Graduation!!

After five years, Brian is officially a college graduate with an Associates Degree in Nursing - RN on May 17th.  What once seemed like a day very far off in the future has come and gone!  We were all so happy for him and so excited (and now so relaxed!!).  Nathaniel even took his graduation cap to school for sharing the last week of sharing :)

 Brian's dad flew up from Arizona to spend a few days with us. His sister, Stacy, and her youngest son Travis drove down from Washington and got here just in time to go to graduation - along with my mom and dad and Grandma Donna.  On Saturday we had a BBQ and were surprised by Brian's oldest brother, Terry, and his wife Theresa driving up from Woodland and my uncle Brian and his wife, Linda, drove up from Sacramento and joined all of us for dinner.  Here are some pictures from the two days:

Finally - all three boys are serious and Grace is the clown...

By this point, Grace wasn't happy with pictures.

Stacy, Brian and Dad Lee

 

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Joshua took this picture from right below the stage - this is right after I pinned Brian.
 

The happiest we could get Grace

After the RN ceremony and right before the actual graduation ceremony.

Joshua ran across the gym with Grandpa Val to get a picture of dad receiving his diploma (actually just the cover...he received the real diploma the other day)

Brian, Terry, Theresa, Dad, Stacy relaxing in our front yard the next day.

The RN ceremony

Blowing a kiss to Grace

Waving to us all as they finish the candle lighting part

Walking in to graduate

Stacy, Brian, Terry

The Portland Temple

I love the zoom on my camera...joshua was disappointed that his didn't zoom quite as much

She was so excited to finally see a temple...this was her first time to visit one.

She informed me that she was "right 'hind Jesus" and she was very excited.
He did say, "Come, follow me" and that's our goal.

I love this one because she sat right at His feet...I need to hang this one in her room.

He took pictures of everything!

Reflecting...

Wanting to be by Jesus too

On our way home from Washington last weekend, we stopped at the Portland Temple. We were excited to see that they now have a visitor's center...brand new, just opened in February & will be dedicated this summer, I think they said. We took some pictures and stretched our legs. Then we fixed PB&J sandwiches in the parking lot (I know we did that at the Provo Temple in2009 when we did our flying trip to Utah...can't remember if we did that when we stopped at the Portland Temple on our way to Washington in 2009 though, maybe we should start a tradition), changed out of sunday clothes and continued on our way south.

Geocaching...

Last Saturday afternoon, we decided to go geocaching.  We hadn't gone in quite a while. We decided to head out past Callahan where we hadn't gone before. I hadn't been to that "edge" of the Valley in probably 20 years. Brian and the kids had never been there. We found 2 of the 3 we were looking for. We'll go back and look for the other one another day when it's warmer and lighter (it was 5 pm).  Besides the two geocaches, we also found the spine to some kind of large animal. (I'm hoping it was an animal...I've been watching too much CSI and reruns of Cold Case, I think).  I didn't take a picture of that - should've.
The kids thought the "dinosaur" rocks were pretty neat. One of the geocaches was hidden behind the larger of the two "dinos". Another day, in the summer, we'll go further up Scott Mountain.
We had Joshua take a picture of us too...I think the camera added back the 10 pounds I've lost in the past two months...darn it. We really enjoy geocaching...it's fun time together, plus it gets us out and exploring where we live.

Brian's Graduation!!!!!!!!!!




Joshua took this picture of Grace and I while we waited for the ceremony to begin

Last Friday night was Brian's graduation from the LVN program.  After 3 long and arduous semesters (plus kidney stones, major bowel resection surgery, pnemonia, plueral effusion and what am I forgetting?) he has completed this first step in his journey to become an RN.  Even with all of his health problems, he maintained a 4.0 GPA and was one of the student speakers at the graduation.  We were all so happy to watch him walk across the stage. Hopefully next fall he'll begin the RN program.  This semester will be just a regular semester of classes (yeah, no biggie...microbiology and physiology, plus a sociology and a speech class...piece of cake, right?!).  Here are some pictures from that:

August 23, 1995

This was our last family picture taken before I left for my mission to Spain.  This was at the end of the talks at the MTC and we were getting ready to say good-bye for 18 months.
Little did we know then how much things would change in that short time.
One of the hardest yet best times of my life - I'd do it over again without hesitation.

Mom and I with Jacob Vaniman...their family had lived in Etna for awhile.  I'd been Jacob's Sunbeam teacher one summer when I was home from BYU.  They lived near Provo at this time and some of them came to the MTC when I entered.

Saying good-bye...Dad's hair isn't all grey!  I think this is the picture Mom cropped down and sent me and I used it on my bus pass, my residency card, and a bunch of other things.
(No idea who the crying girl in the background is)

My MTC District...taken in front of the Provo Temple one Sunday afternoon - probably in September.
They were a great group...I'm still in contact (thank you Facebook) with all the sisters and one of the elders. 
I know where one other of the elders are, but not a clue to the other 5...guess I could always check FB some more :)