Brandon's first official football game!

 Brandon's first football game was in Brigham City.  They won!  They had loaner jerseys because our names still needed to be put our real jerseys.

 Dad giving his boy, #89, a pep talk....

 Here is the collage Amanda made for instagram....my first one!

 More of B in the game!

This last week, we traveled to Smithfield and won that game, too.  However, after 15 minutes after the game one of the other coaches approached our O line coach, Ben, and started a fight. He punched Ben in the face and ripped off his shirt!  It was ugly and ended up in Ben being suspended for the season.  We love Coach Ben and are upset he's gone for this year.  We sent an email to he and his wife, Jen (who is team mom), and told them we stand by them.  I'm going to put it on here....

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 10:31 PM, Michael and Jill Arveseth <mjarvy@msn.com> wrote:

Hey  Jen!

I just wanted you and Ben to know that we are not happy that he was suspended!

We heard rumors at practice today that a parent from our own team called into the rec office to complain.  Whether that is true or not, we just want you to know that we are behind Ben 100% as are the five other parents I was talking to today.

Brandon loves Coach Ben and really responded to his coaching style.  We love how he used humor to help the boys get fired up…specifically "rat on a cheeto!"  He is always positive with Brandon and we appreciate that so much as it is Brandon's first year playing and we want him to love the game first.

We know what happened last week was an unfortunate incident, but we appreciate Ben standing up for our team and our boys.   We are truly sorry he was dragged into this mess and we will miss him.

Please tell him that we appreciate the time he put in teaching and coaching Brandon as well as the rest of the team and we'll save a spot for him on the sideline :)

Take care,

Mike & Jill Arveseth

Jen's response:

You guys will never know how much we appreciate your words right now.  WOW what  mess this is.   I am humbled by people like you that have supported, loved and taken the time to let Ben know how you feel.  Especially when he is so down about this situation; he is heart broken that it came to this, not for his  sake but for the kids sake.  I am so happy to hear that families on the team, especially you guys have been able to get to see and know the "real" Ben. There seems to be a trend in my eyes that the people that are supporting Ben are the people that watch practice and have taken the time to even talk to him for more than 2 seconds to see his passion for football and most of all LOVE for those boys.  He would stand up for anyone of those boys at anytime.   If parents only watch games I am guessing they don't understand the intense, loud mouth coach on the sideline.   We appreciate you guys and your support.  I know that Ben would come home from practice and talk about "Arveseth" and the comments on life and football he would make to Ben.   Ben adores "Arveseth" and is excited to see where his talents take him as he continues the sport.  

You really are great and we will always be grateful our paths crossed.  

Thank you SO very much,

Jen and Ben Johnson

Amanda wins Strikers!

Amanda's team won the Striker's Tournament!

It was a hard fought final that went into overtime and our girls prevailed!

 We had a good time hanging out with Bryan and Tiff Dickson during this game because their daughter was playing in the final game for her age group right after us.  Since we went into OT, they had to wait for us. Good time!

 A random picture of everyone hiding from the rain in the boat....

 Here's Amanda wishing for a new snowboard while we were waiting for dinner in Park City..

Random pics

We went to the Bees game courtesy of Baileys....

 The whole family talking to Mike's boss, Spencer.  His wife, Tyra too this and sent it to me.

 Some randoms from Lagoon.  Can't remember if I already posted and too lazy to go back to look!

 And the awkward family photo just because it's funny....

Boating....

 We hunkered down and tried to wait out the storm.  Sometimes we just like to hang on the boat :)

 And surprisingly, the kids get along in the boat......so we stay on as long as possible!

 My boys!

 Mikey getting birthday hugs

 We pulled to boat off the lake finally and had lunch at the marina picnic areas.

Happy Birthday Mikey!  We love you!

Mikey Birthday Weekend

 While we were back home because of dance, soccer & football, we had our traditional Mrs Backers cake!  Who remembered that we didn't have a 3 candle?  Not me!

 Saturday, we took the boat out on Jordanelle.  It was pretty cold.  The water was chilly, but the girls still wakeboarded.  Mike asked me why I take so many waterski pictures. I just like them.....

 But, instead of posting a lot of skiing pictures, I'll post a couple of falls....they are fun, too!

The girls were chilled and then a storm moved in.  We sat on the lake and waited it out.

Brandon's first scrimmage

Just a few photos from Brandon's first scrimmage.  They played 2 teams for half a game each in one evening.  They won both games!

 See B? He has an orange t-shirt underneath his white jersey.

 Stud

 Slipping past the defender!

 Pile up

Love these photos

 Brandon and his line: Mendoza, Ford, Arveseth

 I love this photo so much!  Brandon is on the line-third from the left.