Our morning began with breakfast at the HIE again and then a trip to the Idaho Center for the first event of the day, the baccalaureate. We got there in plenty of time for Phil to line up and for me and the kids to have our choice of seats. We picked something on the front row, relatively close to the door. The problem with being early, though, is that children get antsy when they have to wait. Caleb patiently saved our seats while I let Miah pace back and forth for awhile. When we finally sat down (and the baccalaureate began), I nursed Miah and thought I might actually get her to sleep. At any rate, she wasn’t screaming, so that seemed like a pretty good sign. Unfortunately, as soon as the University president got up to give the main address, Caleb realized that he needed to use the restroom. It was all downhill (or rather up many steps) from there, because once Miah realized we weren’t hopelessly stuck in our seats, she wanted nothing to do with sitting down, at all. In the end I managed to catch about half of the address (which was very good, from what I heard), and I spent the rest of the time chasing and shushing a noisy baby. It wasn’t the highlight of my trip. I did manage to keep Miah quiet enough to see Phil receive his hood, which was a plus. In addition, may I add at this point, that I knew there was a reason I hate shoes. Although my new shoes are cute, I am not sure it is worth making my feet bleed… ouch!
After the baccalaureate, we made a quick trip to campus to take a few pictures and to make purchases at the bookstore. We are now the proud owners of a completely new wardrobe that advertises NNU… Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but we did pick up a few things…
With plenty of time for lunch, we debated whether to sit down or fast food it… In the end, we chose the A&W/KFC and did pretty well except for forgetting to order food for Miah. It was just slightly embarrassing to go back through the line for a second purchase totaling $1.59!
A quick stop at the hotel, a little bit of driving to get Miah to sleep, and we were on our way back to the Idaho Center for graduation! Except we ended up in a serious traffic jam… with no alternative route. I have to admit that I found this humorous. Phil did not. At all. And I totally understood that. But it’s just one of those things that seemed almost appropriate in light of everything he went through to make it this far. I do think it became slightly funny, even to Phil, once we started counting the number of people we were passing who were wearing their caps and gowns… I guess it’s not something that could only happen to us!
In the end, we got to the Idaho Center, parked illegally, Phil ran inside with Caleb who was desperate for a restroom again, I found the elevator and managed to get settled in with the kids, up high but with a great view of the stage, and Phil would have made it to the line up by the skin of his teeth, but they ended up postponing the start of the ceremony for 15 minutes, so he really didn’t have to run!
Of course, after all of the excitement, Miah was wide awake again, but she really did a good job and mostly screamed at appropriate moments…
Ironically, graduation, itself, seemed almost a bit anti-climatic, because so much emotion had already gone into the events of the week. The graduation address was very good, and we enjoyed cheering as Phil crossed the stage, but watching the seemingly endless number of undergrads just about did us in! By the end of the ceremony, we were ready to go after Caleb grabbed a complimentary cookie and Phil turned in his gown and hood (and with that, let me say that I think it’s a shame the graduates had to turn in their hoods… I mean, charge the extra hundred bucks, for goodness sake, and let them keep ‘em)!
We went to TGIFridays for dinner (which Caleb keeps calling FBIFridays… cute), and after some more driving around, we made it back to the hotel, where I was too tired to even open my laptop, but I have backblogged this appropriately!
Because I am so far behind at this point, I am just going to post a few favorite pics. from the day:
Lisa
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