Ben bio - part 2

What were your childhood home and neighborhood like?

The earliest house I remember was when Luke and I were little.  It was in Provo Utah.  It had wooden closet doors.  I remember we had a basement in Spokane and my mom made an animal colored train in our toy room.  And we could go out on the back deck and watch the trains go by.  When we moved to Las Vegas (when I was 5) our townhouse had three bedrooms upstairs and for a little while, my mom and dad let all the boys sleep in the master bedroom.  We had a rectangle trampoline and a white fence.  And the springs were so old that the springs would fly off and over the fence and it could hit a car because it was a pretty busy street. 

The house we live in now is cool because it’s the biggest house we’ve ever had.  I slept upstairs for a while and then moved downstairs to our guestroom with Luke for a while.  Now I share bedrooms with Zack and Simon and Luke and Roma share.  It has a pretty big kitchen.  And it’s a special house because Roma and Simon were born here, in my mom’s bedroom.  I really, really, really like the desert across the street from our house.  The street isn’t very busy so not many cars drive on it.  I like going across the street and making gigantic forts.  And my mom lets us wander around and find cool junk out there and bring it to our fort.  One time I found a dog cage.  The desert is about the only thing I like about the neighborhood.  There aren’t any trees or anything.  My mom takes us to a cool place to ride our bikes.  It’s like a deserted oval parking lot.  My mom will let us drive the car (but she helps us) and we can ride bikes as fast as we want and draw with sidewalk chalk and stuff.  We go there about once a week.

Did you have any pets as a child?  What kind?

Well I have had about two or three fish growing up.  I got my first fish when I was two years old. Then when I was nine we got a dog for Christmas. We named her Sunny! When I was eleven we got two snakes. This past year we have gotten birds, rats, and a tarantula. Sunny is definitely my favorite pet because she’s always there for us to play with. 

What kinds of things did you like to do with your siblings?   What are some of your special memories of growing up together?

I love to jump on the tramp with them and play Legos.  We have a lot of fun when my mom and dad go out on a date and I get to babysit everyone.  We call it “babysitting ourselves” and we like to make movie theatres and read and eat ice cream and make popcorn and play games.  We always ask my parents when they can go out on a date because we like to play together.  We like to play tag at the park or at Café Rio in the play area.  We have this cool thing called the “human slingshot” and we will bring it to the park and go crazy.  But some people have gotten hurt in it, like Vaughn and Skyler. We just got a new camping trailer and it is SO cool to go camping in it.  I also love going to the beach and playing with my brothers and building sand castles. 

What were your parents like? Did you have a special relationship with either of them?

My Dad is a hard worker.  He takes us fun places like Sams Club for ice cream or to the park to play soccer.  He will play sports with us like kickball at the church.  He’s really funny when he does weird dances and acts crazy in family home evening. I have a good relationship with him because we always want to hang out with him on Saturday, even more than we want to hang out with our friends. 

My Mom is fun and always takes us fun places, like my dad.  During the day we will go to Pump it Up or Sonic or the Children’s Museum. She takes us hiking every Friday and I love that.  She helps me work on my scouts.  I think I have a great relationship with my mom.  We read books together and we can talk about stuff and if I needed to talk to someone if something was wrong, I could talk to her about it.