Hangin' out with the Barben's

After the Favero's house, Elise and I were up in Washington. We visited the Barbens a few times. Elise had my camera a lot of the time and took several pictures of the kids so watch her blog for those. Here are a few I took after playing some baseball with the boys.

Bronson getting ready to launch a home run.
It looks like Bret Jr. knocked another one out of the park.

Jake makes a diving save.

And Bronson robs an anonymous slugger of another one.

Hangin' out with the Faveros

Again, it's been a while since I've blogged. Since y'all heard from me last I have been all over the place. Elise and I came out to Nevada after the Jensens were kind enough to let me stay at their place in Utah for quite a few weeks. We had a lot of fun and I was able to document it in pictures. Here are but a few of them:

Juliet is always smiling--even while warming the bench.
We went Geocaching with the older kids. They all love each other.

The cache was set up in a few different legs. One of which leads us by a foul-smelling waste water reclamation plant.

See, there it is.

The kids on an old tree.

...Still smiling...

In the car.

Elise is with three nieces. (That rhymes) Victor led us right to the cache.

Elise is with three nieces and victor in this picture. (Two rhymes)

Still in the tree.

Jerimiah, Colin, and Keira weren't with us on the photo shoot, but I did snap this one of them on the swing.

Look who's here

I know everyone is anxious to see Liz and Ryan's new baby, Jacob. Here are a couple of photos I snapped shortly after they got home a few minutes ago.

It's me again

Sorry I have not blogged in a while. I was unable to post pictures or videos and have just fixed the problem.

A few weeks back, Marae wrote a blog about the most annoying song in the world and posted a 20+ minute example. It was pretty rough stuff but I wouldn't go as far as to say the most annoying song in the world. Allow me to submit the following songs as examples of what may be even more annoying.

This is one that mom plays when she wants me to wake up. She knows I will have to get up to shut it off. Try to listen to the whole thing (at least until he starts singing around 40 seconds).

And this is one that some of you may remember. It was sung at my farewell.

She threatened to sing this song at my farewell for months beforehand even though I pleaded with her not to. So when I got my new camera and realized she didn't like me to take pictures of her, there was only one thing to do.

I've got dozens more but they take too long to upload so Mom lucked out.

Finally Updated

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I've blogged. It's not that I didn't want to. I was all ready to post weeks ago. It seemed all the answers to the Winner of the Week challenge had been submitted. All were way off. In fact, only one person even guessed one of the quotations correctly. That person turned out to be Jon signed in as his wife. So I spent a few weeks making this banner:

Just as I went to post it, I noticed a new comment in my comment section. It was from Marae and she had guessed them all correctly. Yes, it's true; all of those quotes belong to Elise. The fourth one was on Marae's blog and the fifth one was on Elise's. I have spent the last few weeks creating a new poster for Marae--the true Winner of the Week!

Unfortunately, she hasn't posted an unobstructed picture of her face since she's been married, so I had to make do with what I had.

Strange, I know. But not as strange as the first time I heard some of the nieces and nephews singing "I saw Uncle Ben kissing Aunt Marae..." to the tune of I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus. I guess it's still taking a while to get used to having another Uncle Ben in the family.

Well, as you know, I've been up in Washington for a couple months. David's secret dream is to have the whole family move up here. It is a really nice place and full of natural beauty. Here's a picture of Deception Pass Bridge from Whidbey Island.

And here's a picture of Cooper and Sophia sledding after it snowed a few weeks ago.

Although they love playing together, they are overjoyed to have the Barben cousins so close. In fact, Cooper started a blog to chronicle his new adventures with them (however, the title of his blog sounds more like a reality TV show that pits two people from different walks of life against each other for the chance to win big money).

Speaking of games that pit people against one another for the chance to win big money, I have some bad news. The Winner of the Week challenge will be postponed until further notice.

I have no doubt that Elise will wait exactly one year before responding to this post.

Isn't it weird that Elise does not like most breads, but loves toast?
So much so that she could probably eat an entire loaf of rye toast in one week. Then she would say something like "record".
FYI:She bought three loaves of bread her entire college career, 2 loaves being pumpkin chocolate chip (& zero packs of ramen).

O-blog-atory Post

As can be inferred from the title, this is simply an obligatory post. I really don't have a lot to write about, but it's been a while since I've written.

First things first. It is my lamentable duty to report that no one correctly guessed the past "Winner of the Week" challenge. In fact, nobody even incorrectly guessed the answer. Therefore, the prize money from last week will carry over into this week's challenge. (By the way, the correct answer was John Lathrop.)

Since my last post, I have moved up to Washington and am working on a house for David. Since I'm raking in the big bucks, I decided to buy a new camera. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post because I had the camera shipped to the Yerington place with the expectation that I would get it at Thanksgiving. I decided not to attend the festivities but anticipated that Elise would bring my camera up when she came to visit--just like we had been planning for a few months. Then she called up one day and said, "Sorry Bro. I don't think I'll come up after all." Now I won't see my camera for a few more weeks.

Most people would say, "Don't blame it on Elise. She doesn't have to go up to Washington if she doesn't want to. Besides, it's not like she's maliciously plotting to keep your new camera from you."

To those people I would ask, have you even looked at her blog? She's got more pictures than she's got words. She's grabbed a major share of the photo-posting market and is trying to stymie my attemps to get in the game. All I can say is "enjoy it while you can, Elise. Once I get my camera your blog will have fewer hits than AAD."

To be the winner of the week, simply identify to whom these quotes belong:

1.) (Walking out of the house in nothing but underwear) "I'm running away!"

2.) "I would have to say my favorite season is....Lemon Pepper!"

3.) "Maw-awm, Ben's buying Starbursts and he's not gonna share."

4.) "Maraaae. if you're going to put this in the public, you need to talk to my agent. don't be ridiculous if you're talking about me. i have a reputation to keep...and morals to...obtain? UPHOLD. UPHOLD. stop. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep."

5.) "Oh sock locks, how I love you. The way you lock the socks so they stay together and don't become unlocked. What a precious and ingenious invention you are. Oh dear, sweet, glorious sock locks. This is my ode to thee and your useful simplicity. If I had but a penny for every fond memory I have of you, oh treasured sock locks, I would take those inevitable riches and purchase more sock locks, thus perpetuating a never ending cycle of sock locks, fond memories, pennies, and more sock locks...."

*Some of these quotes have been paraphrased. Two of them come from family members' blogs. Bonus points for identifying those blogs and the date the quotes were posted