Class of 2009!

After four very long years, Sean has his Bachelor's Degree in Digital Entertainment and Game Design from ITT! We went to his graduation ceremony on Saturday.Sean receiving his diploma.

After the ceremony.


While we were in Washington we threw Sean a graduation party. He hadn't technically received his diploma yet but he had finished with his classes and capstone project so essentially he was done.


My mom and I are avid readers of Cakewrecks, a blog about terrible professional cakes (I have it linked under my blog list) and were hoping to get a wreck but no such luck. The bakery at Costco in Yakima did a lovely job on Sean's cake.

You can see Jillian reaching out to stake her claim on the corner of the cake.

Sean's mom and friends, Isaac and Elizabeth, came to celebrate with us.

I'm so proud of you Sean! Way to go!

Even more trip pics

I can't believe we've been back from Washington for two weeks and I still haven't finished blogging about it.

One of the best parts of our trip was to meet our new niece, Anna, just a couple days after she was born.

My mom saw this picture of Sean with Anna and she said, "Sean is much more photogenic when there is a baby in the picture." True that, Mom (Don't worry, Sean knows this as well, this is why we try to shove a baby in any picture he's in. Why do you think I have so many of him with Jillian?).

Also, on our last night there I was conned into playing a piano duet with my sister at her end of the year piano concert. I had to practice a lot to whip myself back into shape (and I had the easy part!). I don't know how many years it's been since I played the piano in front of an audience.

Me with Rosemary's piano teacher (and mine many years ago), Marilyn Linde, and Rosemary.

*Sidenote: It is pretty obvious in this picture that I have a little preggo tummy. So when people come up to me after they find out I'm expecting and say things like, "Oh, you're not even showing!" it totally bums me out. I mean c'mon. I'm not always this fat, am I? Maybe you shouldn't answer that...*

Ok, I only have one more Washington post to go but it needs to be bundled with another event that is happening this weekend (think Pomp and Circumstance). Then we'll be done with the trip posts and we can get back to mundane things such as dishes and laundry posts. Actually, I don't think I've ever posted about laundry...

Uncle Eric Time

Front Porch

Jillian loved her Grandma and Grandpa Porter's front porch. We spent a lot of time outside hanging out on the porch.

Doggie!

Jillian decided that while we were visiting Sean's side of the family that she loves cats and dogs. My side of the family are not animal lovers so no doggies or kitties there. She would run into Grandma Galland's house and yell, "Kitty!" every time we went over. We finally let Sophia in one evening to play with Jilly (Sophia is the kid-friendliest of Grandma's dogs).

They had a good time playing. Jillian would always chase Socks, the cat, who would hide (for good reason). Apparently, Jilly has inherited Sean's love for animals. This might be a battle for us later as I am part of the non-animal lover Porter Family.

Swimming

While we were in Washington my mom gave in a bought a baby pool for the grandkids. We put it up for them on Memorial day. Jillian and Tanner splashing around.

Rosemary watching the pool party action.

Eric, my dad, and Heather enjoying the day.

The grandparents watching the grandkids.

We finally got Vance to get into the pool with the "babies." He didn't last too long and soon was out playing baseball with Grandpa and Rose.

Tanner and Jillian watching the baseball game.


We noticed that Jillian's swimming suit was a little too tight for her so I bought her a new one for round two in the pool.

It fit much better! This time she didn't have any cousins to splash with but I think she still had fun in the water.

Play

I took a lot of pictures while I was gone so I'm going to pace myself and only blog about a few at a time so I don't overwhelm anyone (mostly myself).

This is at Rose and Glen's play "Once Upon a Mattress." They were so good and funny! I couldn't stop laughing at Glen. We are only missing Heather in this picture because she wasn't there (but she came the next night because she was feeling left out). The pictures of all of us were not taken with my camera so I need to get copies of them from whomever has them.

I told Glen it looked like he had broccoli on his butt. I think it's supposed to be a tree. But it still looks like a vegetable to me! I was so glad I could come and watch my talented siblings do their thing!

We're home

Three weeks and 6 days after Jillian I flew to Washington we are finally back home. I need to download pictures to my computer from my camera and I am working tomorrow (what a way to get right back in the swing of things) so no pictures tonight but we had a great time and made it back safely. Will blog more tomorrow (or the next day...we'll see how the unpacking/adjusting to being back home goes).