Feeling Blessed

The end of last week and the weekend was amazing in so many ways...

Joe and I flew out to CA on Wednesday. After a long but uneventful flight, we arrived in Santa Barbara tired but excited.

Joe and Callie's Uncle David, Grandma Terri, and Connor arrived Friday around 3:00. Upon arriving, Connor, adorable as always, showed off some of his new dance moves:

Later, we walked to the Santa Barbara Bowl to watch the big event--Callie's High School Graduation.  Callie has chosen the University of San Francisco as her college of choice. She starts in August and is enrolled with honors on a couple academic scholarships. She's going to be studying neuroscience and psychology. 

Here are a couple pics before we left:

Of course, Connor wanted his pic taken too:

The walk was very pleasant and the street we walked down was lined with these giant old pines:

The graduation was very crowded. There were about 490 graduates and what seemed like 3000 relatives. It took us an hour to get through security.

Here's a pic of the graduating class:

And here is what happened when Callie's name was called. As a result of my focus on her and my screaming proudly, I failed to keep my camera under control. Luckily, the clean video is on YouTube. Lol.

And here is the moment where the kids start throwing their caps in the air, and you realize that child you nurtured through the last 18 years is tossing her cap up with pride and jubilation and eager excitement to start the next phase of her life, and you realize just how proud of her you are. A pride that brings tears to your eyes, and hope to your heart, that THIS young woman, and other young men and women like her, can unite this country once more.

Here's one proud Momma and her new graduate:

Afterward, we went to Callie's aunt's house, and visited with her aunt, and my niece and nephew.

Here is Callie and her cousin, Kiele:

And here's Callie, Joe, Kiele, Connor, Makai, and Makai's girlfriend, Annette:

The next morning, we just chilled in the condo. Callie's very interesting friend, Star, came over and spent the day with us. She was very sweet and fun. I got the whole family hooked on "Vikings," and we were going to walk to the beach, but everyone was too into Vikings. 

A little later, the "adults" wanted to go to Happy Hour at a local hang out. I'm not a big drinker, so I was more than happy to stay home with the kids and watch Connor. He's an amazing little 5 year old.  

And he adores Joe...here are Joe and Connor playing the Switch (Uncle Dave in the foreground):

While Callie and Star laid on the inflatable mattress that served as Connor's bed and continued watching "Vikings," Connor and I played hide and seek. After that, I noticed Callie was asleep and went to lie down next to her for a few seconds and just stare at my daughter's sweet sleeping expression. She's so pretty...and I was so freaking proud of her...

 Then we watched funny cat videos per Connor's request (his one flaw is that he loves cats, lol), and I let him download some games on my ipad like "Geometry Dash," which he couldn't get enough of. 

Later that evening, we went to Kyoto, a Japanese place, for Makai's 19th birthday celebration. The food was excellent, and it was nice to see some people I haven't seen in years:

There is sooo much more, but I've got to get ready for work...

I was so happy about how well the weekend went, I treated my back to First Class on the flight home.

Here are a couple more pics of the ride to the airport. California is a beautiful state!

Oh, and I got some excellent news while in Santa Barbara-- Aidan's DUI was dropped to reckless driving (because she wasn't under the influence--she was texting), and her drug test came back clean, so the judge was lenient. She could have gone home with probation, but probation in FL is set up to fail, so Aidan chose to to do time in lieu of probation--so for her violation of probation charge she will probably serve a few months in jail. Surely much better than what the crooked prosecution was pushing for--prison. And her boss has assured her she still has her job when she returns. So, all in all, yes, she messed up and took a step backward, but she's accepting the consequences of her actions like a responsible adult, and hopefully this will be the last time she takes a backward step in this way. I believe she has a bright future, and I think she's finally starting to believe it too. 

So, very good news considering what she was facing!