graduation marathon

sunday was the main event.

 steph took the beans to church for us while the 4 parents & i headed to commencement.

 to try & fully explain the undergraduate procession will prove impossible. there were gigantic props, costumes, choreographed dances, music, skits, speedos, etc. i'd say more than 5% didn't even have a graduation gown on. it took nearly 45 minutes, was soo bizarre, & it was a partay!

then the boring graduate degrees marched in as traditional as ever. haha austin was one of the very first engineering masters degrees out due to his stellar academics. sure love that genius of mine!

i got chief on the phone & told him to lift his arms & cheer for a pic but it was a little much for him so we got a smirk & one arm raised. his mom commented that no one would have even noticed if he had done a cartwheel on the spot with all the other chaos going on. hahaha too true.

the man of the hour. my dad got these pictures from the top balcony of the stadium with his gigantic paparazzi lens. i could hardly lift the thing. seriously should have taken a picture of him taking pictures. :)

now in reality it didn't even hit 80 degrees that day but for those of us squished into the bleachers in direct sunlight with no breeze it felt  100. and for those in a "homemade black oven", lost in a sea of other black graduation gowns & caps... well aust thought he might melt away & die & was texting us his different escape plans.

what kept us from escaping was an incredible commencement address. his larger than life story is moving if you ever want to look him up. i actually think it helps ring true what he had to say. he spoke on the conspiracy of love that takes place in a community for even one young person to succeed. & that if you are sitting in these seats graduating from stanford today, you have had a great outpouring of support & love given to you in your life. so recognize that you didn't do it on your own & live a life that pays that forward. he kind of had a preacher man voice that had you hanging on to each word like you'd miss the big climax if you didn't. it was wonderful.

then we booked it across the entire length of the campus for the management science & engineering ceremony.

isn't he handsome all hooded?

 proud parents.

austin is so very grateful to both his own parents & to mine that have shown so much interest & support for the last almost 3 years.

 *muah* about as much pda as my boy can tolerate.

 then the wonderful babysitter came with the babes in tow. thank you bopi!!!

 they were very excited to see daddy boy!

 & try on his funny hat...

 unbelievably proud of our austin james.

 ...

thank you to all those that were so supportive of austin working his tail off & we are forever grateful to lockheed martin for footing the bill :)

austin left straight from CA to DC for his leadership graduation with his company. it was a 3 year long program & represents a lot of hard work on austin's part. he is very relieved to be done.