Kennecott Refinery One Minute Challenge

It is about time I get back into the blogging world. I have much to blog about, so check back frequently for what is hopefully an entertaining blogger bomb.

First off, Minute to Win It - Kennecott Refinery Style.

The Kennecott Refinery recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. I was given a few tickets to invite family to come see this unassuming yet amazing facility on the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains. I think out of all of the guests that day, Logan enjoyed it best since he got an aquatic lizard hat that he got to wear.The refinery is the last stop for producing copper, gold, and silver before it is shipped off to customers all over the world. The refinery was open to a self guided tour of most of the facility. We were able to see the whole process from where the anodes are received to where it is processed into 99.99% pure copper. We were also allowed to see a gold bar and a silver bar.

The gold bar is worth a mere $520,000. Sadly, that was not in our gift bag. There was however, a very cool aluminum water bottle in our gift bag that now becomes the subject of this blog.

After touring the facility, I challenged all of the tour guests to a little game. The question: How much did you learn about copper and how it is processed? Time Limit: 1 minute. The judge: my ever faithful readers, You. After watching the following contestants attempt to describe where copper comes from, comment below on whose description you think is the best, most creative, most informative, or whatever criteria you like. The winner will receive some Kennecott paraphernalia including the very water bottle pictured above.

First off, the insightful Staci...

Not bad. Next up, the ever observant Brad...

Last but not least, the intrepid dream team Jess, Newel, and Hilary. These camera shy folk decided to work together. Judges, you may vote for one, or all three, but there is still but one water bottle to share. They may need to pass it around, but hey, they are family.

Blessing Day

July 4th is always a nice day. It is the day most American's celebrate our independence. I have always liked this holiday, mostly for fireworks and Neil Diamonds tribute to America. This year though, it was special for another reason. Logan was given a name and blessed in our LDS Church ward in Eagle Mountain. I was able to perform the ordinance along with two of my brothers, my father, Jess' father, two of Jess' brothers, two brothers-in-law, and our good bishop. Many other family members came to share in this special day for Logan.

Logan was given the name Logan Heikki Armstrong. We really like the name Logan, and partially he may be named after Logan city, where I grew up and where Jess went to college. His middle name, Heikki, is after his great-great grandfather Heikki Kahkonen (Americanized as Henry Kohkonen). Heikki Kahkonen immigrated to the United States from Finland to work. He made his way to Utah and worked for the coal mines in central Utah. My mom Carol has a great blog about him if you'd like to learn more about him. When choosing his middle name, we both just felt a connection to our ancestors and wanted Logan to also share in his heritage.

After the blessing, we had family and friends come over for lunch. We are so grateful to all of our family members who came to support us. It was an absolutely wonderful day. For those of you who couldn't make it, hopefully you can enjoy the photos below to see Logan on his special day.

Logan in his full get-up. We opted not to make him wear the hat in Church, but forced it upon him for some candid shots later.

Logan with his mom.

Logan laying on a blanket his great-grandmother Eva Kohkonen made for him.

Logan with his grandma and grandpa Mecham.

Logan with his grandma and grandpa Armstrong.

Classic four generation picture.

Logan and his proud grandpa Armstrong.

Thanks again to everyone for your love and support. We look forward to having the rest of our friends and family come and meet Logan.

The Golden Mohawk

This is the day every father looks forward to. The day mom leaves dad and his son home alone while she goes to the gym. And I don't mean that comment in way to imply that Jess needs to go to the gym because she really looks great. I was simply excited to watch Logan as you'll see below.

As Jess was leaving, she asked me to give Logan a bath, which I'm happy to do. He is slowly starting to like bathtime. He cries a bit, but I think he cries because he thinks he is supposed to cry. Every so often though, he shows signs of liking the bath.

After his bath, I decided to comb his hair. This is the part I couldn't do with Jess here. This is the reason I was happy to babysit my son.

At first, Logan didn't like his new hairstyle.

Then he decided it was okay.

Then he got tired of the attention, fell asleep, and started blowing bubbles.

What a great son!

Newest Addition to "the Arm" clan

Well, my man child has arrived. World, meet Logan Heikki Armstrong. Logan, meet world. Logan is a healthy 8lbs 8oz baby. Jess is recovering well. We hope to go home from the hospital tomorrow. We are hoping for a restful weekend, but we welcome visitors next week. Just let us know if you are planning on coming so Jess can clean the house. Just kidding. I'll continue doing the chores. We would really like to thank everyone for your love and support. Jess would specially like to thank everyone for your prayers and faith in her behalf.

The Baby Tally

As many of you know, Jess is pregnant. In fact, she is very pregnant, 9 months and 4 days to be exact. Yes, this came as a shock to me too. I thought the baby would have been born by now. I lost my own competition of guessing when the baby would come. And what makes that more sad, is that I was the only one playing, so losing was particularly difficult.

So, to redeem that loss, I made up a different game to be played at church or at work. It goes like this: tally how many times someone mentions to you something about the baby not being here yet. I thought of this games because recently we have been getting a lot of texts and phone calls asking if the baby is here yet. We are happy to tell you "No." And, we do promise to spread the word once he is born.

Jess and I played "Baby Tally" at church today. Jess guessed the tally would be 25 times. My guess was greater than 25. Yes, I played the "Price is Right" one dollar card. The total tally came to 30. Yes, 30.

Jess was not particularly looking forward to church today, because she wasn't "supposed" to even be there. So our baby tally game helped ease the "You're still pregnant" glances.

Jess is doing really well. We are both happy and excited for the little guy to come. We love how much support we have been getting from family, friends and neighbors. So thank you, and keep the tally coming. We really do think it will be this week, so next weeks blog should have pictures. Stay tuned...

As a side note, we have pretty well decided on a first name, but keep going back on a middle name. We are open to suggestions, or if you are really desperate to have someone named after you, we are accepting donations for goods or services.