Slides, Agua and So Many Smiles

My sweet baby is now two and a half and he's so much fun to hang out with. I was SO incredibly blessed to be able to go over the mountains this week to see him and Zach and I had the time of our lives!

BENJAMIN is a wild child! He loves to run around and go down slides. He loves to see himself in pictures. He can say Zach's name (not mine very eloquently) because they've been practicing teaching him who we are from our wedding announcement. And he really loves AGUA!

We started out by playing on his toy set in the back yard for an hour going up and down the slide and practicing saying "Ready? 1, 2, 3!" to which I would slide down and he would giggle up a storm. It was incredible. He was so happy interacting with me, which is really the first time he's done that on his own.

Then we went to go see daddy on the boat. I love that boat and all the fun we had on it. Derek started out by totally showing off his wake surfing skills while Ben watched with the biggest smile on his face. Then Zach took a thousand turns and he got it down by the end; besides swallowing all the river water, he had the biggest smile on his face too from the rush of it all. As the sun was setting, we ate some picnic food (because Ann is the best hostess ever!) and rode back, cruising to Ben's favorite songs that he danced to.

The next day, after we checked out from our hotel, we went on a walk along the river to a park for Ben to play on. Zach put Ben on the swings, and I got to go down the slides together. We definitely bonded, because at one point when I was tired out, he wouldn't go down the right slide unless I was on the left slide going down at the same time.

When I was six years old, I was introduced to the magic of Build-A-Bear! It became my absolute obsession, and my "allowance". If I got amazing marks on my piano lessons and helped around the house and maybe grades were involved too, Dad would take me to the farther away mall just to get a new Build-A-Bear. As we were at the mall right before traveling to see Ben, we walked by the store, and I HAD to go in. And then we ended up getting him a Chewbacca bear because that was my nickname growing up.

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I love that boy so freaking much. He is everything to me. He makes my heart so full and when I'm with him, I can almost forget. I wish he was mine still. I would do anything to make him mine again but it is so impossible it's heartbreaking. He gave me hugs and kisses. Like. Come on! There is nothing better than that, but it also stings so freaking bad because he'll completely forget about me until next time, and then we'll have to start over again.