Temple Trip

Karen arrived on Tuesday evening and I was leaving on Thursday morning. Andrew had class on Wednesday night so Karen treated us to a Wednesday morning date—our first time going out together without any children since the one time we went out to breakfast at Kneaders after or before visiting Benjamin in the hospital.

We went to the temple and it was relaxing and wonderful and rejuvenating and very much needed.

March For Babies

Today was the Durham/Raleigh March For Babies. Benjamin and I participated in it along with my friends Nicole (who was a preemie) and Heidi (whose preemie Andrea recently turned two). We raised a fair bit of money together—far more than we would have been able to donate ourselves—though I will admit that I could have tried a bit harder.

With everything I had going on this month I kind of put fundraising on the back burner. So last night is when I started asking for donations...and I raised $64 (with special thanks to Nicole, my mom, Auntie Emily, my cousin Tara, and Andrew).

Nicole was kind enough to drive our little team to the event, which was way over by the airport. I'm so glad she did because I was absolutely exhausted this morning—Benjamin stayed up partying until nearly 2 AM last night and then I had to wake him up at 7 AM so we could get ready to go. He was not a happy camper (and neither was I). He cheered up though once we were registered and began to explore all the booths they had set up.

We hit up the stroller decorating station before visiting the emergency response vehicles. Benjamin wore his Life Flight t-shirt his crew gave to him when he was transfered from American Fork Hospital to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

Leaving Utah

Wednesday afternoon my mom and I went to pick up Rosie from school—she's taking driver's education and has range after school—and to visit Josie at work—she's been working from 5–midnight every day this week—so that I could say goodbye.

Benjamin got acquainted with the driver's seat while we waited for Rosie.

Play dates

On Tuesday morning we went to BYU to visit Naanii at work. One of Uncle David's teeth broke so he had a dentist appointment; he dropped us off on his way and we walked up to the library. Naanii was surprised to see us because she was expecting us to be my friend Carrie (since she saw the stroller wheels first). We had missed Carrie by minutes!

My mom quickly escorted us to the PIVA room (which is where Carrie had been headed) but Carrie wasn't there, either. Fortunately, one of her violist friends was there and he had her phone number so he texted her to say that I was looking for her and she came back to visit for a few minutes with her son James, who went around shutting every door he could see (which reminded me quite a bit of Josie 17 years ago). She and her family live in Maryland, which for some reason I was thinking was far away (because Virginia is close...but Maryland...that's super far) but she then said, "I know, it's hot in DC already, too."

And I was like, "What were you doing in DC?"

And she was like, "We live there."

And I was like, "You live in DC?"

And she was like, "Well, in Maryland."

Right. So sometimes my geography's a bit off. Because DC is rather small, as far as geographical sprawl goes, and I know that it touches both Virginia and Maryland and if we can drive all the way through Virginia to get to DC, Maryland really isn't that far off.

It was fun to see her; we invited her to the BYU playgroup that afternoon but she wasn't sure she could make it (and she couldn't so I should have grabbed a picture when I had the chance; we'll have to rendezvous back east sometime).

David came back to get us after his appointment and he taught Benjamin how to play on this xylophonic instrument.

Slacklining and so forth

On Sunday I went to my parents' ward in the morning, at least for sacrament meeting and Sunday school. I went to Relief Society for a few minutes but Benjamin was so tired and I'd spent the last hour and a half bouncing him without getting him to take a successful nap and I was getting mighty tired of holding him. So we just went home and took a nap together.

That afternoon we went back to visit our old ward for the third hour, which was Relief Society. My mom came with me and took her afternoon nap while I bounced with Benjamin in the back (but at least I got to visit with some of my old friends).

We went for a walk in the afternoon while we were waiting for Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Frank to visit. It was a fairly uneventful until the very end when we heard a loud crunch. We all looked to where the noise was coming from and saw, to our surprise, a van driving into our neighbour's yard. It went up over the sidewalk and smashed their fence and then, to our greater surprise, backed out of the yard and just drove away.

Flabbergasted, we wondered what we should do. Call the cops? Tell the neighbours?

Saturday Evening

I am just on a roll with my creative post titles, aren't I? Anyway...

We took all the nephews home with us after the wedding (Rosie had prom to attend and the twins went to their dad's house otherwise we might have had all the nieces as well) and played around and ate leftover wedding cake all afternoon and evening.

Stephen, Matthew, and Andrew walked up to the park to play basketball while David, Benjamin and I headed for the swings because Benjamin loves swinging (almost as much as he enjoys bouncing).

Saturday Celebrations: Kelli's wedding

My sister got married on Saturday, which was the impetus for this little trip of mine. I was glad I could be there for her special day. She had a small wedding at Sandy Stake Recreational Center. We've had family reunions there in the past so it was a familiar venue. Instead of being involved in planning the wedding we were invited as guests; we didn't have to set up anything. It almost felt funny going to a sibling's wedding and not be stressing out about getting things set up properly, but Kelli threw this wedding herself--her boys "gave" her away instead of our dad. And I suppose that's as it should be at this point in her life.

We got to sit in the reserved seats up close but I think we sat on the wrong side accidentally because we had a great view of Allen from where we were sitting but a not-so-great view of Kelli.

Family on Friday

Benjamin surprised me on Friday morning by reaching out for Naanii. She took him and held him and he snuggled with her and everybody was very happy. He didn't even reach back for me once he'd realized he'd chosen to go to someone else (because quite often he'll chose to go to someone and then act like he made a huge mistake and do his best to get back into my arms).

Thursday afternoon

We drove straight from the airport to my grandma's house. I'm not sure she knew we were coming but she's always home and was happy to have visitors--especially of the great-grandchild variety.

To Utah

Thursday was such a long day it could easily have been two or three.

We woke up bright and early to leave for the airport, expecting to sneak out of house before the girls woke up. However, Rachel's been anxious about me going away and has been crying at school over me even before I left. She managed to rouse herself and stumble out of her bedroom, quickly dissolving into tears on my lap. We had a nice little snuggle before I had to kick her off and tell her to go ahead and awake up grandma (even though it was an hour earlier than she needed to be up for school).

The flights were wonderful--or at least as wonderful as a flight with a 10-month-old could be.

Southwest doesn't do assigned seating. Instead you're called to board the plane based on priority and get to choose your seat on the plane. Families with small children have rather high priority when it comes to boarding planes (thank goodness) so Benjamin and I were in the second wave of people to board the plane.

As I walked down the aisle to find a seat, I decided that I probably shouldn't sit by anyone already seated. Those with first priority likely paid extra for the privilege of selecting their seat first and I figured they wouldn't want to sit by a potentially naughty baby. So instead I chose an empty row and grabbed the window seat.

Many, many people passed up the empty seats beside me until a kind, lovely woman sat down next me me gushing, "Oooh! I get to sit by the baby! Look at his tiny toes! What's that? You like my bracelet? Here you go, little sweetie!" And with that she relinquished her neon green bracelet.