Primary Program

Peter: Today was the primary program. I did okay in my part. My part was: Faith strengthens me and my family. Faith is the first principle in the gospel. If we have faith in Jesus Christ then we will do what he has asked use to do-keep the commandments. I was #32 for the speaking parts.

Apex & Cary Christmas Parade

Yesterday was the Cary Christmas Parade and the Saturday before was the Apex X-mas Parade.

As you can see it was night during the Apex parade. It was 36 degrees F. It was cold! We jumped 1 1/2 miles.

The Cary Parade was much warmer and longer. 2 miles of jumping!!! Candy throwing was allowed, so whenever we weren't jumping we picked up candy. (we weren't allowed to). We had a Double dutch crew for the first year ever (in both parades) . It was interesting to watch them.

Halloween!

Halloween is always fun with the Ballentine kids! We dressed up as a blade of grass, a Kit Kat and of course a skeleton. We had a great time. We got a TON of candy.

Grandma & Grandpa Ballentine's Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Ballentine came to visit on the 7th of October. Grandpa would tell us stories that have been passed down for a long time. The one I remember most is "Farmer Weatherbread". It's about a son who is kidnapped and rescued by his son. I was happy that they came. It was a good experience.

State Fair 2009

We went to the NC state fair this year! We saw some crazy statues of different

things. They where made by kids in high school. Can you see what there made of? Recycled things! We also saw that gigantic chair. We got to sit in it. It was hard to keep your legs that far up. We saw a man carve faces into pumpkins. It was interesting to see how he did it.

Zion Reunion

Here we are all together. Aunt Cathy helped us all do tie-dyed shirts so we wore them for a family photo. We still love wearing our shirts back at home.

This is Dad and Andrew in the Narrows in Zion Nat'l Park. The rest of us hike up for a couple of miles into the narrows (the whole hike is in the river) while Dad and Andrew stayed at the bottom. It was so much fun! We swam and played with our cousins and hiked all over the rocks in the river. There were a lot of people there hiking in the river. It was a beautiful place and a beautiful day.

Lou, Ruth, Peter and Julia on the Overlook hike. It gave us a great view of a large part of the Park.

All of the Ostergar cousins at the viewpoint.

The Ballentine family and the view.

The Odyssey continues

We hiked to Timpanogas caves. It was 1.5 miles up switch backs and we did it on our own! We loved the caves they were really cool- both to look at and their temperature. Some of the the formations looked like animals. A rat, a rooster and there was even a big stalactite that looked like a heart.

We went to a BYU women's soccer match and met up with some other Ballentine's. Uncle Kam and Jacob and Aunt Cassity.

Cascade Springs was a hike we did we our cousins the Harmons. There were a lot of trout and the water was very clear. We tried counting all of them.

We got some cool and useful glasses from the raffle at the Ostergar family reunion in ID. Here we are trying them out.

California and Utah Odyssey

Our 3 week trip this summer to CA and UT was a blast. We got to see our great Grandma Munson. We had a good time at the Ostergar reunion in ID. They had a GIANT inflatable and a fuan raffle where we won lots of fun stuff.

We also got to see all of our cousins. Andrew and Seth played together a lot. We went to a BIG candy store in CA called Powells and bought a lot of candy.

We visited our cousins Penelope and Parker in San Diego. They showed us how to go up and down stairs and throw things off the balcony and around the house. They are experts.

Aunt Martha showed us the costume department at BYU. We all tried on a hat that had Mickey Mouse ears on top. You can see Andrew wearing it in the photo.

Grandpa Ballentine

We had a fun visit with Grandpa Ballentine.  We miss you Grandpa and want to come visit you in Arizona!!

Chikfila Cow Appreciation Day

We don't have pictures, but Friday our whole family and our friends the Woods went to Chikfila dressed as cows for Cow Appreciation Day.  Because we dressed as cows all of our meals were free.  We had ears and noses and spots and tails.  It was a lot of fun.

Lucy and Lucy Jr.

I built my first model car with my Dad and named her Lucy Jr.  Her nickname is Flames.  We built her by snapping the parts together.  

First day of 4th grade and 1st grade

We started school on July 7th.  Peter is in 4th grade - Wow!!!

Lucy started 1st grade - Wow!!!!

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July in Virginia with our family and had a great time!  We saw our Aunts and Uncles and Grandpa Ballentine.  We saw our cousin Preston and gave him lots of hugs and kisses.  We got to ride our Uncle's lawn mover and motorcyle in a parade.  We went to a concert in front of the nation's capitol and had a picnic and saw Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Jersey Boys, Natasha Bedingfield, the Sesame Street characters, the National Symphony with big cannons.  It was so much fun.  We danced and sang with a big crowd of people.  We are going to miss Uncle Jacob and Aunt Cassity and Preston when they move to Utah, but we are glad Aunt Dantzel is here to play with.  

Peter's 9th Birthday

Today was my birthday.  I liked a lot of things about my birthday.  I got a water gun for my birthday.  It can really soak you because it holds so much water.  Because of that, it is super heavy.  I have had a good time with it so far.  My Mom even surprised me one day when I got off the school bus.  She squirted me with it as soon as I got off the bus.  (It was Lucy's idea)  I also got a set of Roald Dahl books.  There was one that I had never heard of.  It is called "Danny the Champion of the World".  I think Danny pretends he is the champion of the world because it looks like he is in a poor place.  I have read one of them - "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator".  It is the sequel to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  I hope they come out with a movie of it.  From my Nana, I got a really nice homemade card, it had a $10 bill inside.  I didn't know I had the crazy face in the picture.  Then my Mom told me I had the crazy face.  I also got a basketball (I wish I got a basketball hoop too).  I got sports date card from Mom and Dad.  I get to go on 4 sports dates throughout the year to different events.  There is a lot of places I could go to see for my outings.  I also had an ice cream cake that I really liked.  It was a chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream.  My Mom made it for the first time.  She did a good job.  It was delish.  I am glad I am 9!!!!!!!! 

The Wonder of Waterfalls