BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02749 Dunkin Donuts put out a special Cape Cod themed tumbler. Allison and I have been searching for it since the start of the Summer. Today Allison and Andy went down the Cape to pick up Eva and their friend, Max to go and see the Hadestown Pro Shot. A Pro Shot is professional filming of a broadway play. Allison and Eva both love Hadestown and andy enjoys Greek Mythology so everyone wins.  Allison went to about five Dunkins today and finally found the tumbler at a small shop. She was quite excited to finally have it. It is a cute one. Lots of fun Cape Cod details on it, too.

Photo-A-Day #02738 Earlier this year Andy expressed that they may not be as interested in culinary in High School as they had been in the past. Andy has expressed that maybe carpentry might be of interest. Luckily Andy will be going through a multi week trial of all of the CTE programs at the school and will find their fit.  Today Andy and their cousin Dylan helped Grandfather build the frame for a new screen door for the sunporch. They measured the door to the back patio first and then Grandfather taught them how to use the miter saw. That is after teaching them how quickly one can lose a finger. Andy took to using the saw really quickly and was happy to cut all sorts of things. They even cut a few pieces to use to carve up when they get home. Andy is planning on making some horseshoe crabs from those pieces. I really liked seeing Dad and Andy working together and Dad giving Andy instructions. With Andy having some interest in these sorts of things it is good to learn from someone...

Photo-A-Day #02736 I worked last night so I was sleeping for the morning. Allison took Andy to Woods Hole for Science School but also to do some shopping. Andy picked up a really nice set of watercolor cards and a gift for their girlfriend. The gift is a sweatshirt that Andy's been wearing ever since they got it. A nice Cape Cod one from Soft As A Grape. 

Photo-A-Day #02735 My dad is the president of the Falmouth Classic Car Club and they do four car shows a year. Today was the second one and we were around for it. Allison and Andy came back from home at eleven and we headed over to the show. We walked around and saw all the cars. Eva brought their new film camera and was taking some great shots of the engines of the cars. The camera has black and white film so Eva was all about different textures. There was one car where a guy had a bucket of hot wheels and one was The Milano spaceship from The Guardians of the Galaxy. I asked Andy to take that one. Andy took it and I suggested that Andy create a Tik Tok about having to take a child's toy for their dad. That cracked me up even though I suggested it. We got our lunch there, too. There was a food truck called Fried Guys that had a couple of Blackstones working and they were making smashburgers and even some fried hash browns and fried oreos. I got a breakfast sandwich and hash browns...

Photo-A-Day #02734 We do a lot of grilling when we are here on The Cape. Tonight we had swordfish and steak tips. I had marinated the steak tips for a day and we did the swordfish with a butter and dill mixture that was brushed on. Then we had many items in foil. We always have many items in foil. The trick is getting the timing down so that those items in foil get cooked well enough as everything on the grill.  I worked in Dad's Office/Andy's room last night because Andy and Allison were home. I have it again tonight but tomorrow I have to move my setup downstairs to the sunporch. I do like working at Dad's roll top desk, though.

Photo-A-Day #02733 To say that we have a lot of milkweed at the Cape house would be an understatement. There is so much that we are an official monarch station. There will be tons of butterflies around the yard as well as many, many bumblebees. And the milkweed continues to spread but it is really helping the pollinators. Allison and Andy headed home today. I am staying here to work from here so that I don't have to go back until next week. When they got home Allison and Andy picked some of the vegetables from our garden including 2 cucumbers and 2 zucchini and 1 bumpy squash.

Photo-A-Day #02732 This morning Allison and I drove up to Mashpee to see if we could find the Cape Cod tumbler at a Dunkin Donuts. We were unsuccessful after visiting 7 of the stores. We did, however, go to Duke's Donut Worx and got some those donuts because Dunkin's donuts just don't cut it. In the afternoon we took Andy to CSS and then went to the farmer's market. There I got a Chicago Dog from Wally's Hot Dog Cart and we also found some fun flannel shirts that had be upcycled with T-shirts sewn onto the backs. I found a Voltron one for me and for Andy we found aU2 one. Andy was not impressed. We also picked up some smoked Salt at the Farmer's Market. This is another thing I want to try on Philly Pretzels.

Photo-A-Day #02731 This is Eva's new camera. Eva is a teaching assistant for the film photography class at CSS. Tara got Eva the new camera and an additional lens. I look forward to seeing the photos that they take this Summer. Today was the art fair on main street in Falmouth. Allison, Eva and I went before Eva's classes. We found some neat things. I got some spicy mustard and a dip that sounded like it would go well on pretzels. Of course I have to wait another week before I have any more. The street fair was nice. We did that, ran the kids back and forth to their classes and had steak tips for dinner. 

Photo-A-Day #02730 I went upstairs to read and promptly fell asleep in the afternoon after brining the kids back and forth to Science School. When I woke up we were having pizza on the sunporch with everyone. After dinner Allison gave Kylie French Braids. She had been wanting them for a while.

Photo-A-Day #02729 Our Lexi is back on the Cape. She had been off Cape for the 4th to avoid all the fireworks. She's back and guarding the sunporch as fiercely as ever. This morning Allison and I took Eva to Woods Hole for classes and then we got Allison's car inspected and had breakfast over at Persey's Place. We had never been before. The food was very good. 

Photo-A-Day #02728 We spent some time at the beach today and this evening we went to main street in Falmouth and had dinner at Anejo. This is an excellent Mexican restaurant and we had a great meal. We watched Norway win their match at The World Cup and the kids are fascinated with Haaland. I think we all are at this point. The guy is a machine and from all signs appears to be a good guy.

Photo-A-Day #02727 My back was okay enough for me to drive to the Cape this morning. It wasn't good enough to really do much of anything other than sit and use the muscle stimulator. We had my cousin Bill and his family over for dinner before the fireworks tonight. I opted to stay on the porch to watch them and did take this one obligatory fireworks photo. Not my best. Allison went to the beach and she was able to get some great shots of Bill's kids by the water as the fireworks went off. I also didn't make it to the parade in Woods Hole to see Eva walk with CSS. Allison did capture a photo of Eva though.

Photo-A-Day #02654 Because I did not have work at the Pretzel Factory we had time to head to the Cape for a quick overnight. I had a quick eye exam in the morning and then we headed to the Cape. We had lunch with Mem and Grandfather and then headed downtown to go to Eugene Henry's Gastronomical Delights. Andy had wanted to go there over Easter but we didn't get a chance.  We had dinner that night of meatballs and pasta. It was very good. We stayed overnight.

Photo-A-Day #02637 We spent our Easter on Cape Cod with Mem and Grandfather. I finished work today at 7am and went right to bed thinking that I would wake up around 11 like I normally do but I slept until everyone got back from church. I heard the alarm on the door go off and that woke me. I was so zonked out that once my head hit the pillow I was out plus it is The Cape so the air makes me sleep all the longer. When I woke up we hung out a bit and then had a very tasty Easter lunch with the ham that I got from work. That is our Christmas gift from the company. I've gotten many things like that over the years for Christmas and this year decided on ham because we never need the turkey after Christmas and I'd rather not have it take up space in the freezer for a long time. This way we get a really good ham for our Easter and the freezer gets some space. Later in the afternoon my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne came by to visit. We enjoyed visiting with them and then we headed home in ...

Photo-A-Day #02636 We are on the Cape for the Easter holiday. We got down and had lunch then I took a nap before work. Got up and we had pizza from Paul's for dinner. Andy had everyone watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire after dinner. Andy has been watching lots of old Disney animated movies. I like that Andy has been exploring these old movies. After dinner I set up for work. When I am anywhere but home I have to set up a ton of stuff including an additional screen. I completely overtook the sun porch table. I have it all down to a science. My parent's got a new router and that has caused a few things to stop working. Mainly the Sonos speaker. I figured that out and got that working again so now they can play whatever music they like from Spotify. Then there was the general updates for my dad's computer and also trying to figure out why Quicken accounts were looking all sorts of strange with charges showing as credits and vice versa. I think I got that figured as well.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02539 Our last day on the Cape. We hung out till around noon and then headed home. Lexie has been huirting a bit, she need surgery on her knee and is having a tough time getting up onto the couch, but she has been managing.  We drove home and got settled back in at home. Caught one more mouse and had a couple of traps tripped. Still hearing a bit of scrabbling in the ceiling and walls so I hope those ones make their way down to the basement and are taken care of soon. The gifts that I had ordered for Erik and Tim arrived. While they were actual products and not a total scam I do feel a bit cheated on them. They were supposed to be in nice boxes and they were supposed to be the charred version of these bourbon drinking cups. They came together in just a single bag. Very disappointing. Eva got a call from Mimi, she's taking Eva and Allison to London over February break. Now we have to scramble to get Eva a passport.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02538 Today we went on our annual family bowling trip to Mashpee Commons. We started doing this last year as an activity rather than sitting around the house all day. I did not take the photo so the photo from the even cannot be today's daily photo. But here is the group photo. Who knows, this may be next year's Christmas card photo but we may get a better one this Summer on the beach or something like that. Bowling was a good time. The kids all bowled together. Tara, Erik, Shelby and Tim had their own lane and Allison, Me, Grandfather and Mem also had our own lane. It was a nice time. Always fun family activity. We were treated to another beautiful sunset tonight. I like this photo of all of us the best but Moms eyes are shut. the think I like is that you can actually see Andy, not just their eyes. But as far as eyes, Kylie has a killer Side-eye going on here.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02537 We're down the Cape for a few days to enjoy time with family and celebrate Christmas. Today my sister Shelby and her family came down. All the kids are getting so big. The boys are now taller than Grandfather and the girls are taller than Mem. The boys are so close in height that they are pretty much equal in that respect. Eva still has an inch or so on Kylie. We enjoyed the day,m exchanged gifts and had a nice time together. Andy and Grandfather finished the puzzle first thing in the morning. We took many photos in front of the tree at the end of the day.  The Cousins Shelby's Family with Mem and Grandfather Shelby's Family Mem, Grandfather, Drew, Tara and Shelby Our Family The kids with Auntie Tara and Uncle Erik Tara and Kylie Tara and Erik Me and Allison I was very excited to give my sister and my dad these dog poop bags. I saw them online and knew I had to get them. They are hilarious. I am also so glad I was not scammed. It was a very nice day...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02536 This morning we woke up and had our family Christmas with cinnamon rolls, presents and opening of stockings. We hung around the house enjoying each other's company and exchanging gifts for a while. The big family gift was to go see Weird Al Yankovic in July. Allison got me tickets to the GenX takeover tour and tickets for she and Eva to see Wicked. It was a nice morning.  I'm sort of in charge of the stockings and I picked up a ton of stuff for everyone else at Aldi this year. Lots of interesting sweets. For myself I found some World's Smallest Transformers, G.I.Joe and He-Man figures. They were cool because they each came with a super tiny version of the original comic books from 1984. I ended up with Issues 2 and 3 of Transformers and Issue #1 of G.I. JOE. I am tempted to see if the Target had any more so I could get issue #1. Today is when Allison and the kids actually saw with the house now looks like after the yard was cleared of a couple of tree...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02492 Today Allison and I drove down the Cape to go to Scargo Cafe for lunch with Mem and Grandfather, Cindy and Wayne and Aunt Cathy and Uncle Roger. Scargo Cafe was one of Grandma Bennett's favorite places to go for a meal. The food there was excellent. We arrived a little early and visited a couple of shops across the street from the cafe. Found some Christmas gifts for the kids and an anniversary gift for Allison. Our meal was excellent and we had a wonderful waitress. Allison got a chicken meal that was very tasty and I got the braised short rib meal. That was also very good. In the end Mom and Dad, Cindy, Wayne Cathy and Roger split the bill and took us out for our anniversary. We were celebrating what would have been Grandma and Grandpa's 76th wedding anniversary. It was nice to go there and think of them for a while and have a lot of fun with family.