SummerHill Place

Ann and I made sure to stop by SummerHill Place on Christmas Eve to see the luminaries. I will admit to being slightly nervous as we got close. To our relief it looked beautiful. I remember waking up early Christmas morning and checking to see if the candles were still lit. The first year we ran the show I think the candles were out by 9:00 pm. Merry Christmas everyone. You are all missed.

Happy Birthday Jocelyn!!!

Happy 24th Birthday Jocelyn!

I love Jocelyn because she so smart

She has great people sense

She is great with kids (ie David)

She is a great conversationalist

She knows how to have a good time

She gets giddy during romance movies

She watches sports and make good comments

She is very beautiful and fashionable

She is easy-going but also very determined

She is a hard worker

She is always optimistic and positive

She is kind to everyone and looks for good

and I love her lots!

Donald Bennion Family Picture

DA Bennion Happenings

Halloween

Soren's 3rd Birthday

All the birthday attendees--in the corner, you can see the start of Burke's antics :)

Burke is such a nail biter these days. I'd say that out of his time on the soccer field this season, whether running down the field, kicking a ball...80% of that was also spent biting his nails at the same time.

CONGRATS!

Hey Joe, you and your bride look stunning! Congratulations cousin.

Jeremy and Naima

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOHN AND MAXWELL

Today is the birth date of our oldest and youngest grandsons. I love them both and I am so proud of their individual accomplishments. Grandpa

this will be jeremy soon...

except that the baby will be a girl and maybe not blonde.

News Alert...

Jeremy and I have some terrific news. . . we are expecting a little girl in February. The due date is February 15th. We are super excited to experience this new chapter in our lives. According to the doctor, she is healthy and seems to be on track with her size and development. As I respect and love you all dearly, would love to hear some great tips for a new mom and dad.

Love,

Nai

Happy Birthday Joe B!

**scroll down to post for mom!




Joe is:
*completely generous.
*incredible with computers and great at explaining what he's doing and why he's doing it.
*a great reader with fantastic taste in books.
*a great gift giver.
*fun and funny.
*super intelligent.
*very talented.
*great at many fields--he's a tech guy and an english guy!
*handsome.
*a great cook.
*makes the best chocolate chip cookies EVER.
*loves the family and is great at keeping in touch.
*thinks of what would make other people happy.
*service oriented, hard worker.
*great thinker.

Love you, Joe! Happiest of birthdays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA

This is Linda at the age of two.
She was on her way to an unbelievably meaningful life.


This is my darling Linda at age 5. What a great start to a truly inspiring life.


This is Linda a few years ago here at Casa.

Linda exceeded every expectation her Mom and I had for her. She was a success in every endeavor including selecting a fantastic husband with whom she raised six of the most wonderful children. I love Linda for all that she represents. A father and mothers dream come true.

William's birthday and more

William chose this cake out of my party cakes book, hence we had a pirate themed 6th birthday party for him a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time we've done a friend party for any of our kids, and I think they all had a great time.

"Arrgh!" Captain Will and crew. Notice all the mustaches on these six year olds :)

William is in tee ball this summer and really loves it. He has his last game 2 days before we come to Portland!

All the boys came up from the basement like this one day. I love my cowboys! And I love that they all play together so well.

Sorry this pic is a bit blurry, but I thought it was a great one to commemorate one of our last days with David and Joc living nearby. We miss them!

Adam is eating solids, and loving them!

At my sister Amber's wedding.

Williams kindergarten class put on a little musical play called the Three Piggy Opera. Will was Father Pig. I just wish William didn't have to grow up.

I love this picture.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAIMA

Happy Birthday Nai! I love Naima because she is everything that you would hope your granddaughter would turn out to be. I remember her as a tiny baby sleeping in grandma's and my bedroom on Nawiliwili Street pleading after we were all tucked in for the night, "Juice Grandma" . Up without a moments hesitation would be grandma to bring a bottle of juice to our first grandchild. She is beautiful, loving, talented, inquisitive, supportive, and beautiful in all respects.

Grandpa

Seattle!

This is the before picture... just about the only thing we own is books (8 boxes of books!)
Our Master bedroom
Our spare room (That is Anna'a bed so we have started calling it Anna's room but anyone is welcome to come visit it!)
Our main room with deck
The books are now contained
Our deck view of Lake Washington.

Dave and I have made it Seattle and are all unpacked and organized so we thought we would share some pictures. We would welcome visitors anytime! We are loving our new home, neighborhood and ward. We are Bennion Family number 7 in the ward! And Uncle Lynn's sister-in-law, Ann Hinckley Romish, is our RS President. Small World! Dave is in SF and Atlanta this week for training and my project is to redo our kitchen table by the time he gets back... good thing he is gone the whole week!

SLC Cemetery

(The gold plaque means they crossed the plains... there were a lot in the cemetery)

Dave and I spent quite a while at the Salt Lake City Cemetery today and had a great time. We saw every LDS prophet's grave that was there plus a lot of Bennion graves. Mervyn, Adam, Samuel, John and Mary Turpin being the highlights.

If you are ever in the area I highly suggest stopping by and wear your walking shoes!

Happy Birthday, Rich

Big Thunder Ranch Dinner and Show

One of our highlights at Disneyland was dinner at the Big Thunder Ranch. Dinner was served family style in buckets. Buckets of ribs and chicken, buckets of smoked sausage, buckets of coleslaw, buckets of beans, buckets of corn, and baskets of corn bread. Drinks were served in jars. A great place for a family din-din.

There was music thoughout the meal, and the kids performed with the singers. This is the kids all performing on stage at dinner. The video is about 3 min, but is so cute of Hen. Also check out Greg on the right side.

Will and Hen at Disney California Adventure

This is like the teacups, but bumps as you move from track to track.

Pure happiness.

Beach

Well, after a marathon drive straight through from Garden Grove, California to Beaverton, Oregon, Wendy and I crawled into our welcome bed at 4:15 AM this morning. We took a long nap this afternoon, so I feel ready to post some photos of the past week. Monday we headed to Newport Beach on the 45th Street beach (where the JEBs stayed last year). We met up with the Taylor family for some sunny play time and some body boarding.

Back row: Sydney Willis, Henry, Hillary Taylor, William, Aubrey Taylor, Alexa (friend of Aubrey), Nathan
Front row: Katie, Taylor Willis, Devon Taylor, Greg (gotta love that kid)

Wendy caught this shot of Henry.

Nathan's fanny is on the left as he is digging a hole. Taylor is coming up out of the water.

The cousins in the water. It was cool water, but you got accustomed to it quickly.

Will and I were buddies for most of the week. We had a great time together.

Weekend in San Diego

Wendy and I took the kids down to San Diego this weekend. We had a great time with Grandpa. We got into town on Saturday afternoon, and had a low key Saturday playing at Rancho Bernardo Community Park. The kids had a great time, and Henry gave Grandpa a welcome hug (A wow for that normally shy guy!)
Sunday we headed to Fort Rosecrans and visited Grandma's grave and Uncle Burke's grave. After visiting the cemetery, we grabbed lunch and headed to La Jolla Cove so that Grandpa could run around and scream and yell. :) It was a smart decision, as we got to do some incredible tide pooling and saw the seals/sea lions. The kids played hide and seek, and the grown ups had a great chuckle as William peaked repeatedly while counting to 20 during his turn as 'it'.
After the park we headed back to out hotel for some dinner and games. Katie was our "Watchdog" champ. Nathan won the award for best passer in "Who Has the Button?". And Greg took the cake in "Mother Hen". Anyway enjoy the photos (in reverse chronological order).
We love you all!