Katsu's graduation in Ann Arbor

We had a fun, hurried trip to Ann Arbor for Katsu's graduation. The boys and I were all kind of sick, but we did our best to have fun. Katsu had lots of fun - going out with the guys from his lab Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night! Lucky guys.

We got in on Thursday and our friend was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. We settled in while Katsu picked up his gowns and roamed the town with friends. Andrew was just really really happy to see his best buddy Jonas again.

Friday the fun really started. I met with my advisor in the morning (with Seth) and left with a hopeful defense date of December 1 (yeah! Now, I just need to work really hard). We met up with Katsu and Andrew at his old lab and then we dropped Katsu off at the auditorium before graduation.



The boys and I played outside before making our way into Hill for the Rackham graduate school graduation.




Boy - what an adventure to have two active boys during a 2 hour long graduation by myself. We sat in at least 4 different seats in both the mezzanine and the balcony and spent most of the ceremony in the hall, jumping off the pillars with other kids. The one time I tried to read the program, I looked over to see Andrew with his shirt up and himself ... exposed (arggggh). Thankfully, we were sitting high up, so I don't think anyone saw us. At another point, I lent wipes to a poor soul without them and then another woman stole them from us when he tried to give it back. Really.





We did get to see Katsu get hooded (this required a near constant stream of clandestine Chex mix ... shhh - don't tell Hill auditorium). I almost got emotional, which is a big deal for me. Unfortunately, trying to capture this on film was virtually impossible while also trying to corral two young children on a very steep balcony. You can pretend you can see the details of Katsu's great moment.



We met up at the reception with Katsu's advisor Greg, munched on goodies, and took pictures.





We met up with my advisor and went to a party at his stunning house. The party was in honor of one of his graduates, from Iceland, whose parents had made it here to celebrate. Afterwards, we needed some congratulatory handshakes.



The boys both feel asleep on the way home (yeah for me!), while Katsu attended yet another graduation - the Kinesiology one. I wish I could have gone, but it started at 8 pm!!! not good for little sick kids. I supposed I could have left the sleeping kids with our friends, but good thing I didn't, because Andrew was waking up and throwing up with croup cough a lot that night, poor thing.

This graduation was really special. They told all about his dissertation and gave him lovely flowers. It was also long (3 hours!!!) and didn't have enough good food, so the guys went out for more food afterwards.







We had planned on going on Saturday morning to hear President Obama at the main graduation. But .... we didn't. The graduation began at 11:00, you had to be in line by 9:00, so we probably would have had to leave at like 7:30 to grab a shuttle, to get tickets at will call. No bags of any kind (what about diapers?) or umbrellas. And it was raining. But we did enjoy watching it at home. Congratulations, Katsu!!!!

Now, we delight in putting PhD or Dr on Katsu's name for everything possible. Don't you wish you had gotten a PhD, too!