First Fish

My fish was bigger...too bad Frank wasn't here the first day when I helped Will catch his first fish. I'm no fisherman so was I surprised when I found this on the end of my line!!! Will loved the "bugs" aka crickets and would have brought them home with him if we would have let him.

Most of the fish were this size...guess it was luck!

Strong Family Reunion 2009

I snagged this picture from the now second "Uncle Frank" in the family...from his blog. Frank is a dear friend of our family who so graciously takes fabulous pictures of all of the fam. I say friend of the family but he IS family. Not just because he takes pictures at the reunion and gets them out to everyone but because he brings a special meaning to our time with our family and without him it wouldn't be complete. (I know Frank, you refer to the Strong Family Reunion as Rusty's family reunion as a link to who the Strong's are but make note that by all means our family reunion is as much ours as it is yours...at least in my eyes.) We love you and cherish the time we get to spend with you.

Frank does a much better job of blogging about so many things...including some of the most precious times in my life. You will understand when you visit his blog and read up on our family reunion. He has not one but two posts already about it....really making me look bad because I can see it now...by the time I get this posted there will probably be more. If you get the chance to visit his blog, it is a wonderfully refreshing place to go to learn and admire the beauty of many different things...from grasshoppers to buildings being torn down to the every day ordinary.

You know that even as Frank said in his second post on the reunion that the crowd this year wasn't as big as we would have liked it to be. It is always been one of the very most important times of the year for me to see so much of my family that I only get to see once or twice a year. It is a time to catch up, make many fun memories, plan for the year to come and get ready for next year's trip to the lake! There are so many things I love about the reunion that I don't know where to start. I think my next post will be about all the things I love about the lake.

Piper's Birthday in July!!

I think this has been Piper's favorite party yet. We had it at Powersports...where she and now Will are taking gymnastics. Everyone had a blast....even the adults. JB played in the foam pit more than the kids I think! She had such a fun time. It was so special to her that everyone was there to celebrate with her.

Can you tell I've been playing hard and having fun?

Waiting for instructions....this was about the only 5 minutes the kids were still.


Jumping into the foam pit!!!

So...this is Will's new favorite face. Pleasant isn't it?

Waiting for cake was no fun.

Will's Birthday Back in May

Will's dinosaur cake on his actual birthday! He was so excited to blow out the candles a couldn't wait even though Piper tried to make him. It was hilarious.

Will was such a sport at his birthday party and had lots of fun with all of his friends!!

Up and coming...

We have lots of events coming up. I love July! Even though it is soooo hot, we have so many fun things going on that I really look forward to. Mostly the Strong Family Reunion is what I look forward to the most. It has been something our family have attended since before I was born and I want to continue this tradition with my kids. I love that even though our families are so far apart that we still try to get together every year to see each other. What wonderful memories we have from previous years and I hope to make many more!

So I know I totally missed the boat on posting pictures from Will's birthday but that is mostly because those pictures are on JB's camera. Hopefully I will try to get both the kids birthday pictures posted after Piper's party...so be on the lookout!

The Arnold Girls

Aren't they so sweet! This is Piper with her cousin, Ellie! JB's brother and his family were in this past weekend and the kids had lots of fun. We took these pictures at church on Sunday. What a sweet time it was to all worship together!!



...and some with the boys too! John Wyatt, Will, Ellie, Coby, Piper and Dutch. It was hard getting the little boys to sit still.
But Piper wrangled them in here but they weren't having much of that!! It was definitely time to let them loose!

Fun Fact!

This FUN FACT was in the newsletter I get weekly from Babycenter.

Rabbits eat their poop all the time without thinking it's yucky!

...I don't think I will be giving my kids any ideas. Being that Will already thinks it is funny to pick up the dog poop, he doesn't need any encouragement!