A Beautiful NH Day

Today was the perfect summer day.  It was sunny and in the mid-70's with a slight breeze.  Aghhh...it felt nice after the heat we've had to deal with this summer.  Although Camden had some weird, sudden sickness yesterday afternoon, he was feeling much better today and we decided to go on the adventure that we had been planning all week.  After an early morning nap, we drove around to the Warner-side of Kearsarge Mountain and hiked to the top.  The Wilmot side (the side of the mountain that we live on) is a much longer and more difficult hike than the Warner side, and we usually enjoy hiking this side, but being 32+ weeks pregnant and taking along an almost-two-year-old, we decided to drive around the mountain and take the easy way up.  Definitely glad we made that decision.  Camden wasn't completely himself this morning and wanted nothing to do with hiking, refused to let Scott carry him and screamed bloody murder if he wasn't in mommy's arms.  It was a sight to see.  Luckily we made it to the top, and he kind of snapped out of it and started to have some fun.  I carried him in the Ergo the whole way down the mountain and we figured between Camden and my pregnancy weight gain I was probably carrying around 60 more pounds than usual.  Let's just say I got my workout for the week!  After our hike we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Foothill's of Warner and got ice cream at a cute little spot down the road.  We were ALL wiped out by then, so we headed home for our afternoon naps.

Our very tired, very sad little boy...

My TWO babies!

After a nice long two hour nap for Camden he was feeling much better and we decided to join the rest of the Benson clan at the Wilmot bandstand for a free concert!  It was very entertaining to watch Clara and Camden entertain the crowd with their dance moves and we had a blast!  Gotta love small town life - and we even got free popcorn!  What could be better than that?!?!

 Scott bought this "special" treat for him and Camden to share - a cupcake in an ice cream cone (?!?!?)!  I was personally disgusted, but Scott insisted that this is a normal treat!  I'm not so sure!

Dave and Clara having some snacks...

Kyle and Roddy are staying with my parents for a week before relocating to California!  Kyle became close to my family when she was a student at Colby-Sawyer and I've had fun hanging out with them this week when Scott has been so busy coaching camp!

Another wonderful summer day.  I love this teaching gig!  June, July and August make all those stressful months during the school year very worth it!

Playground

Scott has been coaching basketball camp at Colby-Sawyer all week, so Camden and I have been looking for adventures to keep us busy!  Today we joined up with my mom and Clara and our friends Kyle and Roddy and went to Newbury Harbor to check out the new playground.  My mom had been there with Clara before, and it definitely lived up to all of her hype.  Camden had SO much fun swinging, going down the toddler slide AND the huge, tall, windy slide (all by himself! eek!) and just exploring all the different things to do.  We had a blast and he fell asleep about 3 minutes into the 25 minute ride home (yes, I live in the middle of nowhere and we drive 25 minutes to go to cool playgrounds!).  Unfortunately, he woke up from his afternoon nap sweaty, feverish and miserable, but seems to be feeling a little better tonight.  Hopefully this isn't the beginning of another virus...ugh!

Here are some pictures from our playground adventure...

Camden LOVES swinging and didn't want to get off.  I finally made him, since there was only one toddler swing and others wanted to use it.  He threw a little fit, but quickly got distracted with all the other fun activities...

Clara and Kyle practicing their rock climbing skills...

I can't even believe it's already August!  Not sure what happened to July, but I do know that we've had a lot of fun!

Thoughts From an Expectant and Nervous Almost-Mother of Two

Wow, it's hard to believe that I'm 32 weeks along in this pregnancy.  That means only 8 +/- weeks to go!  Aghhh!  I had an appointment with my midwife earlier this week and all of a sudden the end is feeling very near!  There are only 2 weeks before I meet with her again (instead of the usual 4 that we've been doing) and then it's almost weekly after that!  We're starting to talk about labor and thinking about what I want to bring with me to the hospital and what we're going to do with Camden during that time and when/how we want Camden to meet his little brother.  There are so many things to think about - I was awake from 12:30-1:30am in the middle of the night last night and just couldn't shut my mind off!  Everything seems a bit more complicated this time around.  My fear of labor is intensified - I didn't really know what to expect the first time and I got dealt a really rough hand...so now I have the fears that this labor will be a repeat of the first.  Will my water break 14 hours before labor begins (which caused Camden to get in the wrong position)?  Will active labor be 21 hours long with 5 hours of pushing (dear God, I hope not!)?  Will I have the energy, strength and determination to do my best to have the natural birth I'm hoping for or won't I be able to handle it?  Will Camden be OK with our families during this time?  He's very well-adjusted to both sets of grandparents and loves his cousin Clara, but we've never left him overnight and have barely had anyone else try to put him to sleep (he wakes up so much, will he be OK when Mama and Daddy aren't there to comfort him?). 

Luckily I know that I am in great hands.  Our midwife is amazing and extremely talented and experienced.  Scott proved to be an incredible support physically, mentally and emotionally during our trying labor with Camden and I know he will be amazing once again.  Our families are so supportive of us and will do everything they can to help us through this time of transition...but it's still scary! 

Despite all of these fears and nerves, I am SOOOO incredibly anxious to meet our little guy.  He is SO active inside of me and I'm dying to hold him in my arms and love on him.  Camden keeps telling me he wants the baby out right now.  He wants to play trucks with him and help mommy take care of him.  I'm sure it will be a HUGE transition for Camden, but I know that despite some rough times at the start, he will make a wonderful big brother.  We have had some difficultly nailing down a name that we really love for this child, and when we asked Camden what we should name him, his response was "Bruce."  We have NO idea where he heard this name (it sounds more like "boooce" when he says it), but he now refers to the baby by this name all the time!  When we throw out other ideas to Camden to see if he likes a certain name, he says, "No Mama, Bruuuuce."  Haha...he keeps us laughing. 

It's hard to believe that in less than two months I will have two little boys to care for, to love, to snuggle.  I'm having trouble figuring out how my heart is going to expand to love this little one as much as I already do without minimizing my love for Camden, but I know God will miraculously multiply the love I am able to give.  I can't wait for September.  There are big changes on the horizon, but God is faithful and will walk with us through this time.  I can't wait to hold this new little life in my arms and welcome him to our family.

An Evening Walk

I know I've mentioned it before, but I just love the area where we live/where I grew up.  I love Proctor's campus, I love the little village and the pizza at Pizza Chef that we enjoyed tonight, I love the rail trail and the rivers and the meadow that are so accessible to our house.  Tonight we took a walk down to the Meadow with my Mom and Dad and Camden had fun throwing rocks in the river (for the second time today!).  The humidity was finally gone, there was a lovely breeze and the evening light was beautiful.  We had fun snapping some pictures (of course!) and got some pretty cute ones...

There is a house that we pass every time we go out for a walk and Camden LOVES this little pig that they have in the yard.  We stopped and chatted with these neighbors for a little while on the way home, and Camden had fun checking out the pig...

Tonight I'm thankful for family, thankful for beautiful summer evenings and thankful for the wonderful place we live. 

Our Professional Photo Shoot!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had an incredible opportunity to have a family photo shoot with Faith Ostan Hall Photography.  Faith went to Gordon with Scott and me and has pursued a career in both teaching and photography since she graduated.  She is super talented in both areas, and we were thrilled to have her take some photos of our growing family!  She did a random giveaway on her Facebook fan page, and I happened to be the winner of a free photo shoot!  I was so thrilled, as this is something I've always wanted to do (especially now that I'm pregnant), but knew it was probably not something we would pursue on our own.  We had a blast spending a beautiful, sunny, HOT afternoon with Faith at Lynch Park in Beverly, MA and are just so grateful for her generosity.  She is so creative, so professional and so fun to work with.  Thank you so much for this incredible gift Faith!  We LOVE how the photos turned out!  Here are some of our favorites (I had such a tough time narrowing down (as you can see!)-you can see all the photos on my facebook page)...

THANK YOU, FAITH!  Now I have to get some of these framed before Baby #2 arrives or it will never happen!  :)