Home is a Happy Place and White bread isn't.

After about 3 and 1/2 weeks Ben is home with us again. He drove 16 hours straight from Boston to GR, and arrived around 3 am... however Archie and I were in Crawfordsville, IN, visiting my grandparents, so he had no one to greet him, but he did get to sleep in a bed instead of in his car at a rest stop. So Archie and I arrived on Sunday around 1 pm, and Ben was at church! We had to wait an agonizing (okay not really that dramatic) hour for him to come home, finally! But we all had a very happy reunion and Archie certainly remembered who Ben was. They are best pals all over again.

It is wonderful to have Ben home. Being apart even for a day, helps you recognize how much you rely on your partner for so many things. Not just in taking care of the children, but for the simple every day things, for affectionate moments, for hugs of support, for bad jokes :), for companionship, for sharing and laughing and to have someone to think up surprises for. I love Ben, I love Archie and being together is the best- especially knowing that we are an eternal family and can be together forever.

So we had a very nice day yesterday, we took Archie for a long walk, played, cooked dinner with Alex and Christy and Mom, and sat around the table for two hours talking and being with everyone. It was great. We also learned that white bread is our enemy. We were talking about diets and how to eat better in general, and my Mom pulled the South Beach Diet book, and it basically told us that if you are interested in ice cream, it would be better for you body to eat ice cream at the end of a meal, than to eat white bread, ever. Isn't that crazy?! Crazy interesting, not crazy crazy. So my thinking is that I'll never eat white bread again and eat ice cream every day! Boo-yah.

Okay, really I don't want to give up dutch oven bread, or french bread, but I only eat those a few times a month, sooooooo that's just the way life will be. Plus, for some reason I am eating a lot more vegetables than I used to so that has to balance out something in my life, so there ya go.

Our plans at this point are to stay here until after the triathlon, Sept. 12th; Ben will continue his research, transcribing, analyzing notes ect. We'll probably leave the following Monday the 14th, be off to New Bedford MA, Ben will continue his research interviewing and Archie and I will meet everyone that he has become friends with out there. We'll be there for 1 to 3 weeks,.... I don't know how long is what I am trying to say. Then we will be off to visit family and friends on our long journey back to Provo. It will be great to see some of the East Coasters that we never get to see and some from my family that Ben has never met! And Archie will get to meet his cousins from NC!

So much to look forward to, and doing it together, that is the wonderful-est.

We Miss you Papa

So, we had a huge garage sale this past weekend, and between trying to set everything out and helping people and watching Archie, he was left to his own curiosity some moments. He didn't want to be in his pac-n-play, at all, so I took him out and put him on the grass. He was off, he just wanted to crawl all over the driveway, on his hands and feet, hence the socks. He crawled so much that he got a little blood blister on his big toe, but he didn't seem to mind.

Archie looking up at Aunt Chirsty.

Just happy.

Archie saying "hi" to his dad- love you and miss you.

Figuring out these strange cupboards...

The bees knees

Archie is hangin' out in Uncle Bernie's fedora. Uncle Alex got a great picture of it.

A slow deliberate crawl to the East

Ellery. What a beautiful little thing.

It is really only fun to ride a rocking horse with your tongue sticking out.

A visit with Archie's buddy Ryder, and his sister, above!

A sailboat coming in from Lake Michigan.

A family picture, with a semi-grumpus, (probably because his diaper is bulging out of his shorts and he wasn't too keen on that).

Takin' a moment together.

Archie and Uncle Ben; it was green day, no body really knew it until we were walking around in public. Needless to say, it wasn't planned.

Laura, Bernie, Kate, Archie, Ben. We were waiting for the bridge to go up and for the sailboat to go by.

Allie Banana and Archie ( my cousin), it was so much fun to see her and Uncle Hak.

Kate and Allie ( I am pretty sure that used to be some type of sit-com)

Archie and Olivia, we'll see you in October!

We really loved driving out to Michigan, and stopping to visit friends and family on the way. In Denver we stayed at Ben and Laura's condo, and found an old friend from High School, I wish I got a picture! It was so much fun to see Kristin, we talked for about three hours, as Archie tried to sleep in the background-- it was really great. Then we moved on to Kansas where we stayed two nights with the Craig's. An absolutely adorable family and so welcoming. Jessica and Brett have the cutest 2 year old girl, Olivia, she and Archie enjoyed each other. We stayed with my Grandma in Crawfordsville, IN, then when we got to Michigan we saw the Jones family and the Morin family ( minus MR. DR. Burke), and we took a trip up North to Charlevoix, for some relaxation and fun. Oh, and we went to a Whitecaps baseball game, for Ben's birthday, but I forgot the camera. It was really fun, he shared a 5000 calorie burger with just about everyone that went with us, it was huge, it had chips and salsa as a condiment- that is how big this thing is.

So, Ben forged on without us farther east. I am sure we'll hear of his adventures soon.

Goodbye, again...

So this past week I had flashbacks to the summer that Ben and I were engaged. The difference this time being, well, that we are married, have a child and he is preparing to leave for two months, and it isn't a we situation (although, last time this happened he left for India and I left for Ghana, we didn't actually travel together--- uh wrong again, that was the first time, what I am reminiscing about now; if you want to get technical, the last time we did this, we actually did travel to India together...) anyway, the point is, that when he was leaving for India the first time I carefully counted down the days, planned time together, things to do, last minute items to buy. And then the horribly sad news came that they had to abruptly leave early- my plans had been dashed and my calculated get-used-to-the-idea-that-he-was-leaving meter was utterly confused and now broken. Ugh.

So that is the similar-ness and the emotional flashbacks that I am referring to here today. Ben and I realized far too late in our journey that he does actually need his passport on this trip as well- he needed to drive through Canada. It would have saved him about 2 hours from Michigan to Boston, not a whole lot of time, but because of this minor snafu, he had to leave semi-abruptly, a day earlier than expected. A 12 to 14 hour drive in one day is perhaps do-able, but a 15 to 17 hour drive in one day isn't really a good idea. So bye bye Ben. We miss you, we love you, and it is nice to know on this go around that I have absolutely the best person to share my woes and worries with, Arch-face.