Happy Birthday Bean!

I had to follow in my mom's footsteps and throw out a Birthday wish to my brother, Ben.

We are always having way too much fun as a family and I couldn't imagine any of it without him. He is usually the plotter behind all the mischief.... always has been.

Ben is constantly making us to crawl out of our comfortable shells to try new and adventurous things. Between 2006 and 2007 Ben has gotten the family into rock climbing and scuba diving. I didn't get into the rock climbing myself, but going along for the hikes are fun. I can't even do the scuba diving (due to my ears - they will break). All the same, whoever is involved, it turns out to be an adventure! I don't think we ever have normal adventures...

Just a couple of memories with Ben that come into mind...

We used to play truth or dare (which usually was just "dare") using Grandma's cupboards of interesting food fare as the dares. Sometimes it turned out to be a concoction of mixed weird ingredients that she may have had on her shelf for over ten years. A popular dare for the boys, was running down the street [we lived out in the country] in your whitey-tidies or buck naked. I can't believe I'm related...

Paintballing. This was before we could afford the actual gun, but the bullets were pretty useful with a couple of slingshots. He talked me into playing a game and promised he would not shoot if I said, "mercy". Of course as older brothers do not do what they say they will. I was a horrible shot and he was excellent... especially 2-feet from your arm! That one hurt!

We now hold REAL paintball wars every Thanksgiving over at Uncle Randy's house. It has been the event of the year for a long time now. Sometimes the teams can grow to about 20 people on each side!

There are too many to write about.... but those were the two that I was thinking of today. Anyway, I love you Ben and I look forward to many many family adventures with ya! Have a great one!