Vanderbilt Graduation

I can hardly believe it's graduation?!?! It was a long and busy 9 months but they flew by! I feel as though we just moved here and now it's all over. 

Since the kiddos were going to go to a friends house for the day of graduation (thank you Jami!) I wanted to get a picture of Jakob all dressed up and the kids. 

Chad told me to lift my foot and E comes around looking at the bottom of my heel. It was rather funny. 

Then E wanted to take a shoe photo. 

I loved his bat wings! 

The day of graduation I dropped off the kids, bright and early, and we headed over to the campus for Jakob's ceremony. We had visions of traffic jams and not being able to find any parking but much to our surprise, there was no traffic and plenty of parking. We ended up being the first people in the gym.... almost 2 hours early. Needless to say, we had awesome seats! Here is Jakob's chair. :)

 Jakob's fan section! We were so grateful that his brothers could be there. We missed Kyle dearly but he was there in spirit!

 There he is! This ceremony was much smaller than UNLV's which was nice. They had a big ceremony in the morning where there were some speakers and then all of the different schools (nursing, business ect.) separated to their own ceremony's to walk across the stage. It was much faster and we were nice and close. 

One of the Dean's. 

 Walking across. I can't tell you how proud I am of this man. 

 

 

 Then we took a few photos. 

All of the brothers and Pa. Such handsome men. 

My favorite blooper. Trying to get all of the boys to stop joking around and smile at the camera is quite a challenge. They are always poking, teasing or (in Jakob's case) pinching bums. It is so fun to watch them bond and to see how much fun they have when they are together.

 Jakob's biggest fans!

I love mother son photos. Perhaps it is because I am a Mom but I know how proud Mom's are of their children and this photo makes my heart so happy!

 And that is a wrap! I am so thankful for Jakob and for all of his hard work at school, work and at home. He is always trying to be better, be the best and I know that this program was a lot of work! Then after a full day of school and projects he would come home and take care of the kids trying to make my life easier. He is amazing! I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who works to hard to provide for his family. I am excited for our next chapter in life and I am so excited that Jakob found his dream job. Congratulations babe, you deserve it and I couldn't be more proud of you! I love you forever! 

Exploring Downtown

Being in Nashville we had to take Mom and Dad down town to get a feel for how the "strip" is done country style. 

 

I love Printers Alley. It has the most amazing walls and textures!

Duke Manfred got hauled everywhere but Pa was really good at playing games and making him laugh. :)

The Batman building, not actually, it's really the AT&T building but it looks like the perfect Wayne Tower. 

Then of curse there were the street performers. 

Nashville has some beautiful churches!! 

Then we had to sit next to Chet. 

E really wanted to go shoe shopping but we had a lot of fun trying on hats! 

It was a busy day exploring and everyone wanted to come home a crash! I love having visitors!

The Zoo

Of course we had to take Pa and Grammy to the Zoo. It is hands down E's favorite place in Nashville and I am SO glad that we bought a pass. 

We tried to see some animals but it was a busy day and this little man just wanted to be a free bird! Case and point why I like to dress him in bright colors when we are out and about! 

Thankfully the aquarium is a pretty safe place to let Manfred roam free. 

Then it was time for the park. E was super excited to take Pa down the big slide. It's her favorite!

I love her static hair. Can you see how big that slide is? Three full loops and a big drop at the end. So fun!

 Then it was Pa's turn, he wasn't as graceful as E. :)

 

 Okay Grammy it's your turn!

Perfectly executed!

Then it was Mama's turn. 

My wild haired girl! Brave as can be! She goes up and down this thing by herself all the time!

Okay, I may have anticipated my photo op at the bottom. 

A quick trip to the padded room! (Jakob and I have decided that we need a padded room in our future home!)

And after a few tears over who got to sit in the front of the stroller we were headed home. It's always fun going to the Zoo!