I'm going to miss this.

A couple of weekends ago we visited Traci's parents for Alumni Weekend at Mt. Ellis Academy. This year marks 14 years since Traci graduated from the academy and the last year before her dad retires. Since we left on Thursday evening, I made it a priority to sit through US History and watch Traci's dad teach a class. The lecture covered the period leading up to WWII and how the German currency was so worthless that people used it for insulation on their homes... I wish I would have placed more attention in school. Anyhow, after church on Saturday we visited the small town of Ringling that was home to a depot for the Milwaukee Railroad. One of the doors was open so we ventured inside and took a peek around the old structure that hasn't seen a train for over 34 years. The floors creaked as we walked across the dusty old floorboards, half opened electrical boxes hung from the walls yet despite the years of abandonment, there were no broken windows to be seen. Outside the departure room window a church can be seen sitting on hill awaiting it's next owners as the small community dwindles as the years pass.

During our visit we also had a chance to order a 2014 Jeep Patriot from the factory through the guys at Yellowstone Country Motors. It turns out the vehicle has been assigned a vin number and is currently somewhere on the assembly line. It's exciting to know that in Belvidere, Illinois there is a vehicle being made just for us. More on that later, moving on. We returned on Monday and enjoyed a mostly sunny drive as well as a nice sunset on the lake front of Coeur d'Alene lake. Ben mostly slept on the last stretch from Spokane yet was eager to bounce and play as we arrived to our house... which brings me to my next point. The hardest part of being a parent for myself.

We headed straight to bed as soon as we arrived back to our house yet Ben had different plans and was eager to share them. Both Traci and I were exhausted from the drive and neither of us had the energy to help Ben release his wiggles. Since he is becoming efficient in his mobility we decided to place Ben in bed with us and we would act as walls to stop him from falling off while he released his stored energy. I turned my back to him as I laid in bed in the hopes that he would entertain himself but he quickly notified me of his discovery of my earlobe. Any attempt to ignore him were useless as he repeated "Bah bah bah," and occasionally bump his head with mine. He held firmly to my earlobe with one hand while slapping the side of my face with the other, he was excited to finally spend time with his dad after sitting in that car seat for 9 hours. I turned my face towards him to see the biggest grin I've ever seen, yet meanwhile my weariness slowly turned into frustration. "Ben, I wish you could understand how hard this is for us." I said. It was at that moment I realized the hardest task as a father for myself is keeping up with his energy. The agenda for each awake hour of the day is "Fun" and nothing else will do. Of course Ben doesn't understand me yet, so he continued to gently slap my nose, mouth and eyes as I now was facing up. I had the ipad nearby so I searched for the song "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins. It immediately placed a new perspective and for a while I wished this moment would never end.

The second part of images were taken at my mom's house with a few other taken earlier this month.