Our Little Traveler

Planes, car rides and new places....oh my!

Friday we set off on an adventure that had John and I excited and a little apprehensive.  

Destination: San Antonio.   

Purpose: introduce Ben to family and friends from Texas for the very first time!

Journey: 1 hour drive to the airport, 1.5 hours waiting for the plane, 4 hours on the first flight, 1+ hour layover, and 1 hour on second flight, then repeat 3 days later

Travelers: one tired mommy, one tired daddy and one crying, pooping, squirmy, messy machine (baby)

It could have been a disaster....we could have dealt with meltdowns and blowouts, lost a pacifier, run out of diapers and angered every passenger in the plane.  But God covered our trip with grace and it went so well!  Ben performed fabulously on the first few flights: only a few moments of fussiness and no blowouts!  We had him suck on his pacifier during takeoff and landing and he seemed to have no problems with the changing air pressure.  

Then we reached San Antonio and Ben was descended upon by all his South Texas fans.  Gran, Pops, GG (great-grandma), Aunt Melissa, Uncle Greg, cousin Hayden, cousin Garrett, several other family members and about 25 friends all got to spend time with us and our little superstar. We had all kinds of activities, family get-togethers and even an open house on Sunday for all the friends and family to come meet Ben and visit.  Having the open house allowed us to see lots of great friends whom we hadn't seen in a long time and helped us avoid long exhausting days of toting Ben around, in and out of a carseat, to try and see everyone.

As my Grandma says, it "warmed the cockles of my heart" to see Gary and Linda (my in-laws) loving on our son.  How blessed we are to have two families that love Jesus and love their kids and grand-kids with such tenderness.  

The trip home went even better as Ben slept almost the entire day away!  We were anticipating that all that sleep would then mean a night of dealing with a wide awake baby, but he slept like normal last night and had a normal day today.  What a great kid we have!  He is just so much fun to be with, even when traveling!  

Even though the trip was exhausting, we thoroughly enjoyed having an adventure with our little threesome family.  I am so proud of my Ben and what an enjoyable and easy-going little guy he is.  And I am so proud of my John and the wonderful father he has become.  My favorite day is any day spent with my two best guys!  I couldn't imagine anything better than being the mom of Ben and the wife of John!

Here are some pictures of all the weekend fun:

Four generations: Ben, John, Gary (John's dad), Lucille (Gary's mom)

All the boys! (Garrett, Gary, Ben, Hayden and John)

Ben has discovered his tongue!

Father and Son, dressed for church!

All excited and awake for his guests at the open house :)

Some of our friends who visited. . . .

Becky and Sara

Jenny and Sylvia and me

Sara, Chad, Christy, Victor, Becky and John and me

Jenn and Todd and their son, Tommy

Malachi, Emily and their son, Grayson

Aunt Melissa and her sons, Hayden and Garrett, and Aunt Holly

Sara Jane

Our sleepy little traveler

 And I saved the best for last.  This video is a collection of a couple moments of Ben coos and conversations.  Enjoy!