Happy Birthday, Rob

Gorgeous from the minute he entered the world!

Happy 11th Birthday to Nathan!!!

Best Wishes and Congratulations to our wonderful oldest son.

I love Nathan because he is:

• kNowledgeable - Nathan is a great reader and is very smart.


• Always doing his best (in school, work, and friendships)


• Tough - he does things that are difficult and tough without complaining.


• Handsome - Nathan is good looking but never lets it go to his head


• Athletic - he is doing spectacularly in Lacrosse by practicing every day


• iNventive - Nathan is creative and has a great mind. He is fun to play with and is a great friend.

Happy Birthday Nathan! Mom and I love you very much.

Pictures up FINALLY!

Thanks to John I got busy and hung the pictures with great help from the Casa staff.

Truth be known I indicated where and what height and the Casa staff person did the rest.

This first picture is one end of the living room.



This is the pen and ink picture we received from my Mom and Paul. Mom and I always treasured it since it was our first piece of real art.



These are pictures in the corner of the living room going into the kitchen.


These are the pictures opposite the conversation area. These picture also came compliments of my Mom and Paul. The one on the right was painted on a piece of plywood and was a bone of contention between Mom and me. She hated it and I loved it.



This picture is from Kauai coastline and is on the wall at the entrance to the kitchen from the dining area.


This picture was one of Mom's favorites. We acquired it after a visit to the renuncula (spelling) fields in Del Mar.

This as you can see is my bedroom computer center. The painting is by a University of Hawaii student of a house in Waikele valley on Oahu. The two to the right are a picture of my brother Burke and his wings and dog tags.


This is the group of paintings in the dining area. Burke painted the two on either side of the scene from Maui.

I hope that you can come visit sometime to see my new apartment and to provide great pleasure to me.

Happy Birthday, Dear Anna!

This is a picture of Anna and Don. (Don didn't turn out so good so I had to crop him out.) We were at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. This was at the Yert restaurant. We had to cross country ski to get there. Good Times! And more good times to come!!

Pics of New Digs

I don't know how to get out of the under line, but here are pictures of my new apartment so on with the show.
This the west side of the living room with Mom's breakfront in the foreground. Mom's cedar chest wouldn't fit in the bedroom so it was placed here .The lanai is just beyond the television and faces north.



This is the living room conversation area. You can see the carpet that we bought so many years ago that both of us loved so much.




This the dining room and just a smidgen of the kitchen. The kitchen is very, very small, but meets all my needs .




This the computer set-up in the bedroom. You can see one of the pictures of Mom on the screen saver while she was in the Health Center early last year.




This is Mom's dresser and mirror making a very tight fit with the queen size bed, You can see the corner of my dresser to the left. The stuff on the bed is print outs of our trusts.

I recognize my limitations as a photographer, I'm all you have. My love and prayers are with you all.

DA Bennion Happenings

FYI: Pictures are in backwards chronological order These first few are pictures I took today. Adam was in the best mood, and William wanted to hold him. I couldn't help getting out the camera to catch the smiles.

And...he's a thumb sucker! (And...my picture is sideways. And... I don't know how to fix it, sorry!) Adam and Joc. We will really miss Aunt Jocelyn and Uncle David when they move. Just a cute pic of Soren. A big thanks to Joe for his all-day help finishing our baseboards and door casings. William always wakes up on Saturdays and wants to do outside work...even when it's 40 degrees outside. While Don and Joe were cutting the wood, William and Burke swept for me. Luke, Obi Wan, and Luke watching Star Wars #4 for the first time. Adam's sad face. Don has gotten this reaction a few times. It's usually when Adam wakes up hungry, and Don tries to talk to him. I think he knows that Don can't give him what he needs, so Don's voice gives him no cheer at that moment. Outside on sledding day. William at his Super Reader party in Salt Lake. He had to read for so many minutes in December and then got to go this great party with all sorts of activities.

Funny video

Mom's Niche at Fort Rosecrans

This is a view of the columbarium (spelling?) at Fort Rosecrans where Mom's niche is located. It is in section CC column 7B on the second row in niche 13.


This is the view from the columbarium out over San Diego bay to North Island Navy base.


These are two views of the cover over Mom's niche. My photography leaves much to be desired but you "gotta" deal with what's available.


I hope that when you are in San Diego for a few days that you'll drop by Mom's niche and if you have the time to visit my brother Burke's grave (#248)

ESPN Bracketology Leaderboard!!!

Just click on the picture. 7th from the bottom, dbennio2 is me. 15 out of about 6 million. I'll savor this while it lasts.

Presidents Day Hike at Hoyt Arboretum

I took this shot during our 4 mile hike at Hoyt Arboretum in Forest Park. It is a large forest in the middle of Portland. This was at mile 2 or so.

Skiing on Mt. Hood

Wendy and I spent a spectacular day skiing on Mt. Hood last week. Here is a shot a friend took at the top of the Magic Mile chairlift. Behind us is the Summit and the Palmer chairlift, which was, unfortunately, closed that day. Wendy's lips were numb in this picture and she could not get the full smile out.

Church Basketball

Dave plays Tuesday night at the church and since there were no injuries to take a picture of (this time) I thought I would post a couple of Dave actually playing basketball!

If you focus on the hair he almost looks like Jimmer...

Provo Tabernacle

As many of you know the Provo Tabernacle, built in 1883, burnt (almost) down. We drove by and got a couple pictures. It is where Dave and I took our engagement pictures so I started comparing the two very different sets of pictures.

Here is the Tabernacle two years ago...

Today, the exact same spot...

My Thanks for Your Great Gift

Thank you all for making Grandma's memorial so beautiful. The endearing memories you contributed were so appreciated and your singing was superb. A special thanks to Amy for her beautiful and apropos solo. It was so beautiful, I am sure Rusty heard it from her perch in Heaven. Richard, what would we do without you? You made the service memorable for me and all who have spoken to me here at Casa . I love all you who make up our beautiful, supportive, loving, compassionate family.

Grandpa

I Love Grandma Because...

Grandma has a love of life that is contagious
Grandma is optimistic and grateful
Grandma makes you feel good about yourself
Grandma loves her family
Grandma left us a legacy of love
Grandma is beautiful- inside and out

We love you, Grandma. We love you, Granddad.

Wendy

Burke's Birthday and other stuff

This is how we found Soren asleep the other day. Our kids literally read themselves to sleep every night. Today, we thought Soren was downstairs with Burke until Burke came upstairs asking where Soren was. Soren apparently was so tired that he took the initiative himself to go and lay down in bed...we found him fast asleep in his room.

Gotta love the uncontrollable flailing arms babies have! Adam was in this position for about 10 minutes!

Burke enjoying his birthday cake and hamming it up for the camera.

Burke asked for a dinosaur cake for his 4th birthday. Burke shares his birthday on Dec. 27th with Grandpa Dunlap. We hope Grandpa Dunlap had a fabulous birthday as well!!

Bath time.

Their first snowman of the year.

Adam is still super duper calm and chill. It is great.

Soren was pretty quiet for a few minutes. Then he came in with an almost empty jar of hair pomade. His hair was even whiter than normal with the 1/2 cup of pomade in it!