We had a wonderful day at the temple with
Andrew! I really wanted to have a family prayer with everybody this morning
before Emily left. It took some doing, but we finally got everyone together to
have a prayer. Michael said it. Then Emily went to go hang out with her friends. They went to brunch at Snooze in downtown Gilbert. The session was at the Mesa Temple at 12:15 PM and we walked through
the temple doors at about 11:20 AM. It was cool to walk by the door where we went in to be sealed even though those are not sealing rooms anymore. There weren't very many
people in the session. I was able to be in the prayer circle with Andrew so that was
nice. It was cool to be
there when he walked into the celestial room. Audrey suggested that we put Papa and Nana on the prayer
roll so that was nice and we did that. I'm glad I brought my tripod!
On the drive home, we ordered Costa
Vida. We stopped at the Panda by Walmart to get food for Michael, Jonny, and
Daniel. After we ate and cleaned
up, we read scriptures. Then we got out the
graduation cakes.
My two graduates! Andrew from high school and Nathaniel from college.
Here is Nathaniel later with his diploma.
After we had cake, everybody kind of did their own thing. Michael and the
boys played Call of Duty. Later, Emily and I watched the Masked Singer and we invited
Audrey to watch with us and Dad and Jonny also joined us. After that, Audrey
left and I watched the American Idol finale. It was three hours long so I fast
forwarded through most of it. Emily and Dad watched with me. Nathaniel and
Audrey went on a walk. Once Nathaniel and Audrey
got back, we gathered everybody to play a
game. We played two rounds of Herd Mentality. That was fun. Then we had our family prayer and I
said it. I was worried I was going to forget someone because there were a lot
of people to bless. First Papa and Nana, then Emily's foot, Daniel’s illness,
Andrew's wrist, and Audrey and the baby. Michael assured me I didn't forget
anyone. Then we all hugged Dad and he said goodbye to all the kids and went to
bed since he is leaving tomorrow. The rest of us played a round of Quixort. By then it was almost 10 PM, so
we finished the Minority Report movie and then everyone started getting
ready for bed.
Nathaniel and Audrey arrived last night. Papa has been here since Monday. Poor Daniel was sick on his birthday! We picked up Emily at the airport and then picked up
all four cakes I had ordered. Actually, they gave us an extra cookie cake that
I hadn't ordered so now we have five cakes. Two cookie cakes for Daniel's
birthday, a chocolate cake for the baby announcement, and two graduation cakes.
We came home and had a family prayer and went to Red Robin for lunch and got a table
right away. I called when we were on the way and they had it all ready for us.
After lunch, we had some cake to celebrate the fact that Audrey is expecting! We have been so excited about that news!
Daniel wanted to go play football at the park today so that's what we did. Dad and
Emily took naps (Emily had been up since like 3 AM) but the rest of us went to
the park.
Then we went back to the house
and got ready for our portraits. When we were
getting ready for the pictures, Daniel wasn't feeling well at all. Thankfully, he was able to make
it through the portrait session. I had her do all of his pictures first so he
could go home and I had Dad walk home with him. Nathaniel and Audrey were
next for a couple’s picture. Emily and Andrew stayed with us. Emily got some individuals and so
did Jonny and Michael and I got some individuals and some couple pictures. It
only took half an hour, like I had promised everybody, so that was good. I felt
so bad for Daniel, though. He got some good rest. When he came downstairs later,
I asked him if he wanted to open presents and he did so we sang to him and
he blew out the candles. I didn't even think of the fact that he was blowing on
the cake and that we might not want to eat a cake that he blew on after he had
vomited. Thankfully, we had an extra cake. Daniel opened his presents. I got a
picture with everybody.
Dad and Emily made the Rice Krispies treats so since
they were doing that I went ahead and made the little graduation hat treats
with the Ghirardelli squares, Reese's peanut butter cups, M&Ms, and Twizzlers
ropes that made it look like a graduation cap. I used black frosting to glue it
all together.
When we were done with that, we started to watch a movie, Minority Report. Halfway
through the movie, Daniel got sick again. We decided to stop the movie. Michael,
Nathaniel, and Andrew all gave him a blessing. Dad had just gone up to bed but
I called him back down so he could be a part of it. Nathaniel did the anointing
and Michael did the blessing. Dad said he thought Daniel got color back in his
face after the blessing. Then Dad and Daniel both went to bed. The rest of
us started getting ready for bed shortly after that.
Today was Daniel's birthday party and the last day of school. When the boys got home, we went to lunch at
Culver's. We had to take three cars because Daniel didn't want to go to Sam's
Club and Jonny had a party to go to. The rest of us went to Sam's Club and got
everything I needed in about 15 minutes so that was great. I took Jonny to his
party. Dad and Andrew took all the food home and got it put away for me. I went home and did some chores and then
it was time to get ready for Daniel's party. Dad picked up Jonny from his party
and Andrew went to pick up the pizza.
Daniel
had a nice time at his party with his friends. He had nine friends over. They had pizza and I also had lots of fruits and veggies
and a Caesar salad and soda. They played video games, then ate, then went out
to the pool. When they came back in, we did cake and presents. Everyone had a great time!
Michael went to the
temple this morning so I had to take Jonny to school. Andrew slept in. When he
got up, he and Papa went to IHOP. I did a bunch of chores at
home. It took me quite a while to set out all the graduation decorations for Andrew.
I put up a banner and a garland on the railing. I put all of the pictures in frames. I
just needed to get them in the frames. I had 12 frames for 12 years of school
plus an 8 by 10 for senior year. I also got a set for Nathaniel since he also
graduated so one side has a picture of Andrew and the other side has a picture
of Nathaniel. Dad helped me set up the
lighted Grad 2024 signs and helped me assemble the picture frames. They're real
pretty with gold trim and they stand up and they're double sided.
After school, everyone was available so we read scriptures and had a prayer and then everybody got ready and we left at about 3:50 PM to head over to Culinary Dropout in Tempe. The parking was a hassle but the food was good. I feel like it wasn't enough food but everybody seemed to enjoy it and Andrew really liked his spaghetti.
We were done in plenty of time to get Andrew to
the stadium by 6 PM. We miraculously found a parking space right across from
the entrance to the Desert Financial Arena. Michael had to go back and pay for
the parking but it was worth it. We took a few pictures and then walked over to
the stadium and Dad and the boys and I waited to get into the arena while
Michael paid for the parking.
It was pretty shocking how quickly people filled
up those seats. It took a minute to realize that the last two rows and every
section were reserved for people with disabilities so what seemed like good
seats weren't so we ended up going to the upper sections but I thought if we
have to sit in the upper sections, I wanted to have a good view so we went all
the way to the west side so we had a good view straight on. We were easily able
to find a second row back behind the railing for our family. We saved seats for
Erin and Rich and Steve. It started right on time at 7:30 PM. We couldn't see
Andrew as he was walking in but I eventually found him in the crowd. He was
pretty far back for being an M and then we realized that once the seats on the
floor were filled, they also filled some of the arena seating because they had
so many seniors. I think there's 550. Anyway, the speeches were nice and short
and they had a couple musical numbers. It took forever to read the names but it
was so fun to hear Andrew's name called.
Processional
At 5:28, Andrew turns his head to the right
Andrew's row goes to the stage
Andrew's name is called
Presentation of the graduates
The turning of the tassels
It was so fun to see him throw his cap in the air at the end!
We walked out and found him easily and he gave me the biggest
hug. HWe took pictures in a few different spots. We had a hard time
finding the right spot because of the lighting because it was after 9 PM at
night. But they had a lot of lights so that was nice. I took every picture that
I could think of and then we said our goodbyes to Steve and Rich and Erin and then
we all went back to our cars.
Andrew wanted to go to Cold Stone but it was after 10 o'clock
by then and it was closed and so was Dairy Queen so we just went home. We had
some treats and Andrew got ready to go to grad night at Fat Cats and the rest
of us went to bed. It was a fantastic day!
Andrew and I had so much fun at his Senior Clapout at his old elementary school! The seniors walked around the school and up and down the hallways while all the children cheered for them. It was so sweet! My favorite part was when Andrew's former speech teacher, Mrs. Ransdell, saw him and her face was in so much shock to see him all grown up! We are so proud of him!
Andrew with Mrs. Ransdell; she is still in shock, lol!
Today was a great day! Kurt Clausen announced that
Andrew was recommended for being ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood. It was
so sweet because he got choked up saying his name. So did Michael. Even Andrew
looked like he was tearing up. After Sacrament meeting, I saw Kurt Clausen in the hall and I told him how nice
it was that he got emotional talking about my son and he was saying that they
had a digital picture frame and it had pictures with Andrew in them and with
Zac when they went to EFY together. I told him I really appreciate watching
other kids grow up with mine.
Andrew had his
temple recommend interview with President Cardon today, and President Cardon
shook our hand after Sacrament meeting and told us how impressed he was with
Andrew. Michael ordained Andrew to the Melchizedek priesthood. Kurt was in
there with us and the boys. That was wonderful! We took a few pictures outside
of the church afterwards.
Seminary graduation was at 6 PM. It was very nice. They had
Nothing Bundt Cakes bundtlets for everyone afterwards. We had a hard time
gathering all the Sossaman Estates seminary graduates but we got most of them
and got a picture. I took a couple of pictures of Andrew and his brothers afterwards
and then we went home.
