A Two Graduation Weekend

We had quite the weekend last weekend. You saw my most favorite new pictures of my dearest nephew yesterday and wow, what a cutie! I sure think he’s the most adorable thing in the whole world.

Last Friday night, we headed out to the Family Arena to attend my BIL’s graduation from the Lindenwood Master’s program. It was weird sitting through another college’s commencement, because I’m sure used to attending SLU’s. It’s different when you don’t begin the actual ceremony with a sign of the cross and end with an amen.

But we were really glad to see BIL graduate. His girlfriend was there, having left our little nephew with her mom at the house. It was tough for her to leave her week-old son but she was a trooper! She stuck it out, but was very happy when the ceremony was over and she could go home to her little boy.

We took some pictures after the ceremony but I knew I wanted to get more after the Saturday graduation event too. So yes, we drove home late that night and headed back to the Family Arena on Saturday morning for the undergraduate portion.

My MIL went back to school a few years ago to complete her undergraduate degree and this was finally her time to walk across the stage! We were so ridiculously proud of her.

We managed to get a better seat for this event, since we knew from the night before how they walked across the stage. Although we were slightly behind the stage, we were able to get a great picture of her getting her diploma and coming down the stairs. Her grin of accomplishment made me tear up. It was so awesome!

At Raccanelli’s for pizza, my BIL’s girlfriend (I sure need to get a nickname for her and the kiddo for here) and the little pumpkin came up for the celebration. We asked my MIL – “Now that you’ve graduated from college, what are you gonna do now?!”

“Go to Disneyworld!” of course. ;) That was her graduation present from us.

Once we have gorged ourselves with pizza, I insisted we head to the house for fancy pictures. You MUST have pictures of the graduates in all kinds of configurations with everyone present. The baby got passed around a bunch and we got some great pictures for the scrapbook.

We are so proud of our graduates – my BIL for sticking through his master’s program and my MIL for getting through all those late-night clusters of classes and walking across that stage to prove that if you want something, you can do it.

Congratulations to all the other graduates who are getting their diploma this month, including the SLU Law class of 2012! You earned it!