Graduation and Anguilla

Finally, my boy is DONE with school forever!! We went home for a couple of weeks after Kade was done taking finals, and then flew back to Philly with his family for the ceremony.  We had a fun time walking around and saying our goodbyes.  The only unfortunate part...I got strep throat the morning before we flew out to PA.  Awesome! I tried hard not to pass it on to Kade, but he was definitely not feeling too great the day he walked. Poor guy. We made the best of it, and definitely had something to look forward to:  The day after graduation, we all flew out to the Caribbean to celebrate on the little island of Anguilla.

Our favorite Philly treat, water ice.

Frozen yogurt after shopping for Penn memorabilia. The lines in the bookstore were HUGE!

The ceremony was on Mother's Day so we decided to wait and celebrate in Anguilla.

So proud of him.  He worked so hard!!

We loved our Philly adventure, but can say we are glad it is over! 

Next up...Anguilla! We took a commercial plane down to Puerto Rico, and then they put us on a small private plane to head to the island.  Our captain flew straight over our hotel on the way in. Pretty cool! 

View from the roof hot tub in our villa.

Kip found a shack on the beach about a half mile up the shore with yummy tacos.  We went there twice to eat and loved walking up as the sun was setting.

P and I got our pedicures on next to the pool.  The weather was perfect! 

We took a little boat over to the island of St. Maarten and shopped around one day.

The island was pretty empty with not many people. (Population of about 10,000)  Kade said it reminded him of Jamaica because it was kind of ghetto. We enjoyed a lot of relaxing down time with the fam.  Kip was having some back problems at the time so he wasn't able to do much, but he didn't complain once. Of course.

We rode bikes to get breakfast one day, and loved looking out from wherever we were sitting at the clear blue water with white sand.

Rhet played basketball with some other guests at the hotel, and we all enjoyed the gym a few of the days we were there to compromise for the delicious food intake.

It was a great celebration, and we loved spending time with family.

Spoiled, yet again, with many more family memories.

Temple and blessing for B

We made it home from Philly just in time to be apart of something super neat. Calaigh and Sterling got sealed in the temple to each other and to little Brightyn.  It was an extremely special day. We weren't able to make it to Calaigh's endowment session the day before, but we were able to give her some flowers as she came out.

The sealing itself was pretty remarkable.  Seeing their little Brightyn all in white being brought into the room was overwhelming.  I don't know if they was one dry eye there! The whole experience was so special for them and we were so happy to be able to be there. Calaigh wore her wedding dress again, and it was really cute to watch them walk out of the temple and have that moment...but with their baby girl as well! 

After, they invited close family and friends over for Brightyn's blessing.  Sterling gave her a really good blessing, and we enjoyed some yummy food! Brightyn was a little angel the whole time.

It was a really good day for everyone! 

New York and gone.

A weekend trip was in the making to celebrate graduation and to wave off our East Coast adventure, but I had no clue where to.  All I knew is that I needed to pack a bag, and our apartment needed to be ready to move out BEFORE we left. 

I managed to sell almost everything, and cleaned it to a tee.  I packed my bag, and we headed to the train station. I was so excited that Kade took the time to plan a last minute get-a-way :)

New York City.

Kade had talked to Rich, and we were going to surprise Mar for her birthday. They were there celebrating, and she had no idea we were coming. When we got there, we found out they were eating at the Shake Shack.  We saw them in the window and thought it would be funny to walk up to it and make a face from outside.  At first she looked at me so confused like some crazy lady was staring at her, but then it clicked and she jumped out of her chair and ran outside.

Perfect reaction, and so good to see her after five months!

After, we did some shopping in Times Square and around the area. 

That night we split up and Kade and I went to see the Disney musical Newsies. We loved it. We had really great seats, and ended up buying the last two in the whole theatre!

The next morning we met Rich and Mar in Times Square to have breakfast. Kade and I were headed back to Philly to catch our flight home so we weren't able to spend more time with them.  We took a few pictures and said goodbye. (Exciting to only say goodbye for a day or two since we were all headed to Utah! Yay!) It was way fun to be with them for a little bit!

(We were freezing while taking these pictures!)

When we got back to Philly, Amber picked us up from the train station and took us to our apartment to load up.  She was going to take us to the airport, but we had SO much stuff to load into the car first from our apartment.  She had just showered, gotten ready, it was hot, we were all sweating, and she didn't complain once walking up and down our stairs taking stuff out. I think she also took out the garbage, and collected a load of things that we were donating to the ward that she later dropped off for us. Amazing.

She took this picture of us as we were wheeling all of our luggage to the check in desk. (They made us rearrange and take a few pounds out of each bag. Stressful!)  It wasn't too sad to say goodbye to her at the car, but it hit me once we were all checked in and sitting on the plane.  Jeff and Amber have been awesome friends...we will be sad to not live so close to them anymore. It will be weird not spending so much time with her cooking, laughing, folding laundry, talking, and getting to know each other so well while our hubbies lived at the library.  I think they were glad we had each other while they were so busy.

Kade and I were so exhausted once we sat down on the plane.  It was a whirlwind weekend, but a good farewell to our little adventure in Philly. I am so proud of Kade for working so hard while in school, and love him for planning our little trip. We had a lot of fun.

On to the next chapter in our lives!

Saying our goodbyes to Philly

Our last couple weeks in Philly F L E W by. Here is a recap of a few things we managed to get done:

Kade was able to squeeze in an Italian date night at the Bistro Romano.  It was delicious.  We walked the surrounding streets in downtown Philly before we ate.
 

We went out to dinner with Violet and her parents the night before my last day.  I loved working for Nick and Carrie, and was sad when I had to say goodbye.  They took us to a delicious restaurant on Rittenhouse square.

I made little board books for Zachary and Violet on the internet a week before we left.  I was terrified they weren't going to come in time, but they made it on my last day.  Kade picked them up and rode them to me on his bike. Life savor!! Turned out that Violet had made a book for me too...with her footprint on the front :)

I took my last grocery shopping "ride." It was bittersweet. This is one thing I am not going to miss about Philly at all, but I did become quite coordinated. (Thanks to Kade for teaching me how!)  I stopped and had a security officer take a picture for me so I could document it.

I always loved taking walks with Violet, and we were able to meet Kade on campus for lunch.

Our last Saturday there I had a "porch sale." We decided that the cost of the items was less than the amount we would spend to try and move it to UT and TX. Not worth it...so everything had to go.  I was going to do it all by myself, but was rescued by Michelle and her two kiddos.  Thank goodness!!! She helped me so much, and together we made more than 500 bucks!

Kade and I still quote her little Oliver all the time.  We miss them!

My last bike ride across the river was heavenly knowing I wouldn't have to do it again.  The clouds looked pretty cool that morning.  

The Tuesday before we left, I made all of the food for book club.  I, of course, had to make my Mom's famous layered jello.  It was nearly gone when I brought it home.

And last but not least....Kade's LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! Wahoo.  He was bouncing up and down in his chair the morning before his last final.  He was trying to study but could NOT sit still.  I filmed him without him knowing because I was laughing so hard. 

He was more than ready to be done.

We are pretty sad that our Philly adventure came to an end.  We made some really great friends that we are going to miss a lot.