Baby Owen Faulkner

Chauncy and Alan had their sweet baby on Sunday (August 16th, 8 lbs, 7 oz and 20.5 inches). Her due date was August 21. On Friday, she thought maybe her water had broken. It was a false alarm. However, it meant that something was probably starting to happen. On Saturday, she was feeling more uncomfortable than she ever had...but the way she explained it, I thought it was all in her head.  Saturday afternoon she was having contractions 11-14 mins apart that were "uncomfortable". At 9:37 PM, after I had gone to bed, I got a text that said "Eh, ouch". Next thing I know, it was 5 am and she was in the hospital, 4cm, just getting an epidural. WOOHOO!! Just three hours later she was 7cm. We thought for sure the baby would be here soon!

Ben and I had a date planned that day in Seattle. So, we headed to Seattle and had donuts at Top Pot then headed to the Pacific Science Center. He was such a fun date! We were at the science center for several hours, but Chauncy wasn't making much progress. bummer. Ben and I killed some more time by playing in the fountain and the awesome park outside the EMP (there's an awesome rope climbing thing! He loves to climb, so that's all he ever needs at a park!!). We then had a late lunch at McDonalds (his first McDonalds ever). At this point, Chauncy was pushing and was up for a visitor. I thought for sure Owen would have arrived by the time we made it to the hospital. So, my tired little buddy and I drove to Kirkland. I promised him a popsicle if he was good in the hospital (I know. My food choices for him that day were outstanding). Alan watched Ben in the waiting room while I went in to see Chaunc. She looked so good. She was exhausted and very frustratred from being up all night and from pushing for so long with no progress...but she still looked great. I had no idea what to say to her to encourage her!! I didn't stay long because she wanted Alan in the room and there's no way I was going to bring Ben in!

On our way out of the hospital, Ben's bottom somehow got really pinched in the escalator. My poor, tired buddy was soooo sad. So of course he got a popsicle!! But, he took three bites of it in the car and then told me his tummy was done with it. Two seconds later, he was out like a light.

Chauncy ended up pushing for another hour and then Alan texted to say she was going in for a C-section. My anxiety went into high alert. Not only for her, but also thinking that I would be doing this whole thing in a few weeks. After the C section, Owen had to go to NICU for some monitoring. At the time, we didn't have much information, so Brenna and I were kiiiiind of nervous. But, he was fine. Just a little stressed. Poor Chaunc was in her hospital room all by herself. Alan didn't want to be alone with the baby in NICU, so my mom was with Alan and Brenna and I were getting our kids ready for bed, so we couldn't drive all the way to the hospital. Alan and my mom sent some sweet, sweeeeet pictures of the little guy. I couldn't stop staring at them!!!

The next day, I had an interview at work. What a joke. There was NO WAY I could think about anything else besides Owen (and also my upcoming birth.....yikes). After work, I headed up to Kirkland. Chauncy and Alan were sleeping, so Brenna, my mom and I took shifts holding Owen while they slept. I loved the time to just soak him up!!! I didn't really get that with Lucas (he was the first nephew and I had zero idea of what to do with a newborn or what to do for Brenna). With Eli, I didn't see him in the hospital, plus I was preparing for my first baby to come! With Aldon, I didn't see him until a while after he was born. So, the experience of just holding Owen quietly and sitting with Chauncy and Alan for a few hours was special! He is such a sweet little guy! He would scream when they unwrapped him, but would settle right back down after he got bundled up again.

The coolest part about visiting them was to see the INSTANT change in Chauncy and Alan as parents. Holy smokes! Chauncy was exuding something I've neveeerrrrrrr seen from her. It was a relaxed confidence + love for her baby. I wish I could explain it better. It was soooo beautiful! And Alan instantly switched on his "super dad and husband" switch! It was cute seeing him with the doctors and nurses. Everything they said, he wanted to know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. When my mom mentioned that Owen had rolled onto his side while he was sleeping, they were both VERY worried about that. I know Joel and I were worried about the little things when Ben was born, but watching them in the hospital room, it was kind of comical (and very sweet) how concerned they were!!

So, now it's been a few days since he's been born. Chauncy is totally focused on her baby and sleep (how could you not be?!). But oh man, I miss her!!! I miss texting and emailing with her all day long! When she does text Brenna and I, we're hungry to hear as many details as we can and see as many pictures as possible! But, obviously, we're not her priority right now so we take what few details we can get! Joel, Ben and I are going to go up there today or tomorrow so Joel and Ben can meet Owen and we can all soak in that sweet family together!

3 year update

Well, I'm about a month past Ben's three year bday. It's hard to make time to sit and write a bunch of stuff down. For starters, here are a few things that Ben has done lately that deserve being written down.

The other day, we were in the van with Joel's parents. For some reason, Ben got tears in his eyes and started saying that they were happy tears because he loved me so much. Then he said that sometimes love makes him feel sad! Meanwhile Joel and Bill got happy tears from hearing Ben's sweetness. Those Starr men sure have a sensitive side (apparently Grampy was the same way!).

 Lately he's been saying things happened a long long time ago. But he says it "Lom Lom Time Ado". He says this ALL the time...he uses it in the stories he's telling or he asks us if something happened a Lom Lom Time Ado. He tries to ask us what a "lom lom time ado" means. That's hard to explain!

Sometime that has been driving me crazy lately is the way he closes his mouth and says "no, no, no" through his closed mouth. He mostly does this when he's really tired. It's so defiant and rude. It's basically the equivalent of someone crossing their arms and stomping their feet. He has this look in his eyes that says he's up for a challenge of wills. It's even more fun when he just repeatedly says "no" through his closed mouth as we're trying to reason with him or tell him what he needs to do. No....no...no...no...no....no....ROAR!!! It's so frustrating!! I sure hope this habit is a quick phase!

Speaking of defiance, his arguing has recently taken a step up. We know we're not "supposed" to argue with him For a while, he would use our words against us. For example, we tell him things like "use your nice voice" or that he can't talk to us in such a way because it's rude...or occasionally we'll have to revert to "Mom and dad make the rules"...Well, he'll use all that against us. If I scold him for something, he'll say "You can't talk to me like that! You need to say it nicely" and then he'll proceed to give me an example of how I could have said it nicer. Or, he'll argue that HE makes the rules. THANKFULLY he hasn't been doing that lately. Maaaaaybe it was a short phase? Maaaaybe Joel and I actually did something right and figured out how to stop that craziness? That's one of the hardest things! We have no idea what the "right" way to deal with any of this stuff is! When he gets into new, bad habits, it kind of takes us by surprise and we have to spend some time talking about the best way to handle it. Another thing we're teaching Ben right now is that he can't always get what he wants. He loooves to say that he CAN always have what he wants. Sorry buddy. I feel like a parrot. Multiple times a day I say "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do" or something like that. We tried teaching him the Rolling Stones Song "You can't always get what you waaaaant...." but he changed the words to "You CAN always get what you waaaaant" and he walks around singing it. Very funny....(not). Anyways, I think we're actually starting to get through to him. Lately, I do hear him saying things like "sometimes we get to do things we want and sometimes we don't".

The stories Ben tells at bedtime (and other times) are getting more and more complex. It's so fun to hear his brain! Ever since he was little and was just starting to talk, he's been such a chatter box and bedtime. It's like his brain is defragmenting and processing his day and unloading everything. Lately, that comes in the form of stories. He tells these stories that go on and on and on. He talks so fast! I don't know how he comes up with the details so quickly! I wish I had some good examples of his stories, but retelling his stories would be like me retelling a dream I had...they don't make any sense. And really, his stories don't make a ton of sense. But it's still fun to hear him tell them. He gets SO into them. He makes the most expressive facial expressions and he uses his arms and hands to emphasise things. I guess the words I would use to describe his story telling are enthusiastic, vigorous, intense, SO spirited and passionate! One example I can think of is him telling me about a toy he wants. It's a toy he created in his mind. It is a track with special dinosaurs on wheels to go on the track. He spent 15 minutes telling me all about the track and what it does and what the dinosaurs look like and where all the wheels on the dinosaur are located and what kind of tricks the dinosaurs can do on the tracks. He had been talking about this make-believe dinosaur track for days. If he's having a hard time falling asleep, I'll go upstairs and lay with him and let him tell me stories for 15 minutes or so. This seems to do the trick because he usually goes right to sleep afterwards. I can understand that. Sometimes it's hard to go to sleep when you've got SO MUCH going on inside your head!!

Speaking of bedtime, right now we go upstairs to get ready for bed and read books at 7....lights out at 7:30. It usually takes him an hour to fall asleep. That hour consists of lots of yelling down to Joel and I with random questions. Most nights he asks us what it means to fall asleep. I tell him it's when  he gets really cozy and relaxed and he closes his eyes and his brain stops thinking. He asks things like "Does banging my head mean I'm asleep?" or "Do I still breath when I'm asleep?"

I think I mention his enthusiasm in every post I write. But this kid! His enthusiasm is so....awesome? Adorable? Endearing? Intense?...I don't know how to describe it. But I love it!! He gets SO excited about stuff. The excitement emanates from his entire body. Every muscle is wound up with excitement and enthusiasm and energy. Sometimes he clenches his fists and almost shakes with excitement! For example, Whenever he opens a present, he says things like "WHAT?!?! A book??!!! Oh my DOSH!!". Or when we watch movies, he is so animated as he's watching it! We watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 the other night. During the fights with the bad guys, he would almost yell at the screen in excitement and intensity. He would repeatedly ask us if the fights were going to break the TV Screen. haha. If it's just a regular low-key show like Paw Patrol, he doesn't get intense. It's just during intense moments of shows that he really gets wound up. It's adorable to watch. His enthusiasm shows in so many areas though. Another example is his enthusasim for any water activity. We told him that we're going to Sunriver in a few weeks and showed him some pictures of the pools there. Now he talks about it almost everyday. If he's really excited, he almost yells about it.  He shows this kind of excitement about cake, donuts, bike rides, new library books, playing with his cousins or seeing Grandma Bev, finding bugs and frogs....sooooo much stuff. I love how much joy he gets from so many small things in life!!

On the flip side of his enthusiasm is his sensitive side. I've talked before about what a snuggle bug sweetie he is. I don't have much to add about that. But in addition to that, he's verrrrry sensitive to bad guys or scary things (fire, etc). He does NOT want to watch movies with bad guys in it. If we're looking for a show to watch, he will ask about every single one whether or not there's a bad guy in it. For some reason he was fine watching How to train your dragon....but he asked about the bad guys/good guys every 2 seconds (is he a bad guy? Is he a good guy? That bad guy is turning into a good guy!). With his normal energetic, enthusiastic self, he usually proclaims that he will FIGHT the bad guy or "FIGHT THE FIRE!!!!!" Very often, his play revolves around fighting bad guys and his brain is always trying to separate people into good guy/bad guy categories. For example, right now he thinks people who don't wear helmets or people who smoke are bad guys. Obviously we're trying to broaden that thinking and help him understand that just because people don't make wise decisions, it doesn't mean their a bad guy....but it's interesting to see how his mind is working and trying to figure things out.

He's also very sensitive to new people. We've finally gotten him to go to church with no tears....but he was going on and on about how he's scared of the kids and he just wants to stand by the wall by himself and not talk to anyone. I understand, kid...really, I do. I remember how PAINFULLY shy I was as a kid (and teenager...and adult...) and how much I haaaaaated it when my parents would make us go to a new class or something with other kids we didn't know. And I even had two sidekicks with me every where I went!! So I really feel for Ben when he says things like that. But....he's gotta learn......poor guy. Once he gets used to people or if he has instant chemistry with a kid, he's totally fine. He opens up and talks to them and plays just fine. He's had several instances recently where he's been around new kids and he ends up playing with them and having a blast and not wanting to leave....so I'm not worried about him socially. I just know exactly what he means when he's scared of the kids and wants to stand by himself!! Below is a pic of him at an easter egg hunt in Yakima with tons of kids.

Just a little update on how he's dealing with my big, growing belly. He's well aware that he's getting a little sister. Most of the time, he's very sweet about it. When I tell him she's kicking, he turns into a sweet pile of mush and puts his hand on my stomach and tries to feel her move. Sometimes he'll give me a random, sweet kiss on the tummy. The other night, he put his mouth right on my tummy and was talking to baby sister, telling her to wake up. He was snuggling my stomach sweetly and using his sweet voice....then all of a sudden he started hitting my stomach. Figures. He's probably not super happy that my stomach has gotten too big for me to carry him.

One last thing to mention is his thoughtfulness. I love how thoughtful he is of others sometimes. For example, Nana and Papa were coming to visit a few weeks ago. He had helped make muffins at the Taylor's. When I picked him up, she packed three muffins (one for Joel, ben and I). Ben made sure that she packed two extras so that Nana and Papa could have one too. Or, he'll randomly ask us how we're doing or how our day was. Sometimes he tells us he's thinking about us...(and other times he tells us he's thinking about himself and he wants to know whether that's nice or not. Interesting).

Seriously...nothing better than cousin time!!

We've gone for a few hikes. On this one, Ben brought his strider bike and mountain biked while we hiked.

Joel walked in his graduation ceremony even though he's far from being done!

I got a pool for me to use this summer. He likes it too :)

Triplet birthday celebration

Last year for us three's birthday, we got together at the Faulkner's big Snohomish house on a sunny warm weekend with my dad and Michelle. A water fight was the highlight of the day. This year, we went to the Faulkner's new Kirkland house and again, a water fight was the highlight of the day. Ben LOVES his cousins. Right now, him and Lucas have the most fun together. I think part of it has to do that 1) Lucas is rough and tough and can wrestle as hard as Ben likes and 2) Lucas is older so he takes the lead. I think once Eli and Ben are a little older, they'll probably play together a little more. But, in the meantime, seeing Ben and Lucas play together fills my heart!!  I wish they lived closer so they could play together all the time!!! Since Ben can get a little rough in his wrestling, it's good when the other kid can firmly tell him when he's being to rough. And Lucas does exactly that. Yesterday Lucas VERY nicely, but firmly, told Ben that he needed to stop playing so rough. And that was all Ben needed (Brenna, I was sooo proud of Lucas!!). Before the cousins got to Chauncy's, Ben was just kind of moping around. He had waited all week for cousin play time. But as soon as the Fabela's car pulled up, all the water guns were out and poor Grandma Bev was the target. My mom actually doesn't like to get wet AT ALL. Good thing it was warm yesterday!! The three big boys and my mom (and Chip) had a water fight for maybe 1.5 solid hours. Seeing all the boys play so well together with so many smiles and gleeful voices miiiiiight be my favorite thing. I still can't believe we're adding two more cousins to the cousin circus!!

Ben - 2 yrs, 10 months

I've been jotting down little notes of things I want to write in the blog to remember about Ben. One thing that I've been observing more of lately is his introverted side. Many afternoons, he'll come home from the Taylor's and want to play all by himself. We know that he must have had a busy day at the Taylor's on those days. He's also been a little more of a homebody lately. He's perfectly content to stay home and play with Joel and I. He doesn't even want to leave the house to go for his usual runs very often lately. and side note... just because I observe him being a little more introverted than some other kids, I don't want to box him into whatever an introvert is "defined" as. Kind of like calling a kid shy their whole life...they could grow up thinking they really are shy rather than exploring for themselves whether they are or not, etc. 

It's crazy to think that a year ago, we were dealing with epic tantrums and the whole daycare fiasco.  Meanwhile this year we're dealing with the absolute sweetest, happiest boy on the planet (at least on our Planet Starr). For example the other night I pulled him close to me and gave him a sweet kiss on his cheek. He melted into me and when I let him go, he sweetly thanked me for the kiss. He loooves snuggles and hugs and kisses to and from his Mom and dad!! He's also so happy and enthusiastic about wanting to play with us "mommy, you wanna play tennis?!"  He's not annoying about it. He's a total pal and just wants to play! Last night he did something rude to me when he was trying to interrupt while I was talking. So he got in trouble. He was trying not to cry and his sweet lip was trembling and had the sweetest pout. He was talking in a high-pitch, try-not-to-cry voice about why he was in trouble. All of a sudden he said "I'm happy!" while still trying to pretend like he wasn't sad. He's constantly telling Joel and I that he loves us in the sweetest, most tender voice. And when we snuggle at bed time, sometimes he asks that Joel and I get so close that we smash Ben between us and have our faces smashed up against his. So yeah, he's an introvert, but he certainly has a big ol' love tank that is constantly being filled and also filling our tanks!! Omg. He kills me. I wish my words could convey how sweet he is.....but it's impossible.

This is Joel and Ben snuggling watching TV. They both love their snuggles. They were made for each other.

Also, lately Ben has been wanting to climb our trees. The first time he did it was so funny. He thought for sure he wasn’t allowed to do something cool like that. I was weeding in the garden. Here’s our conversation:

Ben: Can I climb the tree?

Me: Sure!

Ben (hesitantly): I’m going to put my feet on the tree

Me: ok!

Ben (as if “are you suuure?”): I’m going to put both feet in the tree

Me: great!

Ben: I might fall

Me: Yup, you might!

The conversation continued in this way for a while. He was totally testing the waters and making suuuuure it was ok and he must have thought I misunderstood what he was asking to do! I got a kick out of it. Also, for some reason, Joel and I were talking about hard work the other day and talking about chopping wood. Every day lately, Ben has been asking if he can chop wood. When we do the yard work, he wants to help by chopping wood. Luckily, we did have to saw down a tree this weekend so he got to “help” with that. 

He's also been more and more into "fighting bad guys". He talks about fighting bad guys all the time. If there's a bad guy in the movie, he talks again and again about how he'll FIGHT THE BAD GUY!! Today Mrs. Taylor sent me a picture with a blanket on as a cape and a sparkly mask on. She said that he was fighting bad guys and the mask helped him fight. Last night, he had a splinter, but the splinter helped him fight bad guys so he didn't want me to take the splinter out. I think he's a little afraid of "bad guys". He certainly doesn't like bad guys in movies. Not at all. He either won't watch a movie if it has a bad guy or he wants us to skip the bad guy parts. If he's playing by himself, he's usually doing something about fighting bad guys....for example, he was sitting in the back seat the other day and was pretending one foot was a bad guy and the other was a good guy, so his feet were fighting...or his cars are good guys/bad guys and they fight. If we talk about a storm coming up, he says he'll fight the storm with a sword. Somewhat related to that, He has these adorably optimistic views of how he'll face challenges. He's seen several car wrecks so he has it in his mind that if he's ever in a car wreck, he's going to "JUMP OUT DA CAH and be SAFE from the CASH!" (he says this with such enthusiasm, energy and confidence! ). 

This weekend was daylight savings, and Joel's parents happened to be visiting so we took advantage of Bill's muscle power and switched Ben into the guest room and moved the crib/guest bed into the room closer to ours. So now Ben has a new room. He wants to paint the room orange (that's his favorite color). Um, no thanks! I told him maybe we could do an orange rug or orange carpets or something. Speaking of orange. Whenever we buy him something or he finds something or whatever...if it's orange, his whole face lights up and he holds the object up and excitedly observes that "This is owangE!!! Owange is my favowite colah!!" Have I mentioned his excitement and enthusiasim for things? I especially loves it when he clenches his fists and tucks his arms in tight and scrunches up his face and almost shakes with excitement about whatever! That reminds me...this weekend we went out to breakfast. Ben ordered chocolate chip pancakes. When they finally arrived, he was so excited he was shaking. He was shoving the pancake into his mouth as fast as he could with his shaking, quivering hands. His eyes were wide open with excitement. I tried to take a picture, but by the time I got my camera out, he had calmed down a little and was a little more relaxed about shoving entire pancakes into his mouth and smearing whipped cream all over his face. 

When sleeping on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Mama?mama?its the weekend? Yup. Goes back to banging his head

We've been practicing some "homework" lately.

This was him watching Frozen. He had seen it before, but we've never watched it with him. He was leaning forward and oooohing and aaaaahing. At the end, he kept gasping and saying "oh! This is fun!". I've never seen him so into a movie.

We went for a "hike" and Ben got a little tired. 

He loves his Aunties!

Practicing Basketball with Gamma Bev! (He likes that their names are spelled almost the same. B-E-N and B-E-V)

He likes to eat his breakfast while going to the bathroom in the morning...

Disneyland!

I just realized this never published when I wrote it a month ago*

About a month ago, Joel and i made an impulse decision to take a trip to Disneyland. We went on the trip with low expectations. We didn't want to push Ben to do too much, so we were just going to go with the flow and do what Ben wanted to do. I was so excited to just spend a few days with my little family and spoil Ben!

Ben knew in advance that we were going. In the weeks leading up to it, we would tell him who we might see atDisneyland (Mickey mouse, buzz lightyear, etc).  He was realllllly concerned that the bad guys in any movie would also be there, so a lot of times he would tell us that he didn't want to go. 

On the morning of our trip, I woke him up and he sweetly got super excited. In his sleepy, sweet voice he said "we going to Disneyland? Today?" And then he jumped out of bed and we left for the airport. The lines at the airport were insane, but that was ok. It just meant less time waiting at the gate. We just had time to go potty before we boarded. The flight was a breeze and then we took a shuttle to the hotel. Ben chattered, sang and counted the entire way from the airport to the hotel. It was too early to check in so we just changed our clothes, put in sunscreen and left our bags at the front desk. It was super warm that day and Disneyland was super crowded. Our first ride was Pirates of the Carribean. The line was long but Ben was fine. He was a little crabby without a nap so we just did one more ride then went back to the hotel to check in and go swimming. We had dinner then went to bed. 

The next morning was extra magic morning, which gives just the guests of the Disney hotels the chance to get in early. We went to California adventure and raced ro radiator springs. It was like a stampede! Everyone was going to that ride!! There were tons of cast members just directing people into a line. I couldn't go on the ride, so Joel and Ben were whisked off with the crowd. For some reason I got all emotional seeing my little guy go off with a big crowd like that! Despite the crowd, the wait was short and Ben and Joel went on the ride twice before the big crowds came. We went on lots of little kid rides at DCA, but Ben's favorite was the splash pad. He spent 45 minutes chasing the water and "fighting" it. When the water would spray up, he would hit it. He'd run over occasionally and dry his eyes with tucker and blankies. For lunch, I ran to a corn dog stand while Ben was still splashing around. Ben won't touch hot dogs, so I just got one for Joel and I. But after Joel took one bite, Ben devoured the rest! This is probably only surprising tonjoel and I because we know how picky Ben is and how rare it is that he'll eat something outside of his standard foods. Guess he was hungry! The other funny thing about DCA was the Ferris wheel. The baskets are on their own swinging loops so as the wheel turns you unexpectedly go swinging backwards or forewords. It FREAKS ME OUT. I was screaming my head off, but Ben was just laughing and saying "what's wrong mommy? this is fun!!"  After that we watched the Disney junior show and then went to the hotel for a nap. After nap we went to Disneyland for a few rides and then had our one and only meltdown. The meltdown happened as we were rushing to our dinner reservations so we just threw him in the stroller and raced to dinner. In terms of Ben meltdowns, this one was super quick and mild. 

The character dinner was fun (although the food is terrible!). Ben liked meeting goofy but was unsure about the other characters. Chip pretended to take Ben's food, so he talked about that for the next few days. After dinner, Ben was hilariously overtired. He was running and singing and twirling and jumping and rolling on the floor of the hotel lobby. Soooo we went back to the hotel for bed. At bedtime, it's so sweet the way he chatters about his day and asks questions. He's really processing everything! As he was almost asleep, he popped up and said "we didn't see Mickey!"  

The next morning, I totally assumed he would sleep in...but nope! He was up at 545, which is even earlier Than usual. It was another early morning for guests of the hotels, so we set off! Ben didn't want to ride radiator springs again, but the rest of the guests did! So we pretty much walked on to all the other rides for an entire hour. At 8 we went to Disneyland. It was still pretty empty, so Joel took the chance to ride a few big kid rides by himself. Ben and Joel even rode Big Thunder Mountain! We had ridden Buzz Lightyear the day before and he loved it, so we rode it again this day, but Ben got really scared. He was terrified of Zorg and cried for the second half of the ride. Good thing Tucker was with us! For all rides, even if Ben loved the ride 99% of the time, if something scared him at all, his overall impression was that he didn't like the ride. So since Thunder Mountain had one loud boom, Ben didn't like the ride. Bummer. He did, however, love Autopia! I couldn't ride it, but Ben and Joel rode it a few times.

The picture below is him AFTER his nap on the last day. We didn't push Ben, but he just kept going and going, so we ended up staying for the last parade and got him a new toy (Monster Truck Mater! pic below)...then he still wanted to keep going so we saw Fantasmic. Yikes! I forgot how scary Fantasmic is! But, luckily, there were two little boys next to Ben and they all pretended to fight the bad guys. The other boys had a toy gun and were so sweet to show Ben how to use it. On our way out, we saw a bit of the fireworks, but he was starting to show his tiredness, so we rushed out to beat the crowds.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the airport. He was a champ on the plane ride home (we even got complimented by the people behind us. Gosh, people who compliment kids' good behavior suuuure know how to make a mom's heart swell!). In the days after the trip, we kept talking about the rides and Ben kept saying his favorite ride was the worms (there wasn't a ride with worms...) and then he told someone that his favorite ride was the one that brought him back to "Puyayup". My favorite part about the trip was just spending non-stop time with my favorite guys!! Another favorite thing is that Ben talked a lot about "fighting the scaries". Before he would go on a ride, he would ask if there were bad guys. Sometimes he would resist if there was any chance of a bad guy, but other times he would bravely announce that he was going to fight the scaries! It was so sweet!