Meet Baby Rowan

Well, we met her! Finally!
Rowan Beth Benjamin, our new little niece. Three 1/2 months old, she is just beautiful. And CONTENT. I’ve met just one baby as “easy” as this one - my friend Sarah’s little Joseph was the same way. Make so little noise, you forget they’re in the room.

So all week we got to hang out with little Rowan in Eagle Nest, NM. Cameron took me to her fav spa one day (absolutely unbelievable, that’s a blog post on its own), with signs everywhere that read “Whisper.” Well, no worries with Rowan, she didn’t make a peep the entire day. Just hung out in her infant carrier, and when I would glance her way she’d give me an open-mouth grin, just thankful for the attention. What a little miracle she is, and as Cam mentioned a couple of times, “Can you believe she was frozen?!”
We’re headed home today, always difficult to leave Papa’s Mountains. The end of summer is such a beautiful time up there - rain showers every day, wildflowers still in bloom, warm enough for hikes but cool enough for fires and s’mores.
We managed somehow to keep our now-very-familiar virus flowing from one family member to another. This is going on three weeks. Basden (again) started our trip with the yuckies, Essie (again) held onto it our entire stay, Branson got it (again) a couple of nights before we left (in the middle of the night on a campout, thanks Papa & Uncle Alan for the clean-up!) and Corbin is somehow making the 11-hr drive today with a yucky tummy. Want to join our pity party?! It was more than a little disappointing to deal with this crazy sickness.
But even so, I loved our week in the mountains. Hud and Bran BOTH passed their Papa-administered “4-wheeler tests,” certificates and all (evidently Foster passed his a while back). Basden and Nettie May collected daisies and feathers and fairy dust on their treasure hunt. And Essie, well, she simply stayed in mommy’s arms all week - all week. Mix in bike rides and zillions of air-soft-gun wars and yummy meals, and you've got a glimpse of our week. Papa and Mama are due a few days of rest and restoration with our crew’s exit.
As we piled in the car this morning, as usual, Mama couldn’t keep a dry eye. And as with each time our suburban pulls out of the scenic driveway, Branson remained teary-eyed through the canyon. He’s in the back seat now planning our next trip to Papa’s Mountains...
Papa & boys reloading for another air-soft war
Basden and Nettie May
Papa & Essie
Hud crawdad fishing