Oh My! 4 years have come and gone so fast. In those years we both worked very hard (especially McKay) and our final goal has been achieved. McKay is now a Pharmacist, we have the sweetest little baby boy, we bought and sold our house and are now back in UT. The entire weekend of graduation celebration was a whirlwind to say the least. In less that 48 hrs we closed on our home, packed up the house, loaded the trailer, Mckay graduated and we drove to UT! Phewww!
That is one happy guy!
Day 1Friday we closed on our house and both sets of parents arrived. Dax also had his 9-month appointment. That evening we packed up most of our home in the trailer. We also had a wonderful graduation dinner consisting of Mr. Jims Pizza (a Laramie favorite) in the lobby of our parent’s hotel.
Day 2
McKay was up and out the door at 6am with his friends for breakfast and pictures. I was also up and getting us ready to meet the parents and the hotel for breakfast at 7am. McKay graduated at 8:30. While McKay was finishing up we went back and finished loading our stuff and cleaned the house. McKay then got done and we took some pictures in his cap and gown, then took family pictures in our WY brown and gold attire. We left town by noon to be back in UT by 7. Not all of us made it by 7 though, we had troubles with the trailer and the rest got to UT around 9.
The Graduation
It was priceless seeing McKay walk for graduation, hearing his name called, watching him be hooded with his doctoral robe, and receive his degree. Seeing his beaming face brought tears not only to my eyes but also those of our parents. It was especially remarkable because McKay’s grandfather Max, who had just recently passed a few weeks before, attended UW and McKay had always felt a special connection with Grandpa because they shared the same school. The commencement speaker was a journalist with MSN and he was not only inspirational but also very funny. Dax did pretty good during the ceremony, but got restless due to graduation falling during his nap-time but he was a sweetie and like always, entertaining.
It was so fun to see Mckay with all of his friends together out there( Cody on the left and Josh on the right)
Getting ready to walk across the stage
Being robed by the Dean of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Placing the tassel from right to left.
McKay
Waiting for the graduates to walk out!
Parents and baby Dax
You betcha those cowboy boots were worn for the Wyoming Graduation. (Marks boots had actually belonged to Grandpa Max)
How sweet it is.
Glad to be in Dads arms
The robe was very detailed and unique
Ahhhh...some of you may remember this pic from my very 1st post. Here was McKay's first day of school and the white coat ceremony 4 years earlier!
.....and 4 years later, a very happy mommy and wife, one handsome Doctor and a very cute baby
We had to get Sammy in one of them. (our first baby we joke)
The proud parents
My proud parents
Everyone! This pic was actually taken a couple hrs after graduation. All of us excluding McKay had been packing and cleaning our home while McKay finished up. (I think we all look pretty good though considering the hard work and sweat)
We got our pics of us in our brown and gold gear. It looks good on everyone!
My sweet boy!
Even Mark had is on.
He will be our one and only Cow Poke!
....and a very darling Cow Poke that is!
My dads truck and the trailer all packed up ready to head back to UT.
Everything else
As we close the Wyoming chapter of our lives, it is bittersweet to leave Laramie. We leave there the challenges of getting into school, old jobs, church wards and the many friends we made during that time that we will always cherish. However, we take away so much, nothing more important than the lessons we learned to rely on each other through the good and the bad times. We really “liked” the opportunity to spend 4 years in Laramie but LOVE that we have the option to come back to UT were we both grew up.
We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to move to a place were we can now start the next chapter of our lives. We are settling into our new home in Draper and we LOVE IT! Draper is a wonderful place. We are in a quite little development, but have pretty much any store we want and need (and even those we don’t need) less than 5 min away. Being close to the Draper temple is also a big plus being that we used to live 2+ hours from a temple and now it is more like a few minute drive. We went on a walk last night on the Willow Creek paved trail which we found very close to our house and the view of the mountains with the temple tucked up in them was beautiful.
McKay is now working on and studying for the NAPLEX and Utah law exams in order to become a licensed Pharmacist before his residency starts July 1st at the University of Utah. In the mean time we are planning lots of family and friend time, a trip to St. George, Vegas and lots time in at Zermatt in Midway. I am staying very busy unpacking the house, catching up with old friends and taking care of Dax and Sam. The house is basically unpacked but now we just need to organize everything, so that it’s all in the right place. I love having an extra room that we can use as a guest bedroom and home office (and an extra place to put stuff).
We are tremendously happy and feel very blessed to have our happy little family back in Utah. Thank you to all our friends in Wyoming and Colorado that made our time there so great. We will miss you all and remember that you are always welcome at our house in south SLC if you are ever visiting or just passing through!
