Ben's Graduation

After the two day nightmare of trying to fly to Georgia Ben's Mom, Brenda, and I finally arrived there and found another nightmare of trying to find a way to the base. A few hours later we got there and were able to see Ben and his Father, Bob and his brother, Bobby. He was all dressed up in his spiffy Class A uniform, but of course I forgot to take a picture. We did get one from his brother.
The next day Brenda and I went to the graduation and watched the soldiers march and salute and stuff and officially Graduate.

Afterward we went on the field to go see him and then we all went out to eat. We went to eat at this Japanese restaurant where they make the food in front of you. It was neat but yes I forgot to take pictures. We drove around the base and looked at some of the stuff Ben did in boot camp and went to a few stores and out to Ice Cream.And later, Ben was packing his stuff and he found a bear dressed just like him, even with his last name stitched on the name tape and he had me look in the bear's pocket and inside was a ring. :)

Christmas Vacaion... Yes I've been slacking

For Christmas Ben took me to Massachusetts for a couple of weeks. I kept saying it looked like a Christmas card, but I was too cold to roll down the window to take pictures. I got to meet alot of his family, and believe me, it was a lot. Our family's big, but his has one more generation to it. So I met them, and his friends. We spent a lot of time at his friend Tyler's house. That's where we were New Year's Eve, but as soon as the ball dropped I was asleep on the couch. We also did a small snowboard trip, which I didn't do so good at, but it made me excited to do some more here with Kirsten. We also went to the New England Aquarium. To get there we took a commuter rail and a subway. It was my first time on a subway. For Christmas we got alot of gift certificates to go out to eat, so we ate out a few times. We also hung out with a couple of Ben's brothers. I was mostly a photographer when we were with them because for christmas I made their mom a cute little brag book of all of them. When we were with them we went bowling, but it was weird. The pins were shaped funny, more like thermoses than like bowling pins, and they had small bowling balls, without anywhere to put your fingers. I'd never seen it before and never really could get the hang of it. We saw a few movies, Yes Man and Bedtime Stories were both really good.

Ben's Family had a party for him going to bootcamp. Below is a tiny part of random people from his family.

This is Ben's Father and his brother. His Dad look much like John Mohr?

Me in the Snow!

Me and Ben's Grandmother and Ben

This super huge turtle :) at the aquarium

Me and some feeshes at the aquarium

Penguins

Ben and His Brothers

Ben's Aunt welcomed me to the family with a handmade stocking :) like everyone else in the family has

Decorating the Tree

We had to get a fake tree, real ones turn into candlesticks here. Next year I'll have my fake one and a cute little real one in dirt and water. By the time I'm old, we'll have 7 trees in my house :)

Ben and His Mom

Me and Ben's Mom

Glendale Christmas Lights

We also went to Glendale this weekend, and went to see the Christmas lights. They were pretty neat and there was some church doing free hayrides and a living nativity we were able to walk through.

Shooting it up.

This weekend we hung out in Surprise, Arizona. It was beautiful desert foothills. We did some shooting and had hotdogs and lit off some fireworks.

Ben tried to fix the Dish, but I guess we're back to regular TV.

Ben trying to fix the dish with the potato gun

Then the mosberg

And last the .45

Me taking a shot at it too

Hiking Picacho Peak

Saturday we took a day trip to Picacho Peak, It was a hard hike and the last half was pretty much straight up the mountain, using cables and rails instead of harnesses and ropes. The view from the top was sweet.

Another Camping Trip

We went camping again last weekend. We took one of Ben's friends from the National Gaurd and he also brought a friend. It was fun, we went shooting and had some good eggs and bacon. We climbed some big rocks and it made me realize I need to get some gear so I can start doing it a little safer. It was fun though! Ben and I also took a hike after his friends took off. It was great. I'll be adding more pictures to it later.

Ben

His Friend

The Uninivted Guest / My Target Practice (yes, those are all my shots)

And Me, Squinting to see the .45 sights