BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02368 My parents have a birds nest on the front porch and the state of the baby birds in the nest has been a source of discussion and entertainment all Summer. When we got down initially one of the baby birds had fallen out of the nest and my dad put it back in on a couple of pieces of cardboard. We were speculating on whether or not it was dead. Apparently there are 3 babies in the nest and they appear to be doing okay. Today one of the baby birds sort of flew/fell down onto the floor of the porch. It ended up hopping under a bush in front of the house. Somehow it got back up to the nest and there are still 3 babies there. tonight Allison and I went to a comedy show at the Wharf. IT was pretty good. Allison and I brought down the age range of the audience but the comedians were even younger. It was an okay show and we had fun. It wasn’t the best comedy we’ve seen nor was it the worst.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02367 Back down to the Cape today. Allison, Eva and I went for a walk down the beach after dinner. The sky was looking very pretty tonight.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02364 I went for an early walk along Great Bay today. I had last night off but have to work in the office tonight so I wanted to get home early so that I could sleep. I took Andy with me because we were all headed home. Eva went with Tara and Erik because they were bringing her to the bank for a new checking account. They set up all that she needs for her accounts. Allison went and picked Eva up from the bank and then went to the Farmer’s Market with Eva to pick up a few things. We all vegged out in our respective spaces when we got home. A couple of days to recharge before going back down to the Cape. The kids have always needed a couple of days to just be back in their own spaces doing their own things each Summer. When I got home I removed the protective screen on the garden. My zucchini plants are growing HUGE. They have started to bend because they were pressing into the screen. We’re even starting to get some blossoms on the plant. On the walk this morning the w...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02363 Today is the Fourth of July and I am not at all excited about celebrating. I started the day with my morning walk along Great Bay and nearly ran into my old manager, someone I despise. Luckily he did not see me and I shot past him quickly. I did text my cousin to let him know what I saw. It took the rest of the walk to calm back down. Around 10am we headed over to Eva’s friend Max’s house so that we could park in his yard and walk down to the Science School so Eva could link up with the staff there to be a part of the parade. Allison, Andy and I walked around Woods Hole for a while and then found seats to watch the parade. I don’t like parades. Rather, I don’t like people at parades. No matter where we are there is always someone moving right in front of us or squeezing by me. We were 15 people all seated along steps and for some reason every person who wanted to get behind us went by me. Every one. I was watching. Then there are people who crowd in on the parade...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02362 This is how I am feeling about tomorrow’s celebration of America’s independence day. Feeling pretty shitty about it. I’ve always thought of politicians as evil but now.. confirmed.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02361 I’ve been trying to walk along Great Bay each morning while on The Cape. I had been doing a ton of walking this Winter and need to get back into it. Great Bay is one of my favorite places to walk on the Cape. Allison has been walking too but she is working back up to walking the whole 3 miles in a shot. Tonight Allison took Eva to Woods Hole for folk dancing night. This is a weekly activity that Eva goes to with the kids from Science School. She’s really enjoying being with all of them and she’s gone to Folk Dancing before with Tara. I figure she’s get out to do this each Wednesday over the Summer. While there Allison got some great sunset shots around Woods Hole. I may have to go next week to get some good photos.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02360 Tonight was Open House for the children’s School of Science. The kids are both there again this year. Andy is in the ROV class to make an underwater robot. Eva is a teaching assistant and is having a great time in that role. She’s made some great friends already. We went for the whole event because Eva had to help clean up and then afterwards we would go out for dinner. We had to get our yearly photo of the two of them by the Woods Hole Harbor, too. Can’t believe how tall Andy has gotten. I had intended to got to the Anchor Ale House but they did not appear to be open when we got there. I confirmed that by going to the door. Then we figured that we’d go to DJ’s Wings and they were not open on Tuesdays. So we went to Taco Blanco. I was not sure how much I could have there because of my Virta diet. However, I had to Barria (sp) tacos and that did not seem to move my blood sugar in any way. While we were there we ran into my cousin, Bill who is up with his fam...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02359 I headed back to the Cape after a short nap this morning. I had worked from home over the weekend. It is just easier, I can sleep and take care of the house and all that without anyone having to think they need to be quiet. I can also avoid 7K questions about being tired. Today’s photo is of the milkweed that my Dad has in his gardens. Their house is now an official weigh station for monarch butterflies. Milkweed is a plan that they thrive on and also they lay eggs on milkweed so each year we get tons of monarch butterflies on the milkweed plants. It is actually a fairly nice looking plant and having it in the yard really helps attract pollinators. I may have to ask for some to plant in my yard for my garden.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02356 Allison and I walked along Great Bay today and we saw many painted rocks. I liked the ones we saw that looked like half bitten M&Ms. they were pretty funny. We see so many different things along this walk.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02355 One of the things that I enjoy a lot about coming to the Cape is the Walk along Great Bay. I try and do it daily if I can. It is a nice couple of miles to walk along the water. Tonight I made ribs for everyone. I was at Stop and Shop and saw that they had ris for $9 a rack. I’ve never seen a price like that before. so I got two and made them according to Alton Brown’s recipe, sorta. Allison and Andy came down today and Andy ate a bunch of Ribs, he was really enjoying them.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02354 This Summer marks Eva’s first job. She’s a teacher’s Aide at The Children’s School of Science in Woods Hole. I dropped Eva off in the morning and then headed back to the house to go for a walk along Great Bay. Later in the afternoon I got a text from Eva that the day ended early. I could come get her. Then she texted again that she was going to walk over to a new friend’s house. Her friend Max lives within walking distance of the school and they hung out together for an hour or so before I came to pick her up. Eva had a great time and was happy to find a new friend. Tonight we had a nice dinner on the back porch just Me, Eva and Mom and Dad.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02353 Today I took Eva down to the Cape because she starts her first job tomorrow. She’ll be working at the Children’s School of Science as a Teacher’s Aide for the Summer. We came down in the afternoon and had a nice dinner with Mom and Dad and Shelby and the kids.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02292 We had another day on Cape Cod today. I took a walk over to Great Bay in the morning and in the early afternoon we all went over to Spohr Gardens to walk around. We may go there to shoot Eva’s senior pictures for school. On the way back from the gardens we stopped at Aldi and picked up some dips and snacks to enjoy. I was hoping to find their crab rangoon dip but they did not have any this time. I do hope that we can catch it again later. Aldi did have some great prices on their chips and other snacks, though. We’ll be back this Summer.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02291 We’re on the Cape for the next couple of days for the Easter holiday. Today was Easter. I worked last night so when I finished I slept for a few hours and then we went to Mass at St. Anthony’s. It was a very well done Mass. We then came home and had a very nice Easter lunch. I picked up a butter sculpture from Munroe dairy. It was a nice touch to the table. The kids loved it. After lunch we enjoyed playing a new game callled Tapple. Andy and I also played the game One Hit Heroes. This was a game I got through Kickstarter. Good strategy game.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02290 Today after work I took a quick nap and then we headed to Cape Cod for the Easter weekend. Allison drove and I stayed awake. When we got there we had some lunch and took a quick walk around the neighborhood. I took another nap before work and then we enjoyed some Paul’s pizza for dinner. After dinner I got set up for work on the sunporch for the night ahead. Andy was excited to play our new game One Hit Heroes. So Andy, Allison and Eva gave the game a shot. I have not looked at anything with the game yet so I am not sure what was happening but I’ll give the instructions a look over tonight so that we can play tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02177 I took my walk this morning because today we were heading home around noon so that I could work tonight. I decided to go the opposite direction of where I had gone the other days and instead of heading to Great Bay first I headed to the Falmouth Harbor. The water was very calm this morning. I was able to catch one of the boats heading out of the harbor as I came down the hill. I then walked up and around the Falmouth Plaza that now has an Aldis. I walked through the Aldis since I had never been in one before. There were some treats that I was very interested in picking up on a future trip. I then walked behind Walmart over to Marivista and back to the house. In the later morning andy and I helped dad put a bunch of things away for the Winter. We loaded up the outside shower with tables and chairs and then his tires into the Van. We drove home and I took a nap to get ready for work because I was working tonight but off tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02176 On the day after Christmas my sister Shelby and her family arrived on the Cape. We opened gifts and enjoyed lunch in the morning and early afternoon. I went on another long walk around the area to get those 10,000 steps in. We’d do some more steps when we went over to Cape Cod Lanes for an afternoon of bowling. Bowling with the whole family was a lot of fun. We had two lanes and enjoyed the mild competition. Everyone had fun playing. Mom and Dad came a little later and watched. I’m glad that we caught our server and asked her to take a photo of all of us together, too. When we arrived back home we hung out and had some pizza for dinner. No movie tonight, just a lot of time on the sun porch. The cousins stayed overnight with Andy and with Eva. Eva wasn’t super thrilled to be sharing her space with her energetic cousin but she made do and they eventually went to sleep. We had a very good day all together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02175 Today was Christmas. We woke up and had our cinnamon rolls for breakfast while we opened our stockings. Stockings were rather light this time around because neither Allison nor I thought much beyond what to put in the kids’ stockings. We overdid it with the the kids, but for us, not so much. I even commandeered some of the kids items for our stockings so they wouldn’t be so bare. That is okay because there were some big deal things coming. Overall the presents were fewer to open but more to experience this year. We’re going to Disney and two days in the parks is a pretty big gift. We also are going to a couple of comedy shows in the coming year. Allison and I are going to see Nate Bargatze in August and the whole family is going to see Josh Johnson in March. Needless to say budgets for gifts went out the window. This will be the kids’ first live comedy show. They enjoy Josh’s comedy on Tik Tok and so do we so we’re very excited to see him live. After we had...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02049 We went to the Cape for the next couple of days and tonight we celebrated my sister Shelby’s birthday. We enjoyed some pizza on the sun porch together and then a Carvel ice cream cake and cupcakes that Andy helped Auntie Tara bake. It was a nice day to spend with the family.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02032 I took the kids down to the Cape for a night and my dad’s hydrangeas are still looking good but it is the end of the season on these flowers. Dad has so many other flowers around the yard and they are doing well. Sunflowers, lillies and more. We enjoyed a nice time on the Cape and had a cookout with steak and swordfish. Andy and I went to the beach and played in the really rough waves.