Four Years

On Monday it had been exactly four years since Oby did a victorious fist bump.....


after just snagging the coolest wife ever....


Although no one caught it on camera, I'm sure I was raising the roof!

Happy Anniversary, Us!

Raging Waters

Before Megan moves to Vegas this weekend and Taylor heads back to San Fran this weekend, we decided to all get together for (sniff, what used to be a Bennett family tradition) a day at Raging Waters. Here's all the cute kids having fun together.....


Even though Chloe is sad that her cousins are leaving, she still managed to have fun. Especially with her new life jacket from Grammy that helps her feel independent in the water. She loves it!....

Vegas Baby!

Oby's sister and her family are moving to Vegas this week. I'm a little bitter that they want to move away so far away from me, but I guess medical school and the possibility of living a life of luxury is more important to them than their relationship with yours truly.

Nick, Meg & future baby Madison

Instead of sitting around moping, though, Oby, Chloe and I decided to throw them a going away party to wish them luck....


Now BOTH of Oby's sisters live will live in other states. I swear, they must hate me!!!....


The party was at a park in Riverdale with a splash pad. Of course the kids just loved it!....



And everyone enjoyed just being together....



Well, good luck, Gangwers. And remember...

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except herpes. That {stuff}'ll come back with you."

(Sorry, if you knew these two, you'd know I just HAD to do the quote from The Hangover. I just had to!)

Heritage

For the past few months, I've been planning on having a booth at Syracuse's Heritage Days to hand out fliers and let people know about Chloe's playground. Then I decided to also sell bows to help raise money....


Then the city decided to donate an ipad and a basketball signed by all the Utah Jazz players that we could raffle off.

WOW!

Oh, and the mayor brought the governor by to meet me. He offered his support and shed a tear while he watched the video. The governor!

Then they decided to hold an event to sell pies to help our cause....


Then they decided to have Chloe be the guest of honor at a children's parade.


Then they decided to dedicate the proceeds from their traditional pancake breakfast to our playground. Then they decided the breakfast wasn't enough and they decided to also have a hot air balloon that people could pay to ride, and the proceeds would go to the playground.

Talk about stepping up to the plate and absolutely exceeding expectations. When the playground is completed, it will truly be a heritage to this city.

And because of my new work schedule, Chloe having coming down with a serious case of Croup, the time it took to make all those bows we sold, and Oby being in charge of a rest stop for the MS 150 bike race to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis, boy oh boy did I need help. Our parents, friends, family members and even people I didn't even know we really there for me and this cause.

Wow, I don't really have the words to say thank you enough for how much I appreciate ALL the help I got this week from SO many people. And to all the people who came to the events to support us. Wow. WOW.

It really paid off. We raised some impressive funds and I got some incredible contacts for future events and funds.



THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Really.

Thank you!!!

Clownin' Around

Last night there was a children's parade for Syracuse's Heritage Days. Since so many of the Heritage Days events are benefiting Chloe's Sunshine Playground, they asked that Chloe definitely come to the parade. Of course she was there! And boy oh boy did she look cute!!!....

Ah, Love!

My cousin David is engaged to be married next month and boy oh boy is he in love....


His last name is Love, so this is the future Mr. and Mrs. Love (literally!)....


David's sister and I threw the future Mrs. a bridal shower.



We gave Denae a tiara that said "Bride to Be." When all the little girls saw that Denae was wearing a tiara, they had to put their tiaras on too!....


It was a great opportunity for her to get in good with her future mother-in-law. It wasn't too hard, I think everyone already loves her!....


We had a super delicious dinner, shared marriage advice, Denae read a book that David wrote for her (so sweet), and she opened presents!

Our cousin Penny gave her this hilarious gift. It was two really sexy lingerie items and a snow cone machine. A fun gift, even though it seemed like a little random combo. Then Penny explained that she wanted to give her the snow cone machine so they could cool off after they got HOT from the sexy lingerie!!!...


Ah, Future-Mrs.-Love, welcome to the family!

Cousins & Friends

Chloe is so lucky to have so many seriously fabulous cousins! It's impossible to differentiate between them as cousins or friends.... they are just both to her! All of her typically out-of-state cousins were in town this past weekend and Chloe just loved it!

Izabella & Chloe swinging

Chloe & Aspen out to lunch!

We wore Izabella right out!

All the Bennett cousins together!

Tonio, Isabella, PJ, Will, Henry, Chloe & Ezekeil

Chloe has a little friend in church named Abby. Abby just adores Chloe and always plays with her in nursery. This week, she drew this picture for Chloe and made her dad take her to give it to Chloe. He said he tried convincing her to wait until she saw Chloe at church again, but she said it was too important and couldn't wait. So sweet, Chloe's first little neighbor-friend!...


Remember our friends, Gerty and Gilbert? Well, we said goodbye to them this week. Don't worry, they went to a good home... a cute young family who wanted them as pets.


We had to make room in the pasture for our NEW friends, Bandit & Big D. They're not our horses, but in exchange for letting the owners board them in our pasture, we get to use them for Chloe's horse therapy! All the benefits of having horses without the work or expense: SWEET DEAL! Plus we're up a wrung on the social ladder from "the goat people" to "the horse people." You can't go wrong with that!

Bandit

Delbert, aka Big D

Happy Father's Day!

Chloe has the greatest dad in the world. He is so much fun and always there for us no matter what. He is sweet and sensitive and always good for a laugh. We just love him!....


I have a pretty great dad myself! Just one example: today I was in serious bow-making mode. I've got to have 200 more bows made for this weekend's Syracuse Heritage Days because I'll have a booth to raise money for the playground. My mom and I were cutting, folding and hand-stitching until our fingers bled (no lie), and Dad decided to do his part. He made a bunch of fabric buttons and helped us fold for quite awhile....


Not typically the crafty type, this was true evidence of his love for me and Chloe and support of the playground. He's the only person I know who would use a socket wrench for crafting purposes, though! ;)

Oby's dad is doing a football camp in Guatemala, so we weren't able to see him today, but he isn't forgotten.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

We love you SO much!!!

Sunday Brunch

When Oby's dad asked us to go to brunch at La Caille, we quickly agreed! This is one of those places you go to for the ambiance. I love it!....

While the rest of us enjoyed the rare occasion of fine dining with parfaits, seafood, croissants, and other things we couldn't pronounce, Zeke dug into a Pop Tart!....

Poor Chloe had a serious tummy ache for the first half hour or so. It was actually quite a fiasco, but she was finally feeling well enough to enjoy time out with the family!...

La Caille is impressive overall, but their wheelchair accessibility was unimpressive. Oby and Mike were carrying her up and down stairs all over the place! Good thing I married a strong hunk for these situations....

Walking around the gardens felt a little bit like heaven....

At one point, Chloe seemed to be surrounded by peacocks. (We named one Kevin!)....

We finally realized that a mating ritual was going on and Chloe seemed to be a threat. The bird kept squawking at her, and Chloe squawked right back! She was not happy about getting yelled at by this bird. I'm likely the worst mother in the world because I thought it was pretty dang funny...

Zeke, however, LOVED those birds!...

We all just had a wonderful time!....