We did it!!!!!

The cohort!!! (at least, those who graduated in August, missing three others)

Somehow, (well really, it was a lot of help from above and several people from church) we moved from FC in less than two weeks. It was crazy; Monday RD officially accepted the job offer, we started pursuing a place to live and a way to move there, wednesday we decided to try a different way of moving where we get rid of most our stuff, found out our little car needed some costly repairs, and then decided to try to sell it before we left. We left wed. afternoon for Denver to see family, came back late thursday. Friday we had to sort out our new way of moving (6x12 Uhaul trailer, getting a hitch on our van), and try to sell a few things, and miraculously got a good deal on a place to live AND got it to be a month-to-month. Saturday we sold the car, and started to pack. Monday and tuesday we packed and cleaned, and had to wrap up moving arrangements, and loaded up most of our trailer. Wednesday we had to pack up all the stuff we ended up giving away (that was way more work that I imagined...i still had to carefully pack stuff we weren't taking!), finish loading the trailer, and clean the apt, and RD's parents brought dinner and took a bunch of boxes to store at their house (thanks!) . Thank goodness for some friends who came to help clean that day, we were still cleaning and throwing/giving stuff away thursday morning, finally leaving for Provo at 11:30 am, way later than we had hoped. We were so exhausted from all the stress and little sleep/food we'd been going on, that drive was the worst day of our journey to Sitka. But we made it in around 10 pm that night, then RD went with his Dad to pick up his cap/gown from a cohort member.

Of course his convocation was at 8 am, he left to be there at 7 am, and the kids and I met up with his parents and my brother Dave to watch him get hooded. He got to sit up on the stand with the faculty, and it was really cool to see him there with his adviser and fellow cohort members. Our old bishop announced all the candidates, and their dissertation titles, so it was cool to have him a part of it. The kids were NOT feeling the 'special moment', and were pretty distracted and distracting, but it was great to see him graduate. It was also great to see a lot of people that made our BYU years so awesome later that night; some friends came from Salt Lake and even Wyoming, which was really special to us. I really appreciated the chance to have some closure to our time there, and the huge amount of work RD's done in the last 5 years. He definitly deserved a weekend to celebrate doing it!!! Way to go RD, you're awesome!!!!

Can you tell how thrilled the kids were to 'get' to watch RD graduate. Reese's enthusiasm was boundless, and Grace was just all smiles. Of course, Cameron can always be counted on to ham it up!