Adventures in Bennionland

Today was an incredibly special day for our family!

Adeline Joy Bennion (“Addie”) was born.
3:35am
6 lbs 13 oz.

Addie is the daughter of Jess (Eric’s brother) and Michelle. We are so thrilled that she is here and even more thrilled that she managed to miss her Dad’s birthday (Jess’ birthday is the 7th and everyone was a little worried she’d show up then!).

Both Mom and daughter seem to be doing good – everyone is tired. They’ll go home on Friday (I think).

It was fun trying to explain to Will and Walker that the baby inside Michelle’s belly was now the baby inside the pictures we were sent. They still haven’t grasped the concept, as is evidenced by the fact that Will continues to tell me about the baby in HIS belly. This is their first cousin on either side of the family AND that gives Eric and I the coveted Aunt and Uncle status. I’m excited to share lots of love without all the responsibility. I’ll leave that to Jess and Michelle who I am sure will do well!

Congrats Jess and Michelle! Welcome to our world baby Addie! We love you already!

Daddy E left for Canada today! He will be there for almost two weeks getting to know the area, meeting new people, and no doubt having a great time! I guess it’s not technically a bon voyage since no ship is involved…but there isn’t another phrase that has such a fun catch to it!

Eric seemed pretty excited – except for the fact that he is going to be gone over Father’s Day. We seemed to have managed that though by going out and getting him some fun new clothes for both the trip and for the summer (since it’s already getting hot-hot-hot here).

Here’s his brief travel agenda:

June 9 – 12: Calgary
June 12 – 15: Vancouver (or Hongcouver as we like to call it!)
June 15 – 18: Edmonton
June 18 – 19: Winnipeg

Both he and I had to spend about an hour looking at a map of Canada, because in all our geography classes neither of us really managed to remember where any of those were.

Have fun Daddy! We’ll miss you!

Today was the last day of Will’s K.I.D.S program through our community center. It has been one of the best things for him as he learned to make friends and have time without Mom and Walker around.

Of course I was emotional about it – though I couldn’t decide if I was sad (a) because it was over and it’s such a wonderful thing for him or (b) because it’s over for me and it’s been a good thing for me Will was actually apathetic about the whole thing – when I asked him if he was going to miss it he remarked simply “No.”. Well ok.

He made some cute things over the course of his preschool. I think I’m going to save a couple of them and then scan the rest. With the digital age there is just no need to store everything on hand. So having a couple of digital copies of his crafts will be good enough for us.

One of the things he made over the last few months that we (parents) got on the last day was a book set to the story of Down on Grandpa’s Farm. He had cut out shapes to make a scarecrow, barns, and different animals. It is more than adorable. The best part is the “about the illustrator” page. The teachers asked each kid to tell about themselves and the teachers wrote it down. Here is Will’s:

“Will is four. He lives in California with Papa, KK, and Mommy and Daddy. They have a black and white dog. Will likes the color white. His favorite food is crispy white cheese. He likes to play with propellers. He loves to visit the Jelly Belly Factory. When Will grows up he would like to be a builder.”

Don’t ask me what crispy white cheese is – I’m still trying to figure it out! It’s the cutest thing and fortunately Walker doesn’t realize he got kicked out of the house.

When I finally did get him to tell me what he’d miss about preschool, his answer was ‘Ryan, the helper’. He really bonded with Ryan especially because in the Fall, while we were traveling back and forth to see Grandpa Bob, Will wasn’t comfortable with being in class and sat with Ryan.

All of his teachers were fantastic and we appreciate the nine months of learning they’ve helped to give Will.

Mrs. Jackson

Mrs. Weidman

Ryan