Cville Quickie and oops we did it again.

A quick update on things.  We have been wicked busy these last few months.  I have been job hunting and dealing with work drama which culminated on Friday with my last ever dealing with my former job.  I have a new job and feel the weight of the world off my shoulders.  I miss my coworkers but am so glad to come home and be a good mom and wife and not just melt into the couch and stew about the horrors and drama of my day.  I started my new job the day after we got back from Hawaii and my last day at my old job was the very next day.  I have friends forever from my former job and learned a lot about what to watch out for and to trust your instincts as far as red flags are concerned.  

We sold and closed on our place in Boston and have started our house hunt here in MN - will write more about that once I have something to write about.

And I got pregnant.  The fetus formerly known as the deuce (Sarah had dibs on that baby name already) is arriving in November.  I should find out what it is in the next couple weeks so will have a post dedicated to the rocking of poor little Minos world that is on the horizon.

We zoomed back to Clintonville for Auntie Sarah's bridal shower and her bachelorette party.  For many reasons, the most important being Mino isn't in the party pics, those won't be shown on here.  Sarah is in the prime of wedding years and has been to many weddings and bachelorette parties as of late so really wanted something low key.  I brought Mino with me for the weekend thinking he'd have some good Granddude time, but the dude was at the boat, so Mino got some lady time.

He helped open presents and have people who were bored with the shower something else to pay attention to.  Forgive me April if you look at this and see that terrible picture.  It was just so terrible for so many reasons I had to make it blogworthy.

The dude came back on Sunday so he got a bit of Mino time.

I think I have said this several times, but Mino is all boy when it comes to interests.  He loves trucks, busses, cars, wheels, airplanes and can say all of those words and see them before you do.  It just blows my mind because it isn't something that we spend lots of time talking about at home or focusing on, I guess he just really likes it.  Granddude loves the prospect of a potential car guy in the house.

 And now that he can climb he is into and onto everything.  Here is a bucket formerly used to house dog toys, Ben was hauling it around the house all morning then decided he could sit in it. How fun!

And has learned to get onto things, I didn't manage to snap a photo of him standing on the back of the sofa due to sheer panic on my part, but here he is stomping along to Happy Feet on the table before I swiped him down.  He knows what no means, and knows he isn't supposed to.  How do you not laugh when they are so obviously being consciously naughty?

Auntie Gingah is a Doctah

About two days after returning from Hawaii we left to go to Boston to watch Sarah graduate. And I have to give photo credit to my dad, the Granddude, I failed at grad photos so I stole most of them from his pics!!!!!!

 

 Nana and Granddude were making a go of it visiting GG in Philly and then jetting up to Boston for the weekend for the graduation.  We all made it on time though.  Round about seven months ago Nana and I had a very inspiring moment when we stumbled on an old picture of Sarah from elementary school playing dentist.  (We used to go to my dads office after school to be watched by the front desk women - Lorraine, Sandy, Toni. . .  poor lasses)  We knew shirts needed to be made.  However, our execution was sub par, we forgot until week of.  Nana in her infinite wisdom overnighted them to Boston to ensure we would embarrass her!

I had my shirt on under my get up, you can see the white.  If you graduate from Tufts you can hood your subsequent family, Sarah ran that risk and it was actually a great time.  I got to catch up with my former boss who was an amazing mentor and get pictures from the front.

 

After the ceremony we had the grand reveal, and Sarah actually really liked the shirts and wasn't embarrassed at all.  Oh well, we were the coolest family in that joint.

Mino tried to show respect to Auntie Gingah but as having more fun running around the yard and making Martin work for his dad of the year badge.

Here we are, Martin wasn't a fan of the shirts, so while he did wear it, and we do have pictures, on his honor on this here Father's Day I will leave him out of the shot.

 Jim, Cheryl and Liz came to watch too.  Again, our last minute infinite wisdom didn't think to get shirts for them - Whoops!  It was fantastic to catch up with them and especially Liz who has been globe trotting and earning prestigious awards. 

That part was the least fun for Mino, and the title of this thing is Benjamino's life, so I suppose I should get off my Gingah kick and back to the meat and potatoes.  He loves Gryff.  He and Gryff could be left alone to babysit each other I think.

The bitter sweet part of the trip was saying goodbye to the condo in Boston.  Martin got it two months before he proposed to me, we lived there while I was in school and through my first job, through the Packer victory in the Superbowl and early pregnancy with Mino.  Many good times were had so we had to make the rounds and say our good byes.  JP Licks was an OK one in Mino's book.

The last two trips to Boston I managed to bugger up and not get this picture, here it is, our street.  So long Gartland!!  You were great to us for 5 years and will be missed. 

And the beauty of the weekend was that it wasn't over yet.  Auntie Em was having her baby shower so Mino and I headed to Arlington for the fiesta.  I opted for public transportation, epic fail.  45 minutes late and a pick up later after exiting out a random door far far away from everything because that is where elevators deposit you I arrived.  What an amazing party. Em's friend Jackie knows how to get down.

 Mino had a great time chilling with his main girl Eloise and taking man tips from Jbone.  I didn't get Mino with Em because, 1, he was more entertained with ladies of the 4 legged variety, and 2, I know how much I loved 9 month prego shots.  Auntie Chill was there too but I failed at pictures.  It is much more difficult to document every waking moment when every waking moment is spent chasing this Rastafarian child around.

 And due to my slacking blogging skills, her baby shower pictures are going up the day her baby arrived!  Welcome Jack!!  We can't wait to meet you!!!!!

Slumming it in Hawaii

 So we went to Hawaii.  I got waaaaaaaay carried away with pictures.  That is the long story short.  Martin was lucky enough to have as a part of his career many conferences to attend that are part of work, so he is sponsored to go.  The most important conference of the year was AAI, which unfortunately was in Honolulu so we were forced to make the decision to splurge on a plane ticket for me, let Min ride on our laps and head to Hawaii in May.  Normally, spring in MN is sad to miss, but the day we left, just 30 miles to our east, 15 inches of snow fell.  I was glad to get the heck away.
Martin really didn't have any free time while he was at the conference so we took full advantage the first day and toured around as a family.  We visited the USS Arizona memorial and I enjoyed that more than I could have imagined.

Then work kicked in and Mino and I were free to explore.  We took a catamaran cruise out into the bay to see Diamond Head from the water.

 Mino followed me unwillingly on the local busses to the zoo and aquarium and an accidental tour of Honolulu due to me not exactly ready bus numbers and routes properly. 

 We spent a lot of time visiting the penguins at our hotel.  Obviously.  Penguins at a hotel in Honolulu.  Duh.

 After the conference was done we jetted over to Maui to revisit our honeymoon, with Mino in tow.  The best part of every day was waking up and eating breakfast on our Lanai.  Ben got in the habit, he would yell cereal and crawl up onto a chair.  It was really nice to not be frantic and trying to rush to work, or lazy on a Saturday and have one of us sleeping.

 We learned pretty quickly that Mino is scared of waves.  He liked the sand and running away, but not the water so much.  That kind of limited our beach time as it was hot, and without wanting to go into the water, there wasn't a good way to keep cool, and the sand is flipping hot.

 So that led us to tour Eastern Maui.  We did the road to Hana on our honeymoon, so didn't feel the need to go that way again.  Instead we noted a little path around the eastern round part of the island that our previous dated guide book said was not for rentals (this one did not carry that warning.)

 All was fun and games until the one lane road traffic jam.  The main way from the airport and Kihei over to Lahaina was blocked with a pretty bad accident.  The locals knew this one way road, thinking that most tourists wouldn't be so dumb as to take it.  Wrong they were.  Let me tell you there are no photos because I was too busy sweating for my life.  Backing up on a literal one way road with douchey frat boys on mopeds and cliffs and no pull outs was a bit traumatic.  Just ask Martin.

We survived and went to a nice dinner in Lahaina.  With all the seafood options and varieties Martin chose Bubba Gump Shrimp.  The view was nice.

 We decided to venture up Haleakala as well.  We got a beautiful day.  I got car sick.

 Mino was bored so he decided to impersonate Fear and Loathing.

 That got irritating so we considered chucking him into the clouds.

 But decided he was just a dude, so we kept him.

 But he made us question that decision.

 We also wanted to visit Kauai.  The best part of Kauai is Mino finally learned to enjoy the water so we could have beach time.  However, Kauai isn't known for calm waters.  There is a constant repeating television at the baggage claim explaining how to escape from rip tides.

 We saw a big tree.

 And vines.

 But most importantly we discovered Kauai Cookies, Minos favorite.

 Martin was yelling at me for standing in a precarious position to take this picture.  Little did he know what he was standing on. . . .

 We enjoyed the sea breeze.

 We had a very short Japanese couple take our picture visiting a waterfall. . ..

 This waterfall.

 And we ventured out to see Waimea Canyon.  It really was a spectacular site.

 The little mang even stopped to take a peek.

 But decided chasing chickens was waaaaaaay more fun.  There are so many chickens on that island that you'd think every meal would have some form of poultry.  But I don't believe I had any chicken whilst in Kauai.  I should have.

 So about 6 miles after the canyon there was another pull out, I thought it was just farther up the canyon, nope, the next look out was this.

 The quintessential Hawaiian view.   I was slightly disappointed because the rugged Napali Coast was off limits to 18 month olds, so I thought, oh shucks, I guess I will have to come back and see it some other time. 

 Mino enoyed terrifying us by wanting to walk independently on the shear cliffs.

 The drive up from Kapaa as far as the roads go the other way was pretty darn cool too.  There were large caves along side the road.

 And lei stands.

 A fern grotto to visit. 

 And trails to explore.

It was a great trip all in all, no one got sunburned!!!  My office manager commented on how pale I was when I returned.  Flying was surprisingly ok, Mino slept most of the way home.  I learned Hawaii has a lot of BBQ, chicken, Honolulu is very Japanese and you should know some if you are trying to ride the busses, that you can manage to rent a black car with black leather interior in Hawaii, and that Bubba Gump Shrimp isn't half bad.