the long and winding road...

Con-GRAD-ulations
to our family's newest graduate Casey! Can you belive it? I can't but, nonetheless, there it is; my younger son is a college graduate. I'm so proud of him. We got super lucky that the weather for the ceremony was beautiful, overcast and relatively cool. It heated up later in the day but it was almost over by then. Thank goodness! At Brett's graduation ceremony two years ago we nearly keeled over from the heat so this was a relief.

It was a really nice ceremony. The mascot for UC Riverside is The Highlanders so there was a strong Scottish theme running through the entire event. It began with a couple dozen bagpipers in kilts and led eventually to a rousing rendition of Pomp and Circumstance. Casey walked in toward the end of of the group... I could see him because, in true mamarazzi style, I had pushed my way to the front of the camera wielding crowd... anyway, I could tell he was happy because he had the BIGGEST and most natural smile on his face I've ever seen. I teared up. It made me so happy to see him so happy!

Casey looked very handsome! and he was sweet to patiently pose for the 1000 pictures I took of him :-)  Afterward we had a celebratory lunch at Mission Inn's Las Campanas and then we topped the day off with an impromptu pizza and swim back at our house. Great day!

Yes, we were early. Yes, we sat in the very first row!

I'm not usually a big fan of bagpipes but I must admit that having dozens of them play along with the scottish drummers made for a festive mood

 There he is... the happy graduate!

This is the professional photo that the school takes. I can't believe how great it is! I swear I think they could use it in their advertising :-)

Casey and his super sweet girlfriend Maria. It will be her turn to graduate in just two more years

After lunch we went back to the school to take some more pictures. Just after the ceremony the place was PACKED with bodies and there would have been no way to get any decent shots on the school grounds.

I think this is such a good picture of Casey and my mom. She was a very proud grandma and almost as excited about Casey's graduation as he was.

Two kids down, one to go. Of course Georgie won't graduate from college until 2030!!! Eeek!!