Mama On The Move

Ben and Noelle finally got an ultrasound which allowed them to see the baby clearly. And they were finally able to tell the gender! Baby Boy had his legs spread with great pride and was hiding nothing. When Noelle said, "It's a boy," the doctor responded, "That's not a boy, that's a MAN!" 

Ben and Noelle are both taking classes on line.  Ben is trying to finish up his Bachelors.  Noelle has started work on her Masters.  They are only in their early 20's and I guessed they would want to wait until they finish their degrees before they try to start a family.  I also wonder sometimes if they are going to decide Hawai'i is too expensive for them and realize they could afford a bigger house on the mainland.  If they pack up and leave, a BIG part of the reason why we moved back here will be gone. Well.......... Ben Facetimed us today.  I knew something was up the minute my phone rang.  Ben never Facetimes us.  Of the dozen thoughts that ran through my head before I answered the first was "They are having a a baby."  The second was, "They are moving off the island."  Of course, there is a pandemic taking over the world and we are all having to social distance from one another.  He might actually just be tired of not seei...

It finally happened! After five and a half years of dating and two years of being engaged, Ben and Noelle got married! Emily and Katie were both bridesmaids. We are now a family of six! The wedding was in New Jersey but we still had family who were able to attend.  Ben and his groomsmen.  The Princeton chapel was phenomenal! Noelle's sister and Katie both started crying during the ceremony.    Mr & Mrs!

The reception was awesome!  We had an absolute blast!  Someone from Noelle's side of the family told me I was the happiest person they had ever seen.  I was very happy!  I can't remember the last time I laughed so much! The newlyweds had a cupcake tree with one small cake on the top for them to cut.  The cupcakes were all different flavors and were awesome! Ben's tumbling team performed some stunts outside for the guests. Gracious, I hope she had shorts on under that skirt. Noelle's accapella group performed as well.   When Noelle started singing, Ben's friends all looked at him in surprise and Ben smugly nodded at them as if to say, "Yep.  That's my wife !"  We had very good friends who came all the way from California! We had wrapped Katie's cast in a gray scarf to match her bridesmaids dress for the wedding.  At the reception, we had a giant pack of colorful sharpies and had people sign her cast. ...

Of course, the most exciting part of our trip to Busch Gardens was that Ben proposed to Noelle! They are officially engaged! Having only been proposed to, never having been the one doing the proposing, it was quite an adventure to see it all unfold behind the scenes, as it were. When Kerry proposed to me, I had absolutely no clue that it was in the works so I was unaware of all the build-up and the ring search and the planning that goes into this one pivotal moment. Ben had contacted us a couple of months earlier to let us know he wanted to go ahead and propose.  They had already been dating three years and had planned to wait one more year to get engaged, but Noelle's father had indicated that he would approve of them getting engaged sooner and Ben needed no further urging. He was looking at rings on line, and sent me pictures of what sort of ring he was looking for.  I urged him to wait until he could see the rings in person.  Things look a lot larg...

After we left our home state, we headed up to Virginia.  That's where Ben's summer job is, and we have friends and family we wanted to visit while we were there. Ben's girlfriend was able to join us for the day at Busch Gardens where we had a very exciting day! We rode lots of rides, but that wasn't the most exciting part. We had fun family time, but that wasn't the most exciting part. We saw lots of cool animals, but that wasn't the most exciting part. We saw a dragon being carved out of crisco and cornstarch, as well as really nifty carved watermelons and all sorts of food art which was really cool but not the most exciting part. We rode exciting rides and saw fun thing, but those were not the most exciting things of the day! I accidentally took a photo of my feet, which really wasn't all that exciting. I fell down when I tripped backwards over a curb.  Kerry thought I had been knocked down which almost caused...

We were very excited about having our family come visit us.  However, Mother Nature was feeling moody and caused all sorts of strife. Kerry's family was able to drive out the morning before the snow hit.  My mother and sister were supposed to fly out the following morning but we found out we were supposed to have extremely heavy snow.  We were concerned about our ability to get them to the airport which is about 30 minutes away.  We wound up taking them to a motel near the airport where they could get a shuttle the next morning to make their flight. Thank goodness we did.  The snow came down all night and we never would have been able to get our of our neighborhood, let alone to the airport.  But because of our strategic planning, they were able to make it on their flight (after watching the plane be de-iced twice and watching dump trucks cart away snow). Unfortunately, the rest of us were stuck at home in "near-blizzard" conditions.   ...

Ben and Noelle were blessed to go parasailing in Hawaii! I wasn't there, and Ben doesn't give me a ton of details other than, "We're going parasailing", and I'm horribly sick so I can't wrap my brain around writing, so I'm just going to post the photos.  They pretty much speak for themselves. I smile every time I look at these because of how happy they look!