Aunt Sarah's Graduation

Just a forewarning, this is a long one!!

April 18-20 we were out of town again. This time to Galveston to see Aunt Sarah (Tim's wife) graduate from nursing school. The whole family was going to be there, so we couldn't miss it. Plus, we were super excited about taking John to the beach!! He loves water, and we wanted to see what he would do with lots and lots of it!!
We started out early (well 8:30 after we finally got everything and everyone packed into the car!) and headed to Chris's mom's house to drop off Kebap. Poor guy when we got there whined and whined and whined. He didn't want us to leave. (By the way, he had a good time!). Of course, since John had been up since 7:30, he promptly fell asleep as we left Nana's house, a little bit earlier than we wanted, beings as though we still had a 3-4 hour ride in front of us.
He did fine, slept and played until about Hearne, then decided he was done, and started pitching a fit. I got in the back with him, and tried to play with him, and console him with some food! We finally pulled over outside of Houston to use the restroom, get John out of his carseat, change him, and stretch legs.
We were technically only about 20 minutes away from Houston and were on target to meet my folks and Dave & Sarah for lunch, until we get onto I-610. We saw signs saying that I-10 E was closed, but the traffic seemed to be moving fine towards it. Well, it truly was closed, and we were detoured via I-10 W. Now that wouldn't be so bad, we could get on, get off, and do a turnaround to get onto I-10 E. Yeah, well apparently that was everyone's plan who happened to be rerouted. We waited in line to exit nearly 15 minutes. Once we exited, the access road to the light was a bazillion miles long, so we waited again (no fancy little turnaround). This time about 20 minutes, then another 10 minutes at the next light where we could turn onto the access road to I-10 E. Then, you couldn't immediately get on the highway due to construction. You had to stay on the access road past 3 on ramps and through 3 lights. Ugh. 45 minutes later, we finally were on our way the few miles to meet my folks. Of course, John decided to wait until we were almost to our meeting destination to fall asleep! Being this late, put us late in getting to T & Sarah's where we were going to change prior to the graduation. We got there with barely enough time to change everyone and hop back in the car again.
We got there just before the graduates entered. They did something really cool, that I had never seen before. All of the graduates filed in along the center aisle, and stood there on both sides, and waited for their teachers to come through, so that they could honor them. Then the teachers did the same thing after the ceremony. Unfortunately because we were late we didn't get the greatest of seats, and the sound wasn't working, so we could only hear bits and pieces of what was being said. I do remember really enjoying the guest speaker. She talked a lot about how nurses need to speak up in politics and in their hospitals to accomplish change. I missed a good portion of it b/c John got fussy, and I had to go change and nurse him, but I came back for the best part. She gave a huge plug to nurse midwifery, and talked about how they are vital for society, and help decrease the C-section rate. Even when working with high-risk pregnancies in inner cities, their C-section rate was much lower than the national average. I was super excited about the plug for nurse midwifery. I'm all about challenging/encouraging people to use midwives!!! :o)

The graduates filing in. I should have done something to highlight Sarah, but she is in there!
John trying to find his aunt! :o)
Sarah receiving her diploma

After the graduation we went to eat at this really yummy deli-like restaurant with Sarah and her fam. The best part about it were their desserts. Their cheesecake was heavenly, and a slice (which was a pretty decent serving) was only $1.75. I totally would eat there everyday!!
John decided it was a good place to take a nap!


That night we played a game about how well you know people (can't remember the name of it for the life of me). Basically a question is read, and you have to write down your answer and the guesser has to guess who wrote what. I was really hoping to have a question about a secret so that I could share about being pregnant with the fam, but no such luck.
We ended up staying up far too late dealing with some drama, but it was good. Sarah and Chris got to talk about how similar their lives were, and it brought the four of us closer together as couples, especially as T & I are very similar in things.
Thankfully, even though John got up for a feeding around 5, he let us sleep til 8:30. That's sleeping in when you have a little one!! :o) Once everyone dragged themselves to T & Sarah's, we went out to Denny's for breakfast. I was really hoping the conversation would flow so that we could tell people about our coming little one, but no such luck. Finally Chris just busted out, "Excuse me, we wanted to tell you guys something, since we were all here together as a family. You know I will be leaving in December, well your next grandson(that's what he said!) will be coming in November." Not really sure why, but I busted into tears. I'm not sure if it was a mixture of relief that it was finally out, uncertainty about acknowledging that we are having another, fear of what my folks would think about them being so close. Who knows?! Definitely not the reaction that Chris nor my family was expecting! Oops!



Johnbug showing off his mad eating skills, and his newly discovered facial expression: squinting!!

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. We strolled around downtown Galveston looking at the shops. T took us to see his friend Daniel spray paint paintings. He was really good. Chris & I had to turn back early, b/c I wasn't feeling good. Plus the Spurs game was on!! Wow, that was intense. Probably one of the best games I've seen. And to see Timmy D make a 3 pointer to push the game into double overtime where they won, nothing could be better!!
John enjoying the sites with Grandma



Before and during the spray paint art! Amazing they can do such detail with spray paint.


A really funny sign we saw on the walk

That evening Chris & John & I drove out to Kemah, TX (about 20 miles away) to meet my good friend from college, Carol and her hubby (whom I had never met!!) My family decided to drive out there as well to enjoy the boardwalk, and to say hi to Carol. They ate somewhere different though!!! :o) We actually ate at Joe's Crabshack, and even though the pickings were slim, I found a yummy grilled chicken meal. John entertained us by picking up the silverware and dropping them behind him, unintentionally into the bucket in the middle of the table. It was really cute.
Carol & her hubby Matt



Sunday morning we went to T's church. I was so excited b/c a guy from Nigeria (I think) led most of the service. I was hoping he would also do the preaching, so that I would feel like I was truly back in Africa, but no such luck. John behaved rather well considering. We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant by the ocean, so while we waited for a table, we took John to the beach. His first time ever!! He would stand in the sand until the water came up, and then he'd lift his legs as if trying to sit down. Not sure if he was really trying to sit, or if he just wanted to get out of the way of the water. It was too chilly to get more than our feet wet, so I guess that'll have to wait until next time!







After lunch we said our goodbyes, and headed out. John did amazing and slept for 2/3 of the trip. Unfortunately he decided he needed me on the windy backroads, so I got a wee bit sick.
All in all it was a really good time, but we were thankful to be back home!