Graduation Vacation (The Real Deal)

The day of graduation was one of the most gorgeous days we've ever seen in Forest Grove. One of the speakers said it perfectly that it was a "no weather day." Not too hot, not too cold, not windy, not rainy - just perfect. It was a wonderful day.

We left early so we could have plenty of time to get good seats for Welcome to the Profession. While we were waiting for that to begin, Marcus and I walked the aisles of the auditorium to keep him busy. Marcus spent about a half hour flirting with everyone's grandmas, and he got multiple requests to "take him home with me" and one to "eat him up." No kidding. What I didn't know was that Ethan spent that half hour squirming in Diane's arms, kicking the people in front of them, so a little before the program started, Diane offered to occupy the boys somewhere else if we took lots of pictures for her. It was so nice to be able to watch everything without kids to take care of.


Here's Brian receiving his hood from Dr. Smythe. She's also the one who spoke to us. She gave us an idea of how much work the graduates did over the last four years by dividing up the time they've spent in optometry school. According to her calculations, Brian spent 1,710 hours in lecture classes; 690 hours in labs; took 72 midterms, 35 written finals, and 5 lab finals; passed at least 35 mini-proficiencies and "that one big gigantic one," the 21-Point; and spent 1,960 hours in clinic. She also figured out that he paid about $30 an hour to be able to do all of that. Brian even got specially mentioned when she told the graduates how to receive their hood later that afternoon. She was the one who put the hoods over their heads, and since she proclaimed that she was "vertically challenged," most of them would have to stoop down to be more on her level, but "Casey and the two Brians" would have to kneel down to get their hoods put on.
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The is almost the entirety of the graduates. Matt Watson was in Utah, because his wife was very close to having a baby, and there was another person that Brian said didn't come, because Saturday is their Sabbath. The three on the front right are the valedictorians. They gave a wonderful speech together where they started out by saying that they prepared two speeches, and even as of that morning they couldn't decide which one to give. So they left it up to their class to decide by turning to them, holding up the speeches and asking, "Which is better, 1 or 2?" Yeah, around here, we think that eye doctor jokes are pretty funny.

That afternoon the university held commencement for all of the graduate programs, where they had their hoods put on their shoulders and received their diplomas. The reception they had for lunch was pretty crazy with the kids running around, and I almost opted out by missing commencement to take the kids back to the hotel. I figured that the Welcome to the Profession was more intimate than commencement was going to be, and I was glad to have been able to see that. But Brian talked to a few people and found out that they were going to have a room available for people with kids to watch commcencement on a big screen on the wall. We were planning on using that only if the kids were having a hard time, but when we checked it out before things started we found that it was so much cooler than the huge, hot gym, so we stayed there the entire time.


I'm glad we did, because we were able to see the graduates while they paraded through the hallway to get to the gym.


And I was able to stand in the doorway as Brian was going up to the stage and was able to get some extra pictures. I was also able to give him a quick kiss as he was on the way up to get his hood and diploma.



















Brian's aunt and uncle, Linda and Ron, came down from Seattle for the occasion. (I didn't get a picture of the two of them together.) We had so much fun with them, and we're so glad they could come. Ron is hilarious! When we were waiting for Brian to finish, I was wondering out loud when the exact moment was that Brian became a doctor. Was it when he flipped his tassle from right to left, or was it when he received his diploma? I wanted to know, because I was wondering if the kiss I gave him was the first kiss he received as a doctor. Ron said that he thought it was when he got his diploma, then he joked that he actually gave Brian a big kiss as he was coming off of the stage, so he was the first one to kiss Brian as a doctor. (By the way, Ron, Brian says it's when they flip the tassle - so there.) In the red box is a camping stove. They must have gotten the memo that we want to go camping a lot. We're excited, thank you!

Brian's parents gave him some business cards. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, we're all very excited.

Can you tell?