Busy Day: Doin' What They Love

Naomi's love of reading and following her favorite authors continues, and lucky for her, living near a big city gives her access to cool things like the North Texas Teen Book Festival. This is basically a conference for teens who love to read. There are author panels, free book giveaways, selfie opportunities and plenty of signed-copy books to purchase. She attended last year, and had this year's date on her calendar for months! Yes, it was like heaven-on-earth for Naomi.

I basically followed Naomi's lead and commands. Her personalized agenda included attending 4 different panels (Trust No One, Chills & Thrills, As Seen on BookTok and a keynote), with authors of  murder and mystery, which she enjoys most.

Naomi did get a quick picture with a fav new author, right after one of the panels ended: Jumata Emill, author of Black Queen and Wander in the Dark (which she purchased at the festival!).

I did get my own quick photo with author R.L. Stine. (yeah, I need to work on my selfie game...)

In between author talks, I would stand in line to hold a spot, while Naomi ran to another area to grab free stuff. Teen readers do manage to wait patiently until the exact designated "drop time" to collect those free books! 

Naomi came home tired but happy, and the owner of 12 free books (some unreleased until this summer) and 6 purchased signed books! She will be busy reading this summer.

So while Naomi and I were nerd'ing out with books, Danielle was having her own fun doing the thing that was a main motivation behind her being in band this year. She was at Six Flags all day with friends!

The weather forecast had predicted rain, but thankfully it held off and Danielle enjoyed a full day of her own thrills and chills. You see, Danielle enjoys rides, as long as there is no "free fall" stomach drop moment, which is part of most big roller coasters. However, on this day, she overcame her fears and tackled both the "big ship" and Texas Giant! (Peer pressure?!)

 

And she even mastered Shockwave (multiple times in a row, despite the tunnel vision coming out of the second loop) and dared to ride Diablo (third car from the top, Danielle and her hair).

Thanks to Kayla and Emma for nudging and supporting Danielle to a new level in amusement park rides! 💛