Woo-Hoo

On Tuesday (my birthday) they delivered my double oven, cooktop and vent hood!!

The guy came yesterday afternoon and installed everything. Woo-Hoo!!!!

I have wanted a new oven for soooooooooooooo long but wouldn't spend the money until the old one officially crapped out.

Megan suggested that I get a double oven and I thought it was a great idea and Dad agreed.

Anyway, now I'm almost ready for Thanksgiving. At least the cooking part of it is taken care of!

Next up for the kitchen, new cabinets and countertop (but that won't be for a while).

Sweet Okole #1

A Bennett family tradition began its 21st year with this week's first Sweet Okole.

We have a new player this season, Ashton joined in and was given the nickname of THE PRINCESS by Grampy. Everyone has a nickname. This first week I'll include the person's real name as well as the nickname but after this will just use the nicknames.

Winner - Snookums (Heather) edged out Grammy on the tiebreaker (Who would have thought that OU-BYU would only have 27 points!!!), we both finished with 11 wins out of 15 games.

10 - The Princess, Bear (Bruce), Dinky Dog (Megan)
9 - Bubba (Chris)
8 - Boo Boo Bear (Erin), BroDog (Brodie), Wyatt (Bobby), The Saint (Ricci)
7 - Sweet Cheeks (Jonathan)

Next week will include pro games so there will be a total of 20 games, 10 college, 10 pro.

No money involved, just bragging rights. I think Dinky Dog has won the last two years. Time for her to be dethroned.

The Trophy Moves North

The Bennett Family Wii trophy was won this week by one of our Frisco residents, Bobby. This was the second tournament of the season.

Round 1
Holly - bye
Jon 119, Grampy 110
Megan 202, Chris 180
Erin - bye
Bobby - bye
Ashton 159, Brodie 142
Grammy 165, Ricci 144
Ninny - bye

Quarterfinals
Jon 170, Holly 133 (no way to treat your girlfriend)
Megan 178, Erin 138
Bobby 178, Ashton 144
Grammy 143, Ninny 108

Semifinals
Megan 225 (six strikes in a row), Jon 139
Bobby 164, Grammy 120

Championship
Bobby 180, Megan 174

Congrats to Bobby!!! Had to get a little creative with the picture!

Bowling Tournament

Since we have a Wii now, I thought I'd organize a friendly family bowling tournament which would run before/during/after family dinner. I purchased a traveling trophy (see picture), got it properly "engraved" and displayed it on the fireplplace mantle for all to see.

We had a 10-person single elimination draw then we drew names out of a bowl to fill in the bracket. Brodie, Megan, me, Erin Jon and Bobby all drew first-round byes. Since the Bryce's couldn't make it down for the day, they bowled at their house then phoned in the scores (bummer with this was there was no opportunity for smack talk!).

Ashton and Ricci were paired against each other in the first round and Ashton bowled an impressive 141 but Ricci countered with a 181. Chris and Bear faced off with Chris posting a 164 to his Grampy's 114.

In the second round Ricci downed Brodie, Megan trounced her mother, 199-97, Jon edged Erin, 134-113, and Chris beat Bobby, 180-168.

In the quarterfinals, Megan rolled a 218 to beat Ricci while Jon and Chris underwhelmed each other with a 101 and 117, respectively.

Since Chris had to go to work at 4:30, he and Jon bowled after he got off work and Megan bowled her championship game after she and Ricci faced off. She was a "little" miffed that she only scored 139. After Chris beat Jon, he rolled his championship score of 147, thus beating his aunt by eight pins for the championship.

It would have been much more competitive and interesting if Megan and Chris could have faced off against each other, a lot of smack talk would have taken place as well.

A good time was had by all and the Bottoms are looking forward to the trophy residing in their house in the near future rather than Heather's house.

PS - Megan averaged 185 throughout the tournament while Chris managed a 152. But, it's the head-to-head competition that counts!!!

Beware!!!

Sorry it's been sooooo long since I blogged.

On my last post you saw where Chris was catching fish, on this one, he's about to be bit by one! (see picture)

On our way back to Texas from California, we spent a night in Las Vegas. One of the highlights was going to the Mandalay Bay and touring the Aquarium there. If you ever get the chance, go there it's awesome (but a little pricey).

Another highlight, at least for Jon and Chris, was Grampy and his trick-or-treat bag. Next time you see them, ask them to explain. Also, maybe Bruce will show you his "card collection" from Vegas. :-)

Fishin’ Pros

On Wednesday we (minus Bruce) got up and were on the road early, heading north to the Sacramento River where Becky and Les have their yacht anchored. Upon arriving, after a 2 ½ hour trip, it was so windy we weren’t sure we were going to be able to go out of the river to fish, etc. That would have been fine with us, it would have been fun to just sit on the boat and chill.

However, Les and Becky decided that we could at least take the boat out on the river for a cruise. After getting out there, they decided that it would be fine for fishing if we went back into one of the sloughs (sp?) where it was calmer. So we headed back to their slip, hopped in the car and went to the bait shop to buy day fishing licenses for the boys and sardines to use as bait.

We headed back out to their favorite fishing spot which takes about an hour to get to. First off, Les grilled hot dogs and brats for us to eat and boy were they yummy. Oh, let me backtrack. On the way out to the fishing spot we sat up where Captain Les sits and just enjoyed the weather, ate snacks (SALAMI!) and learned a lot about the river.

Back to the grillin. Les has this neat little grill that he attaches to the back of the boat and cooks away. Jon can attest to what a master griller Les is (we’ll tell you later what else he’s a master at), the boy ate two hot dogs and two brats!

After eating it was on to fishing. Chris has lots of experience shallow water fishing and this was Jon’s first experience fishing. Well, let me tell you, they both did themselves proud. With Les handling all the baiting chores (for which he was deemed the master), the boys both set to fishing and promptly caught fish. The pictures are of Jon with his first fish and Chris with one of the large catfish he caught. Chris ended up with seven fish, four catfish and three striped bass and Jon caught six striped bass. Jon was dubbed the Master Caster for his casting prowess while Chris earned the Catfish King title.

Jon and Chris both though it was pretty cool when Uncle Les let them steer the boat.

HUGE thanks to Becky and Les for letting us come up there and visit with them and their yacht. The boys are already talking about coming back and fishing the other “sweet spot” Les told them about.

New Wheels

Bruce got a new ride last week. His truck "Titus" had some mechanical problems that were going to cost some big bucks to fix so we decided that it was time to get him a new set of wheels.

I have a gold car and Titus was gold so he decided that he would keep in that tradition.

As seen in a previous post, we name all of our vehicles. Since this one is a Gold, Ford Truck, its name had to start with a G, F, or T. This new truck went through several names before we finally settled on one.

First name Bruce came up with was Goldilocks, but we decided that a girls' name just wouldn't do. Next was Gomer, but he was too dignified to be a Gomer. I suggested Tyrone but we decided that didn't 'fit' him either. Next came Thaddeus and Texas but he finally settled on Teddy Roosevelt. I call him Teddy but Bruce uses his full name.

I think Bruce's favorite part of the truck is its Sirrius radio. He can now listen to his Classic Country (Willies Place or Roadhouse) commercial free not matter where he is.

Enjoy the pics.