all dressed up and nowhere to go

my bands are fun

Here's a link to see and hear all the bands I play in, if anyone's interested. . .
http://www.robbennion.com/bands.html

Copa Cabana

We went to the cabin last weekend, it was loads of fun. We had yakiniku too.

Nicolle painted a bunch of our apartment before we left for the cabin, and we made a trip to Ikea, so we have quite the nice little apartment now. Our drive to buy a house is somewhat weakened by finding out what it actually entails. For now it seems we're content at our place, but if the perfect magic house/situation appears we'll be open to that too.

I'm trying to learn how to balance my obsessive behavior and work and family, anybody who knows me knows how obsessed I get about things and how much trouble I have balancing. I'm very excited about the opportunities I have with music, but need to learn to balance better. Thanks to my practicing in the mornings at 7am at the school before starting work, I feel really great about my progress and it's a great solution to the practice/wake up the kids /make Nicolle miserable problem.

We've fallen in love with the RedBox dvd rental machines all over town. For $1 you can rent a dvd for one night, and so we've seen some interesting movies lately. Yesterday I watched "Letters From Iwo Jima". It was cool to see some of the Japanese actors I recognized from movies in Japan. I'm sure everyone's already seen it or heard about it, it was told from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers. Brutality and kindness are shown on both sides during the conflict, and some soldiers (both american and japanese) came to see that the enemy isn't so different from them. It's by no means a warm fuzzy movie however, there's needless killing, boredom, insanity, etc. It made me think of friends I have fighting in wars. Kendall from Hawaii wrote me on Thanksgiving from Afghanistan. He said that after a morning of drills etc the commanding officer told them to get lost, and they were allowed the rest of the day off. They later had pizza for the soldiers, but Kendall said he was more excited just to not have to work. He didn't remember it was Thanksgiving until the officer let them go for the day. My life is so different from his life and many people's around the world, people I have contact with every day at my job who are desperate to get out of their present situation. I feel incredibly blessed and am amazed at my situation, I'm very lucky.
We also watched "Disturbia" a fun thriller rear-window-esque. The kids were actullay both asleep for a rare moment so we watched it together and Nicolle held me while I jumped at every scary part, as usual. I'm kind of a chicken with horror movies.

The cabin II

Col of the Wild

boys already?

guitar hero

Sorry guys, it's already sold out . . .

Look at the section "VIP dinner and dancing".

http://www.balletwest.org/Support/gala.html

Maybe next year you can get tickets if you're lucky. Heh heh.

Silly Interview in Salt Lake

Hi guys,

I did an interview in Salt Lake for a local website, here's the link:

http://labelfreeartists.com/view_video.php?id=83

Watch for Colette running around in the background! :)

Nigongo wa?! 祝福 . . .

I feel very blessed right now. I'm listening to general conference in Japanese early Sunday morning and thinking of everything I have to be grateful for.
My beautiful wife is so amazing. She's been very active lately. Besides taking care of our two kids, which is like 3 full time jobs (never a day off, 24/7 work all the time), she's playing volleyball twice a week (I've seen her play: she's usually the only girl playing with giant polynesian men that could squash me like a bug, but she holds her own!), she's gotten two face painting gigs recently where she uses her artistic talents, and she's started hula lessons.
Colette is learning how to talk so well now. She's making sentences, much of it isn't understandable, but she surprises me all the time with clear words and phrases. She always gives people hugs when she says hi, and she's cheerful.
Johnathan is nothing less than pure joy in my life. He's such a happy baby, always smiling at everyone and he really loves people's company. He doesn't demand much from people, just their smiles.

I've have big dreams with my music, and have been experiencing greater success than ever before. I play with great musicians, and have many projects in the works, from my own band to brazilian, latin, and hip-hop projects (played in park city friday with a rapper, it's a ton of fun to back him up and I'm going to have him start rapping with my jazz/funk trio, it's going to be so fun!). I'm very excited and hope to travel a bit abroad with these groups, taking nicolle to Europe and other parts of the world. I've been blessed to play at many high-end functions and events lately, I'm finally getting my name out there and get new calls for gigs every other day.
At my job I feel so lucky to be able to use Spanish and Portuguese all day. I'm having a lot of success lately, many students are coming in the next few months which I helped with their paperwork. I'm making many international connections and love the work I do.
we've been looking at houses around provo, thinking maybe we'll stay here for the long haul, travelling here and there like Mom and Dad. We both like it here and with the kids needing stability and routine, we're dreaming about having our own place. We walked around with Amy all day yesterday looking at houses and found one we absolutely adored, it was fun to dream about what we'd do with it.

Today we are going to visit the Esplin farm, so when we get back I will post some pictures. I also wanted to apologize for not being able to figure out how to set up the widget thing for the blog. Here's my sisters blog, she has been posting some fun pictures lately so if you have time you should check it out.
http://mackenziefotos.blogspot.com/

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. Or rather, I love dressing my kids up, so cute! Johnathan was Peter Pan, Colette was Tinkerbell and I was Tigerlily. Rob was supposed to dress up as a pirate but he didn't get a chance. First we walked downtown where most of the stores welcomed trick or treaters. Colette initially didn't understand the concept of asking for candy, she just wanted to run around with her arms behind her shouting "Im fiying!" She had bells on her shoes so she was really noisy. Johnathan was so sweet, he didn't pull his hat off or cry or anything. Colette needed a nap by the time we were half way through so she got pretty bad. But I guess she did ok considering we walked about a mile. Grandma Karla picked us up at the Library and took us to her house where we had "blood soup with bones" (tomato soup with bread sticks) it was awesome. Grandma also had pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. Colette dutifully licked off the icing and put them back on the plate. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's ward trunk or treat, but we were pretty late and Colette still hadn't had a nap. In fact she didn't sleep at all the whole day until after 10 pm! I really really hope it doesn't mean she has stopped taking naps. Anyway, it was a great day regardless of all of the walking and the cranky fairy. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Devon's Birthday

I just wanted to say that the past several posts were in part a tribute to Devon since it was her birthday last week. We haven't forgotten, we are just REALLY slow (actually most of the blame can be put on our internet, since it only works well enough for us to post in the wee hours of the night). So I am staying up late again to say Happy Birthday Devon...your gift is being made as we speak...oh I've said to much. Enjoy the random pictures while you wait....

pumpkin carving

Colette's favorite part was playing with the slimy insides of the pumpkins. I think that our pumpkins are so cool. The last picture is of Amy and I face painting at the birthday party that Colette was dancing at (see previous posts). It was a lot of fun and we even got paid! Rob had his hands full with Johnathan strapped in the baby carrier and Colette running around. She's supposed to be Tinkerbell, I put some makeup on her and it smeared so she looks a little weird in the picture. I did an "insane clown" on one of the adults (really creepy) so then all of the boys wanted the same thing. That is what I am painting on the boy in the picture.

Halloween week!

Check the previous posts too!

Colette dancing the hula

This video is kind of boring at first, but it gets really good so just hang in there. Rob thinks that Colette will be a dancer. She certainly wiggles her body better than I can. I have to empty my bladder before I can watch this.

Visit with Michelle and Spencer

Rob was interviewed for an online radio show...more news on that later, in SLC so we called up Michelle to see if we could hang out with her while we were there. Fortunately, she could and so could Spencer! We were excited to see them. They cruised in on their bikes and Colette was in love. We talked and ate at the "One World Cafe" while Rob was being interviewed. Afterwards, we some how convinced Spencer to take Colette on a little ride on his bike. At first he just pushed her around while she sat on the bar (ouch) then we made him put on the baby carrier and strap Colette in for a chilly and exhilarating ride around the parking lot. Colette was in heaven. I don't know why but the way she looks strapped in that carrier on Spencer and the look on her face just crack me up. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Silly survey

1. Three biggest fears? Death or pain for anyone I love, anything that can hurt my children (from flies to sharks to lack of sleep to forces of nature), apocaliptic (sp?) disasters. I guess they are all kind of the same thing in my mind.

2. When was the last time you danced? Yesterday to "Pump it" by Black-Eyed Peas with Colette while trying to get her to help me clean instead of make a mess. She can shake her booty like nobody's business.

3. Do you creep on stranger's blogs? I am not exactly sure what that means. I pretty much just stick to the blogs of people I know.

4. If you could go back to be any age for a day, what age would you be and why? Pre-baby maybe.

5. Are you a good liar? It depends on what I am lying about, but usually I am pretty good. What a crappy thing to be good at.

6. Do you judge someone when you can tell they've had elective cosmetic surgery? Only for dumb things, like boob implants when they were already just fine.

7. If you have children, what's one thing that you always told yourself you'd never do when you had kids? If you don't have children, what's one thing you tell yourself you'll never do.
Lots of things that I am not going to admit now.

8. What's something that totally grosses you out? Fish. The smell, the taste, the look.

9. Do you ever delete forwards without reading them? Sometimes, thankfully I don't get very many.

10. Do you ever lie to get out of obligations? Probably, but by now people just don't ask. Whoohoo.

11. Consider your body weight and your yearly income at their present states. Would you rather be 200 pounds heavier and $200,000 richer or stay at your present states? I don't think I would be alive to enjoy being richer...besides that isn't very much money, I would probably have to spend that much just on food!

12. When was the last time you bought a pair of shoes and what were they? Yesterday at DI, some tennis shoes. I haven't bought a new pair of shoes for 4 months and even then they were only $10

13. The Olympics. Take them or leave them? Take them I guess, I like watching swimming and gymnastics and stuff like that...but I am not glued to it, I could live on just the highlights

14. What's your favorite accent? Mmmm, that is tough, I like italian, maybe spanish.

15. What's your favorite scent? Lilac's
16. Gum or breath mints?
Gum, works better on my breath-o-death

17. If you could look like any celebrity, who would it be?
Catherine Zeta Jones

18. If you had the chance of looking like said celebrity in exchange for your thumbs would you do it?
No

19. Do you religiously wear sun screen?
More like I religiously avoid the sun.

20. Do you generally trust people/their motives or doubt people/their motives?
I trust very few people. But even though I don't trust people I like them, plus even if I think they have different motives I don't care, as long as things get done.

21. Would you describe yourself as a complicated person or is what you see what you get?
I generally like people and want people to like me. I like people that are genuine, I guess that kind of contradicts the previous question/response so I guess I am complicated.
22. Do you watch what you eat?
The day I watch what I eat too closely is the day I stop enjoying food, and I enjoy food oh so much.

23. Do you watch what other people eat?
Not exactly, only if I am going to cook for them, I don't want to accidentally poison someone.
24. Do you judge how other people raise their kids?
Less now that I have children. Now I mostly just take notes.

25. Do you judge people who dress poorly?
It just makes me wonder if I dress poorly, then I think oh well.

26. Do you judge people who are homely?
I don't really judge people that are like me.

27. Do you judge people who are overweight?
More like, I hope I never get THAT overweight. I cut a lot of slack for people who have had babies, men get no slack, haha.

28. Your interest in politics: High, Medium-High, Medium, Medium-Low, Low, Obsolete?
High-ish, although I am usually disappointed with the whole thing.

29. Favorite song of all time?
At the moment "I will follow you into the dark" by Death Cab for Cutie, it makes me want to weep but in a good way.

30. Acoustic or electric?
Acoustic, hands down.

31. If you were a hermit, would you shave?
Shave, hey I practically don't do that now.

32. If you could shave your head without your significant other throwing a complete hissy, would you?
My head already looks too small for my post prego body, that would just be worse.

33. What was your least favorite age?
Can't think of a least favorite, life has been pretty good. Infancy was rough from what I hear from my parents but I can't say that I remember that.

34. How many times a day do you check your email?
I try to check it often but it hasn't been working lately so I only actually see my inbox about once a day.

35. Are you in a tiff with anyone right now?
Tiff? Not really, I either despise, not think about or love 'em. Tiff sounds like a passing kind of thing.

Ok so now that I have finished I tag anyone that reads this that is not violently opposed to filling this thing out. Samantha you are excused because you already did it.

mejor tarde que nunca . . .

I have the most beautiful family!

Quick note

It kills me but I can't seem to post any pictures because our internet craps out before it saves or anything so I will quickly recap the last couple of weeks, if you want pictures I will have to try to send them to you in an email, so unless you ask for some pictures I won't send any.
For my birthday on the 5th we made empanadas and had our Peruvian friends over as well as Amy, Grandma Gene, Karla, John and Chris. Mike came over too. We had two cakes: one that Rob made me and one that Karla made. Then on Sunday Brett and Betsy came over to the Bennions were we had another big shindig with lots of food and presents. Later Michelle came over bearing gifts from herself , my parents and Elisa, lots of maternity clothes (the only size of clothes that fit me) and fun. I had a great time.
On Friday of this last week we (Amy, Jamison, Chris, Karla, John, Rob, the babies and I) went to the cabin. We went on a little hike and ate like crazy. John impressed us with his crazy ping pong skills, Karla enlightened us with her immigration knowledge, Amy played with the babies, Jamison saved my life by helping me with school assignments while Chris serenaded us with his guitar. It was beautiful. I was surprised that there was no snow and lots of sunshine.
On Monday, Karla and Chris took care of the babies for 4+ hours while Rob and I went off and had our first date since before Colette was born. We get to go on at least one date a month courtesy of Karla. By some freak accident poor John was sick after the cabin.
Other big news includes Rob's string of paying gigs, mostly in December but some as soon as November 2nd. I am also trying to get some "gigs" face painting at birthday parties and such and so far have two parties coming up.

Friday Night

Hi guys, anybody in Salt Lake/Provo can come see my 7-piece jazz band play on Friday night if you're interested.

When: Friday Oct 12th from 9:30 to 12 midnight
Where: Sundance's Owl Bar (go up Provo canyon about 5 miles, turn left and go up the canyon, Sundance is 2 miles up that canyon. See their site for more details: www.sundanceresort.com)
Who: Some of the best Jazz players in Utah! Two singers, trumpet, bass, drums, sax, piano, guitar!
Cost: $5 at the door

The Owl Bar has always been smoke free so you won't get the black lung of death from coming to see us play. 21 and older only.

Thanks!

Aquarium videos

videos at the aquarium

The jellyfish were really cool.