Emma's Honors Night

Emma, 3rd from left, and some of her cute friends at Scenic Middle School's Honors Night. Emma has a 4.0 for the second year of middle school. She's such a hard worker and so smart!

Em with Paige Berriochoa, the two Basque Girls at the school (that I know of!)

Em with Kayleigh Lowder. I pick Kayleigh up every morning and Emma walks to her house after school each day.

Em with Ashley Hegler

This is my favorite pic of the night. These girls are TOO cute with their hot little shoes and nail polish. Emma's shoes are purple.

Emma in the middle of a cell phone pic!

These girls are too cute!

We all went to DQ to celebrate after the ceremonies.

On the car ride home, the girls basically acted psychotic and it was hilarious.

Table Rock in the Rain

I've gone on MANY Field Trips up Table Rock, but this was MY first time in the RAIN! It was really fun to be with Katrina.

We hiked with Katrina's 2nd grade class and a 4th grade class that does a "reading buddy" program with Katrina's class. It was sweet to see the 4th grade girls paired up with the younger girls and be their friends.

Roller Coaster Junkies: Nina & Ari

Nina: hamming it up, as she rides "The Buccanneer" (You know the big boat ride that swings back and forth, dropping your stomach out each time?) She has such cute facial expressions!

She and Ariana were riding this so fearlessly and I was getting sicker and sicker. I convinced them that this ride was scarier than roller coasters and spent the next 30 min. talking them into trying a real roller coaster.

We played in a big ball room with the boys and the girls ATTACKED Grandma.

They would load this "gun" up with about 30 foam balls and shoot them at Grandma all at once. It was so much fun. But still, I kept nagging the girls about trying a roller coaster.

We went on the big swing machine and the girls showed me how brave they were, not even holding on . . . and finally . . .

They were so confident and sure they could handle a roller coaster, I took them right to "Goliath." In 2000, it was the fastest (85 mph) and longest closed-circuit roller coaster in the world. They were both tall enough, so I though they'd be fine. They had no idea what to expect as we couldn't see the actual coaster anytime we were in line. It was perfect. Afterwards, they terrified and thrilled that they did it and kept their eyes open!

They spent the rest of the day on these two Coasters. We rode "Gold Rush" 8 times. It's a very tame coaster and after "Goliath," the girls thought it was for babies. I convinced them to try raising their arms and after the 4th time they could raise them the whole time. THEN they thought the ride was fun. The last ride of the day was "Revolution." In 1976, it was the world's first roller coaster with an upside down loop. I didn't tell the girls about the loop de loop before hand and although they were freaked out, they road it 3 times until the park closed.

These are the girls on "Gold Rush," raising their arms. They had such fun together. Nina is almost 8 and Ariana is 6 and they're the same height. Ari asked me if she and Nina will be able to ride ALL the coasters the next time we go to a park together! She's a brave little thing! I can't wait, they're my favorite Roller Coaster Partners! I love Nina's manicured nails and ratty, rain drenched hair. Too cute!

Bumper Cars

Damian and I spent the afternoon with the little guys and it was the best part of our day. I think we're too old for the big roller coasters now. Damian says they just don't do anything for him anymore. Whatever that means?! I thought they were plenty exciting, but too painful on my head and neck.

Bumper Cars with Grandpa is an adventure for all. He's the most ruthless driver and crashes into anyone he can with GUSTO!

Isn't my nephew Matthew so adorable? I love that cute little guy!

This is my sweet neice, Ariana Chanel. She's named for my sister Briana and me (my middle name is Chanel). She is so much fun and quite a good driver!

This is my brother Paul (Daddy of Matt & Ari) crashing into me!

HEAD ON COLLISION: We hit Magic Mountain HEAD ON and enjoyed every minute!

Magic Mountain

We went to my baby brother's wedding in St. George last weekend and then hit Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA on the way home. There were 8 Idiarts and 8 Goolds and we had a BLAST!

Right away, the Die Hards ran to the scariest ride I've ever been on in my life . . . TATSU. I'll never be the same.

Grandma took Ben, Matthew, Nina and Ari to some smaller rides and they met some super heros on the way!

Later in the day, we swapped groups and Grandma got a chance to do some big rides with Grandpa, Diana and Rachel.

Katrina realized she LOVED roller coasters and paired up with Beca, Mike and Emma for a couple BIG ones.

The rain started coming down the last hour of the day, so we hit a few water rides, since we were wet already! It was such a fun day! More pictures of the little kids tomorrow!

Honeymoon Happenings

My brother Daniel was married last weekend in St. George. I don't have photos of the wedding yet, but I did take some of the decorated honeymoon suite! This is the Sparkling Cider "Area."

These are Briana and my accomplices: Rachel, Ariana & Katrina. They created a chocolate heart on the bed with Dan and Madi's initials.

We decorated the heart-shaped bathtub "Area," too!

Then, we dashed to the reception, where the girls collected the guests gifts in their matching dresses and corsages. They were so helpful and cute. I hired a photographer to take lots of pics of them early in the morning, before the sealing, so when I get those pics, I'll upload them, too!

Laurel Art Class

About a week before I was released as YW Pres. we had a special painting class for the Laurels from 3 wards. My good friend, Jen Vranes of www.jensart.com taught the class and brought all the supplies.

This is my sweet foreign exchange student, Diana. Her painting turned out beautifully!

I enjoyed seeing so many girls paint the same subject material, but each do it so differently. . . in this shot you can see all the cloud styles! Very cool.

I love this BIG poppy in Jessica's painting.

This painting by Jenna was one of my favorites . . . I love her clouds! Oh, I miss my Laurels!

Mary Sunshine turns 4!

These are some of my cute Nieces and Nephews: Mary Nadauld, Marcus and Annie Idiart and Noah Nadauld at Mary's 4th BDay party, on the day her uncle Damian was called to be Bishop of her ward. My nephew Ashton said, "Uncle Damian, what is the POINT of you being our Bishop? Our other Bishop was still good!" It made me laugh. Ben's card to Mary also made me laugh:

Translation: Ben. Mary. I hope you have a nice Birthday. Love, Ben

Pretty fun day! I love my sweet niece Mary. It is a joy to live next door to her. My kids love playing with her everyday and I enjoy the banter she has with Damian. Last night at dinner she snuck over. She had already eaten, but sat and talked with us. I asked her why she used to hardly ever come over and she said, "I used to be scared of Uncle Damian, but now I'm not even afraid of him anymore!" Too cute. We were enjoying her company until her dad found where she'd snuck off to and made her go home.