Michelle's Graduation from Notre Dame!

Future Domer under the Golden Dome!

 This past weekend, we made the long drive to Notre Dame to attend Michelle's graduation, My baby sister graduated and I am so proud of her! She now has a degree in Marketing from the #3 business school in the country and is going to work for Target Corporation back in Minneapolis. We are absolutely thrilled that she is coming home to Minnesota!

The graduates - Michelle and her boyfriend Brian. 

 

Family together under the dome. 

Here's the story of the weekend...

The ride there was actually pretty good. Austin did really well despite spiking a fever about 2 hours into the trip and refusing to eat anything all day. Nanny and Grandpa rode with us and Nanny entertained Austin most of the trip. On the way there, we stopped in Wheaton, Illinois for the night to see my Uncle Jim and my cousins Melanie, Kristin, and Kyle. Kristin was in her school's 8th grade production of Godspell and had a solo performance that was absolutely incredible! She was amazing and I had no idea she could sing like that. I think she should be on American Idol! She also did a great job acting, as she is always very expressive. Here she is in her starring role...

Then we headed to ND the next day and saw Michelle receive her diploma at the business school graduation ceremony and celebrated with family.

 

The next few days were a whirlwind of events, dinners, and trying to keep Austin happy. We also got to visit Tommy and Mary in St. Joseph. They had never gotten to meet Austin before, so we headed up there on Saturday instead of going to the Baccalaureate Mass, since we figured trying to keep Austin happy through the long involved Mass could be impossible. Here we are with them during our visit.

 

It was a busy but fun weekend, though definitely challenging since Austin was exhausted, cranky, sick, and totally off his schedule. He did really well overall though, with the exception of a total meltdown about two thirds of the way through the Commencement Ceremony on Sunday.

On Sunday, May 18th, Michelle earned her degree exactly 33 years to the hour after dad got his. Here they are with their matching diplomas.

Here are some other pictures from the weekend at ND...

  

Almost home. Austin reading his animals book. Over the weekend he learned how to say "cow" and even asked for some of nanny's vanilla milk (with a cow on the little carton) by saying "please cow"! He also started saying "uh oh!" whenever he dropped something on the ground. It was so adorable!

Nanny hanging out with Austin in the car, keeping him happy during the drive

(especially the last hour).

Other recent events...

Mother's Day! We went up to the Twin Cities for the weekend and had a yummy Sunday brunch at the golf club.

Austin explored the greens with Grandpa!

 Austin with mommy on Mother's Day.

  Stacking blocks like a champion. Austin loves the cylinder blocks and stacks them end to end.

 

Tasting Grandpa's chocolate milk. Yummy!

Austin in his new Spiderman jammies from the Cronks.

 

First piggy back ride from mommy.

Also in recent news...Wendi and John Kitsteiner's son Isaac was born, Katie and Ryan's son Kieran joined the world as well, the Schahl family is days from their little one's due date, and Baby Singewald just hit 24 weeks gestation! Yay for babies! Check out the links to the right for updates on these beautiful babies!

2 comments:

Flakymn said...

Thanks for the shout out Lisa. Love that last picture of you! Too cute!

 
Megs said...

Austin is getting so big- i love the pics under the Dome!:) Always interesting traveling with a toddler isn't it?