Seattle Trip

We flew out to Seattle for a few days in September for Brett and Kelli's wedding- which was A. Amazing. B. A ridiculous amount of fun. C. Would have had the same guest list if it had been held in D.C., hello the Hon. Norm Dicks (D-WA) was there. He even busted some moves on the dance floor. Umm, and the Kyles were there. Sarah Kyle, I love you! I'll post pics of Kelli's wedding shortly but just as importantly we got to spend a MAJOR amount of time with the West Coast Lynches!!! (more commonly known as the Huentelmans and Pettis's, Pettises, Pettiss, the Petti.) It was so great to see them and hang out and most importantly meet COOPER!!!! He's just the cutest and the perfect combination of his mom and dad!!! We enjoyed the warm hospitality of Geoff and Missy's house and got to meet Judy the wonderpup!!! These guys pulled out all the stops for our trip and showered us with plenty of Lynch Family Lovin'!

Ben meets his cousin Cooper

Geoff, Missy and Kris (and bonus Geofface)

Jill and baby Coops.

Ben having a great time playing with Uncle Jim.

Staring him down.



The pictures below are so weird because they were laughing and having such a great time and the burst function on my camera captured the nanoseconds when they weren't smiling. I post them because you rarely see Jim looking so still. (He's got the get-up-and-go gene)

Cooper meet the world!!!

Cooper's happy to entertain himself!

Also the Lynch girls have great taste- anyone recognize those same drapes from my dining room?

Ben says, "Hey Cooper, nice pad"

"Beams seem solid"

"Tastes good too."

I assured Ben that Cooper will be able to do more stuff at the beach.

Update: IN MARCH!

Ben has tantrum, melts before your very eyes.

This is from our Seattle trip, Ben realized Kris left the room....

Tic....

Tic...


BOOM!

Prostrate with grief....

I think he's at the bargaining stage...

Ed. I recognize there's a general cruelty in taking photos of Ben in such a state rather than comforting him but these tantrums are so short yet so explosive it's necessary to document at least a few of them. You know, some b roll footage for his E! True Hollywood Story.

Phil and Rocky visit, bring the crazy.

Rocky and Phil stopped by in August and as usual, brought the crazy. Ben loved it though, and he willingly posed for DOZENS of cell phone photos. A few points of interest as you're scanning through: 1. notice that Brody does not change positition throughout the series of photos, practicing a well honed survival instinct of blending into the background when chaos and danger (Rocky) appears. 2. My living room appears as if a plastic factory threw up in it. It's gross and I relocated most of these toys elsewhere, although I briefly considered melting them for their petroleum thereby preventing a future fossil fuel crisis.

Rocky: "Hey Boomers, are you riding a broncking bucko?"

"Do you love your broncking bucko?"
"Broncking bucko! Broncking bucko!"

Boomers (Ben): "Don't you mean bucking bronco?"

Uncle Remy visits from Germany!

Ben if it's not clear to you yet, you should know that you're Uncle Jeremy is a scientist. You are being pondered.

Gotcha!

Ben's First Day of School!

Obviously he doesn't look thrilled to be going, but I really think he's just wondering if he's the one who has to carry his backpack.

"Who's going to carry this thing?"

Properly kitted out for school.

It will only be a small fire...

Umm, ok.

A Boy and His Dog

Am I interuppting something?

"aahhhh. no mom, we're just hanging out, you know, talking, whatever. ( I notice Brody wont' make eye contact)

I know feigned innocence when I see it.

A little twilight fun...

Not that kind of Twlight (11.20.2009, what?! Who's so excited?)

He REALLY enjoys the rocking horse.

Chasing some tails...

Ben and Stimpy

This picture is awful. We know. We're sorry. However, some of you have heard us talk about how occasionally Toby will just stare at us like a Stimpy reaction shot. Well here it is. Actually, it can be worse, sometimes, he tilts his head back and winds up with double chins. But look into those crazed vacant eyes gazing in two different directions. It's amazing.

There is no name on my hoodie...

The recruiting class of 2027 begins working on their lineman's crouch very early.

Fire Station

Ben's school took a field trip to the fire station in September. You can see he's pretty fired up about it.

I'll get my backpack...

Let's go!