Blogging. I'm back.

Life has been really fun, exciting, and busy for the last month.

We went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving with my parents, and our cousins, the Martins.  It was the most fun little vacation after a long November at school that closed with Parent-Teacher

 Conferences.

We ate at the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Las Vegas, this is the view from outside the resort.

Our whole group, post-Thanksgiving meal / stuffing our faces with gourmet everything.  We had a tomato & balsamic bar, giant shrimp, crab, stuffed salmon, full Thanksgiving, and a dessert extravaganza.

We went to the Cirque du Soleil, "KA."  It was amazing.  We had the perfect 10th row seats to witness such insanity.

Once home, we took advantage of the wonderful St. George weather before heading back to our icebox called home.  I love the red hill narrows!

The Heart.

Body Worlds 3

The Heart.

Ben and I went to the exhibit at The Leonardo downtown last night with some friends, Justin and Ashley. It was a truly fascinating experience. I cannot believe the things you learn about our bodies and movement by viewing the muscles in common (and some uncommon) positions. The camel was also incredibly interesting.

I am glad we went. I found it very enlightening and less eerie than I thought I might.

I would recommend.

Karlee tags, I oblige

So, I am to go in my photos, go into the 4th folder

*Europe

Go to the 4th picture 

*This one

And explain it

*This little number is a picture of me in Germany on the Neckar River Cruise.  It dropped us off in this quaint little town with a trail leading to four old castles.  This is me at castle #2, sitting on the castle wall, looking over the river valley.  I want to go back to Heidleberg more than anywhere on my whole trip.

I tag Nicole, Nikki, and any other wonderful souls that read my blog.

The view from the top

It doesn't take much coaxing to convince Ben and I to travel to St. George.

With a 4-day weekend, it took no coaxing at all.

In pondering what activities to do while vactioning, I had an epiphany of the fact that I had never climbed Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. This seemed necessary since people travel from other countries to do this climb. It became top priority on the agenda. Come to find out, no Parker has climbed it, leading to an exciting family event. Saturday morning, Ben, me, my mom and dad, and my Aunt Mary headed up.

The hike is beautiful. Great mountain views, the river below. We took our time climbing up - due largely to the fact that it was extremely steep and tiring, but also because we took a lot of pictures.

The last half mile of the hike is the most miraculous part, but also the most terrifying. There really is a moment where the trail is 3-feet wide, and there is a 1000 foot drop one way, and 800 feet the other. To try and put it in words, majestic is how I would describe it.

UEA

What great excuse UEA is. It started as this great concept to give teachers this wonderful 2-day opportunity to be trained on more philosophies and methods, but has turned into an excuse to run away from school (both for student and teacher.) Can't say that as a teenager I would ever love holidays more sometime later in my life, teenagers are frequently incorrect. Schools have breaks for teachers - it is because they made it illegal to strike students. No abuse = school breaks.

Just a theory

It's fun... for the first time.

It snowed.

It snowed and stuck.

It snowed and stuck for the first time this season.

It was fun.

We were sitting at the Martin's house for the weekend where we woke up to white cover everywhere.  Ben and Hari were both so eager to get out and play that they practically had to break into the storage room to get to the snow stuff.

They created this...

After the snow extravaganza that resulted in that giant snowman, we need some breakfast.  We ate a delicious one at The Original Pancake House.  Oh my gosh, they never fail to impress me with their food.  Loved it!

One year, Five Days

Yeah,

One year, Five days since our wedding day!

The five days are due to the fact that our week was insanely busy. He was out of town 3 days 2 nights, I worked both jobs for a total of 60 hours. But, moving onto the fabulous topic of wedding anniversary...

Wedding day was amazing. It is always fun to have a day set aside solely for reminiscing and celebrating such a wonderful day.

We've had quite a year. Some of our highlights have been

• Finishing our home - Finally! And putting it up for sale
• Belated honeymoon to Cancun over Christmas Break!
• Ben getting his CPA lisence
• Steph actually getting through her first year of teaching

For the big anniversary day, we went to work. That is somewhat inevitable considering that is what Mondays are for. But the soreness of Monday was softened by Ben arriving with 2 dozen pink roses. After work we went to The Roof Restaurant where we got engaged. It was fun to reminisce on that romantic evening...plus, the food is incredible. That meal ended with a huge surprise, our waiter informed us that "our meal had been taken care of." For a second we were beyond confused, but then realized that my parents had called in and paid for our meal already. That made it all the more sweet. After dinner we waddled to a movie, "Eagle Eye," it was pretty good. Tah Dah!

Happy 1st anniversary.

My Mighty Duck

What a weekend!

We started off with another night at the rink, but this time with Karlee and Orrin who added a bit of sass to the evening. I feel great about the poses that Ben and I came up with. And by the way, I half forced him to do all these things...so no making fun of him.

Then...

Saturday Ben had his first league hockey game of the season. I was sitting in the bleachers with my video camera and my snapshot camera...and I was a little nervous. I have never in my life seen a live hockey game, and to experience my first one with my husband playing was a bit unnerving. But he proved to be as succesful at this as he is at everything else. So, "Go Maximum!" "Rah, rah, rah number 10!" and "Go Big Red." Because I am a hockey wife.

Date night.

Who, as a child, had a fantasy that they could be a famous figure skater or gymnast in the Olympics if only they had the chance to practice? I sure did.

Ben took me on a date on Friday night to an ice skating rink. He, as per usual, rocks at everything and was skating circles backwards around me. It didn't take me long to realize that my Olympic dreams were unrealistic, but I sure had fun.

I think this would be my ending pose at the end of my figure skating number.

Next Saturday, Ben has his first hockey game with the league he joined. I have dubbed his new nickname, "My Mighty Duck." I'm so excited to go watch him be all angry and bashing into people.

Good news from Tina.

Sunday morning, I woke up to a fabulous phone call from my amazing sister-in-law Christina. The first words I heard were "I'm engaged!" I am so excited for her. She is such a wonderful person and is going to have all the happiness in the world. So, congrats to her and Josh -- I love weddings.

Our other news is quite typical. Lots of work and chores, the likes of that stuff. Excited to have Barry, Nicole and Christian all visit this weekend! I always love family company. Oh, and I am starting my hand at raquetball, so far it isn't that beautiful of a sight...I am determined to get better though.

Elder Parker

I sure miss my brother. He is being the best missionary in Chewelah, Washington. He's teaching a zillion lessons a week, building his own bed frames, serving anyone who will let him, but, I still can miss him. I, like my parents, now look forward to the great Mondays when he emails the family. And, when I receive a letter in the mail, it is like Christmas! He's awesome and I am super proud of him.

This week I started school and it is insane. I have 29 sweaty little bodies in my non-air-conditioned classroom. Like I said, insane. But, I'm putting on my "good attitude" hat and looking at the positives - some of them know their times tables...saweet!

The Lake in Photoblog

The lake was great, but nothing says it like the pictures themselves.

Now, isn't that a phenomenal end to our summer?

We're Off

Tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. we are off to Lake Powell

How can you not love this place. I feel incomplete without going at least once each summer...thankfully we got a late invite and we will spend the rest of the week there. I deem it the perfect last chapter to my summer break!

I heart...

The Olympics!

but, this China time difference thing is throwing my sleeping schedule off. My favorite events are on live at 11:30 p.m. Way past my bedtime!

I'm currently loving

*Michael Phelps - who isn't?

*Jonathan Horton - his team spirit was worth a smile, plus he rocked!

*Shawn Johnson - She is a firecracker, I'm cheering for her in the all-around.

*Misty May - I would love that butt

*Jason Lezak - His finish on the 4 x 100 was my "Olympic Moment"

...I'm sure by next week my list will be all new people to love, the Olympics are fun fun fun.

Reunion.

I've finally gotten the pictures through Laura to Cathy to Nicole to me. Thanks for the effort guys! As I said in my previous blog, the Armstrong Family Reunion was really remarkable. Cathy's family really has a firm handle on things around there.

Our aunt and uncle, Christi and Bob, have this remarkable lodge located about 1 1/2 hours north of Phoenix, it is called "Legacy Lodge" and was feature on HGTV's Amazing Log Homes a while back. It is an amazing place. It fit all 50 family members with room to spare!

My highlights:

*Meeting tons of new family members, and spending time with the ones I already know

*Helping Cathy with her craft project and getting to use my new vinyl cutter

*The pirate theme and how wonderfully everyone got into it

*Ben got to play paintball for 4 hours, he was ecstatic

*The fierce battle for the ball during the build a raft game

*Not catching the nasty stomach attack that got to the whole family

*The lodge itself, did I mention that it is amazing?
Here is a link to the lodge if you haven't seen it before, it is work checking out:
http://www.pioneerloghomesofbc.com/hgtv_gallery.html?ID=3

Pictures...

The whole Armstrong clan

The Hulet's (minus 4)

Ben and Logan

Me, Christina, and Nicole

.Love.

Time flies

We just got back today from an 11 day trip to Phoenix. Ben and I were a little worried about the length of the trip, but we loved every second of it and weren't ready for it to end.

Some highlights...

Stormie (our cousin) came with of for first part of trip and she was so fun. Here we are, at the bathtub pool. The water was seriously warmish.

Ben was this stellar party planner and decided that I deserved a rockin' birthday week and planned many activites to fill the days surrounding my birthday. We played raquetball, swam, ate at Cheesecake Factory, went to my first pro baseball game (go Diamondbacks!,) went to a water park, had a birthday party, and went shopping. WOW!

At the party, they planned this hilarious game that included getting into teams of two and carving me out of a block of ice cream. Now, ice cream is a difficult medium, so I don't place too much blame on all my in-laws for this, but seriously, my self-esteem must be rockin', cuz Cathy and Nicole carved my butt. See the resemblance?

Such an amazing time we had. The family reunion was amazing, too amazing to not wait until I get the photos to blog about. Be excited!

Birthday Boy.

My darling husband celebrated his birthday on Monday. Being the responsible fellow he is, he went to work at his ridiculously early hours. Meanwhile, at home, I was planning his birthday bash to be held later that night. At noon, we went to birthday lunch at Cafe Rio - Yum! At home, we cleaned out the carport for ping-pong and played some Ticket to Ride (*side note, that is a fantastic game!) In true spirit of my upbringing, I displayed all of his gifts on the couch in a decorative manner and made him sit in the middle for a photo. He can thank my mom for passing on to me the inability to just hand someone a gift, they must be displayed.

He got...

*Aqua Di Gio cologne

*A fabulous Guess watch

*3 Hollister & Aeropostale shirts
*New plaid loafer shoes
*Puerto Rico - a cool game

The party was such a success. I fixed up some appetizers: chips and guac, fruit and dip, and some hot wing poppers. It was such a gorgeous evening in our shaded backyard that we pulled out the croquet set and Bocce ball. Between those games and the double-elimination ping-pong tournament, it was quite a fun-filled night. I served two of Ben's favorite desserts, hot cinnamon rolls and cocunut cream pie. So delicious. Ben topped off the evening by winning the ping pong tournament.

Ready

Set

Blow out the candles!

Just a shout out to my hubby. He makes it so easy to love him. I am so amazed at the accomplishments he has made on our house. It feels so amazing to really be done with everything. He has worked so hard on it for 2 straight years and deserves a break. I love his humor and we tend to spend a lot of time laughing together. He also has an incredible capacity to love. He loves his family, his grandparents, my family, my grandma, and me. He rolls with my insanity like it is easy. He almost makes me head to Vegas with my girlfriends because he wants me to have fun and not miss a thing. He is a hard worker and is always looking toward the future to make sure he will be a great provider. He makes me feel safe. He has an impecable gift-giving ability where I am constantly amazed at what he comes up with. He kisses me goodnight and goodbye. He is perfect for me. Happy happy birthday Benjamin dear.