Mitchel The Graduate

We are so proud of our son!

The whole month of June was kind of a blur in this house. Not only was I ending my first year teaching, but Mitchel was graduating high school, moving out, and Abram was moving in!

Along with graduation was a BUNCH of activities and events.
One night we went to hear the awards and accomplishments of the students. Mitchel was recognized for his work at the health department with SADD.

Part of the tradition is that the high schoolers go in their regalia and visit the middle and elementary schools. It is a lot of fun to see. The students line the halls and applaud them.

August giving Brad a high five

Another tradition is the senior all night party. This was the result of Mitchel being "totally awake" after his all night party...

The graduation itself though was lovely, but super cold. They had the area barricaded off, so we had to sit in the lawn kind of farther than I would have liked...but I managed to get a few pictures.

The seniors each had a person they walked out with and they created little skits, handshakes, or dances to do when they came out.

Then there was the usual speeches and the procession of being handed their diplomas.

They went straight from graduation to the all night party.

We all went to dinner after the graduation

Had to throw in some of these milestone pictures. Abe and Mitch had graduation the same day. So Carleen and I were sending pictures back and forth...Sherwood had considerably warmer temperatures...

Here are some of the boys over the years...

Abram was born very premature. Here he is holding up a picture of him in the NICU next to a beanie baby bear. And he is holding that same bear...see the difference?

And Best Friends!

Back to Mitch's graduation.

We all got there and piled on the lawn and covered up in blankets.

Mitch was taking pictures and sending them to me from behind the scenes

Before Laurie left town we made sure to make Mitch dress up again and take some pictures that we didn't really have time to take day of.

There was a professional photographer the school hired too. Lots of the photos were awesome but it was anywhere from $15-30 for a single photo. I just kept the copy with the watermark and assumed I would buy one at a time over the next year...

G-ma, Kathy, Papa, Vanessa, Laurie, Ruth, Brent, Papa Tony, Brayden, and Emmett all bundled up and waiting for the graduation to start.

There is Mitchel exiting the stage.

After the graduation they removed the barriers and we all swarmed in to find our graduate. It took several minutes, but we found him.

The next day we hosted a party to celebrate Mitch. He had a lot of fun and felt very touched by all the love and support.

And that was pretty much the whole graduation fiasco. It is surreal having our son away and going to start college. I have moments where I am sad and miss him, but overall I am so overjoyed at the man he has become and excited to see where his life takes him.