Summer catch up

Here are a few more pics from our summer activities...

The kids went back to school. Bella started 1st grade, Nick is in 4th grade. I'm so excited to have them both in school all day, and not have to worry about that silly half-day kindergarten business. Thanks for the sleep! :-)

Bella really wanted to go to the aquarium, so as a back to school treat, we took a little trip up there. Here's a nice old turtle.

....and the big fish tank. The shark are awesome.

We loved the penguins!

Bella got a little wet after talking herself into trying to touch the sting rays.

Checking out the penguins a little more, and I think the penguins were checking out the kids a bit, too.

Here they are, trying to touch the sting ray. I don't think either one actually touched one, whenever they got close enough, they'd freak out a little :-)

Don't let the look on Nick's face fool you, they really had a good time. Nick was just practicing his mean look for football season.

I love the end of summer, the beautiful weather and amazing sunsets. Here are a few cool picks taken from our yard.

This was a really cool sunset, it lasted a long time and kept turning these beautiful orange, yellow, red and pink colors. I was happy to catch a few shots. Can't wait to see some cool fall pics. I love the canyons when the colors start to change!

Julie and Temana 9/18/2010

Congratulations to my little sis Julie and her husband Temana Paongo! They were sealed on Saturday, September 18, 2010 in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. Beautiful couple, beautiful day, beautiful reception! Here are just a few pics...

Mr. and Mrs. Paongo!

Cute little flower girls

All the kids wanted hugs! Here are just a few of the nieces and nephews, including Nick and Bella.

Their first dance

Cutting the cake

Congratulations to the both of you, and welcome to the family, Mana!

Logan's blessing: July 4, 2010

I'm trying to play catch up here, so I'll be posting some fun stuff we did towards the end of our summer. This is about Logan's blessing and our day at Disneyland.

Bella tends to take issue with babies...she wants to be the center of attention. But she sure loves her little cousin Logan. She couldn't get enough of him.

Nick is just a natural. He has always loved babies, ever since his little sister came into our lives, he just loves taking care of the littler ones.

Amy's family at Logan's blessing

The "Dads"...baby Logan with his dad, grandpas and even a great-grandpa!

Logan with some family from our side, including a great-grandma.

The cutest new family ever! Jack and Amy chose to have Logan blessed on the 4th of July because it happened to be 3 years to the day from when they first met. Love it!

The building they meet in is basically across the parking lot from the Redlands, CA temple. Jack did a lot of work here during his mission when it was being built, including putting in some of the carpet!

We took Uncle Jack to Disneyland for his birthday while we were visiting. Convenient, eh?

Every kid needs a Mickey Mouse hat with his name on it. Here is Logan's!

Last time we went to Disneyland, Nick was chosen to participate in the Jedi Training show. Bella was so excited to be chosen this year!

Bella's certificate of training...it's on her wall now :-)

Logan with his ears :-)

I saw this as we were packing up and leaving the hotel. There was a plumeria tree right next to an evergreen tree. That's something you really don't see everyday :-)

Done and done!

Yay! I finally got through my first semester of nursing school! I got an A in Pharmacology this summer, and I'm looking forward to Fundamentals beginning this fall. Time to take a little break and enjoy the last 3 weeks of summer vacation with the kids. We still have a few fun things planned (Zoo day, Lagoon, maybe one last trip to California). I will put up a catch-up post in the next couple of days. Happy summer!

Nose....grindstone...

So, it's been almost a month since my last post and I've actually been busy doing FUN stuff! I had a great vacation, but now it's back to work and school and the grind. For the next three weeks, I'll have an exam every week, ending with a final during the first week of August. So I don't think I'll be doing any intense vacation-updating anytime soon, but you never know...when I really need to focus, I tend to distract myself the most. Must be some kind of ADD or something. For example, I have to have some kind of background noise on while I'm studying, whether it's my ipod or the TV (like now, for example, Grey's Anatomy season 5 is playing in my room, where I've been studying for the past 2 hours). I have an exam in a short 6.5 hours from now, and I'm updating my blog (kinda)...see, distractions. :-) It works for me. Straight A's so far! :-) Here we go.....

Reunion BBQ 2010

Once or twice a year, a bunch of us friends from WAAAAAY back (we're talking Jr. High for some of us) get together and play. It usually revolves around when the Ruffs are in town, since they live out in Iowa these days. They're visiting this week, so we got together for a fun day of BBQing, kids playing and even a mini-poker tournament (which I won, thank you very much!). Enjoy the pics...

A few of the Snow College roomies! Meg, Me and Becky...

The girls...Megan, Me, Becky, Angela and Alicia...

The guys....Mark, Mike, Richard, and Aaron (Mario was in Hawaii, the lucky #$^#&%@)

And this is what happens when the girls and the guys get together! Look at all these kids! They are a fun bunch. My favorite part of this pic is Manessa and Nick...she just climbed up on his knee and he was more than happy to pose with her. Smooth....

I noticed this huge, gorgeous full moon while driving back from Eagle Mountain. Good night, all!

Strawberry Days

The kids and I had a great time at Strawberry Days this year! They are big enough now to ride almost anything, so the wristbands are a steal. We spent $50 on two wristbands ($25 each), and they went on $100 worth of rides (in two hours!) when you add up what it would have cost in tickets. Here are the fun pics...

Of course, it all started with the big slide...

Bella really wanted to ride this little ride, but got bored not too long into it.

Here's Nick, looking a little less than comfortable.

The "Rainbow" ride is their absolute favorite ride. They did this over...and over...and over...

...and over. I finally made them go on other rides after two or three times on this ride just so I could avoid any barfing incidents.

This is a fun one, too.

Best buds on the rollercoaster :-)

It was a good day.

Mama was happy because the strawberries and cream were fabulous this year. It was a fun day out with the kiddos, I only wish we could have stayed later. Even though it gets busy, I just love seeing carnival lights at night, and so do the kids.