2017-12-03 - Sunday - Stephanie's birthday

We went to Greenville on Sunday to celebrate Stephanie's birthday a few days early. Karen go her a gluten-free, dairy-free cake and it was delicious.

First, we went out for a nice dinner, then back to Stephanie and Brett's apartment for cake.

All too soon it was time to hop back in the car and head home.

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2017-05-13 - Saturday - Meredith's graduation

Saturday was Meredith's graduation day. It was marred by a steady rain and a really horrible lack of planning on the school's part.

Since the graduation takes place in a tent on the lawn a lot of the area surrounding the tent was under almost a foot of water. There wasn't anywhere near enough room in the tent for a majority of the families so we were herded into the cafeteria and others were sent to various buildings to watch the proceedings on projector screens.

Since we were watching the ceremonies on the YouTube feed instead of the direct one we lost audio shortly after the start. It was only by counting the names in the program that we even knew Meredith was coming up, since we couldn't hear her name announced.

We had to park about 1/4 mile from the cafeteria and most of the "shuttles" were open, 6-passenger golf carts with a roof. Now we know how the Gorton's fisherman feels.

This was a completely unacceptable way to treat the graduates and their families especially after paying an exorbitant amount of tuition for four years in anticipation of this moment. Due to a horrendous lack of planning we missed one of our family's biggest moments.

Now that I got all that out, let me say that we are immensely proud of our daughter for graduating cum laude with a 3.5 GPA and being on the dean's list for all of her semesters. I know she gets her beauty from her mother and apparently her intelligence too.

The day got better. We went for a nice lunch and then back to the house for cake. It's always nice to have the whole family around for these important moments.

After cake and celebrations we went to pack up Meredith's belongings from her apartment.

Tomorrow it's on to the next phase of her life.

Justin, Stephanie, and Ryan in the cafeteria.

Meredith on the big screen.

The big screen.

At the restaurant.

At the house.

At the apartment.

Goodbye to the apartment.

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June 12 - Graduation

Graduation day is here.

There were roughly 600 kids graduating so it took a while to get through the ceremony.

Stephanie had the idea to print a bunch of photos of Justin and put them on sticks so we could hold them up during the ceremony.  I printed pictures of Justin at different ages so we had quite a range.  It was a lot of fun and he really enjoyed it.

After the ceremony we went back to the house for another piece of cake and more photos.

Tomorrow morning we leave for home and I'm going to try to get back in time for pottery class at Clayworks.  Wish us luck.

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June 11 - Graduation trip - pre-graduation

We took a trip to PA for our nephew's graduation from high school.  It was short trip bookended by two long drives, but we had a good time catching up with both families.  We went to lunch with my family and then went out to dinner with Karen's.  After that it was back to the house for cake.

The actual graduation will be tomorrow, but it will be late when it's over so we had our family celebration today.

My father, mother, Karen, and Stephanie.

Ryan, John, Stephanie, and Karen.

Scott and Rich.

Audrey and Eva.

Ryan, John, Stephanie (and her tongue), and Justin.

Justin, Meredith, and Sydney.

Rich and Meredith.

Justin and the cake.

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The many moods of Stephanie

Saturday was Stephanie's birthday and she and Meredith had signed up for Santa's Bag. It's an event where little kids are led by "elves" through a low cost shopping excursion for their relatives. Our kids went through it when they were younger and now they the elves helping other children. It completes a nice circle.

Stephanie and Laura.

Stephanie and Amanda.

That's one forlorn elf.

Meredith and Stephanie.

Still in the same room.

After our annual excursion to Tony Roma's (Stephanie's favorite, right after Taco Bell), we came home to a Carvel ice cream cake and Kung Fu Panda.