much Benjamin doesn’t want to do the class so he allowed us to drop the remaining classes. Benjamin would ask through the whole class if we could go bye-bye, or ask if we were all-done.

After all this is said and done I was starting to feel like a bad parent. Like I was supposed to make him finish the session and teach him that we don’t give up on things that get too hard or that we don’t want to do, right? And then I was thinking how is Benjamin at this age going to know the difference if we took him out early or if the session was over, right??

I believe it is a great program and we may consider it more like when he is three or four when he will understand more and want to do more activities because these days all he wants to do is run around and be outside. I am completely OK with this!