While Ben was Gone...

Ben went on a business trip to Washington DC this past month. We decided that since the company was paying for his flights and car rental, he might as well just fly into Richmond and spend time with his parents and grandma. It seemed like a lot better idea when we booked the trip in early October. The day before he left, our already difficult two year old turned into an even more difficult two year old and completely shook my confidence that I could do the single mom thing for 10 days. I can't say that it was the smoothest, easiest ten days of parenting I've ever had (actually, it might sound dramatic, but it was some of the very hardest!) but we made it through!

I am always looking for fun things to do with the kids, but especially during this time of year. And my kids are always easier when we are out and about and doing fun things than when we stay home all the time. The boys have so much energy! One afternoon we took my mom with us and went up to our favorite little hiking trail to do some hiking and a scavenger hunt. Chase loved looking for each thing on the list (something red, something hard, something pokey, something blue, etc.) Hudson spent the whole time insisting on looking for tadpoles. So after hiking for an hour, we headed to the Kaysville ponds to look for tadpoles. We didn't see any, but Hudson felt okay about it by that point. The mountains were gorgeous with beautiful leaves, the boys had a great time, and both boys crashed relatively early that night!

 On Saturday I enlisted my mom to babysit while I went to my friend's baby shower. She made sugar cookies with the boys, which they always love. Doing holiday sugar cookies is one of our traditions and even though it's so messy, it always seems worth it. Later in the day we went back to decorate them. The boys were so cute about it- piling on the candy and sprinkles. And of course, Hudson wore the binoculars the whole time. They are apparently critical to his creative process.

This is a picture from the baby shower I went to on Saturday- Jessica is having a long awaited baby girl in a few weeks! Jessica and Holly are my friends from the island- we got there at the same time and went through the whole experience together, and Jessica lived by us in Florida as well. It was so fun to get together with them. We shared such hard, trying, and amazing experiences together. I feel kind of weirdly emotional just looking at this picture, thinking of very specific times on the island when I needed a boost and either Holly or Jessica was there for me. Even though life didn't follow the path we thought it would, I will forever be thankful that I met such amazing people on the island and all I learned from them. 

My friend Ashley from our Provo days brought her little ones up to play one morning! We always love seeing them. Her girls are darling and my boys love them. They discovered this unused cupboard in our kitchen that rotates and it became a little ride for them all morning.

And oh dear Hudson- heaven help me! He is, of course, adorable, but he also has tested my patience like I never would have imagined! He did not handle his dad being gone that well, he's very attached to Ben and usually wants daddy to put him to bed, whenever he's sad, etc. So of course, bedtime without daddy was a pretty big battle most nights. And then he got into lots of trouble while Ben was gone too. One morning I ran upstairs to take a quick shower and he got the lipstick out of my purse and colored all over our couch! While I was cleaning that mess up, he ran upstairs and emptied his whole bottle of shampoo into the toilet. Right after that he unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper. He also has been throwing crazy, intense tantrums several times a day, which I don't really know what to do with. Then one night he bit Chase (he was pretending to be a dinosaur, obviously). Of course I love him, and he is delightful a lot of the time, but he sure gave me a run for my money while Ben was away. 

Needless to say, after ten days apart, we were pretty excited to get Ben back! Chase gave Ben a big hug and sweetly said, "Dad! I thought you were never coming back!" Hudson was napping when Ben got home, so when he woke up he glared at Ben and said, "I didn't want to see you!" After Ben started playing cars with him, he quickly warmed up to him and then pretty much didn't leave his side for a good long while. 

Basically, we survived, and it's nice to all be back under one roof again!