Riverbend 2014

So, if you live in our area, you know that we have had a lot of rain lately.  We had plans to take the teens from our church to Faith & Family night at Riverbend Tuesday evening, and we waited out a summer storm then headed out with some cheap ponchos and a prayer to stay dry.

The Lord was so good to us!  

It didn't rain anymore where we were, and it was about 68 degrees with a breeze.  

We were blessed with a beautiful sunset.

 We went specifically to see TobyMac.  We visited vendors and meandered around for a while.  I didn't realize that they had a token system in place where you pre buy tokens and then give them to the food vendors instead of money.  Tokens are 50 cents, and for example, the 32 oz Coke we got was 6 tokens with 4 token refills.

We had a great time!  

The only downside was getting home super late.  It was after 1:00 AM before I was rolling into the driveway\with a sleeping Benjamin in the backseat.  He stayed with Josh's parents, sister, and Christianna for the evening.  He had such a great time he didn't go to sleep until midnight.  He hadn't even taken a nap either.  He was no worse for it though.  He slept in today, and then he took a 3 hour nap despite having slept in.

A day at Dollywood

Last Thursday we took a day trip to Dollywood with Josh's parents, sister, her husband, and Christianna.  

Benjamin loved seeing the ducks walking around.

He chilled out during most of the stroller ride.  Looking at these pictures, you would think that he is all legs.

He rode the carousel with Josh.  Not sure if you can tell, but he had a death grip on Josh's shirt the entire time.

Papaw took Christianna for a ride as well.

Benjamin then rode the ducks with Christianna.  It went better than the last time which was by himself.  (Not sure if I have posted those pictures?  Needless to say, he didn't like riding solo.)

As you can tell, he wasn't so sure even with his cousin with him.

Next was the bees...

And then the pigs...

Yup.  He was stone faced the whole time.

While Christianna went to try out the elephants with her Daddy, Benjamin tried on her super cool Little Mermaid shades.

He enjoyed the "Choo-Choo."  We did not opt to ride this time.  We will let him get a little older.

By then it was nearing time for a nap...Doesn't look tired at all, does he?

We walked towards the other side of the park, and we noticed many pretty flowers...Including these...Anyone know what they are?  I'd like some in my garden.

He finally gave it up, and he stayed out for about two hours.  After some weather delays for the rides, we took the opportunity to leave him with Nana and go on some rollercoasters.

We started back for home around 5:30 or so since Josh had to go to work the next day.

After some horrible storms on the way home, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset.

Benjamin blessed us with a blowout diaper on the way home as well. SHEW.  He ended up with a bath once we got home.

Before bedtime I tried on his souvenir from Papaw and Nana.  For $15 one would have thought it would already have batteries, but alas, no.  It's a long story, but he was promised a miner's hat upon his first visit to Dollywood nearly 1 1/2 years ago.  It finally happened.  lol.  Ironically he wouldn't even wear it.  

I've got you Mama!

Here is one of my favorite phrases right now from Benjamin, 

"I've got you Mama!"

To which I reply, "I've got you too, Benjamin."  

It's one of his quickest ways to my heart right now when he knows I am about to get up to do something, or he has fallen and is in tears, and as he hugs me closer he says, "I've got you."  

TGI...Summer!

I know, I know, I know...It's seems like it has been forever since I have blogged.  And, here I am a week into summer break and I am just now getting to it.  I've heard people say that time speeds up when you have children.  It does.

I want to play catch up on some posts, but I'll start off with today, since we are long overdue for some up to date Benjamin pictures.  He will be two this July!

We enjoyed a 70 degree morning outside, and we kicked it off with a haircut on the porch, and then our new bubble machine.  This was taken before Josh mowed the grass this evening, as you can tell.

We ran around a bit.

I tried to get a few pictures in of my smiling boy who rarely stays still long enough for a non blurry picture.

I was trying to take a picture of my hair cutting job.  This is his second haircut by me, and it was mostly to knock off the part of his hair that grows long really fast at the crown of his head.  I kept the clippers on an 8 for this one, and it seems to even out really well.  The back part was still short from his last haircut.  Will have to share that one another time.  This one looks better, I must say, but I haven't figured out what to do about cutting his "bangs."

We swung on the porch swing.

We explored the backyard.  This Little Tikes climber was given to us (Alas, without the slide piece though).  We were blessed to receive it free of charge, but the orange piece has the unfortunate very loud odor of cat urine.  We have pressure washed and scrubbed it silly with various cleaners and vinegar, and next I am going to have to drown the insides of it with bleach, and then some Nature's Made Urine Destroyer to see if I can finish the job so that the poor boy can actually play on it.  He has been eyeing it and wondering why it isn't up for his enjoyment.

We finished our outdoor time with some finger painting.

I decided he had enough when he started painting the porch.

After that we prepped for a bath, and I must brag on my big boy.  We are far far far far FAR off from being potty trained, but we did try out some big boy underwear (as you can tell from the sagging britches, lol).  He stayed dry the whole time?!  We have been playing up the "potty" talk, but he is far from interested in using it.  This was a nice first experiment.    

After bath time we had some cuddles and wrestle time.

Then he went about his usual shenanigans as I tried to clean up around the house where I have been sorting our craft supplies.  The cabinet that holds craft, hobby, and office supplies has been long overdue for some help.  Since I have picked up sewing, I have been trying to find a place to store some of my stuff.

Hoping to post again soon!