Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Just trying to get through life without looking stupid, so far it's not going very well.

Family

Kite

kiteflying We had a classic sitcom moment in the park this week. A couple months ago, Elijah was given a cheap kite while he was out shopping with Tyla. The weather, the wind, our schedules, and our moods all finally aligned and we headed down to the school football field to try to fly it.

There was about a 1″ square picture showing how the strings were supposed to be tied on and 2/3 of that picture was covered by a UPC sticker. How hard can it be right? I got the strings attached and tried to launch it. For some reason it kept flipping around so the string was coming out the “back” of the kite and wrapping around. It obviously didn’t fly very well and I realized that duh, I tied the strings on wrong.

By then I had already knotted the incredibly tiny string so much that it was impossible to undo so I had to cut it. Thankfully Tyla suggested that I use some of the string that was wound around the handle to get the kite strung up and that worked great.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later, I finally had the kite in the air. Elijah tried it for about 30 seconds and then took his shoes off and went to play in the “sand box” (the long jump pit.)

benmartens May 5, 2016 Family

Family Photos

Tyla is always on the lookout for good gift ideas, especially for her parents. This year she came up with the idea to get a family photo session so we’d all have some nice photos. Our photographer was Kelly from TwoSwallows Studio and she did a great job! We met her down at Tolt MacDonald Park in Carnation on a Saturday morning and took a bunch of pictures. Just a week later she had them processed and in our hands. Thanks Kelly! And thanks to Tyla for doing all the research and planning!

benmartens May 4, 2016 Family

Northwest Trek

There is a wildlife park about 1.5 hours south of us called Northwest Trek. We headed there last Saturday to celebrate Megan’s 30th birthday. None of us had ever been there before, but I left pretty impressed. Your ticket includes a spot on a 1 hour tram ride through their ~500 acre preserve. The ride includes lots of sightings of animals like elk, deer, big horned sheep, mountain goats, and bison. Some of them were right beside the road and you had to stick your head out the window just to see them because they were so close! Elijah LOVED the trip and spent most of it with his head hanging out the window. Later in the day I asked him what he liked best about the tram and he said it was watching the wheels go around when he stuck his head out the window.

After the tram ride we walked a bit through the other area of the park which has predators like bears, cougars, etc. We ended our visit at the brand new giant playground.

On the way back we stopped at the Ram for some delicious burgers and beer. Aside from spending 1.5 hours in the car with a screaming toddler on the way down, it was a very nice trip. Happy birthday Megan!

benmartens May 3, 2016 Family, Travel

Caspar Babypants Framed Photo

Last fall we all went to see Caspar Babypants at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. Elijah has been to a lot of kiddie concerts but this was his first “real” concert where there was a ticket purchase and a theater, etc.

At the concert, we bought some artwork and had it signed by Chris Ballew (Caspar Babypants.) The artwork was done by his wife, Kate Endle.

It was pretty cool to get an autograph but I stupidly got it on the plastic covering for the photo. It’s kind of hard to display that. So the next time Tyla and Elijah went to see Caspar, they took Elijah’s concert ticket from the Neptune and asked him to sign that.

This simple project took me FOREVER but I finally got it framed and hung on the wall. I want to have a smaller frame for the ticket hanging separately from the artwork, but given how long this simple task took, I figured I should just get part way there.

Thanks to Chris and Kate for making great music and artwork!

benmartens April 26, 2016 Family, Music

Bainbridge Island Day Trip

Last weekend was our sixth anniversary so I planned a fun day trip. Actually, when you have a 2 year old who still needs a nap, day trips are more like “morning trips.”

Elijah has been on a ferry before but he was very young and didn’t remember we took a trip over to Bainbridge Island on the ferry. Walking onto the ferry is almost always more convnient than driving because you don’t have to worry about not fitting onto the next boat. We parked our car in Seattle and caught the 8:45am ferry to Bainbridge. Comicon was going on that weekend so we saw a lot of people that were dressed up, including a guy in a full Venom costume that Elijah really enjoyed. Elijah was so excited about it that when we stopped to say high to the police man, Elijah had to tell him all about it. The police man didn’t miss a beat and said, “Oh yeah, Spiderman is helping me out today.”

The Bainbridge ferry is very convenient for walkers. It’s only about a half mile into an area with lots of shops and food. We stopped for about an hour at a children’s museum and then walked to The Madison Diner. It’s an authentic train car style diner from the Philadelphia area. Elijah thought it was pretty cool to eat in a train car and Tyla and I both enjoyed the food. We enjoyed the ferry ride back and Elijah zonked out as soon as we got into the car.

It always feels like so much work to plan something like this with a two year old in tow, but in reality, it was all pretty simple. We should do more of this!

benmartens April 15, 2016 Family, Travel

Tulip Fields

One of the big spring attractions in this area is the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The area up by Mt. Vernon has enormous fields of tulips and tons of people head up there to see them. Thankfully we were able to go up on a weekday morning while Mom and Dad were here to avoid most of the traffic.

It’s hard to pick just a few photos but I’ll try…

benmartens April 6, 2016 Family, Travel

Silverdale Dinner

My family moved to Indiana in the early 80s right around the same time that Pastor Hintz arrived at the church we attended. Over the years, our families spent a LOT of time together. Chris now teaches at Christ The King school in Bremerton. Our parents were chatting and realized that we were all going to be here at the same time for Easter so we planed a get together.

It was pretty crazy having all of us (minus a bunch of the other siblings) together in a completely different state! Chris and Nikki made a great dinner and our kids had a good time playing together. The weather was beautiful and it was a great opportunity to catch up on old times and make new memories.

benmartens April 5, 2016 Family

Easter Recap

For my entire life, major holidays have always been celebrated at someone else’s house. This Easter was the first time that the big holiday meal happened at our house. What to cook?

I wanted to have a full table but also not stretch myself too thin so the plan was:

Ham
Green bean casserole (simple recipe from the back of the French’s onion container)
Stuffing (simple recipe from the back of the box, baked with celery and onion)
Gravy (from a packet)
Mashed potatoes (homemade with garlic, butter, milk and salt)

My plan was to focus on the ham and keep the other stuff simple. Mom gets credit for finding a good ham recipe that used a grill. I liked this because grilling is fun and it kept the oven free. In retrospect, the stuff that went in the oven would have been fine at the same temperature as the ham so I think next time I’d do it there.

It was raining for much of the cooking time and it was a little tricky keeping the grill at the right temp as the rain came and went. It took a little longer than I thought, but eventually the ham made it up to the right temperature and I ran out of basting juice. The result was pretty good, but I think most of the credit there goes to the butcher who sources some great ham. There were plenty of people around to help with the side dishes and everything came together nicely. It was a full house with Don, Nancy, Logan, Megan, Ken, Dad, Mom, Tyla, Elijah and myself.

Oh, and dessert? Homemade rum cake!

benmartens April 1, 2016 Family, Food

Seattle Aquarium

For Logan’s birthday, we all headed to the Seattle waterfront to visit the aquarium. It turned out to be a beautiful day so not only was the aquarium fun, but we also got to walk along the waterfront (which is completely under construction as they replace the seawall) and eat lunch at Ivar’s. Elijah is getting to a good age for the aquarium and really got into it, especially the area where he could touch the animals.

benmartens March 9, 2016 Family, Photography

Park Pictures

Elijah just rolled past 32 months a week or two ago. This kid is a bundle of energy! We took him to the park the other day to let him blow off some steam and I snapped a few photos.

benmartens February 29, 2016 Family