Bennihana

This summer we had the rare and delightful opportunity to have Ben live with us. He came to Vicksburg to work for the Army Corps of Engineers and to hang out with us, because we're that cool. He was a tremendous help during those bigger months of my pregnancy when we were learning to manage a new home and Erik was at firefighter training for more than 8 hours a week on top of his day job. His stay was truly a blessing for us!

While Ben was here he did the dishes every night and mowed our lawn once a week with Bouncing Betty on our hilly and rolly lawns. He cleaned up unmentionable animals.

He went to fun pageant parades down town.

He accompanied us on a temple trip which was crowned with Po Boy from Po Boy's Express.

He went to work every day and ate those honey chicken biscuits from What-a-Burger (I didn't introduce him to those.)

He helped cook dinner and reintroduced us to lemon spaghetti.

He played with Alyssa and drank kool-aid. Hand grenades!!

He endured a trip to Natchez complete with Windsor Ruins and another house tour and that fried chicken place that supposedly has the best friend chicken...but it didn't.

He let us take him on a tour of the National Military Park located in our very on Vicksburg locale. There ain't no finer place in all of M'ssippi.  

But most of all, Ben was a friend during summer of 2015. At the beginning of the summer Alyssa told one of my friends that her brother was coming. She was referring whole-heartedly to Ben. She loved having him here. They played together. She watched him the whole time he was mowing the lawn, every time. She was always excited when he came home from work. Ben was her "brother", her friend. 

It was also fun for me. The last time Ben and I lived under the same roof, he was 14 and I was 18. He's no longer 14, which can be a little hard to remember from an older sister point of view. However, he is quite an amazing 22 year old. I am glad I got to know him better as an adult and strengthen our friendship during those months.