Life

Here are some random pics:

After working 11 hours on Saturday Ben came home and his skin was a different color because of how much dirt was on him.

Friday evening we had a picnic with the Dashley... there was some trouble keeping the fire going.
We made shirley temples and it was divine.
Ben is getting the meat ready to cook... he got a little hungry.
Here is us in all of our cuteness yesterday.

Pictures

Wow... what cute boys in matching biking jerseys! THis is after the race.

Here is the Benster, looking good, like always.
Here Ben and Dallin are somewhere in the middle... they still have quite a ways to ride.
Family pictures!
The Boys
The girls

The fam... and the tractors

Oh yes, this last weekend the little one was blessed. Isn't she a doll? I think that dress is eating her.

My Biker

My dear Biker Benji has accomplished a great accomplishment. He has dared to go where no man has gone before... and was victorious! On Saturday, May 12, 2007, he competed against 150 others in a race of courage, strength and above all biking. Sadly, our camera has been lost and we do not yet have pictures of this joyous event. He covered 64 miles in about 3 hours with only his bike and his buddy Dallin. They rode like fierce tigers in the lands around Yellowstone. The women of the family were there to cheer the bikers on as we drove past them in the car. They didn't look tired at all so we didn't feel bad yelling "Faster!" at them. The Ben and the Dallin were in the lead for almost the whole race... they had to pass a few people at the beginning. Trevor, Dad, and Nate also finished in the race! They were all racing maniacs that day. We hope to soon get pictures of the event to share with all. ON the count of three lets give a hurrah for Benji and the boys... One, two, three HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH!

This is Quake Lake... they rode past it in the race.

Scandalous!

Sometimes I wonder if Ben is embarrassed by the pictures I put up here of myself. I know this is a little bit scandalous but it's all good! Obviously the one on the left is me and the one on the right is Christine. She was one of my bridesmaids... the one with a sunburn. Anyways, this picture just make me laugh and I had to put it up!

Hi Christine!

So I was looking at this picture, and it really made me laugh! I'll start with Trevor. He doesn't have anyone to lean on his shoulders but it looks like he has an invisible person on his shoulders. I'm not sure what he is doing. The left side is really struggling as well. The facials on Nate and Wes seem very unpleasant. I'm sure there are other awkward things we could point out but I will stop there.

So we had a fabulous weekend last and this week! Sadly, no pictures were taken except for this one... we went on a stroll through the park. The first weekend was Hayley's wedding and we got to hang out with Ben's family. We saw our adorably lovable nephew, Beckett, for the first time. it was quite the experience. We rode some wicked sweet go carts. Some people got a little bit crazy on those things. Ben and I hope to have a go cart track of our own someday. That would be neat.
This last weekend we hung out at the cabin with my fam. We got to see our preciously tiny niece, Devynn, for the first time, and our other insanely crazy niece, Ari. Ben was playing with her and every time he would start talking to other people she would get his attention by saying, "Hi Ben" it was funny. Ben loved holding Devynn, who is 2 months old and only 8 pounds. She has almost doubled the size she was when she was born.
We also had Rachell stay with us all week, it was a blast. I just hope she had fun.

Benji's Bicycle update: The big race is on Saturday!!!!! WOO HOO!

The Drink

Brittnee... Way to be faithful to the drink!

I shall try to get back on the drink!

Complete and Utter Randomness (that doesn't even make sense)

I just really enjoy Ben's posing skills in this picture of us being models. He's a natural.

yes, That is my husband. He has great form... especially with his arms. Nate looks ready to attack in the background and Brittnee is about to take Ben out so Wes can get the ball.

Yes, I like pickles

I was bored and thought I'd post some random pics. Ok, I'm done. The end.

"Can You Ever Just be Whelmed?"

"I know you can be underwhelmed and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" - 10 Things I Hate About You

Recently while reading a book about languages and how they got to be the way they are I was reminded of the line above. Seriously, what is a whelm and how can you be over it?

From this reading I have learned a lot of interesting facts about the English language and a lot about other languages. It seems like more and more people are trying to learn and use English... although sometimes it doesn't sound how it should. For instance, in Tokyo there is a warning to motorists which states, "When a passenger of the foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet at him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor." Another example is an announcement in a Yugoslavian hotel which says, "The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. Turn to her straightaway." These little phrases humor me a lot. I'm not going to lie, the English language is very complex and so interesting phrases such as those above seem to be expected.
Some Fun Facts:
-There are now more students of English in China than there are people in the United States.
-About 200,000 English words are in common use compared to 184,000 German words and 100,000 french words.
-Many languages do not have words to distinguish house from home, man from gentleman, or mind from brain.
-English is the only language where a thesaurus is needed.
-Other languages have words that we don't such as in Scotland there is a word for the itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whiskey. The Eskimos have 50 words for types of snow but they don't have a word for just plain snow. The Italians have over 500 names for different types of macaroni... one of which is strozzapreti which means "strangled priests." New Zealand has 30 words for "dung."
-Some countries have phrases that may not be very kindly directed at other cultures. In Japanese the word for foreigner literally means "stinking of foreign hair." To the Czechs a Hungarian is "a pimple." Germans call cockroaches "Frenchmen." The French call lice "Spaniards." Italians call syphilis "the French disease." French and Italians call con games "American Swindle."
- It takes the Oxford English Dictionary 5 pages and almost 15,000 words to define the word "what."
-Different languages describe animal sounds differently. A dog goes oua-oua in France, bu-bu in Italy, mung-mung in Korea, and wan-wan in Japan.

Alright I'm sure whoever reads this is bored with my fascination of languages. Most of the information I got for this blog was from the book called "The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way" by Bill Bryson. It may sound boring but it is really well written and quite intriguing if I do say so myself.

ME ME ME

Hello Everybody,
Ben is at work today.... and I am bored. I'm not going to lie, I have a ton of homework I could be doing, but I just don't feel like doing it. So i decided to take some nasty pictures of myself and post them...WHY? I really don't know. I really don't know what possessed me to do this, it might have to do with the fact that I had a lot to drink this morning... chocolate milk. I'm sure I will regret it but oh well.

Here I am being angry because I'm bored.

So I decided to do something maybe a little devilish and mean but it sure makes me laugh. I have found a few close ups of people and I just wanted to post them... some are not very attractive but some I was actually very suprised at how well some people take close ups.

Now that I've probably made everyone a little angry I am going to go and hide...

Another E-mail From Trevor

This has got to be the sickest picture ever but it makes me laugh. Trevor is such a funny brother. Hey Nate... it kind of looks like Ben and I, huh?

At least I'm not weird...

MORE BIKING EXCITEMENT

So Ben really enjoys his bike. Look my bike is visible in this picture. It's the blue shiny one in the background. Anyways, I think Ben is stretching before the ride... I'm not sure.

Oh Precious. They are filling up their tires.
I think he fell and hit his head on the ride...
This is kind of random... but I am a fan of the pink boots!

PETE

Thank you Trevor for sending me this. We liked it.

This is a test

My computer has been acting weird about posting pictures... so here is an excuse to post pictures of the ARInator... she's a weird child. Although in these pictures she looks cute and innocent...

... She can already slam dunk!

I could have put the picture where her face is covered in fun dip... but decided it might scare the little ones.

Benji's Bicylce Experience

One Saturday afternoon as we were all relaxing at the cabin the boys decide they want to go ride through Yellowstone a little bit. They all put on their stretchy pants... or shorts with padding in them for extra comfort and they loaded the bikes and off we went to West Yellowstone. Ben quickly learned how to clip his shoes in and out of the bike. Here is a picture of the adorable Trevor just before the ride.

Here are the boys getting the bikes ready.
Oh They look so Cute all decked out and ready to ride.
Good bye friends

After this lovely ride through the park (where they almost got mauled by buffalo) Ben got excited about biking and bought some accessories for his enjoyment. You will have to ask Ben about the Buffalo because I wasn't there.

I'm not gonna lie... He is a strong beast! He can really handle that bike.

OH, this is just a candid shot of my wonderful husband.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog. I really think it shows Ben's potential to be a model, maybe for biking products or spandex. Basically I'm convinced he would do great in any type of modeling job. Here's a little interesting fact: Ben will be in a bike race on May 12th that is 65 miles. We will be sure to update on that when they time comes. He sure is a champ!

Update on the Ryster: I am doing fabulous. I just changed my major to English Ed. That is neat... I know. I enjoy riding my cool shiny blue bike because it is shiny and blue and the wind feels nice as it blows through my hair. I want to find a bell for it and maybe some streamers. For now it is perfect because of its shiny blueness.

Thank you!