Wild times at the zoo

A few weeks ago, Ben and I went on his school-wide field trip to the zoo. It was a sunny and hot morning, and Ben seemed a little overwhelmed at times, but he was a trooper.

(didn't realize we were doing tough-guy faces here)

I wasn't sure if he was into the sealion show, but the picture I took to investigate shows how closely he was paying attention. Wonder what he's thinking...

"No, I did not know that's how they do that. Thanks trainerman."

While he did spend a good deal of time like this:
it was fun to release him to explore on his own for the first time.

"That's a big kitty cat!"

What does a lion say Ben?

"Aaaaaa"

"Here, birdie, birdie, birdie..."

And then all the flamingos stuck their necks straight up and started honking and Ben tore away from that fence and behind me as fast as those little legs could carry him.

"Yikes! Do you think they heard me?"

He was tired too, which was weird because he kinda slept in that day. He was conked out by the time we pulled out of the zoo parking lot and stayed that way through most of the picnic held back at the school.

Then when he woke up, he downed a ton of baked beans.

That's all he ate!

Apparently, all the teachers know that they are his favorite and to double bib him on baked-bean days. His mother did not!

It was a fun morning together, and I'm looking forward to getting back soon...with lots of sunscreen and water.

Lovefest 2009...

How have I let such a great weekend go undocumented for so long?! Oh yeah, because this blog is about Ben and he wasn't there! Actually he was there, at home, with Grandma and Grandpa, while Tyler and I snuck out for an early anniversary weekend back at the end of February.

Lovefest 2009 (as it was dubbed by my sister) began on Friday night with the kick-off of the marriage conference at our church that ran through the day on Saturday. Probably doesn't sound like the most exciting way to celebrate, but we kind of felt like the best way to honor the commitment we made to each other five years ago would be to learn how to make the next five, ten, twenty, fifty years together even better. Actually that was one of the key points too - that successful marriages are all about managing the decisions made early on. It's so easy to let circumstances and feelings dictate how we live, but love is not a feeling, it's a choice - one that you have to make over and over again throughout your marriage. Oh man, now I got myself started...let me get my notes. Feel free to skip to the pictures since that's why you came, but if you're married (or would like to be someday), please consider this list of Six Essentials of a Healthy Marriage:

1. Trust God. Make Him the center of your home.
2. Hurry home. Make your time together a priority.
3. Intentionally cultivate communication. go deeper than "how was your day?", really make an effort to hear each other ...that's what I took away, I didn't write notes on this one
4. Nourish romance. ...or this one...guess we've got those two figured out - ha!
5. Celebrate differences. Work together to meet in the middle
6. Finish together. Mean what you said in your vows, "til death parts us". There is peace in knowing that whatever disagreement, conflict, pain you are in...nobody's going anywhere.

I guess the bottom line of what I walked away with is don't wait until something's broken in your marriage to try to fix it - do "preventative maintainence" now! And in between all the serious stuff, we laughed at illustrations we could relate to, ate a lot of good food, drank a ton of coffee, chatted with our friends and really had lots of fun!

After the conference, we checked into the Ross Bridge resort for a mini-anniversary trip (look at us working on number 4 already - quite the overachievers).

Dinner at Bonefish grill was amazing, and we thought we'd really lucked out by getting seated right away. Until we looked at the clock when we left, realizing it was only 7:10 and the Saturday dinner rush had only just begun! (Can take the parents away from their baby, but can't the baby's schedule away from his parents!)

me and my hottie honey at dinner...daaang

We decided to forgoe dessert at the restaurant and instead picked it up on the way home. Words just can't describe the glee I felt lounging around with a glass of wine, watching a movie and eating chocolate cake out of the box with spoons. Heaven!

The next morning, I got a text that said "the snow at Ross Bridge must be beautiful!" Huh? Of course, snow had been predicted but that's just not something we take very seriously here in Birmingham. However, we scrambled to open the curtains to find a winter wonderland outside our patio!

I know how it looks, but I promise I didn't photoshop myself into this picture! I was there, standing in the snow with no coat on - trust me, I remember.

After enjoying a scrumptious breakfast, we headed home, from one castle,

to another. :)

As for Ben, he had an awesome time with G&G - pretty sure they enjoyed themselves* too. See some of their antics here. Thanks for coming Mom and Dad; our weekend wouldn't have been possible without your help!

*I've been assured that Tooltime with Grandpa and Ben was closely surpervised.

Sugar high!

Somehow I forgot my camera when I went to Ben's "Friendship Party" in February (when did "Valentine's Day" become un-PC?!). So I asked a more-prepared mom to take a few pictures of Ben for me, which she forwarded this week.

At Ben's birthday party, he merely poked at his cupcake and ate a few tiny morsels. Not so at this party!

Wonder if any of that pink frosting made it in his mouth?
(No, this is not a typical snack at his school. And no the teachers didn't want to keep him after the buzz wore off! )

Adrienne and Michael: "Uh Ben? You've got a little something on your face."
Ben: "Lay off, I'm starving!"

Ben did happen to find true love this Valentine's Day. Her name is Cheese Puff. But at this point, it's a forbidden love, for his own protection. But they did have that one magical day together!

Get this boy a wet wipe (and a haircut) pronto!

That picture was probably taken while the other kiddos had finished picking at their snacks and had moved to the dancefloor - booties a'bouncing, tamborines a'shaking, Ben just sat back and watched, cheeks a'munching. Uh-oh.

Happy Day!

This blog is, of course, primarily about Ben, but I have to depart from my regular MO to report on last weekend as I was honored to be the Matron of Honor at Tracey and Matt's wedding in Nashville. I've known Tracey since freshmen year in high school, and we were roommates throughout college and beyond - traveling the world, living it up, and entering adulthood together. So helping her kick off her new life with Matt was very exciting;

as was having most of our close friends from "back in the day" there to celebrate!

Since then, we've added a few new members to the crew. This is Lisa and Amyas (What a fighter! It was so wonderful to meet him.), Jenny and Ethan, and me and Ben.
It was a squirmy bunch, so this is the best shot I got!

As anyone who's been in this position can attest to, being the spouse of a member of the wedding party is not the best weekend-job description one can have. But I have to say that Tyler, who did airport pickups, multiple-camera photography sessions, and chauffeuring duties for a gaggle of girls all weekend, was a trooper! And I do believe he managed to have some fun along the way too! Here we are at the rehearsal dinner - what a view!

So what was Ben doing as we gallivanted about town, you may ask? He was living it up at Grandma and Grandpa's house; eating rice cereal and prunes, trying on new outfits, and basically being spoiled rotten.

A whole weekend of Ben duty = one happy Grandma!

So it was a great weekend that flew by way too fast. Beautiful wedding, fun reunion, little sleep and good times. Love to you all, miss those who couldn't be there and congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Andersen! Welcome to the club!