6/15/14

Best Father's Day Ever!!


The rain couldn't dampen our spirits today, and thank goodness, Oregon Institute of Technology erected the largest tent I've ever seen.


We were in high spirits waiting for the graduates to come in.


Of course, we had to look up Matthew's name in the program. This was the first graduation held at the new Wilsonville campus of Oregon Institute of Technology, and Matthew was the only one graduating with his particular specialty.


The plus sign next to his name indicates he is a summer graduate. In other words, he still has one class to take before he is officially graduated, but he walked with his class today.

In the image below, he was waiting for his turn to collect his diploma. He was in the second to last row of graduates to walk to the dais.


Next, he shook hands with the president of the university as he collected his diploma cover. They were chuckling at Matthew's cheering section...us!


Does he look like the cat who just swallowed the canary?


When it was all over, we paused briefly outside and then decided to go to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.


We didn't have reservations, since we didn't really know how long the ceremony would be. This being Father's Day, the restaurant was booked up, but they managed to squeeze us in anyway. It was so much fun...a jubilant celebration to be sure.


Here's one proud mom with her youngest college graduate.


Here are Erik and Mae...looking so great together.


And Matthew and Valerie. Valerie was wearing her "princess dress" from Goodwill...our favorite store!


And here's Matthew discussing the future with Valerie.


We had a wonderful dinner celebration, and I'm sure we were the noisiest group in the restaurant, but we were happy! 

It has been a wonderful day. One quilt top finished. One kid graduated. You can't do better than that.

17 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Congratulations Matthew and Congratulations to Mom & Dad!!

Brown Family said...

Congratulations!

MalinisQuilts said...

Congratulations to your son Matthew! You and your hubby must be so proud! Enjoy!

quiltzyx said...

Congratulations to all!

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Congratulations to the family. It is a group effort and all look so proud.

Jeanie said...

Yippee! Congrats and best wishes for a great future....he's off on the right foot!

Quilting Babcia said...

Great day! Congratulations to Michael and his happy/proud parents!

Lyndsey said...

Congratulations to Matthew and his proud and supportive parents. What a great day.

Dana Gaffney said...

Great pictures! Congratulations Matthew!

Doris Rice, The Quilting Queen said...

Congratulations to Matthew and to mom and dad too! It's a great feeling as a parent to see them in that cap and gown. I almost feel like we worked as hard as they did to get them there. I know we didn't but...

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Congrats on the graduate. I have one down, one to go.

Lynn - JnL4God said...

Great Day, Great pictures, What a wonderful day for you all. :)

gpc said...

All this and your delicious fancy schmancy breakfast, too! What a perfect day! :)

Cal said...

Congratulations! You all look jubilant!

Diane Wild said...

What a fabulous time in your lives.
Congrats to all

Kate said...

Congratulations to Matthew on his graduation. Looks like Mike had an excellent Father's Day.

Judy1522 said...

Congratulations to Matthew!