I love this kid! He was the most hilarious little one and has remained true to who he is into his teenage years. We had THE BEST time this Spring Break. We were lucky enough to spend the whole week together hanging out while Chuck and Chloe were in Minnesota and Gavin was still in California.
The first order of business was to go shopping for dress clothes. We have a wedding to go to in a few months and he has no clothes for the event. He HATES shopping with a passion. And he only ever wears sports clothes. So I knew this was going to be a challenge at best, a nightmare at worst. But he shopped like a champ. We actually made record time. We finished shopping for his entire outfit: shoes, socks, belt, slacks, shirt, tie in under 2 hours. Even I was impressed. However, when I asked him to put the whole outfit on again once we got home so we could take a picture and send it to Dad, this is the face I got. Which harkens me back to my favorite comic: Calvin & Hobbes, of which, he impersonated perfectly.
Yup....that's Bennett alright.
Thank God it was the start of March Madness. We watched lots of the big upsets.
We did lots of basketball drills in the basement. We also played a ton of ping pong.
We took a tour of the University of Northern Colorado. Very cool school and the only school that actually offers what he wants to major in: Sports Coaching.
However, we didn't plan our time well and were starving and cold throughout most of the tour.
Hands down the best day was skiing at Snowy Range in Wyoming. Believe it or not, even though we live in Colorado, it was much closer for us to drive 1 1/2 hours to Centennial, WY. And much cheaper too. There were hardly any people there on this gorgeous, sunny, high 40s day. We owned those slopes. We did at least 10 runs.
The slopes were tree-lined and just breath-takingly beautiful. We were both in awe.
We also tried out a few restaurants in town, our favorite being a new pizza restaurant that reminds us of our favorite place in Minneapolis. Bennett even got to go hang out with his best friend a couple of days and watch March Madness together. I got a ton of lesson planning done and even enjoyed reading a couple of books. Time off is a nice gift. We absolutely loved our time together. There was so much laughing, my stomach hurt. It's times like these relationships and memories are made of. I'm reminded of something Rob Bell says (in Launching Rockets), "We're not meant to raise our kids, we're meant to enjoy them." (that one line taken out of context doesn't give you the complete picture - of course parents are supposed to teach and guide their kids - but too many parents forget to enjoy their kids b/c they get caught up in the dos/don'ts of parenthood). That has been our philosophy of parenting from day one until now and has seemed to work out pretty well for us.
