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!
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