My Sisters and Me

My mom snapped this picture of us 4 girls the day of Hayley's baptism.  I love my sisters so much, and we always know how to have a good time.  We laugh together, cry together, and occasionally get on each others nerves, but we always know who to call when we need a pick me up, or someone to vent to.  Love you April, Angie and Abbey!!!

Chandler's first day of Pre-School

Chandler is in pre-school this year.  He had to wait for 2 weeks after the other kids to start, and it was a long 2 weeks.  The day finally came, and he had his backpack on at 9 am.  He does not start until 12:30.  His teacher is Miss Zee, and she has taught all of my other kids in pre-school, so he knows the ropes.  All he talks about is school, and he wants to go every day!!!

Jordan's first day of Kindergarten

This has been a long summer for Jordan.  He has been so excited to start Kindergarten.  What made it even worse was that he did not start the same day as the other two.  He had to wait one more day.  He goes to Kindergarten on Tuesdays and Thursdays and his teacher is Mrs. Hansen.  She is brand new this year, and is very eager to be here.  He loves to ride the bus, and eating lunch at school.  He is doing really good, and I hope he keeps this enthusiasm all year. 

Hayley's #8 and Baptism

This birthday for Hayley was pretty special.  She was able to be baptized on her birthday.  It was a very special day, and I hope that it is a memorable one for her.  She looked so pretty in her new dress from Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong, and she got some new scriptures and bag from Grandma and Grandpa Bennett.  It was very special and I cannot believe that she is old enough to be baptized.  We are so proud of her and the choices that she had made!!  Love you Hayley girl...

Brock and Hayley First day of School

The first day of school is always an exciting day at our house.  My kids actually like going to school, and are very happy to start it in the fall.  Jordan was not so excited, because he did not start until the next day. 

Hayley is in 2nd grade and has Mrs. Romel for her teacher.  She was excited to have her.  Hayley gets along with any teacher she has, and never has trouble getting her school work done.

Brock is in 4th grade and had Mrs. Buxton for his teacher.  He was very excited to get her too.  We have known her for a long time, so that should be fun.  He is such a good boy at school, and never causes any trouble.  I hope he stays that way forever.

Brock had to take a picture of his way cool new shoes.  He was pretty proud of them and wanted to make sure we got a picture of them.

Downey Fair

This year, I failed as a mother and did not get Brock signed up for 4-H soon enough.  So, in return he wanted to ride his horse in open class.  We agreed and started working with him and his horse.  Well, the fair came, and I just did not trust the horse enough yet.  I was talking to my dear friend Marie Losee, and she said that he could ride her horse.  He was thrilled, and went to Marie's house to ride for a couple of days before his class.  He did awesome and "Honcho" did great as well. 
Chandler found out that there was a stick horse class, and we was ready to ride.  He rode his little stick horse, and had it backing up, and trotting in circles.  It was so cute. 
Hayley wanted to ride her horse too, but he is only a 2 year old, so we knew that he would not be ready.  She found out about the pet show, and was very eager to take Lucky to that.  She was so cute and loved showing off her little dog.  They love being in the fair this year, and are very excited to do 4-H next year.

Armstrong Family Reunion

This year for the Armstrong Family Reunion Tami was in charge,  and we all know when Tami is in charge, it is going to be a party!!  We went to a home in Raft River that has huge water slides, a zip line, a candy bomb, skeet shooting, amd lots of laughs.  The kids and adults alike went down the water slides for 8 hours.  They were exhausted and sunburned.  There were more laughs than usual. 

After the water slides, Tami had a wonderful meal of meatball subs and salads.  After that she had a fantastic game of "Minute To Win It"  The kids loved playing all of the games, and continued on with the laughs. 

After dinner and the games, the kids all decided they wanted to water slide again.  They all got their suits back on and went sliding until dark.  They had so much fun, and we really would not be too sad to have the reunion there again next year.

Temple Square

This summer, we took the kids to Lagoon, and the next day they wanted to go to Temple Square.  They love to go there, every time we go to Salt Lake.  Hayley has been wanting to go to the top of the church office building, and it has always been closed.  Well, this time we lucked out and were able to go in.  After we spoke to a lady, she said the next tour will begin in about 45 minutes.  We were actually willing to wait, then she came over and said that she had time, so she would take us up to the top.  The kids thought it was awesome.  They loved being that high, and loved that they could see the top of the temple from there.  I tried to get a cute picture of them with the temple in the back, but the sun was so bright,  they had a hard time keeping their eyes open..

Boating

Spencer's sister Heidi and her family bought a boat this summer.  They just happened to buy my sister April's boat.  Heidi and Jeremy have been very gracious to invite us to some of their boating adventures.  The first time we went out, we went to American Falls Reservoir.  We had a great time.  We packed a lunch and spent the day. The kids loved just swimming around in the water, and Brock, Hayley and Jordan loved to go tubing.  Chandler loved riding in the boat, he never wanted to get out.  Spence went water skiing and got right up, after who knows how many years.  Brock even took a try at skiing.  He got right up and stayed up for about 10-15 seconds.  He really enjoyed it. 
The best part of the day was when Jeremy took a boat full out to the middle of the reservoir at the end of our day and ran out of gas in the middle.  They slowly started to paddle back in, when luckily the reservoir police went by, and happily towed the boat in.  The kids that were on the boat then, thought that was a great time. 

4th of July

This year for the 4th of July, we attended the annual Arimo festivities.  My kids were up early so I thought that it would be good for them to go to the flag raising ceremony.  After that, we went to the fireman's breakfast.  We went to the parade later, and Brock rode on the fire truck with the scouts.  He had a lot of fun doing that.  After the parade, during the games and the pot luck lunch, I had a little booth with some toys, treats, and drinks to sell.  I was trying to raise money for my marathon that I have coming up.  I was so thankful for all of the support that I got from the little town of Arimo.  After the park activities, we went to aunt Tami's annual party for a great time of food, laughs, food, sparklers, more food, and fireworks.  The kids had a blast, but Chandler did not like the loud sounds of the "screaming" fireworks.  We had a ton of fun, and always look forward to a great time.

Family Camping Trip

After our annual Bennett family reunion up Summit Campground in June, we decided to stay for a few more days with just us.  We had so much fun.  The kids went fishing, and I got some nice reading in.  We even cooked breakfast over the fire.   Spence was back and forth working, and we had a ball.  Sunday afternoon, mom, dad, Angie, Adam and their kids and Abbey and Justin came up and we had dinner and celebrated Mattie's birthday.  We love to camp, and with our lifestyle, it does not always happen as often as we would like.  We had a great time. 

6 WEEKS AND COUNTING!!!

I am not sure what we are thinking, but my sister April and I have been training to run a marathon in San Francisco in October.  We have both dealt with injuries and triumphed over a good long run, that surprisingly did not kill us.  It has been an awesome journey to go through with her.  Even though we are 4 hours away from each other, we talk almost daily to help encourage and push the other to not get discouraged.  Anytime we happen to get together, we make it a point to go out for a run together.  We are so excited to get this marathon under our belts, and hope to be excited for our next "running" journey together.