Our Summer in a Nutshell

It has been a long, long time since I last posted, so I'm going to do one big post to try and catch up. We have been all over the place this summer and Benson was such a good traveler. Our first trip was to Utah. We visited our Aunt Debbie, Uncle Brent and my brother Andrew in Las Vegas, my Mom, Dad, and sister in Cedar and my brothers in Cottonwood Hts. We were all over the place, but we had lots of fun. (I forgot my camera so these are some pics. my brother Andrew took. He is so good at this stuff.)

A few weeks after we got home we took a trip to Pennsylvania for the annual "Albrecht Family Summer Vacation." This year we went to Allentown and stayed in a beautiful historic home close to Dutch Wonderland, which is an amusement park for kids 12 and under. Benson had a blast! He got to go on almost all the rides. We also went to the Crayola Factory, an amazing Farm Park that was just like an amusement park, Amish Country, and the Hershey Factory. Of course, I forgot my camera:(

Our next stop was to Oregon for the Smith Family Reunion. We stayed at my Uncle Aaron and Aunt Syd's house. They have lots of land, where they built a fourwheeler/dirtbike course. They had chickens, cows, dogs and cats on the land too. Benson loved the cows and learned to say, "moo" whenever he'd see them. My favorite thing to do was pick the wild blackberries they had growing all over their property. Yum! It was so good to see family that we hadn't seen in a while. We had a great time!

Our last trip for the summer was to Chicago. Just Lundon, Benson and me. There was so much to do there. We stayed in a really nice hotel that was by a huge mall called the Woodfield Mall. The hotel was 30 minutes outside of Chicago, so we took the train in everyday and rode with the locals, there are some crazies in Chicago, but Benson loved it and learned to say, "choo-choo" by the end of the trip. We stayed for five days which gave us just enough time to do all the things we wanted to do. We took a double decked tour bus to get everywhere, and had some pretty funny tour guides. Some of the trip's highlights were the Shedd Aquarium, a river boat ride on the river and Lake Michigan, the Navy Pier, the Children's Museum, Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago style hotdogs, Gino's East Pizza, and the Garrett Popcorn Co. I actually brought my camera this time. Here are some pics.

Benson's Birthday!!

I can't believe our baby is one year old!  We decided to have a little celebration with friends and of course cake and ice cream.  Benson seemed to have a good time and just loved being around lots of people.  We gave him a cake to smash and surprisingly he only pecked at it.  I would have thought that with his personality he would have had it everywhere.  I think he was more interested in getting out of the high chair and playing with the kids.  He received some great gifts including a car, bubble machine, swimsuit, finger puppets, shoes, just to name a few. They have been keeping him very busy this past week.  Thanks to everyone who could come and help make our little boy feel special.  Happy Birthday Benson!  We love you!

PICS FROM THE PARTY

I thought it would be fun to list some of the things that Benson has accomplished in the past year so that we can always remember (I'm totally copying you Krista).  Here goes, 

Benson ...

• has 8 incisors and 3 molars, the 4th will be breaking through any day (Lundon would be proud of my terminology)
  
• loves climbing up onto the couch, into laundry baskets and onto anything challenging, we've found that he is very persistent and won't stop until he has conquered the challenge
• says "daddy" and "duck," tries to say "bath" and knows exactly what it means, he also knows what "go" means and heads straight for the door
  
• is great at sharing food with our dog, feeding himself a cracker then feeding Gizmo a cracker and so on (Gizmo waits patiently for it too)
• can open the front door and will take off down the sidewalk, he is very good at walking and goes quickly 
• waves bye-bye and claps to patty-cake
• dances to music and will immediately start bobbing his head when we go into stores that have loud music

B-Day Update

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've blogged.  Benson is really keeping me on my toes these days, getting into anything and everything.  May is the month for Birthdays, so I thought why not blog about that?  Mine was on Saturday and Benson's is on the 19th.  I'm still trying to figure out what we're going to do for our little guy's first birthday! If you have any ideas, feel free to share. 

On Saturday I turned the big 28.  Lundon and I have a hard time keeping track of how old we are now, so I can only imagine how it's going to be in the future!  Lundon did such a good job making me feel special (since it was Mother's day as well).  He started my day off with a trip to the spa to get a manicure and pedicure.  I felt so pampered! It has been a long time since I've had my toenails painted and they needed it badly.  Next, I met him for breakfast at Panera- YUM! Then I was off to the best part of the day- an hour and a half massage.  I have never felt so relaxed!  I told Lundon that they really shouldn't let you drive after a massage.  I have never been drunk, but I can imagine that it feels somewhat like you do after a massage.  Needless to say, I made it home and spent the rest of my day with my boys.  Thanks Lundon for a wonderful day.  I am so lucky to have such an amazing husband, he is seriously one of the most thoughtful people I know.  

We'll keep you update on how Benson's big day goes!