eight am

Another day, another crawl into bed the instant I get home.

Yesterday:

Mom's big day! Graduation! She got her Master's degree! Go mom!

The Grandparent's Spencer arrived right on time and we gathered into their van and zoomed off towards Seattle. When we picked up Rubie and Nathan in Tacoma and made our way to Seattle Center with minimal traffic. We gave Nate and Rubie the marzipan we bought for them in Belgium and we cracked open a Kinder Egg. Grandma brought me a container filled with chocolate covered raisins. MMMM she knows what I like.

We got into the stadium(the graduation was held at Key Arena) with time to spare. Mom put on her robes and struggled with her sash thing. We got our seats which ended up being fairly far back but there was a giant screen that showed what was going on. Mom left our little group to find her group of people and we settled in and waited for the show to start. Nathan and I played Worms on Rubie's new PSP. Time went by quick.

The speakers I found to be a little insulting. They talked about how awesome and privileged the people getting degrees were and how much better lives they would lead. There were probably lots of people in the audience without degrees, how did they feel?

We saw mom as she moved to her seat and we waved and she stopped and waved back. She wasn't paying attention and had to catch up with her line. Hee hee.

The ceremony went really quick. The program for the show listed thousands of people graduating, but only a fraction were there so it went fast. Degrees were handed out. Names were read. People hooted. Some had little clackers to make noise, others had air horns. Mom said she didn't hear our wooing but we wooed.

Celia and Grandma Pedersen were there. They showed up just in the knick of time for mom to walk.

After the ceremony we met up with mom and we all went for a picnic down by the Ballard locks. People were taking graduation photos all over the place (including in front of the doors where people were exiting, what?) but once we were free from the throngs it was easy to get back to the van.

Brynne and Dan had made us a picnic in celebration. There was a huge balloon to mark the spot. A regular gourmet feast was made. Chicken marinated in delicious, huge cookies, orzo pasta salad, and some store bought stuff to round off the lunch. I grabbed a drumstick and we walked down to the locks to spy on Ben (who works there now). He was on a break and I offered him a bite of the chicken. He looked all professional in his gear. Later on in the day we hooted at him as he was doing his job. He snuck into our picnic after and bragged a piece of chicken, a cookie, and something else. He was gone before we could say, "hey!"

The grandmas, grandpa Spencer, Celia, Brynne, Mum, Nathan, Rubie, Dad, Dan, and I all gathered round the picnic cloths and ate to our hearts content. So much food. I don't know how Brynne can keep it up. She is amazing, and is going to France for a few weeks. Can't wait to hear the stories and see the photos. Its a European summer all around.

The sun started to go down (well it became shady, not really dark) and jet lag started to catch up to me. We packed up the picnic, and we went our separate ways. We packed everything into real picnic baskets, not just boxes and coolers. Nate and I played a few more rounds of Worms and then we dropped them off. I fell asleep shortly after and the rest of the trip was a dream. Mom, before I went to sleep, said, "aww the baby's asleep". I heard that!

Awoke when we got home, said my goodbyes, crawled into bed, and slept.