The Visit

         Despite all the drama that occurred leading up to visiting Ben for the second time since placement, our visit was INCREDIBLE! Boyfriend and I drove the three and a half hours to see the baby and his parents on a Thursday I had off from work. His momma was busy helping a friend do crafts, so we got to play with Ben all by ourselves for a little while. Let me just say one thing- Ben has an amazing smile and it was on display all day. He has started cooing and screeching, but his little voice was raspy from crying so much during previous days. But for me, he was just so happy all the time. I like to think that maybe somewhere in him he knows it's me, but I don't know how his little brain and instincts work.
         After playing, we ate at Olive Garden, where Ben refused to go to sleep but still was happy, then went back home and played some more. I have this internal battle between taking a lot of pictures so I can remember, or living in the moment and hoping I remember. Usually I fail at both, but luckily this time Ann took a few pictures of us so I could just play. Eventually, baby B fell asleep and we got to hold him while he was sleeping, until boyfriend's ginormous, muscled arms got tired from holding Ben's big head. So we set him on some pillows and just watching him sleep; because when you hardly get to see your child, watching him sleep is pretty close to the best thing ever. But he woke up no more than 10 minutes later and just smiled. Constantly. He would switch between looking at Ann, boyfriend and me and just smile at each of us before moving on to the next. My heart! I have decided that that is happiness.

         Another visit I was able to take was to Arizona to see my gorgeous sister! After arriving, we roadtripped to Six Flags in SoCal. The drive was six hours of loud music, dirt-tornado things in the dry farmland, lots of talking and laughing. The theme park was incredible. The roller coasters were way longer and better than anything we have here in Washington. There was one called the X2 where I was screaming the whole time, just because I actually thought we were going to die. It was pretty amazing though. We did the water park the next day where I caught some air in one of the tube slides (the toilet bowl kind) and totally bruised my right bum, then we did the roller coasters again the next day. And of course we went shopping at the massive outlet mall on the way home.
        It was so great to be able to see her again after a year apart, plus I got to meet here amazing boyfriend. This was another trip where I was just too busy having fun to take pictures. But I won't forget so all is well.