BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02783 Today was a day we have been excited for/dreading ever since High School graduation. The start of college for Eva. Move in day. Excited because Eva will do great things. They have been preparing for this forever and will meet every challenge. Dreading it because our kiddo is not going to be home with us each night for dinner. The sewing machine will be silent and we will not have 9pm shower time serenades. James will be depressed all the time and will come sleep in our bed. James takes up a lot of bed space. Andy did not come with us today, they would have been incredibly bored with all the things we had to do. So Andy hung out with friends for the day. They did get up and give Eva a massive hug. But overall we are so thrilled for Eva to start their journey. We (Allison, Eva and myself) got to MassArt about a half hour before our move in time so we parked in the parking lot and waited. When it was time to go we pulled up to the front of Eva's dorm and they had so...

Photo-A-Day #02778 Today we took a trip around Rhode Island to see the Trolls that were created by artist Thomas Dambo. There are 5 of them in Rhode Island and we've seen 2 of them before on a previous adventure, but today we decided that as one of the last big family adventures before College and High School we'd take this trip. You can get to each of the trolls pretty easily and see them all in one day. There are 4 stops because two trolls are at one of the stops.  We decided to drive out to the Troll that was furthest from us. That would be Young Boulder. The map we had said to put the actual GPS coordinates into your map program and that saved us from a very long walk to find this guy.  Andy decided that they would be getting as close as possible to each troll for a photo. Not climbing on it or anything, very respectful, just getting close to each one. At each stop Eva took out their sketchbook and did a quick sketch of each troll. Then took a reference photo to finish the...

Photo-A-Day #02775 Tonight Allison and I went to Foxwoods to attend the GenX Takeover Comedy Tour. Allison got me the tickets for Christmas. This was a fun comedy show of 4 Tik Tok creators who make GenX related content and then started a stand up comedy career. The whole tour was sponsored by AARP, too. Had I known that I would have worn my AARP Fight Club shirt. The four people did a really good job at this. I was skeptical on how their Tik Tok presence would translate to live stand up. They did a good job. We had a fun night.

Photo-A-Day #02770 Tonight we went over to Capron Park for another food truck night. Tonight Allison and I opted for some cheesesteaks. She got the Angry one with lots of heat to it. I got a blue cheese and bacon one. Both were really good. We also got some Cajun fries with crabmeat on top. that was also really good but everything was super filling and I could not finish the cheesesteak or the fries. No dessert for us either. Andy and Eva both opted for Friskie's Fries and the General Taos version. I was surprised that Andy did not go for something more exotic today. Usually they get a big mishmash of things to make their own meal.

Photo-A-Day #02756 While I was at the Cape my dad gave me this frame from our trip to see the Baltimore Oriels with Grandpa Bennett. I'm going to find a place to put it in my office and also find a way to display a couple of custom baseball bats. That was an amazing trip.

Photo-A-Day #02744 Allison was out tonight so Andy and I went to The Meadows for some frozen Custard and then over to Briggs for Dinner. Yes, we did dessert first. They have some excellent custard there. We got the Oreo cheesecake. We split a special pizza at Briggs and when we came home we watched Spider-Man 2 together. Andy is watching all the Spider-Man movies to prepare for seeing the new Spider-Man movie next week.

Photo-A-Day #02737 Today after Science School we drove to Providence to see Weird Al Yankovic at Providence Performing Arts Center. This was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. Weird Al played so many of our favorite songs and both Andy and Eva were excited. I was seated right next to Andy and they got so excited when "Canadian Idiot" was played and also "White and Nerdy". I was thrilled to see him play "Dar to Be Stupid"  from The Transformers soundtrack. Al also did a couple of medleys of his earlier songs and that was awesome, too. There were a ton of costume changes as well. Below are a few photos from the show. There was no restriction on taking photos or video either. I tried to be very discrete though. Phone brightness the lowest setting and quick shots. No video. We were all very impressed with the show. So much fun! The view from our seats. They were good and we could see everything except for the top of the big screen.  Smells Like Nir...

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 #02719 After a week of last things for Andy today was their very last thing at Brennan Middle School. today was the 8th grade breakfast. Andy was able to enjoy a meal with their friends one last time at the school. Later Andy and friends went to Kimochi and got boba.  I worked at the Philly Pretzel Factory. I was scheduled from 2-4 but got a text that asked if I could come in earlier so instead I worked from 12-4. But, before that Allison and I got breakfast at The Rehoboth Baking Company. I also started a better way of converting the old VHS tapes. I'm currently converting a tape of a trip that my grandparents took me on when I was 10 years old. It was to Disney. It is wild what the place was like back then. My grandfather taped everything, whole rides and representations. To record the VHS to digital I got a simple converter cable and run it through OBS. It works great. I should be able to do a ton of them over the weekends while I'm working Tonight Allison and I ...

Photo-A-Day #02707 We went to the Food Truck night over at Capron Park for dinner. This is an activity that we enjoy going to each time it comes to the park. So many great food trucks to choose from. I went with some Birria Tacos and Allison had a Birria burrito bowl. Andy went with meatball sliders and some fries from Friskies. Eva went with the standing order of General's chicken on Fries from Friskies. We ran into Eva's theater teacher, Mrs. Strunin and her family. Andy saw a friend from school, too. After dinner we got some desserts. Allison and I split the Fluffernutter churro and ice cream. Eva was full and Andy got some Dell's.   Later on we called cousin Dylan to wish him a Happy Birthday! Another teen in the family!