The Graduate

This poor post has been in blog post purgatory for months. That happens a lot when I want to really convey all of the emotion packed into an experience - finding the right words takes time, time alone and focused, which I am short on these days with a four-year-old and a two-year-old. So I think I am going to post the abbreviated, photo-blasted version before I lose all hope of ever blogging again.

 Back in June we traveled Northwest to celebrate my niece M's graduation from high school!

Here we are, in my sister's beautiful backyard, just before Jen, M, and I ran out the door to drop M off at the graduation ceremony and then decorate the reception room.

Due to some technical difficulties, there were a few sad weeks when I thought I would never see that family photo (one of my all-time favorites as soon as we snapped it) again! I am so thankful my sister found the files on her computer, especially this one!

M's graduation was such a meaningful ceremony. The student speakers powerfully brought to life the uniqueness of each graduating student's struggle and triumph to complete their high school education. My sister did an amazing amount of planning and preparation to celebrate M's high school graduation accordingly. We enjoyed a reception after the graduation ceremony and a barbeque at their home later that weekend. M's artwork was on display at both events - it was like a private gallery!

Some art on display in the reception room, and my sister showing off her hard work

A scrapbook filled with hand-crafted pages commemorating all of Megan's schooling. I got to help pull and organize pages for this!

Proud parents, waiting for the ceremony to begin

 

The graduate walking down the aisle

Grandma and cousin BB cheering for M!

Proud Mama

 

Happy cousins and proud auntie!

Congrats M! (SS hung in for a while and then fell fast asleep. So many things aren't planned with toddlers bedtimes in mind, haha)

Celebration time! The reception, where M opened her gift that several family members (including us!) chipped in for - a Canon DSLR!

My sister and I have a cousin who also lives in the Pacific Northwest, a couple of hours away from her. By no shortage of miracles, our cousin's baby shower was the same weekend as M's graduation, so we all got to squeeze a little extra family togetherness out of this visit and trekked down to the Portland to shower Cousin C. 

Isn't she lovely?

The shower was so kid friendly - such a relief since my two active little men were in attendance. 

Sister shot!

When in Portland....

After the shower, we couldn't resist stopping by Voodoo Doughnuts.

 

Breakfast!

The next day we transformed the dining room into another art gallery.

M has skills, fo sho. 

After we had said our goodbyes and headed to the hotel for a quick night's sleep before a pre-sunrise airport ride, we realized that BB's beloved self-chosen "Voodoo Guy" doughnut had not made the trip with us. Auntie Jen jumped to the rescue and made a late night drive to deliver said doughnut, all so that BB could feel like this the next morning.

Somehow, we were blessed with the two easiest kid-plane-experiences of all time. They quietly read, did their activity books, and slept the entirety of both flights. If only it was always that easy.

So proud of M for working hard and pushing through to make it happen for herself (with a lot of work and love and pushing through from Mom too!). Now she is a college student, working towards attaining her dream job of designing video games. Get it, M!