A Weekend With Bennett

So this is the ONLY photo I received from Chloe from her Weekend With Bennett down at UCCS this past weekend. This is what I get when I ask her to take "fun" photos to document their time together. Obviously, I was not clear enough in my directive. She went all out here. At least she lowered her sunglasses to her chin. 

Despite the lack of pictures proving otherwise, Chloe said her first solo trip down to The Springs to visit her brother was fun (she didn't elaborate much beyond that one descriptive word). They ate...a lot...at the cafeteria. Bennett lives for each meal time where they offer an "eat as much as you want" option. So that pretty much keeps him happy. Between meals (Chloe said she's never eaten so much), he took her to The Garden of The Gods to hike (without hiking shoes - and probably coats, mind you.) It was very windy, cold, with lots of slushy snow still on the ground, so they couldn't get too far. 

Bennett also took her on a tour around campus. They had a snack in between their all-you-can-eat dining experience at the Shake Shack. They hung out in his dorm. That's been the one great things about the pandemic. Bennett gets a whole room to himself whereas he normally would have had to share the tiny space with another person. So, he had an extra bed for Chloe to sleep in (at her own risk). 

This was the first time Chloe has driven a long distance on the highway by her self. 25 is a very scary, dangerous freeway. But this girl LOVES to drive. And she loves to drive fast. She often declares, "I think I'll just go for a drive" like it's fun to do - because for her it is and it somehow relaxes her. So the drive didn't stress her out nearly as much as it did us. But we had complete confidence in her. However, we were very relieved when she texted us upon arrival. 

 

However, for the life of me, it's hard not to see these two at this age every time I look at my grown kids. At 6 and 4, they were riding safely in a bus with a professional driver. At this time of life, I couldn't have imagined a time of life without my precious children always surrounding me and needing every second of my time and joyfully giving it to them. The future seemed 100 years away. Come to find out it was actually only 13 years away. I'm so thankful they are friends. That they want to spend time together. That they enjoy each other's company.