Ben and Jenelle DOT COM

Two short photo albums:

Rachel’s Third Birthday

Roma Lodge Italian Festival

From Friday: Happy Birthday, Adam W.!

As usual, I’ve been pretty lazy in updating the webjournal. Oops. This weekend was another fun one. Jenelle and I saw Anchorman on Friday. We comprised 25% of the entire viewing audience. We went to dinner at Gibson’s Charhouse on Douglas, which was a Big Boy the last time I was there — the food was suprisingly good.

Saturday was a relaxing day — we didn’t do a whole lot of exciting stuff, but we did run a bunch of errands and clean up the condo a bit. Of course, you wouldn’t know that by looking at the place now. 🙂

On Sunday, we went to Lodi to see Gail, Mike, Laura, and several other members of the Isaacson family. We celebrated the third anniversary of Ryan’s departure for heaven. We are all thankful for the ways he blessed us, but it’s hard not to think about what life would be like if he was still here today. In any case, I truly enjoy trips to Lodi. It’s always nice to visit with family — and while Minocqua has transformed into a tourist trap, Lodi remains a quaint small town.

I didn’t have to “work” on Monday, because my team had a group outing to Great America. I managed to ride all of the roller coasters I planned on riding. The only one that had a wait more than 20 minutes was Superman. It took over an hour, but I think it was worth it.

More fun is ahead in the coming weeks. I’ll try and keep you loyal webreaders a little better informed.

My group at work has a lot of fun together — probably because our bosses are always up for some fun event, whether it’s group pedicures and facials, movie days, field trips or today’s event — Team Cuisine. The Global Public Affairs and Communication team at Johnson Financial asked my group to take a trip with them to The American Inn in Kohler, Wisconsin, for a team cooking contest.

We split into five groups and each were responsible for cooking one dish: crab cakes, mustard and herb asparagus and phyllo, smoked onion and black bean soup with three tomato salsa and cumin sour cream, Herb-crusted tenderloin of been in a roasted garlic sauce, and finally, tiramisu. Then the head banquet chef judged them all on presentation, taste and adherence to the recipe. Mom, you will be very happy to know that my asparagus and phyllo combo took home the top prize! We had a lot of fun, got to eat some great food, and best yet, didn’t have to work today!

Sorry, folks.  I know it’ s been a while.  I hope you can wait a little bit longer.

Coming soon:

Fun moments from the 4th of July week

Pictures from Rachel’s Birthday Party

As some of you may know, I now have braces! They’re not your traditional braces. No brace face or metal mouth here. These new invisalign braces are clear, pop in over my teeth and are removable. My orthodontist took a mold of my teeth and now I get lots of clear liners that slowly move my teeth. Because they’re clear, most people don’t even know I have them! The liners are designed using 3D software to simulate how my teeth should move to make them straight. Click here to see a video of how my teeth look now and how they will slowly change this year into a big, beautiful smile!

On Friday: Happy Birthday, Ed!

On Saturday: Happy Golden Birthday, Me!

There was lots of fun at a neighborhood carnival at Our Savior’s on Friday evening. There’s a photo album here and a movie of me in the dunk tank here. Yup, that’s right, I was in a dunk tank. It was a great experience — the only trouble was the platform I sat on. If you don’t sit far enough forward, the platform hits you in the back as you fall in. Thanks to Allison, one of the summer interns, who pointed that out to me before my stay in the tank.

My birthday wasn’t all that eventful, but that’s how I liked it. We went shopping at various places and ventured to Tenuta’s in Kenosha for dinner. Tenuta’s has some of the best pizza I have ever tasted. They use to have a location in Sturtevant, about five minutes away from our house. I could probably have run there in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, that location closed about a year ago because of some lease issues. In any case, it was worth the 25-minute drive. There’s still some leftovers in the fridge. 🙂

We checked out Kenosha Bible Church this morning. They have a unique service experience called “Video Cafe”. After grabbing a muffin and some coffee or juice, you can sit at a table with other worshippers. After the contemporary-style band warms everyone up, we watch the pastor’s sermon, taped at the earlier service in the sanctuary. We might visit there again.

After the service, we went to Woodman’s market (also in Kenosha) and stocked up on items for our upcoming fireworks party. I think we’re well prepared for the exciting weeks ahead!