Date Night

For our date night this last weekend Doug and I decided to go to PF Chang's for dinner. We couldn't find a babysitter so Ben came with us. After dinner went to a water fountain to let Ben play. Ben had a good time. It was really fun to watch him. Doug and I would throw our flip flops into the fountain and ask Ben to go get them. Otherwise he wouldn't go very far into the fountain. Ben really liked to watch his cup go up in the air.

You can tell...

You can tell that I am trying to potty train Ben, because every time I go to the bathroom to do my thing, Ben runs right in after me and starts clapping while saying "Yeah, mommy you did it"!!!
No blog post is complete without a picture, so here it is. While my little sister was here, she bathed Ben and when they were done he came out of the bathroom like this. I think its pretty cute, but Doug doesn't like it. (And yes he has a diaper on underneath)

Grandma, Grandpa, Ducky

So it has been a little over a week since my family left us to return home. And everyday since I have watched Ben walk around the house knocking on all the doors crying, "Grandma, Grandpa, Ducky, where they go." And it just breaks my heart that Ben doesn't get to see his Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins all the time. I am so very grateful that both Grandma and Grandpa Hurst and Terry have been able to come visit us within the last couple of months. So Thank you for coming out to visit, we love having you! Thank you for sitting in a rain storm and watching fireworks with me. I hope that one day our distance will be a lot closer than it is now. We love and miss you all!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial Day weekend we took my parents and sister up to Pennsylvania. The first day we went to Hershey Park. We took a little tour to see how they make chocolate. And course Ben loved every minute of it.

We all wanted to be chocolate factory workers.

The tour had lots of fun music and dancing cows!!

After we were done at Hershey Park we went to the Amish Country. Man, it is beautiful out there! Ben loved watching all of the horse and buggies ride around. For some reason we didn't take any pictures.

On Sunday we spent the whole day at Longwood gardens. If your ever in the area it is totally worth the money to go in and see it. We paid extra money so that we could stay and watch there Fountains and Fireworks show that night. Well as fate would have it, seconds before the show was to begin it started to down pour!! We all decided that rain or not we were going to see the show. I wish I had a waterproof camrea because it was hilarious to watch my dad. By the time we left we were all complelety wet!! Here are some pictures of our day aat Longwood gardens.


The garden had a little special area for the kids. This is one of the only pictures of Ben dry. I took off his shirt so that he would have something dry after he was done.




This little room there was a bucket of paint brushes so that the kids could paint water on the walls.


After he was done playing in the water gardens, Doug took him to get a change of clothes, a nap and lunch. They joined us at the lake to play.

While we were cooling off our feet in the pond, my dad got bit by a fish.

A little later we noticed that there was a school of catfish by the wall. So we feed the catfish goldfish crackers.

If you look close you can see the catfish in the water.

Butterfly exhibit and more

One thing that I really wanted to show my parents was the Butterfly exhibit that is in the Natural history museum. You walk into a room that is kept at like 80 degrees and at 80 percent humidity, but the fun part is that there are tons of butterflies flying around your head. Needless to say Ben went nuts!! There was a lady that was holding a plate of dead butterflies. Ben kept saying that they were hurt and wanted to touch them. It was really fun to watch him and see how excited he was to see all the bright colored butterflies. I think my family enjoyed it too!

We also went to see Mt. Vernon, but I never even took my camera out of my backpack. It was a pretty cool place. Ben was super tired, so it was hard for me to enjoy myself. Doug and I well have to go back and see it some other time.

These pictures were taken at the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial.

There's nothing better than a drink of cold water on a hot day!



No matter how hard Valerie tried to keep her sunglasses out of Ben's hands, somehow he always ended up with them. Thanks for sharing Aunt Valerie!

I think this pictures captures the way Ben felt most of the time. Tired, Bored and Hungry!

Monuments on Mall

On the second day of my families visit. I took them into Washington D.C. to see the monuments on the National Mall. My parents are both big into history, so it was nice see them get excited about things that I kind of take advantage of because they are in my backyard, so to speak. Aunt Ducky and Ben walking down the stairs at Jefferson memorial. My dad found a ball around the Jefferson memorial and gave it to Ben and it was only a matter of time before Ben throw it into the Tidal Basin. So Sad!! Ben was chasing the ducks around the World War II Memorial.

This is a video clip of Ben running from the World War II memorial all the way to the Lincoln memorial, it was about a half walk between each memorial and he ran the whole way! I was I had as much energy as he does.

Visitors

My parents and little sister came to visit us this last past week. At first Ben was not quite sure about them, he was very shy and would not them anyone hold him. Valerie promised Ben that he would be eating out of her hand by the end of her visit.

Well I am happy to say that Ben was eating out of Valerie's bowl by the end of the first night. He just loves his Aunt Valerie!

Ben loves his monkey! He carries it around the house and says that its his baby.

Zoo Day!!

Doug's parent came to visit us from Oregon. While they were here we went to the National Zoo. Ben had a great time. It was so much fun to see get excited about the animals. Here are some pictures of our little outing.

ROAR!!


When we walked into the monkey house Ben started to make monkey sounds. The whole time we were walking around he was making different sounds. He loved the to see the monkeys.


Looking at the elephants.


Ben and Daddy! Smile


Waiting patiently for lunch to arrive!

Bath Time!

Last night after dinner, I turned on the bath water for Ben and asked Doug to get Ben ready for the bath. Well, next thing I know is Doug calling me, telling me that I need to come see something. Doug had let Ben run into the bathroom without following him. So Ben jumped into the bathtub fully dressed! Doug and I died laughing at him! Ben was so proud of himself that he got into the bath with no help. He is such a funny boy! He loves bath time, he walks around the house saying, Tub, Tub, Please. This is a picture of his bath adventure for the day!

Playing in the Snow!!

Earlier this week we got 8 inches of snow, which is a ton for Virginia. While Doug was working hard plowing the snow, Ben and I were out playing in it. He had so much fun! By the time we were done, he was a little snow ball. The sad thing is that the snow is almost gone already and it is supposed to be in the 70s this weekend.

I have a cute little video of Ben playing in the snow but for some reason it won't upload. Any suggestions?