Yesterday Ben celebrated his 16th birthday, and we all celebrated with him.  The day was a blast.

I considered an orchestrated rite of passage into manhood.  One particular ritual that I thought Ben would be good at is cow jumping.  It’s fairly popular in Hamar, Ethiopia, and it looks like it would be a lot of fun.  However, after Ben recently demonstrated his grace on an inanimate object with four little wheels (a skateboard), I thought better of asking him to scurry along the hairy backs of large mooooing creatures.  He’s good, but…

So, we all agreed that bowling would be more fun.  And it was.  Have a look at Ben’s birthday photo slide show here.

Ben, I’m extremely proud of you and I love you very much.  Don’t ever change your fun-loving heart.  God has blessed you with a contagious sense of humor and a heart of gold.  Share it whenever and wherever you have the chance.

Love, Dad