Parris Family: Weekend at Grandmother's House

We just got back from a fun-filled weekend at Grandmot

her's house. The weather was perfect and the kids had fun playing outside. Grandmother's yard is so fun for Ben. She built a super-long slide into a man-made dirt mound/small hill and he always enjoys sliding down it. For some reason I didn't take a picture of it, but here's one from a few years ago. I also enjoyed going to some yard sales and picked up a box of wooden train track pieces (I think its called Brio) for just a few bucks. Here's a picture of the amazing creation Ben made using those pieces. There were also a few lincoln logs mixed in

with the train track blocks so he included a log cabin in the forest. The best part about it was when we let Kylie loose right next to the "park" (the collection of trees and people on the right side of the track). She was so excited to get her hands (and feet) on it and did her best to destroy as much as possible before we picked her up and ended the fun. The shrieks of absolute excitement were hilarious (too bad I didn't have a video camera handy!). I told Ben that I was sorry but Godzilla was loose in the park and destroyed it. He's such a great big brother that he didn't even care--I think that whole fun of it for him is building it and not so much as playing with it when he's done. This is a very good thing since she's already shown her intentions of destruction with other things he's built. All he had to say about it

was to grin and say, "That's okay--at least we already got a picture of it." He's going to be a famous builder or architect one day and I'm going to have a collection of his early masterpieces. Ben also made some amazing structures out of blocks in kindergarten last year and his teacher has her own collection of pictures to prove that she knew about his talent way back when... My mom also has another toy that is good for the imagination, I have no idea what it is called but here's a picture of something Ben made out of it using all the pieces. He's made robots and animals and all sorts of things out of it in the past. After a fun weekend of playing Kylie needed to unwind in a relaxing bath. It must have been relaxing because she slept most of the way home. She's a pretty good traveler, but a sleeping baby is always better when you're stuck in a vehicle for a long drive. Ben has ALWAYS been a great traveler. His first road trip was when he was just about 3 months old and we moved across the country from SC to UT. He was especially good and really didn't cry much the entire drive. I have pictures from that trip and he was just grinning and happy as can be. I guess that's why we've done so many road trips with him (trips to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, several cross-country between UT and SC/GA). One summer we were in our truck with the camper top on the back and the air conditioning went out. We drove with the windows down but it was still HOT. We did NOT have a DVD player then, he was 2 years old, but he was very pleasant and just looked at books or played happily, not complaining at all. We usually just eat on the road during our travels but this particular trip we stopped at an Applebee's just to go in and enjoy some AC. I remember Ben sitting in his high chair and when the waitress came over to take our order he knew exactly what he wanted. He held up one finger and said, "French fries...crayons." She took him very seriously and even wrote it down on her tablet. He loved it! You could tell it made him feel very important! The waitress said something to the effect of, "That's what I like. Someone who knows exactly what they want!" Anyway, point of this wandering thought was just to mention how good of a traveler that Ben is and how grateful we are of this or else we probably would not have enjoyed so many fun trips. Kylie is not as cheerful as Ben while traveling--but she isn't bad, just have to plan a little better and bring along the Baby Einstein shows! The pre-trip bath definitely helped and Kylie loved it.