(Ben's first pair of Chucks... AWESOME!)Well, our camping trip got rained out. Which was a bummer because every time we plan one it gets canceled due to the weather. Stupid weather. And the thing is that it was PERFECT Friday and Sunday... but of course Saturday had to suck. Stupid Saturday. It was kind of nice though to curl up on Ashley and Jacob's couches with a blanket and watch movies with Ash while Ben napped and Ryan and Jacob cut up the tree that fell in their backyard...in the rain! He, he... Then we partook of the world's best nachos that evening (during which Mr. B had a ginormous blow out and I had to change it in the POURING rain in the back of the car) and then watched the Relief Society Broadcast. It was crazy because my old landlord Martha gave the opening prayer and I was like "hey, wait a minute... I think I know her! No really! I do!" She's a good lady.
Another Ben landmark... he's telling me when he's gone potty. I mean, he's 19 months! That's great! My goal was to have him out of diapers for when we decided to start to have another kid (not yet though...) and hopefully it'll be true! He even knows the difference between #1 and #2 and will most of the time tell me BEFORE he goes even! He's learned SO many words lately and I think that nasty second molar has finally stopped making him miserable. But he's still got 4 more I-teeth left. Hopefully those will come fast though. He really is the light of our lives. He is so smart and funny and really is such a good little boy. We are two VERY blessed parents. He's doing really good with transitioning to his new classroom, although morning drop-offs are a little harder for him. But he's sleeping and spending most of the day binky free which is terrific. Now we just need to do that at home too. The problem is he knows which drawer of his dresser I keep them in and will walk up to it and try and reach for it while saying "Na-na! Na-na!" He's saying juice, knows the sign for eat, seat-seat (for sit), up, open, book, outside, frisbee (Ryan's been trying to teach him that one FOREVER and he's so excited he can finally say it!), yummy (mummy), amen (maymen), shoes, socks, he says She-she for Sesame Street on the iPod, apple, and there's a few more I can't remember right now. He's FINALLY saying Mommy or Mama! And it's really cute because sometimes he'll call Ryan Mama too! He loves to read "Goodnight Moon" before bed and when I ask where the telephone and red balloon are he can point to them with out my help. And we always count the 3 bears sitting in chairs, he'll attempt to say "1, 2, 3". Pretty darn cute. He's learned to fold his arms for prayers... for like a second, but it's cute! He's not really my little baby anymore! It's trippy... but SO fun to see him growing and learning and every day his little personality comes out more and more. I love my Benny!
Tonight Ben & Daddy had some man time and shared a chocolate chip cookie... and it was adorable.
Well, my clean good-smelling sheets are awaiting my arrival...so I'd better go to bed. 
Supposedly after all this, they want to have the park cleaned up and ready to open by THIS Saturday morning. One of my coworkers responded to the email and said "oh is this the 'Log Ride' now?" Ha, ha, ha... Get it? That was a good laugh. 
So we went to Destin, FL this weekend with the Terry’s, the Elton’s, the Clint, the Jiznin and her friend Chris. We got off work early on Friday, and then picked the Elton’s (Hillary & Mark) up at their respective locations. Mark’s was at Georgia Tech and getting out of downtown was a BEAST. It took a ridiculously long time to get out of town and even longer to get to Destin! BUT, we had a fun ride down. Ben did well and only fussed a little. But we let him run around occasionally and we took plenty of potty stops. Especially one particular humorous stop we made in the back woods of Alabama for me to go potty, even though I’d only gone like maybe an hour prior to that! It was a small gas station of the road we were traveling on and I went in and saw two guys standing near the door to the bathroom, so I waited for a second thinking that they were in line, and then it occurred to me that they were just hanging out…in the gas station. I looked around to see where the actual door was for the restroom and found it was cracked open and thought “oh, they must not be waiting…” and when I opened the door my life flashed before my eyes. Okay, not really but a man on the toilet did who yelled at me did. SO… I apologized quickly while shutting the door and stood for a minute… waiting… until I decided that I didn’t want to be there anymore. It smelled of fried something and I didn’t want him to see me- the girl who walked in on him doing his thing. Plus, I didn’t want to be sitting doing MY business and someone walk in on me because the door didn’t shut all the way! So I crossed my legs and ran out and told the gang what happened and stunk the car up with the smell of whatever that fried something was that stuck to me. We found a “better” bathroom down the road!!! We ate in Opp, Alabama. It was a little scary I wont lie. But I’m not judging, I just had to note that because the name amused me. It rained pretty hard on us and we saw lots of lightning. But really, it’s a beautiful drive. We saw the ITTY-BITTIEST LDS church building I’ve EVER seen. It was seriously the size of maybe two bathrooms and a kitchen in a stake center put together! Anyway, we got to Destin first before the other car (The Terry’s, Clint and Jennifer) and got all settled in. Ben was asleep by this point, so I stayed at the condo and waited for the other 3 to go to the store for some basic necessities for the next day. We crashed out pretty hard that night and slept well. Ben woke us up fairly early Saturday, but that was okay because we were ready to make breakfast (me and Ryan) and get to the beach. So we ate and applied sunscreen and headed out. The water was PERFECT the weather was PERFECT the company was PERFECT. Ben was a little weirded out by the sand at first and I think he thought it hurt to stand on it but he enjoyed playing it. 
He had to have a shovel in his hands at all times when playing in the sand. He also was a big fan of his floaties we got him. I wasn’t too sure he’d be so in to them, but he like them and wore them the whole time. He’d even say “on, on, on” when they weren’t on! He liked the water… he kept liking his mouth or the float or even the water because of the salt I guess. He didn’t like to stay out for too long, which is fine. But the water was such that he could’ve if he wanted to because it was so calm. I think it was perfect temp for us, but maybe a little too cold for him. It was a little more wavy at the shore (of course), so when we’d walk in sometimes it would slap against us and get him all wet and in his face, but he dealt with it really well. If we laughed he would too. He kept pointing at it and saying “wah-wah” too. Smart kid! As a side note, the water seriously relaxed me SO much. I can’t even explain how badly I needed that trip. I LOVE the ocean just as much as I do the mountains, and it was so good to be there and in such good conditions. Ryan had a wonderful time too and we both had fun playing or floating or splashing in the water! So, we’re still on Saturday… we went back to the condo after a few hours at the beach and ate and then put Ben down for a nap. Everyone came in at that point and put a movie on- but neither Ryan nor I could stay awake and I was starting to get a headache so we napped too! It was terrific! Some of us realized though that we didn’t sunscreen ourselves up as adequately as we thought we did. Apparently I forgot to do my back, and so did Ashley. Hillary thought she got her front side and didn’t, Jen got a little spot on her neck that caused her much pain and I apparently forgot to apply sunscreen to the lower half of Ryan’s back too! Whoops! But after our naps and eating and movie watching we went back out to the beach. By this time Jen’s friend Chris joined us. Some didn’t swim though because of the aforementioned sunburns. 
Ben played in the "wah-wah" again but mostly enjoyed the beach. I think he was still pretty tired from earlier that afternoon. So he hung out a lot with his peeps and enjoyed putting sand in his hair and of course ate some.
After the beach me, Ryan, Ben and Jennifer went to the grocery store to get stuff for the rest of the weekend. And the others ordered pizza for us all. We ate pizza and enjoyed each other’s company and played games and stuff. We spent more time at the beach and pool the next morning and then spent the afternoon relaxing and cooking dinner. However, my little guy must’ve had his feet sunburned or something because when he woke up from his nap he was FUSSY! 
It took us a minute to figure it out, but we finally did and saw that his feet were VERY red and could tell it hurt him to walk, so we put aloe on his feet and on top of that his teeth were bugging him and so we also gave him some Tylenol. He perked up after a few which was good because he really was driving everyone crazy and dinner sucked because I was a little distracted by him and didn’t make it quite right. 
Anyway that night we walked down to the beach and then watched “Jack Frost” from MST3000 (Mystery Science Theater) and laughed and listened to the storm outside and then we all crashed HARD. Monday a few of us made one last trip out to the beach and enjoyed the peaceful warm and calm water… so beautiful and clear. I will miss that water… I already do. It was PERFECT. 
Then after cleaning up we headed home… on an 11 hour trip home for what should be a 6 hour drive! Traffic was bad again… and we stopped a few times. We got to visit Hillary’s house in Columbus and that was fun to see where she grewed up (some people say it like that here in the South). Besides the traffic, the trip was most excellent!!! We all decided we needed to make this an annual trip and maybe spend more than just Labor Day weekend there!
To match my gray desk, gray walls, gray floor.... I should bring in a throw pillow in a bright 
