Ceri's Graduation

Friday we drove down to Merino Valley to see Ceri (Chase's sister) graduate from Dental school. I'm not sure what it's called, sorry, but I believe she is a dental hygenist now? Anyone may correct me if I'm wrong.

It was a nice ceremony and they actually had a great speaker who was Dr. Larsen. We found out later that he was the brother of Chase's family's friend that used to be in their ward. He told a lot of neat stories, so it wasn't boring like I had expected a keynote speaker to be. It was just a little long for the kids, but they were really good for the most part. Chase had to take Emery out and walk her around a bit. The kids entertained themselves though towards the end when Emery discovered a little trick. She took the label from the water bottles we had been given and stuck it across her eyes onto her face for sunglasses. The older kids thought this was great, so took their water bottle labels off and did the same thing. So, I'm including some pics of that.

During the award part of the ceremony where they call up the students and give them their sash, etc. The kids were asking why everyone was clapping. We told them that you clap for all the students not just the person you came to see. Then a girl named Natalie was called up, so Barbara said, "Yeah, Natalie!". So, Cam tried to follow along and ended up yelling, "Yeah, Noodle Head!". The people in front of us just laughed, but I hoped nobody who actually knew her was sitting by us.

We were excited to celebrate with Ceri in her awesome accomplishment. She also received a seperate award along with her normal graduation. It's great to see someone be successful, especially after a lot of work and time put into something. I just hope one day I can be in the same place as Ceri and be able to at least go back and complete a Bachelor Degree. I guess I'm lucky to have an Associate, but it's always good to have more education.

After the ceremony we went back to Mark's aunt's house and had some dinner and chatted with everyone. We got to know Marks' family a little better and had a lot of fun. His family was really nice. All the kids had a blast playing together which was nice. Cam, being the only boy, had a handfull with all the girls, however. At one point they had him cornered up against the front door somehow and when someone opened it from the other side, he fell backwards inside. Also, towards the end of the evening Cam came up to me and said, "Mom, I can't finish my pizza because the girls keep tickling me!". He had a lot of fun, despite the extra attention. It was nice for him to have someone to play with and they all got along really well. Well, I guess with the exception of Emery who kept stealing the toy keyboard and thought she was the only one who could play with it.

At some point in the evening the meal turned into a hot wing eating contest. Ceri had 3 different types of hot wings, one of which was fire hot wings. She got them especially for Chase. So, Chase ate like 3 and then everyone else ended up trying to eat them as well. I only got pics of Mark and Ceri trying them. It was pretty funny. Everyone said it burned their lips and everything they ate afterward tasted like the hot wings. Chase told me later that he likes hot wings, but not stupid hot wings. I guess they were just sooooo hot, but not much flavor to them. They were hot just to be hot, not really any flavor enhancement going on. I don't know about the hot wings, because I avoid them, but everything else was really good.

Well, congrats Ceri! We are very proud of you!