GRADUATION

Three years of Pharmacy school has FLOWN by!  And we have loved every minute of living in Arizona. The week of graduation we had lots of opportunities to celebrate.  Here we are at a fancy formal dinner to honor the graduates.

Oooh, these girls! I could have had about 4 more inches to my shoes to catch up with all that height.

I love this picture.  Jared, thank your dad for rearranging the furniture in the hotel lobby.  However awkward I might have felt at the time, I am much more grateful to have this picture for posterity.

There's Joe giving his best smile.

We have a panoramic option on our camera, and I took this picture before the graduates came into the building for the big ceremony.  Hi Warren in the corner!

Baby Rose is doing great on the floor during the graduation ceremony siphoning her big brother's juice.

My mom said she took the same picture of Rebecca at my dad's graduation.  That's fun to think about.

We had such a great time with Warren and Margaret.

The graduates in their Harry Potter robes!  way too hot for an Arizona afternoon...

During the ceremony the Dean was addressing the class about their accomplishments.  There had been service projects, weddings, and 6 babies born to this class.  She said, "And I heard a rumor a graduate had two children born to him while in school!"  The rumor is true!

ALSO...We are on our way up to Oregon to start Joe's job with Target.  We left Arizona on the same day as graduation.  The check engine light also happened to turn on that day.  There just wasn't time to get it looked into, although we planned on it once we got to California (our halfway stop up to Oregon.  We thought we would stay and play at my parent's house for a week) On Saturday, day 2 of driving up to California my stress levels reached new heights. It's kind of hard on a girl to leave her home, her dearest friends, live out of a suitcase for a couple weeks, and move to another state without her new car breaking down on her, but it did.  Here's what happened.  My mom was driving somewhere in the LA valley on the freeway when our Land Rover had a total break down!  My mom and I heard a strange noise, a loudness that we couldn't recognize and then 2 minutes later it felt like a tire or two exploded, smoke was going everywhere, it was very scary and chaotic.  My mom was so calm and handled everything so well.  She pulled over and a tow truck came and hauled away our 1month old used car...so sad. Anyway, it's all over now, Joe has since gone back and picked the Land Rover up at the repair place we left it at. 

Joe and I had a trip planned to Monterey, CA for a little while now, just the two of us.  We were calling it a graduation get away but it was also a de-stress and re-charge getaway, especially after the Land Rover did us so dirty...  It was beautiful, relaxing, and it accomplished it's goal three times over.

He really was happy to be there.

I took a little snoozer on the beach in Joe's lap.  This is me looking as relaxed as that sounds.

The place we stayed was on the beach and had some sand dunes. 

This is me not thinking about how much I hate the Land Rover.

The place we stayed also had golf carts for everyone to drive around in.  That was the best part!

My good friends, the Grow's always go to Carmel and we were so close staying in Monterey that we checked out Carmel, CA for the first time.  LOVED IT!  Check out these trees.

This girl is so sweet. I. love. her.