We left after Eden’s grad honors night, drove much of the night, slept briefly in the van, and pulled into town a couple hours before graduation was set to begin. It was a long night but driving overnight kept Lach pretty happy. Creed was less thrilled, but he survived.
Liberty did it! She’s finished her associates degree in accounting and business management, and she did it with honors at the age of 18. She worked so hard.
The ceremony was a mass of 700+ graduates, trying to find parking was interesting, and it took longer than anticipated. Seeing her walk was so cool – and a lot more emotional than I expected. She’s all grown up.
Afterward, she and Eden (high school graduate) had a reception together thrown by friends and we were not there for the first hour of the party and then some. They waited though. It was fun to see friends again, and everyone had a blast.
We spent the weekend with dear friends. There was much laughter and so much food. We had a date night, lunch with a group of ladies, and one night with 30ish pounds of meat fresh off the smoker. It was so good!
Eden learned not to take curves so fast on dirt bikes. She’s on crutches with a very swollen foot and likely headed for an X-ray tomorrow. Liberty’s talking about needing to buy herself a bike and Sterling is cheering, having loved riding it too. Way back when, Blaine and I both had motorcycles, long before we even met. We both still have our motorcycle driver’s licenses. Fun memories.
Lach clearly had some motorcycle dreams of his own.
Stellan just had dreams of a shower! He spent most of the weekend looking filthy.
We’re on our way back to South Dakota now. The van is quiet with somber children who have missed their friends dearly. We got to see many of them, attend our old church, and eat some fantastic pizza. We drove past our old house and exclaimed over its changes, ate Braum’s for one lunch, saw a huge rainstorm with more fury than ever happens in South Dakota, and shook our heads at the traffic we’d gotten so used to not dealing with. We visited stores we’ve missed, hugged a lot of friends, and drove away not sure what to think. Moving was good, but visiting again was certainly evoked some emotions.
So glad you all had such an enjoyable trip back to Missouri. Sounds like it was a little emotional though. I can’t believe the picture of Lach. How did he get to this point so quickly? He looks too much like a toddler instead of a baby. He is growing way too fast.
Trust you have a safe trip back.