CSU Graduation (Saturday, May 12th, 2018)

We left Lake Havasu early Wednesday morning for our drive to Colorado for our youngest daughter's graduation.  We arrived at Steve's parents house just in time for a nice bowl of soup for dinner.

We spent Thursday with Steve's parents, enjoying time with them and helping with a few little projects around their house.

We got up Friday morning and our oldest daughter and I headed to Fort Collins to take some graduation pictures.  Steve stayed behind to pick up our son (in-law) at the airport and then they would join us later.  

Saturday had a forecast of heavy rain all day, and with our youngest daughters graduation scheduled for 7:00 at night, we were concerned we weren't going to get any good pictures after graduation.  You know me and pictures!!!

Us three girls enjoyed a fabulous lunch at Cafe Athens, a great little Greek restaurant in Fort Collins before meeting up with the boys. They missed lunch all together, so were really excited to see our leftovers when they finally caught up with us. Then off we went to take some pictures.



We started out at the College of Business where our daughter has spent her last four years, taking some pictures to capture the memories.

Our traditional piggy-back picture that we take at every graduation.  Our girls love to share the love!

Then we took a stroll across campus to the CSU sign.

As we were taking our picture by the sign, our daughters friend and room mate joined us for some pictures together.

Oops, she got a little confetti in her mouth.  All worth it!

When we finished taking our graduation pictures, we headed over to the hotel to get settled in.  

At this point, we weren't sure my parents were going to make it to graduation because of my mom's health issues, but we were hoping they could still make it.



We had reserved two king suites at the Holiday Inn Express in Fort Collins.  The first night our oldest and her husband took one suite, and our youngest stayed with us in the other.  The second night my parents took one suite, and the five of us piled into the other.  It was very cozy on night two, but such a great time!

Our daughter's wish for graduation was to have a late lunch at her favorite restaurant and then head over to graduation ceremony.  So we all met at Bai Tong Thai in Loveland, CO at 3:00.  Steve's mom had a broken leg, so of course, everyone jumped in to help grandma get around.

Thai Tea!

The whole clan made it!

This little chair outside the restaurant is so cute!

After leaving the restaurant, we headed over to Moby Arena to get a few last minute pictures and  wait for the Arena to open.

We had to borrow someone else's diploma folder since our daughter didn't have her's yet.  Kind of funny, but we didn't want to have to take her picture in the dark.



A very nice quintet played at the ceremony.

The anticipation!

The student speaker was well loved by all, and did a GREAT job on his speech.

Time for the Computer Information Systems graduates to roll!

Congratulations to this beauty!

When we left graduation, we met another friend of our daughter's at a speak-easy inspired club in old town Fort Collins called Social.  We had to wait about 15 minutes to get in, but the wait was worth it.  They put us in a quiet little booth in the corner where we could talk over some drinks and appetizers.  It was perfect!

We headed back to the hotel to our cozy five person room and enjoyed a few hours of sleep until our oldest daughter and son (in-law) had to leave to catch their flight at 3:45 am.  Once they were on their way, our youngest took over their bed and we all got a few more hours of sleep.  We were so glad the kids were willing to endure the coziness so that we could all have that special time together.  We have the greatest kids in the world!

When we woke the next morning, we had a very nice Mother's Day breakfast at the hotel before my parents headed out for their day.  Then Steve and I enjoyed our last little bit of time with our daughter before she headed to work and we returned to the Denver area.

We headed to Denver for a wonderful mother's Day celebration at Steve's brother's house before calling it a night.  

This has been such an emotional weekend for us, we feel so privileged and proud to watch our youngest graduate from college and take on the world.  

Mother's Day (Sunday, May 14th, 2017)

Sunday was Mother's Day, and I felt so lucky to have one of my girls here with me!  Our first stop was a RZR ride to McDonalds to pick up some coffees.

Then down to the channel to enjoy them.  I can't think of a prettier place to drink coffee.

 

Then we enjoyed 18 holes of golf.  I think of a better Mother's Day outing! 

A trip to our favorite produce store is always important when our youngest is in town.  She appreciates my love of veggies.  Leave it to her to find the best deal in the store.

Can you believe it?  All of those bananas for less than $2.00.  Since we couldn't fit that many bananas in the freezer for smoothies, we had to leave them behind, but it was quite disappointing.

What a great day!  Yummy crab legs with grilled corn on the cob for dinner!



With two of my favorite people!  In my favorite restaurant...our back porch.



And home made mango smoothies for dessert.  I am one lucky mom!

Of course, I would love to have all of my kids with me on Mother's Day, but I'll definitely take what I can get!  Having our youngest daughter here with me made my day so special!  I wouldn't have changed a thing!