Anyhow, on the 13th my sister Jess, my SIL Kels, and her fiance Jacob all graduated from college! Woot woot! Unfortunately they all graduated at the SAME time, in two different cities (which are not close together). Because of that, and other factors we had to do some picking and choosing. We ended up driving to Hays, KS (3.5 hours west) to see my sister graduate. School for her has been tough off and on, and she finished online while working full time. Not to mention getting married, buying a house, and oh yeah, having a baby. I knew that this graduation would be a huge deal for her, and since it was far away we wanted to make sure to attend. We knew our whole extended family wouldn't be able to drive out for it.
We drove most of the way there on Friday night so we wouldn't have to wake up so early. We stayed at this super cute old hotel. It was featured in the movie Paper Moon if you've seen it. Anyhow, it was affordable and just 45 minutes from Hays, so it worked out great. It also had a lot more personality than a chain hotel, and it benefited a local Kansas business.
They were swamped, but very very nice. My only complaint would be that our room was right next to the elevator which kept me up all night. KC was very excited about the kolaches that they have at breakfast, sadly, they didn't have them that morning though. : /
It should be mentioned that Wilson, KS is also the home of the world's largest Czech egg. It's very large.
The graduation was already off to a rocky start as recent rains had left the university without 800 parking spots. nbd guys. So... yeah. We ended up eating breakfast at 6 am and then heading out to Hays super early to allow for traffic, parking, shuttles, etc. All in all it worked out ok and we actually had plenty of time. We got there, found seats with my BIL. I took pictures of my sister by the backdrops, etc.
The graduation was long as expected, but it was not hot in there (YAY!), and (most importantly) we got to see my sister walk across the stage! Which was super cool! She was very excited!
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| What a ham! :P |
After the graduation, we headed to my BIL's family's house who were hosting a party for Jess. How sweet is that?! It was so nice to be there with family and celebrate my sister again! :) We got a lot of good photos of bits of our family.
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| My MIL made this card for us for Jess. She made tons for various folks who graduated. Each tassel was tailored to match the university or high school! |
I was glad that it was a beautiful day and that Jess was so happy! :)
That afternoon we drove back home, and collapsed in a heap and chilled for the rest of the night. We then finished wrapping up graduation gifts, and went to celebrate with our friend Matt who was also graduating. He had a small gathering of mostly family, and we were pretty tired, so we just popped in for a little bit. ;) You know when you go to a party and you can tell everyone there really wants to be there? Yeah, that's how this was. It was super nice. + ice cream cake!
The next day we went to Kels and Jacob's combo grad party at his family's church. It was really fun to see so many friends and family there for them. They did a slide show and lots of decorations and photos. We enjoyed chatting with family and friends and wishing them well. :) We were bummed that we could not make it to all of the graduations, but it was good that I could steal pictures from Facebook. A huge shout out to Kels who also won a big award!!
That night we pretty much stayed at home. We were so exhausted!
Anyhow, congratulations to all of our people! :)
XO,
Alexandra
