Congrats, Aunt Lauren!

This weekend my sister-in-law Lauren graduated from Ball State University up in Muncie, IN. We were lucky that my in-laws made it possible for us to go up there and share the special occasion. We left Friday around lunchtime and spent some time once we got there realizing that none of the packing aside from the kitchen table was going to happen until the next day.

We watched Rudolph in our hotel room and Daven went swimming with nana. Well actually, he clung to her like a baby monkey and then wanted to get out. He said that he was scared. It's odd since he's usually such a water bug. But it had been a long day. He kept saying that he wanted to go back home which made me sad. I thought he would be excited. I guess he's in a phase when he doesn't want to venture too far from the routine and familiar places.

It was a frantic race to get to graduation early enough to get good seats the next morning. We saw Lauren walk in but right after that I had to take Daven out because he was yelling at me for telling him he couldn't kick the seat in front of him. He was upset and said he would be good, but then he fell asleep on me. So I sat outside the arena on the floor with a sleeping Bub until an irritating mother with a screaming child hovered over us long enough to wake Daven up.

We went back in just in time to see Lauren walk up and receive her diploma. Everyone cheered when the last person crossed the stage. Hooray! Congratulations everyone, but that was long and boring!

Oh wait, the president has a few words. You could feel the collective disappointment from people in the audience that were already gathering their things in anticipation of seeing their new graduate.

This woman spoke for what felt like so long you could have made a drinking game out of it. Oh, she said innovative - take a drink!

We got pictures with our robed grad before it started raining. Then we filled up on shakes and chili at Steak n Shake before heading to her apartment to commence The Great Move.

Another car ride to get back home came next. That was made more enjoyable by the VHS tape of Toy Story. We watched this both ways. Daven was great in the van and was pretty agreeable the majority of the time.

I know she's going to miss her friends at school, but we're happy to have aunt Lauren home!